New York Will Soon Lose 1 House Seat. The G.O.P. Might Lose 5.

[brooklynite]

New York Times

Seven years ago, New Yorkers voted decisively to empower a new bipartisan commission to do what self-interested politicians could not: draw new congressional district lines that were not gerrymandered to favor a particular party.

But as the panel prepares to unveil its proposed maps for the first time on Wednesday, Democratic lawmakers in New York and Washington are already laying the groundwork to cast them aside — plotting to use their supermajorities in Albany to draw new district boundaries for the next decade that might eliminate as many as five Republican-held seats.

The end result could drive one of the most consequential shifts in power in the country this redistricting cycle, the first since New York voters approved a 2014 ballot measure to curb gerrymandering.

Under the most aggressive scenarios, Democrats could emerge from 2022’s midterm elections with control of as many as 23 of New York’s 26 House seats in an all-out effort to prop up their chances of retaining control of Congress. For the first redistricting cycle in decades, Democrats control the Legislature and governor’s office, giving them the freedom to reshape districts without having to compromise with Republicans, who long held a lock on the State Senate.

[Elessar Zappa]

1. I'm fine

with the Dems gerrymandering the Republicans out of New York. Republicans are doing it in other states so we have to fight fire with fire.

[Demsrule86]

2. Good... about time!

[Bettie]

3. The only way to do it is to play their game

gerrymander the states have so hard that they beg for non-partisan panels.

Is gerrymandering wrong? Yes, of course it is, but sometimes, you have to fight fire with fire. This is one of those times.

Republicans count on Democrats not playing hardball.

[mucifer]

4. Illinois dems have been gerrymandering, too. This is my aldermanic ward in Chicago:

https://www.chicagomag.com/news/june-2019/chicagos-silliest-wards/

They are gerrymandering the state map, too:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/09/01/dislike-gerrymandering-then-proposed-map-illinois-democrats-should-be-appalling/

So gerrymandering is definetely one of the very few "both sides" issues that needs to be reformed IMO.

[DFW]

8. A work of art. That district looks like something my granddaughter would make with an Etch-a-Sketch

And she is all of 3½.

[mucifer]

9. Yeah I got gerrymandered away from a great alderman to one who fights for the corporations

[moose65]

5. I support this

Overall, gerrymandering is wrong. But the Republicans are going to do it, turned up to 11. After what they did in NC I thought they had hit bottom, but nope.

In New York, there are a lot of "wasted" Democratic votes in NYC that need to be spread to some of the other districts. There has to be a way to add enough Dems to the Staten Island district to get rid of the Republican there, and surely they can figure out how to stretch the Brooklyn and Queens voters out on Long Island more.

We don't need to win Manhattan districts 90 - 10, which happened in NY 13 in 2020.

[mcar]

6. Good

[lagomorph777]

7. No point in unilateral disarmament.

Go for it.