Petitioning process begins for NY Congressional candidates

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10)--Petitioning, which was set to start on February 27th for Congressional candidates, got pushed to February 29th— just one day after the state legislature approved the congressional map.

"That is good because that makes it official and that’s necessary according to the rules, regulations, statues of the board of elections and also our constitution," said Assemblymember Charles Lavine.

After years of legal battles, the newly adopted map ended up being drawn by the New York State Legislature and even got some bipartisan support. NY GOP Chairman, Ed Cox, released a statement saying, "Despite Democrats' ongoing corruption of the process, these lines are not materially different from those drawn by the special master. As such, there is no need for further litigation."

Back in 2022, Republican’s filed a redistricting lawsuit in predominantly rural and conservative Steuben County. Ultimately, it resulted in a special master drawing the map after a judge deemed the lines drawn by Democrats unconstitutional.

This week, lawmakers passed a bill that said any court cases on redistricting would have to be taken up in either New York County, Westchester County, Albany County, or Erie County.

"I think it’s pretty clear here that one of the issues is the fact that this circumstance only comes around every 10 years," said Assemblymember Latrice Walker. "Which is the reason why we should have a specialty judge and court in this area."

Republicans were not on board.

"First of all the notion that a state Supreme Court judge in Jefferson County, in Niagara County, in Steuben County is not capable of ruling on that is nonsense," said Senate Minority Leader, Rob Ortt. "It happened two years ago. They didn’t like the result of that ruling and that’s why we’re here."

Governor Hochul signed the bill.