ALBANY, N.Y. — New York’s Independent Redistricting Commission on Thursday approved a new set of lines for the state's 26-member congressional delegation, making only minor tweaks that would aid a few swing districts as control of the House is at stake.
The maps were similar to those that state officials have been briefed on in recent days, as first reported by POLITICO.
They make modest changes to lines drawn by a court in 2022 in the middle of two years of legal feuding.
The lines would provide a boost to Democrats’ odds in a Republican-held Central New York seat. Incumbents would get modest boosts in two other swing districts upstate — one held by a Democrat, Rep. Pat Ryan, and one held by a Republican, Rep. Marc Molinaro.
The 10 commissioners, five Democrats and five Republicans, approved the lines by a 9-1 margin.
The maps are due to be voted on by the Democratic-dominated Legislature by the end of the month. They appear to face decent — but not guaranteed — odds of passage.
The most notable change was to freshman Republican Rep. Brandon Williams’ district in the Syracuse area. He lost Rome and surrounding towns to Rep. Elise Stefanik’s seat, but picked up Auburn and the rest of Cayuga County.
Williams won his first term with less than 51 percent of the vote in 2022. The swap would make his seat about 4 percentage points more Democratic.
The other notable changes came in the Hudson Valley seats held by Ryan and Molinaro, both freshmen in battleground seats.
Woodstock and Saugerties, both Democratic strongholds, went from Molinaro’s district to Ryan’s.
Molinaro’s district picked up a few places in Orange County from Ryan’s seat that lean Republican. The Rensselaer County town of East Greenbush was also moved to Molinaro’s seat from Stefanik’s.
The seats held by Ryan and Molinaro will both remain swing districts, but the swaps mean the two incumbents would each have a little more breathing room as they face competitive races this fall.
Other changes would simply add some lawmakers’ hometowns to their districts.
For example, Pendleton — Republican Rep. Nick Langworthy’s town of residence — would be added to his Western New York seat. And Democratic Rep. Paul Tonko’s hometown of Amsterdam would be joined with the Albany-area district he represents.
There also appears to be a few smoothed edges of district lines in other corners of the state. The seat recently vacated by Democratic Rep. Brian Higgins was pushed a little further south of Buffalo as a ripple effect of the changes to Williams’ seat.
But none of the changes to most districts should have a substantial impact on the odds in districts generally considered safe for the incumbents’ parties.
The commission has had a bumpy first year of existence. Bipartisan gridlock meant it failed to even hold all of its required meetings in 2022, leading to the court challenges that had legislative-drawn maps tossed and now the new ones being drawn.
Charlie Nesbitt, the Republican co-chair of the commission, highlighted the bipartisan vote after years of stalemate.
“This is a historic moment in a series of historic moments which marks the first time the commission has faced this exact problem,” he said. “We came into existence to solve these types of problems, and the only way they can happen is through cooperation and compromise.”
The one no vote was Yovan Samuel Collado, a Democratic appointee of Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie.
