Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign...

Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Credit: AP/Andrew Harnik

There is a strange local feature to that redistricting proposal floated by Rep. Sean P. Maloney (D-Newburgh), who chairs the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

In the unlikely event that it is adopted, whoever succeeds Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove) next year in the 3rd Congressional District might find it best to tour their new domain by yacht.

Maloney’s plan, intended to reduce the number of "safe" Republican districts to a mere three of 26 CDs stateside, is far from regarded as likely to be absorbed into the maps about to be unveiled for approval next week in Albany.

But the specifics of his recommendation to redraw CD3 have become a bit of a conversation piece in Long Island political circles the last couple of days. That’s because in the name of uniting "communities of interest," Maloney would put Mamaroneck, and adjacent communities in Westchester, in the same representational boat as parts of Nassau and Suffolk counties, separated by a stretch of Long Island Sound.

A memo from Maloney, who was not immediately available for comment Friday, stated: "The northwestern Long Island seat should remain largely the same, extending east to add similar Long Island Sound communities like Port Jefferson, Stony Brook and Smithtown.

"The Third should unite Long Island Sound communities on both sides of the estuary, linking shoreline towns of Mamaroneck, Larchmont, and Rye to Kings Point, Sands Point and Bayville."

And the DCCC memo concludes: "These communities are closely connected to the water in terms of culture, economy, tourism, and leisure activities. They are also most closely related in their infrastructure, environmental conservation, and pollution mitigation needs."

All that "communities of interest" stuff may have some validity — in the abstract. Currently, that Mamaroneck portion of Westchester is represented by Rep. Jamaal Bowman, a left-leaning Democrat — and Suozzi or someone simpatico with his centrist politics would seem like a better fit.

But when it comes to the anti-gerrymandering goals of considering compactness, government and school district jurisdictions and other factors, there is still that very big and obvious problem — miles of Long Island Sound dramatically separating constituents.

In fact, it’s even more glaring than lumping Staten Island in with part of lower Manhattan as the DCCC plan also recommends. At least there’s a public ferry system connecting the boroughs.

Several Long Islanders steeped in political and civic matters who asked not to be named speculated that with Suozzi vacating the district seat to run for governor, the DCCC had more flexibility to make the district different, played with the computer program, and came up with this.

Someone even quipped that it would create a new advocate in Washington for that once-discussed tunnel between Rye and Oyster Bay.

But that, too, rests on a distant shore of the imagination.

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