A gerrymandering arms race grows
Rowan Wilson Credit: AP
Looking back over recent months, it becomes clearer than ever that New York Democrats pushed for a Court of Appeals majority they believed would roll back or modify last year’s gerrymandering decision that cost the party crucial seats in the congressional midterms.
Did the progressive players in Albany get the court they wished for? We shall see. Next week, a midlevel appellate panel is due to hear arguments in a lawsuit aimed at a do-over on those 2022 district maps. If this case reaches the top court, the chief judge heading the panel will be Rowan Wilson.
Last year, that chief was Janet DiFiore. She led a 4-3 decision to scrap a Democratic-drawn map and send it to a special master, which made districts more competitive and ultimately benefited Republicans. But Wilson, then an associate judge, happened to be one of the dissenters in the case.
DiFiore left the court last year. Senate Democrats, whose maps met her bombshell rejection, paved the way for Wilson to succeed her by refusing to confirm Gov. Kathy Hochul’s first pick, Hector LaSalle of Brentwood — an unprecedented move
These manipulations in Albany came off as politically ham-handed and blatantly Machiavellian. But it also isn’t unique. A nearly-identical strategy — trying to tilt the court’s map decisions by putting in place judges disposed to be loyally partisan — has unfolded in Columbus, the capital of Ohio. But there, Republicans control the state government.
Last year, Maureen O’Connor, the independent GOP chief judge of Ohio’s top court, led a 4-3 majority in repeatedly rejecting gerrymanders drawn by lawmakers of her party. Those rulings left party leaders furious at O’Connor, 71, who left the court last year after reaching the mandatory retirement age.
O’Connor’s successor as chief judge is a Republican named Sharon Kennedy. Like Wilson in New York, she was on the top court — but voted to uphold her party’s maps.
To finish Kennedy’s term, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine appointed a prosecutor, Joe Deters, with no experience as a judge. Good government groups expect Deters to support GOP prerogatives when a redistricting do-over case reaches that court as expected.
In New York, however, the Democrats’ opportunity to gerrymander — even after a court reshuffle — is not so confidently predicted. That’s because Caitlin Halligan, who filled the associate slot left by Wilson’s promotion, is a seasoned appellate litigator whose view of the map case cannot be easily predicted.
In the run-up to next year’s congressional races, elected officials continue engaging in what Michael Li, senior counsel to the Brennan Center for Justice, calls a “gerrymandering arms race.” Several states are still jostling over their once-a-decade redistricting.
North Carolina’s top court in recent weeks overturned its own ruling against partisan gerrymandering, to the advantage of the state GOP. That’s because that state’s Supreme Court flipped in elections last November from 4-3 Democratic to 5-2 Republican.
Republicans now rule the House, 222-212. The maps will shape how competitive each seat may be. Party operatives see state fights as proxy wars.
Neither side in the dueling party duopoly is about to disarm. Unfortunately, leaders will not negotiate independently drawn, nonpartisan maps — at least until the battle is over.
Nobody knows when that might be.
COLUMNIST DAN JANISON’S opinions are his own.
Dan Janison is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
