<\/p>\n
When the lawsuit was first filed, it seemed like a longshot. New York\u2019s redistricting took years to settle, going through multiple redraws and court cases before the state finally landed on the current congressional configuration. In 2022, the courts ruled that Democrats in the state Legislature illegally engaged in gerrymandering<\/a> in the first go-around and appointed an out-of-state expert<\/a> to create constitutionally sound districts.\u00a0<\/p>\n A different court ruling gave Democrats a second chance<\/a> to create congressional districts, but they stuck closely to the expert\u2019s map. So while they ultimately made only nominal changes<\/a>, Democrats technically are responsible for how the 11th District is drawn.\u00a0<\/p>\n Yet, this latest ruling actually helps Democrats. Redrawing the 11th District to increase the voting power of Black and Latino voters will likely make the seat more Democratic, setting up a more competitive reelection for Malliotakis.<\/p>\n House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries offered a fairly taciturn statement on the ruling ostensibly made against his own party. \u201cA judge in New York has ruled that New York\u2019s 11th Congressional district is unconstitutional, ordering the New York Independent Redistricting Commission to quickly redraw the congressional map,\u201d he said. \u201cThis ruling is the first step toward ensuring communities of interest remain intact from Staten Island to Lower Manhattan. The voters of New York deserve the fairest congressional map possible.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n State Sen. Mike Gianaris, who helped oversee the Legislature\u2019s redistricting process, told City & State \u201cwe are reviewing the decision and will gladly do whatever is required of us.\u201d It\u2019s unclear if or when the legislative Democrats may step back in. The Independent Redistricting Commission (which is currently short at least one member) would first need to submit a map to the court. If the commission deadlocks \u2013 as it did when it first tried to agree on a map \u2013 the Legislature may take over again. But the judge could also step in to find a different remedy instead.<\/p>\n Republicans, who had succeeded in challenging other lines drawn by Democrats, argued strongly against additional changes. \u201cThis entire exercise is a cynical attempt to enact an illegal partisan gerrymander under the guise of a voting rights case,\u201d state GOP Chair Ed Cox said in a statement. \u201cIt is shocking that the Governor and Attorney General did not defend the law that the legislature passed and the Governor signed in 2024 \u2013 they are clearly colluding with the plaintiffs in this case.\u201d Republicans unsuccessfully attempted to have the judge removed from the case due to his past ties<\/a> to both Gov. Kathy Hochul and state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins.<\/p>\n The new ruling will impact the races for both the 11th and 10th Congressional Districts, the latter of which Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman currently represents. He faces a left-wing primary challenge from former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander. But the court ruling could place Goldman into a newly drawn, more moderate 11th District to face off against Malliotakis. It could leave Lander the 10th District, which would likely remain fairly progressive. \u201cAs I said before, I\u2019m proud to represent my constituents in my current district and am focused on running for reelection to continue to build on the work we are doing together,\u201d Goldman said in a statement. \u201cOur top priority must be to retake the majority and make Hakeem Jeffries Speaker of the House, and I will always place that goal first.\u201d<\/p>\n While a new 11th District would in theory become more favorable to Democrats, Goldman could still face a primary challenge from a Staten Island Democrat. \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s anywhere on Staten Island where (they\u2019ll) say \u2018Yeah, we\u2019ll let the guy from Manhattan walk in,\u2019\u201d one Staten Island Democratic source told City & State. Staten Island has a number of Democratic elected officials who could try to primary Goldman.\u00a0<\/p>\n Still, nothing is set in stone yet. The case will likely make it to the state Court of Appeals, New York\u2019s highest court. And Republicans may even attempt to elevate it to federal court.\u00a0<\/p>\n The ruling comes as Democrats and Republicans engage in redistricting battles for control of the House. It began when Texas engaged in transparently partisan gerrymandering in order to increase the number of Republican seats in the state, with other red states following suit. Democrats in states like California retaliated with their own attempts to increase safe congressional seats for their party with mid-decade redistricting. In New York, that\u2019s only allowed<\/a> if a court finds the lines are unconstitutional.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A state judge in Manhattan officially reopened the Pandora\u2019s Box of redistricting, ruling that New York\u2019s 11th Congressional…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108056,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[19916,9,24,55,54,49,2327,56,12994],"class_list":{"0":"post-108055","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-2026-congressional-midterm-elections","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","12":"tag-new-york-city-news","13":"tag-new-york-state","14":"tag-news-politics","15":"tag-ny","16":"tag-redistricting"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}