Democrats in New York could begin the process this year of amending the state constitution’s provisions on redistricting.
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Gov. Kathy Hochul has supported a redistricting overhaul in the past.
Will Waldron/Times Union
Hochul hosted Democrats from Texas at the state Capitol in Albany last year while Republicans in that state undertook a redistricting process intended to boost their party’s ranks in Congress.
Will Waldron/Times Union
Assemblyman Micah Lasher sponsors a bill that would amend the state constitution’s redistricting provisions to allow New York to redraw its maps if another state does so first.
Will Waldron/Times Union
The state Independent Redistricting Commission could also be the target of changes after a complicated rollout in 2022.
Jim Franco/Times Union
Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie said this week that Democrats are discussing their options to begin the process before they gavel out for the year in June.
Will Waldron/Times Union
Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said this week that she would be interested in revisiting the commission’s rules.
Will Waldron/Times Union
ALBANY — Democrats in New York could by early June make their first move toward potentially redrawing the state’s congressional districts as early as 2028, lawmakers said this week at the state Capitol.
It’s a more difficult process than what’s happened over the past year in other states such as Texas and Virginia, where state lawmakers drew and approved new maps in a matter of months.
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But Gov. Kathy Hochul said it’s something she’s actively discussing with Democrats in the state Legislature after the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday issued a decision that will require Louisiana to redraw its own congressional map.
“New York has always led the fight for voting rights and we’ll lead again,” Hochul wrote on social media. “I’m working with the Legislature to change New York’s redistricting process so we can fight back against Washington’s attempts to rig our democracy.”
That kind of change would require an amendment to the New York constitution, where the state’s current redistricting process was enshrined by voters in 2014.
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The earliest voters could be asked to consider such an amendment would be in 2027, likely in November.
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That’s because it first has to be approved twice by two consecutively elected legislatures — once during the current two-year session and again after the next session begins in January following this year’s elections.
It’s not a new idea: Hochul first floated an overhaul of the state’s redistricting process when Republicans in Texas redrew its congressional districts last summer.
The question now on the table in Albany is what that would look like and whether Democrats in the state Legislature can move fast enough to begin that effort this year.
“I think there’s broad recognition that we need to do something, and the question really is what are the specific contours of that change?” said Assemblyman Micah Lasher, a Democrat from Manhattan.
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Lasher introduced a bill last year with a proposed amendment to the state constitution that would tweak the state’s redistricting process but leave much of it intact.
Right now, the state constitution only allows redistricting once each decade after the census. Lasher’s amendment would allow the state to reopen redistricting at any time if another state does so first.
Because that’s already happened in multiple states, the amendment would allow New York to redraw its districts in Congress immediately if it’s approved by voters in 2027. That would tee up new lines for the 2028 elections.
That proposal, which is sponsored in the state Senate by Deputy Majority Leader Michael Gianaris, could be folded into a larger proposed amendment with broader changes, Lasher said.
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“We are actively in discussion about whether there will be changes made to the language,” Lasher said.
Democrats are also interested in changing the state’s Independent Redistricting Commission, an entity created by the 2014 amendment to the state constitution that’s responsible for redrawing New York’s electoral lines each decade.
Hochul said last year that she would support disbanding the commission and replacing it with a different entity based on its past performance.
That’s not something currently being sought by Democrats in the Legislature, Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie said this week. But they’re interested in changing the commission’s composition.
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“We’re still going to have this Independent Redistricting Commission, but I think the makeup of it and its ability to work has to really change for it to work,” Heastie said.
The commission is split evenly between members appointed by Democrats and Republicans in the state Legislature. That created a difficult scenario four years ago, when it was tasked with redrawing the state’s maps for the first time.
Those appointees could not reach an agreement on new lines, and decided to instead submit two competing sets of maps to the Legislature: one from the Democratic appointees and one from the Republicans.
Both were rejected by Democrats in the state Legislature, who then drew their own maps for approval. Those were later struck down in state court as “drawn with impermissible partisan purpose.”
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After another round of litigation, the congressional map currently in place was enacted into law in 2024 — two years after the lines were supposed to be set.
That’s a situation Democrats in the state Legislature want to avoid repeating, state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said this week.
“Ideally, I would want the commission to actually agree and get somewhere,” Stewart-Cousins said. “But in a world where sometimes that doesn’t happen, we’d be left without any maps at all for years — and that does not seem to be right either.”
Democrats have yet to present a formal proposal for what changes they’d prefer to see to the commission through a constitutional amendment.
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They have until the scheduled end of this year’s legislative session on June 4 to give a proposed amendment its first approval. They could also return to Albany at a different point this year to hold a vote.
If they don’t secure the first approval this year, the earliest it could head to voters would be 2029.
None of that would give Democrats in New York an opportunity to reopen redistricting ahead of this year’s elections for Congress.
There’s only one scenario under which the current language in the state constitution would allow that to happen. That would be through a court order, which is not currently being sought.
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A law firm that’s spearheaded redistricting lawsuits in support of Democrats in other states already attempted to force a redrawing of New York’s maps earlier this year.
That’s when the firm, Elias Law Group, sought to invalidate the composition of New York’s 11th Congressional District, which covers all of Staten Island and part of Brooklyn. It’s the only district in New York City represented by a Republican: U.S. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis.
While the firm secured a court order to have the district redrawn ahead of this year’s elections, the U.S. Supreme Court then put that decision on pause. That left the lines unchanged.
If another challenge to New York’s congressional map were to emerge, judicial precedent would not favor an outcome that would result in its redrawing.
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That’s because of something called the “Purcell principle,” which is an idea born from a U.S. Supreme Court decision that courts should not disturb the status quo close to an election.
Lawmakers don’t plan to consider an amendment to the redistricting process until after this year’s state budget is approved.
While that was due on April 1, Hochul and Democrats have yet to strike a deal on the spending plan.
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