The chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee found his seat moved to the same district as a member of the progressive “Squad” under the preliminary congressional boundaries for New York, released Monday by a court-appointed special master.
“While the process to draw these maps is against the will of the voters, if the newly announced maps are finalized, I will run in New York’s 17th Congressional District. NY-17 includes my home and many of the Hudson Valley communities I currently represent,” tweeted Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, New York Democrat and DCCC chairman.
He later added, “Further, I believe I am the only sitting member who resides in NY17.”
First-term lawmaker Rep. Mondaire Jones now holds the 17th Congressional District seat.
Carnegie Mellon fellow Jonathan Cervas, the special master appointed by a Steuben County judge, is expected to finalize his maps by Friday after comments are submitted to the court by Wednesday.
Republicans took glee in the DCCC chairman’s situation.
“Sean Patrick Maloney can see the writing on the wall: any Democrat in a competitive district is doomed. The only question remaining is will the DCCC remain neutral in a matchup that pits its incompetent chair against a progressive incumbent?” said National Republican Congressional Committee spokeswoman Samantha Bullock.
Other big changes were made on the proposed map, which was ordered after a court struck down the map drawn by the state’s Democratic-controlled legislature.
Reps. Jerrold Nadler and Carolyn Maloney, both Democrats, were placed in the same New York City district. On the current map the district that Mrs. Maloney has represented for the last decade includes the east side of Manhattan, Long Island City and Green Point, Brooklyn.
But the newly proposed map from Mr. Cervas pits Long Island City and Green Point in the 7th Congressional District, now represented by Democratic Rep. Nydia Velazquez.
Mr. Nadler currently represents the west side of Manhattan into Coney Island and Brooklyn. In the proposed map, he will face off against Mrs. Maloney in the newly drawn 12th District, which encompasses an east-west strip of Manhattan across the middle of Central Park, from the Hudson River to the FDR Drive down toward lower Manhattan.
Mr. Nadler called the new district lines “violate the NYS constitutional requirements of keeping communities of interest together and keeping cores of existing districts largely intact.”
But he said that “provided that they become permanent, I very much look forward to running in and representing the people of the newly created 12th District of New York.”
The map also would put the residence of Rep. Paul Tonko, a Democrat, in the district presently represented by Rep. Elise Stefanik, a Republican. That district would lean Republican.
The Albany region would be cut from Mr. Tonko’s residence in Amsterdam and used to create a new Democratic-leaning district.
Long Island was drawn differently from the Democrats’ original plan, which had three Democratic-leaning seats and one Republican-leaning seat. The new map has one Democratic seat, a Republican-leaning district, and two toss-ups.
The current map, drawn before New York lost a seat under the 2020 census and resulting reapportionment, has 17 Democratic-leaning seats, seven Republican-leaning seats, and three competitive seats.
But the special master’s proposed lines are a stark change from the gerrymandered map that New York’s Democratic majority legislature produced.
That proposed map had 20 Democratic-leaning seats, four Republican-leaning seats and two competitive ones.
The New York court system struck down this map as unconstitutional.
Dave Wasserman, an analyst with the Cook Political Report, described Mr. Cervas’ proposed map as giving the state Democratic-leaning congressional districts, five Republican-leaning districts, and five competitive districts.
“Not unexpected, but this NY map is pretty bad news for Democrats. With so many competitive seats, it’s not hard to envision a 16D-10R (or even 15D-11R) split on a great GOP night, which is a far cry from the 22D-4R rout Dems initially tried to gerrymander,” Mr. Wasserman tweeted.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
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