It’s encouraging to see democracy isn’t totally dead in the Empire State.
Despite the efforts of folks such as New York Attorney General Letitia James, the state’s Democrats are finding out they can’t impose their liberal hegemony as easily as they’d hoped.
New York Democrats attempted to redraw the state’s congressional districts to give themselves a greater majority in the U.S. House, but their gains, such as they were, were more “modest” than hoped, The New York Times reported Wednesday.
According to the Times, a few districts were shuffled around to give the Democrats a slight (even imperceptible) edge, but other districts, such as those on the increasingly right-leaning Long Island, saw little if any difference.
As noted on social media by redistricting expert Dan Wasserman, the state’s Republican districts seem pretty safe.
“NEW: with Gov. Kathy Hochul’s signature, the re-redistricting wars of 2024 have likely drawn to a close,” Wasserman said in a Wednesday post on X. “The new NY map nets Dems perhaps half a seat vs. the current court-drawn plan. It’s designed to avoid a court fight & a far cry from the 3-4 seat swing Rs engineered in NC.”
NEW: with Gov. Kathy Hochul’s signature, the re-redistricting wars of 2024 have likely drawn to a close. The new NY map nets Dems perhaps half a seat vs. the current court-drawn plan. It’s designed to avoid a court fight & a far cry from the 3-4 seat swing Rs engineered in NC. pic.twitter.com/yEtB6KUwKy
— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) February 28, 2024
In fact, after opposing the redistricting effort and getting mostly left out of the discussions, many Republicans weren’t unhappy with the new map, which Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called “a much fairer map for the people of the state of New York.”
Will Republicans keep control of the House in this fall’s elections?
“There are small changes here or there, but none of them are materially significant from a political standpoint,” former Republican Congressman John Faso said, according to the Times.
It’s a far cry from the state Democrats’ aggressive attempt to gerrymander the districts back in 2022 — attempts that were eventually torpedoed by New York’s highest court.
The fact that many Democrats find the new map — signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday — disappointing should be taken as an encouraging sign for Republicans.
I just signed New York’s new congressional map into law. pic.twitter.com/qSBecdnGHm
— Governor Kathy Hochul (@GovKathyHochul) February 28, 2024
While the changes are relatively minor and do favor the Democrats, this map sets up the GOP in a decent position as it tries to maintain a slim majority in the House.
As Wasserman noted, New York Democrats wanted to wipe out some Republican seats, as North Carolina’s GOP did to the Democrats with a map that could lead to a three-seat gain for Republicans, according to The Associated Press.
Social media posts by the state’s Republican members of Congress certainly won’t take the sting out of this defeat for the Democrats.
Rep. Anthony D’Esposito posted an image of his redrawn district on X and wrote, “See y’all in the winners circle.”
We won it in ‘22 & we’ll win it again.
Onward to victory in #2024.
See y’all in the winners circle.
Chip in today and keep #NY04 RED ⬇️https://t.co/3dYzU6bnGI pic.twitter.com/qKrH7fXK7f
— Anthony P. D’Esposito (@ANTHONYDESPO) February 29, 2024
The Democrats had hoped to boot GOP Rep. Nicole Malliotakis off the map, only for her to victoriously post an image of her district on Wednesday along with the words, “Hello, Gorgeous.”
Hello, Gorgeous. pic.twitter.com/oVLwPH7oVW
— Nicole Malliotakis (@NMalliotakis) February 28, 2024
After failing in their gerrymandering efforts two years ago and locking Republicans out of the latest discussions, the Democrats have to be disappointed with where they ended up.
The goal was to create a few more blue districts in a deep-blue state, and that didn’t happen.
Perhaps Napoleon Bonaparte was right when he said you should never interrupt your enemy when he’s making a mistake.
It seems to have worked out pretty well for New York Republicans this time around.
