In the first week of February, Governor Kathy Hochul signed a new electoral redistricting of New York. This new map has been heavily criticised by both Republicans and Democrats for its heavily manipulated districts. The criticism has even gone far enough for New York to be sued by lawmakers for gerrymandering. The plaintiff claims that New York’s map unfairly favours Democrats to the point where the map should be struck down.
For context, the proposed map favours Democrats in 85% of electoral districts in a state where Biden won only 60.9% of the vote. It is projected that the new map will strengthen the chances of Democratic candidates significantly in two districts, basically eliminating competition. In addition to this, three districts are expected to flip from Republican to Democrat and only two actually competitive races will be left. The map’s borders also frequently ignore county lines and cities. This is coming from a state that theoretically implemented bipartisan redistricting reform and committed to making a map that would favour “both parties.” Instead the resulting map was horrendous.
To anyone with even a basic idea of New York’s political or physical geography, this map makes zero sense for fair geographical representation. The 1st district lumps together the Hamptons and Garden City, areas that could not be more geographically different, through an obviously artificial jut. Meanwhile, parts of the North Shore of Long Island like Port Jefferson are lumped in with northern New York City. Upstate things are worse, with the 16th, 17th, and 18th districts dividing the Republican parts inside and outside of Westchester. The 21st district now encompasses all of the Republican parts north of Albany, eliminating any meaningful competition for the 19th, 20th, or 22nd districts. The list of flaws goes on and on…
Why is this important? Democrats have shown they are no better than Republicans in this area, compromising democracy and moral principle for power. Gerrymandering violates people’s right to vote for their democratically elected representatives. This situation, combined with former President Trump’s controversial statements about the 2020 election and contentious electoral victories decided by razor sharp margins, have undermined people’s faith in American democracy. Politicians have attempted to restore people’s faith in them but their legitimacy is repeatedly in question. With this electoral map in New York (combined with Oregon, Illinois, and Maryland’s also extremely gerrymandered prefectures) the Democratic Party as an institution has lost all legitimacy to question electoral processes. In previous elections Democrats were able to claim that only regional organisations were gerrymandering and that Republican electoral maps were much worse. Democratic politicians, especially on the federal level, continued to be committed to proper electoral reform. However, after the new wave of redistricting, there is now no party in the United States in a position to restore people’s faith.
