ALBANI — Newly proposed congressional cards, signed by Democrats, could halve the current Republican delegation in New York — eliminating at least one seat in the state and endangering three others.
The Democrat-controlled state legislature on Sunday unveiled plans to shrink the GOP’s eight seats to just four, according to a proposed realignment map.
The new map eliminates the current upstate district held by Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-Binghamton) to explain the population loss, creating a new 22nd district effectively divided between the seats occupied by the outgoing Rep. John Katko (R-Auburn) and Rep. Antonio Delgado (D Kingston).
“We are confident,” the source said, “if these cards pass, Claudia will ride 23rd. Her family business is in Chenango.”
A source close to Tenney told The Post she will run for election in the newly configured 23rd district that retains parts of at least four of the eight counties she currently represents — Broome, Tioga, Cortland and Chenango.
She could also run in the new 24th district, which is red, but the lines prefer Rep. Chris Jacobs (R-Geneseo) and he will probably run to that chair, the source said.
Powerful Republican Speaker of the House Elise Stefanik (R-Glens Falls) is also safe, with the redrawn lines in favor of GOP voters.
But New York’s new 1st district, owned by Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-Suffolk) — who is leaving his seat to run for governor against Governor Kathy Hochul — would continue to turn blue, providing “an exceptional pick-me-up for the Dem is created”, tweeted Dave Wasserman of the Cook Political Report, the national nonpartisan group that analyzes elections.
The district would change from Trump +4 to Biden +11.
“Unlike Dems’ Illinois gerrymander, who got pretty sloppy at the last minute, I can only find a few isolated places where this New York gerrymander “strands” Dem votes in GOP districts — and even then we’re talking about fractions of points… It’s a brutal card for Rs,” he added.
New York loses one of its 27 seats in the House thanks to the results of the 2020 census — which also reduced congressional delegations in six other states.
Republican State Party chairman Nick Langworthy criticized the plans as a “brutal and outrageous attempt to manipulate the election to keep Nancy Pelosi as chairman”.
“Democrats are circumventing the will of the people,” he said in a statement.
“For all their false protests about transparency and fairness in elections, what they are doing is filthy, partisan textbook gerrymandering that is clearly in violation of the New York State Constitution.
“We are reviewing all of our legal options to protect the voices of millions of New Yorkers.”
As The Post previously reported, the new Staten Island seat in NY-11 also poses a challenge to incumbent Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis — expanding the right-leaning Staten Island districts to include liberal parts of Brooklyn, such as Park Slope and Sunset. Park.
Former President Trump won NY-11 by 10.5 points in 2020.
Had the new rules been introduced last year, President Joe Biden might have won by nearly 10 points — and could have turned ex-Democrat Rep Max Rose’s defeat into a possible victory. He outperformed Biden in the district, losing by just six percentage points.
Removing a GOP member representing the five boroughs could also hurt New York City as Republicans are on track to take control of the House next year, said former GOP representative John Faso of Kinderhook state.
“It obviously hurts New York City because the House is moving into Republican control and without a vote on the Republican side because it makes it harder to achieve all the goals we share: we want safer communities, we want better infrastructure — we want to make sure New York is treated fairly,” he told The Post.
“It’s not in the interest of New York State and New York City — just the Democratic party. The people who brought us bail reform brought us the most gerrymandered districts in New York state history,” he added, referring to the debate over the state’s controversial bail laws dividing Democrats.
The cards can be voted on by lawmakers as early as Wednesday
Legislature Democrats took control of the card-drawing process after a failure in the two-party negotiations earlier this month within an independent reclassification committee empowered by a 2014 voter referendum to draw the lines again.
