{"id":115446,"date":"2026-01-28T19:36:22","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T19:36:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/115446\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T19:36:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T19:36:22","slug":"rep-malliotakis-very-confident-in-appeal-filed-against-dem-district-grab","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/115446\/","title":{"rendered":"Rep. Malliotakis \u2018very confident\u2019 in appeal filed against Dem district-grab"},"content":{"rendered":"

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 Rep. Nicole Malliotakis believes appeals filed Tuesday will preserve Staten Island\u2019s congressional district and her political chances.<\/p>\n

The filings seek to overturn a Manhattan judge\u2019s Jan. 21 ruling that orders a redrawing of the district likely taking its shared portion out of South Brooklyn and moving it into lower Manhattan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a meritless lawsuit fueled by Washington Democrats claiming our district disenfranchises minorities in an effort to take out the first minority to represent the district and steal our seat,\u201d Malliotakis said. \u201cWe will not allow them, or a judge who previously served as chief of staff for [Gov.] Kathy Hochul, to silence the voters of our district. We are appealing this decision and will continue to use every legal option at our disposal to protect the voices of the people of Staten Island and Brooklyn and are very confident that we will prevail at the end of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Jeffrey Pearlman did not order specifics on how the district should be redrawn, but plaintiffs in the case<\/a>, the Washington, D.C.-based Elias Law Group, sought a reconfiguration of New York\u2019s 11th congressional district, which Staten Island currently shares with South Brooklyn, into lower Manhattan.<\/p>\n

Malliotakis\u2019 attorneys had sought Pearlman\u2019s recusal but were unsuccessful. An experienced election lawyer, he\u2019s also worked in multiple roles for Hochul, including as her chief of staff when she was lieutenant governor.”<\/p>\n

Opponents of the district\u2019s current configuration argue that Black and Latino voters on Staten Island have faced decades of stymied political power, and that the current map, approved in 2024 by Hochul and the New York Legislature, violates those voters\u2019 rights under state law.<\/p>\n

As a solution, the lawsuit proposes shifting the shared portion of the district into lower Manhattan, a move the plaintiffs say would give a fairer voice to the Island\u2019s Black and Latino voters by having them share a district with voters in Manhattan areas like Battery Park City, the Financial District and the West Village.<\/p>\n

They argue congressional district maps drawn in 2024 should\u2019ve brought the 11th Congressional District into Manhattan to create a \u201cminority influence district\u201d where Black and Latino voters on Staten Island could combine with communities in Lower Manhattan to elect their candidates of choice.<\/p>\n

While voters in both district-mate options went for former Vice President Kamala Harris in the last presidential election, those in lower Manhattan did so more overwhelmingly, according to an analysis from The City news outlet<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That advantage could help Democrats take the only Republican-held congressional district in the five boroughs, which Malliotakis first won in 2020 when she defeated former Democratic Rep. Max Rose.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit, filed in October, acknowledges Malliotakis as the Island\u2019s first Latino member of Congress, but discounts her Cuban heritage as she was \u201cnot the candidate of choice for either Black or Hispanic voters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Malliotakis\u2019 attorneys filed appeals Tuesday in the New York Appellate Division and its Court of Appeals, the state\u2019s highest court. Attorneys for the state Board of Elections did the same, citing a Feb. 6 deadline they have set for new maps to be drawn in time for this year\u2019s congressional elections.”<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the case is expected to make its way to the U.S. Supreme Court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 Rep. Nicole Malliotakis believes appeals filed Tuesday will preserve Staten Island\u2019s congressional district and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33190,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-115446","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115446","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=115446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}