Legislature OKs new Senate, Assembly districts for next 10 years

By Michael Gormleymichael.gormley@newsday.com @GormleyAlbanyFebruary 3, 2022

ALBANY — The Democratic majorities of the Senate and Assembly on Thursday approved new election districts for the State Legislature in party-line votes that Republicans argued were an unconstitutional power grab.

The new districts will be in use beginning the legislative elections this fall and for the next 10 years. The Senate districts were drawn by the Senate’s Democratic supermajority and the Assembly districts were drawn by the Assembly’s Democratic supermajority.

Legislators redrew the maps because the Independent Redistricting Commission gridlocked along party lines last month. The independent process was approved by voters in the 2014 referendum on the reform to take the process of redistricting out of the hands of politicians. But the constitutional amendment stated that if the independent commission appointed by legislative leaders failed, redistricting would again be done by the Legislature.

The process yielded some historic firsts.

Two Senate districts were reoriented into New York City in part because of a decline in population upstate. A Queens district in the Senate will have a plurality of Latinos and a Brooklyn district was created to form one with a plurality of Asian voters. In addition, the 3rd Senate District will be the first on Long Island to have a plurality of Latinos and the 6th Senate District will be the first on Long Island to have a plurality of minorities.

In the Assembly, there were few dramatic changes in part because the districts are smaller and often require less change to comply with population shifts reflected in the Census. However, Republicans will likely lose one upstate Assembly seat because Democratic voters were shifted into traditionally Republican districts.

Republicans said the new districts will likely also cost the GOP two seats in the Senate.

"This map is the quintessential definition of improper gerrymandering written with one goal in mind: To grab more power for one party, when the goal of redistricting is to make sure the peoples’ voices are heard," said Sen. Andrew Lanza (R-Staten Island.) "They drew a district that Abraham Lincoln probably couldn’t win."

The tenor of Thursday’s debates reflected the increasing sharply partisan divide in the Legislature.

"This is tyranny of the majority," said Assemb. Mark Walcyzk (R-Watertown). "The voters said, ‘Yeah, politicians in Albany shouldn’t be redrawing the districts.’ That was completely ignored by the Democratic majorities."

He called the new districts "the most self-serving … abomination of public service I have ever seen."

Assemb. Kenneth Zebrowski (D-Suffern) told Republicans "you are attempting to opine that decisions were made for purely partisan or political purposes, which is clearly not true. All requirements of the law were followed."

In the Senate, Democrats said the districts they drew may seem to include some dramatic changes because they're intended to correct gerrymandering in past decades when Republicans controlled the Senate and held the governor’s office. Gianaris said Republicans in their redistricting divided racial and ethnic communities statewide into different districts, which diluted the groups' political clout.

"The fact is, this map is a fix, and when you fix things that are broken you get a change," said Senate Deputy Majority Leader Michael Gianaris (D-Queens). "And you may not like that change."

Sen. Alexis Weik (R-Sayville) said little was changed in her 3rd Senate District except one thing: "You simply cut out where I live."

Gianaris denied intentionally favoring or disfavoring any specific legislators, which would be illegal. Instead, he said the 3rd Senate District was reshaped to create the first Senate district on Long Island that contained a Latino plurality.

Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the bill into law Thursday night. She also signed the bill passed Wednesday creating new congressional districts.