{"id":25413,"date":"2025-11-01T20:54:21","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T20:54:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/25413\/"},"modified":"2025-11-01T20:54:21","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T20:54:21","slug":"rep-nicole-malliotakis-rips-gerrymandering-lawsuit-for-staten-island-house-seat-as-nonsensical-power-grab","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/25413\/","title":{"rendered":"Rep. Nicole Malliotakis rips gerrymandering lawsuit for Staten Island House seat as ‘nonsensical’ power grab"},"content":{"rendered":"

Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis blasted a Democrat-backed lawsuit<\/a> that is seeking to redraw Staten Island\u2019s congressional district to include Lower Manhattan \u2014 telling The Post it\u2019s a partisan attempt to \u201csilence\u201d Big Apple conservatives.<\/p>\n

The gerrymandering suit, filed by the DC-based Marc Elias Group<\/a> in Manhattan Supreme Court on Monday, claims the current drawing of the NY-11 \u201cdilutes black and Latino voting strength\u201d by consistently electing Republicans and that the remedy is to redraw the district to include the Democrat stronghold of lower Manhattan.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a completely frivolous nonsensical lawsuit that has zero merit,\u201d Malliotakis said in her first public comments about the lawsuit that could push her out of Congress, where she\u2019s served since 2021.<\/p>\n

Rep. Malliotakis blasted the lawsuit as \u201cfrivolous\u201d and promised to fight any redrawing of her home district. AP<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the Democrat\u2019s latest attempt to try and silence the voters of the only district that elected a Republican and change the makeup of the only competitive seat in the entire city of New York.\u201d<\/p>\n

NY-11 is the only Republican seat in the five boroughs and previously elected Democrat Max Rose to the House of Representatives in 2019.<\/p>\n

The NY-10, which includes the chunk of lower Manhattan below 14th street that the lawsuit is seeking to join with Staten Island\u2019s district, is currently represented by Democrat Rep. Dan Goldberg and last elected a Republican, medical doctor and lawyer Lester Volk, in 1920.<\/p>\n

Malliotakis further questioned the supposed racial dilution alleged in the current maps which were just approved by the state\u2019s top Democrats<\/a> Assembly Heastie Carl Heastie and state senate boss Andrea Stewart-Cousins, both of whom are African-American, in advance of the 2024 election.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor Democrats to somehow now claim that this map disenfranchises minorities is a complete fallacy. It\u2019s ludicrous.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The NY-11 congressional district currently includes all of Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn. Congress.gov<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s clear what they\u2019re trying to do \u2014 change the rules, tilt the scale, to give their party an advantage in next year\u2019s elections and this case should be thrown out by the judge,\u201d the Trump-backed rep said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve tried everything to change the make-up of this district so it is more Democrat-leaning to eliminate the only conservative voice [New Yorker\u2019s] have in Washington.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lawsuit is the latest in a nationwide gerrymandering push<\/a> ahead of the 2026 midterm elections that will see all 435 of the seats in the House of Representative up for grabs with the Republicans currently holding onto a slim 219-212 majority in the lower house, according to Ballotpedia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul has previously endorsed<\/a> her party\u2019s attempts to favorably redraw districts in the Empire State.<\/p>\n

\u201cI may be governor of New York, but I will not sit on the sidelines with timid souls and merely watch while Republicans dismantle democracy. That\u2019s not who we are. And that is certainly not the leadership that this moment calls for,\u201d Hochul wrote in an op-ed in The Houston Chronicle<\/a> in Aug. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf [Republicans] rewrite the rules, then so will we,\u201d she said, concluding, \u201cAll\u2019s fair in love and war. Bring it on.\u201d<\/p>\n

All 435 congressional seats will be up for grabs in 2026 according to Ballotpedia. Michael Nagle<\/p>\n

Sources familiar with the lawsuit said the Department of Justice is monitoring the outcome and If the state of New York loses the lawsuit there would be an appeal in federal court to reverse the decision.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rep. Malliotakis said she is not afraid of a court battle.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve beat them twice before and we\u2019re gonna do it again whether it be in state court or if we have to elevate this to federal court, potentially even to the Supreme Court.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve gone to court now three times, every time I\u2019ve run for reelection we\u2019ve had a redistricting battle,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The Marc Elias Law Group\u2019s stated mission is \u201chelping Democrats win,\u201d according to its website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis blasted a Democrat-backed lawsuit that is seeking to redraw Staten Island\u2019s congressional district to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25414,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[858,2132,57,9,24,887,63,134,136,135,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-25413","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-congress","9":"tag-democrats","10":"tag-metro","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-nicole-malliotakis","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-staten-island","16":"tag-staten-island-headlines","17":"tag-staten-island-news","18":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25413","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=25413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}