In Albany, Democrats get serious about redistricting – without admitting they’ll gerrymander

Don’t call it a partisan gerrymander.

It’s Groundhog Day in Albany again as Rep. Joe Morelle trekked east to the state Capitol to make the case for mid-decade redistricting. He came at the behest of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries as New York attempts to wade into the national fight over redrawing congressional districts. But Democrats are still stopping just short of admitting they’re getting in the mud with Republicans to draw explicitly partisan districts.

Speaking to reporters in Albany, Morelle said he had productive meetings with state leaders about changing the New York constitution to permit mid-decade redistricting. “I’m going to continue this dialogue through the end of session, and hope that we can make some adjustments in the state constitution that would allow for fairer maps here in New York state,” he said.

The discussion comes in wake of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the Voting Rights Act in Louisiana v. Callais, which opened the floodgates for other states to bypass or manipulate redrawing rules. And when Gov. Kathy Hochul hosted Democratic lawmakers from Texas last July to block Republicans’ congressional maps in that state, she indicated she was open to disbanding New York’s Independent Redistricting Commission, which was created through a constitutional amendment in 2014.

Despite backing independent redistricting in theory, Morelle indicated he would support amending the state constitution to remove the provisions explicitly prohibiting partisan gerrymandering as New York and other Democratic states seek to respond to Republican actions in other states. “What’s clear is, in the South in particular, those state legislators have made the decision that they’re going to do the most partisan gerrymandering necessary, so we’re going to respond in kind,” he said. “I’d love to have a national standard. … But I don’t want New York and I don't want Democrats to disarm and lead to a permanent majority by the Republicans because they engage in partisan gerrymandering.”

But asked directly whether he – and by extension, Jeffries – is directly calling for New York lawmakers to actively engage in partisan redistricting, Morelle demurred and instead deferred to what state legislators have said. “(Jeffries) asked me to convey the seriousness of the moment, (and) make sure that people understand the impacts of Texas and all the other states that have followed, and now, the impact of (the) Callais (decision) on Black Americans and on the underserved populations,” he said. Jeffries has so far declined to directly frame Democrats’ response to Republican gerrymandering as an equally partisan move.

The governor has been more open to making the process partisan again, but has similarly refrained from calling explicitly for a gerrymander. She tied a housing event in Albany Tuesday to the ongoing debate to change the state’s rules to redraw its election districts – arguing a lack of affordable housing has contributed to New York’s diminishing representation in Washington. “It makes us more vulnerable when Donald Trump and the Republicans conspire to gerrymander districts and other states to run up the score to maintain control of the House,” Hochul said. “And they’re doing this because they know they’ve lost the confidence of the American people. So they’re basically trying to cheat.”

Lawmakers introduced a state constitutional amendment last year that would allow the Legislature to redraw the congressional maps in the middle of the decade, but would otherwise keep the usual independent redistricting process in place for census years. That includes a gerrymandering prohibition. Sponsored by state Senate Deputy Majority Leader Mike Gianaris and Assembly Member Micah Lasher, the bill would amend the state’s governing document to allow legislators to redraw congressional districts outside the typical cycle if another state moves to do so first.

Although Democrats – including Gianaris– have not hidden the fact their redistricting push is in direct response to what they call partisan moves by Republicans in other states, state legislators continue to insist their own reapportionment won’t be partisan in response. “I think we want to respond to other states’ partisan redistricting with the redistricting process in New York that is fair based on the principles we have laid out,” Gianaris told reporters at the state Capitol. 

Gianaris also pointed to past court rulings he called “corrupt” that led to a special master – rather than the Legislature – redrawing district lines, which the Legislature adopted with few changes. Posed with the characterization that Republican-led states are engaging in partisan gerrymandering while New York Democrats are righting a past wrong, Gianaris simply said “yes.”

As a constitutional amendment, the measure from Gianaris and Lasher would need to pass both this year and next year before heading to New Yorkers for a direct vote. That means the soonest the state could make changes to its congressional district lines would be 2028, a mere two years before the annual redistricting process would start again anyway. That’s also of little help to Democrats who hope to win back the House this November. 

Even though the state has no viable options to impact the maps for this year’s midterms, Lasher argued that doesn’t mean the state should move slowly to make changes to address democratic issues in moving forward. “Our hands are tied by the process for amending the state constitution. But I think that everyone realizes that it would be a terrible decision to say, ‘Just because it can’t happen for the midterms, it shouldn't happen at all,’” he told City & State. “That is the kind of short-term thinking that will kill us.”

Democrats attempted to make a minor change to New York’s congressional maps last year through a lawsuit that argued the 11th District, New York’s City’s only Republican-held seat, disenfranchised Black voters as drawn. Although a district-level state judge agreed with the plaintiffs, the case eventually made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which officially killed that path forward.

Morelle’s visit to Albany drew swift condemnation from New York Republicans, who also criticized Jeffries’ announced commitment to engaging in the gerrymandering fight. “Today, Morelle is in Albany under orders from Hakeem Jeffries to subvert the will of the voters by overturning that very referendum,” state GOP Chair Ed Cox said in a statement. “That’s not ‘defending democracy’ – that’s an attack on democracy.”