The newly drawn maps for the State of New York’s congressional districts that have been criticized by some non-partisan groups for giving Democrats a heavy political advantage over Republicans were signed into law on Thursday by New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul.
The new congressional map the New York’s state legislature passed – favoring Democrats in 22 House districts and Republicans in just four – could assist Democrats in flipping as many as three House seats in November.
However, New York’s Democratic leadership claims that the new map reflects the population shifts in the state, where the midterm election primaries are scheduled to take place in June, over the last decade.
Currently, New York’s congressional delegation is made up of 19 Democrats and eight Republicans but because of population decline, New York is slated to lose a congressional seat.
Criticizing the map, Republicans have accused the Democrats, which hold a five-seat majority in the House of Representatives, of using it as a tool to keep their majority in the House come November since it appears that Republicans are set to regain control of the chamber.
New York’s Republican Party Chairman Nick Langworthy blasted the maps in a statement earlier this week describing them as the most brazen and outrageous attempts at rigging the election in an attempt to keep Nancy Pelosi as Speaker.
They’re now considering initiation legal challenges against the map, which they claim violates the state constitution,
These allegations haven’t raised many eyebrows considering the fact that after the State of New York’s bipartisan redistricting commission was unable to come up with new congressional lines, the new maps were proposed by New York Democrats after.
The new maps have been branded as gerrymandering by some non-partisan groups such as New York’s chapters of the League of Women Voters and Common Cause, noting they create electoral districts in ways that gives an unfair advantage to only one party.
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