Will Hochul’s focus on redistricting fight distract from state governance?

New York is under attack from the federal government on several fronts, but now the battle for control of Congress is beginning to suck much of the air from the room. The Democratic-controlled state Legislature is gearing up to make big changes to the state’s redistricting system, even if everyone isn’t on board. But while Gov. Kathy Hochul has turned her attention to a nationwide redistricting fight, there are more than enough issues in New York to keep her occupied. 

The state Office of Cannabis Management is in the middle of reassuring dispensary owners that they won’t need to move locations after initial permits allowed them to set up shop too close to schools. The Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program’s transition to a single fiscal intermediary has left some workers unpaid. The state Division of Housing and Community Renewal is still getting its bearings as rent stabilization expands beyond the New York City metro area. On climate, the state’s goals are rapidly becoming suggestions, not mandates. The state also faces massive Medicaid cuts due to the recent federal budget bill. While some see those cuts as an argument for redistricting – reasoning that a Democratic-controlled House could reverse them – New York’s attempts to redraw congressional districts wouldn’t affect congressional races until 2028 at the earliest.

John Kaehny, executive director of Reinvent Albany, a state-focused good government group that opposes partisan redistricting, thinks Hochul and the state government’s attention might be better directed elsewhere. 

“Aren't there other things to be worrying about right now?” Kaehny told City & State. “And of course, the answer is: Yeah, of course there are.”

The ballooning fiscal gap outlined by state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli ranks as a key issue to Kaehny, and it’s something that he expects could cause anger in next year’s budget negotiations as some groups could see more cutbacks than others to accommodate a reduction in federal funding.

The governor told reporters Monday that she was more than capable of juggling several situations at once, noting that women are excellent multitaskers. “I assure you, my capacity for an expansive range of topics is enormous,” Hochul said. 

Groups like Reinvent Albany have already expressed concern about the governor’s apparent openness to disbanding the bipartisan Independent Redistricting Commission that currently constructs New York’s maps. Reinvent Albany sees partisan redistricting as anti-democratic and believes that scrapping the independent commission would undo years of progress.

Blair Horner, senior policy advisor for the New York Public Interest Research Group, which also opposes partisan redistricting, said that changing the redistricting process is easier said than done, since Hochul can’t just snap her fingers and change the state constitution. That said, he does not think that the governor’s PR offensive on redistricting will prevent the state government from operating normally.

“Governing matters, and there are things that have to be and should be addressed,” Horner said. “So I assume that those decisions can be made without her talking on some television show.”

Lately, Hochul has been making regular appearances on television to argue that New York’s entry into the redistricting fray is necessary for the health of the state and the country. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott plans to redraw his state’s maps to further the House Republican majority, something other states are now considering. To try to prevent that, Democratic Texas state lawmakers have traveled across the country to try to prevent the Texas legislature from reaching quorum, and Hochul hosted some of the lawmakers in Albany last week. 

The governor said that as Democrats ready themselves for a redistricting war, politics and government are one in the same.

“It's part of government. I'm protecting New York state,” Hochul said. “All the policies I'm talking about are hurting the people I represent, and I'm going to fight for them. That's what this is about.”