A Democratic law firm is challenging New York\u2019s congressional map, the first step in a process that could allow the state\u2019s lawmakers to draw new lines in a national mid-decade redistricting arms race.<\/p>\n
The Marc Elias Group filed a lawsuit Monday in Manhattan Supreme Court alleging that Black and Latino voters on Staten Island are unfairly marginalized by the current map. Attorney Marc Elias has brought cases for Democrats across the country on election and redistricting cases.<\/p>\n
The plaintiffs say the 11th District \u2014 which includes Staten Island and parts of southern Brooklyn and is represented by Nicole Malliotakis, a Republican \u2014 should be redrawn to include parts of Lower Manhattan. That would increase the number of non-white voters in the district and potentially amplify their political power.<\/p>\n
\u201cCD-11\u2019s antiquated boundaries instead confine Staten Island\u2019s growing Black and Latino communities in a district where they are routinely and systematically unable to influence elections for their representative of choice, despite the existence of strong racially polarized voting and a history of racial discrimination and segregation on Staten Island,\u201d the suit claims.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Malliotakis didn\u2019t immediately return a message seeking comment. Rep. Dan Goldman, a Democrat who represents lower Manhattan, said in a statement that \u201cif Staten Island is drawn into my district, then I will be ready to step up and take the fight for democracy and a Democratic House majority to Nicole Malliotakis\u2019 doorstep.”<\/p>\n
The suit could provide Democrats who control state government a chance to change the state map as early as 2026 if it succeeds. Gov. Kathy Hochul has said she wishes to do so<\/a> in response to Republican-led efforts in Texas and North Carolina to draw maps more favorable to their party. Hochul accuses Republicans of cheating to keep control of Congress. She has said she wants to \u201cfight fire with fire.\u201d<\/p>\n While other Democrat-led states like California have responded in kind, New York\u2019s state constitution doesn\u2019t allow for mid-decade redistricting. State Sen. Mike Gianaris, a Democrat from Queens, is hoping to change the state constitution to allow for adjustments.<\/p>\n Gianaris said he hadn\u2019t reviewed the lawsuit but hopes New York can join the national conversation.<\/p>\n \u201cWe obviously have to get engaged and not sit on the sidelines,\u201d he said. \u201cWhile red states are bastardizing the makeup of Congress, we can’t allow one side to be engaging in this process without a response.\u201d<\/p>\n Republicans said the lawsuit is frivolous. An earlier GOP-backed lawsuit successfully challenged Democrat-drawn maps in 2022,<\/a> and the state\u2019s current congressional lines were largely drawn by a court-appointed special master.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThis latest lawsuit, brought by the same lawyers who previously defended the unconstitutional state gerrymander in 2022, is seeking a blatant racial gerrymander,\u201d NYGOP Chairman Ed Cox said in a statement. \u201cEveryone should see this effort for what it is: a naked attempt to disenfranchise voters in NY-11 and elect a Democrat to this congressional district contrary to the will of voters.\u201d<\/p>\n The plaintiffs in the case are four voters \u2014 a Black man, a white woman, a Latino man and a Latino woman \u2014 who live in Staten Island and Manhattan.<\/p>\n The defendants in the lawsuit are Hochul, Attorney General Letitia James, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins as well as the state Board of Elections. Spokespeople for Heastie and the Board of Elections didn\u2019t immediately return messages seeking comment. Stewart-Cousins\u2019 spokesperson said she would review the suit and spokespeople for Hochul and James declined to comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Democratic law firm is challenging New York\u2019s congressional map, the first step in a process that could…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23841,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":["post-23840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23840","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=23840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}