Mapping the power struggle in the N.Y. Senate
Who will win control of the state Senate is anyone’s guess, but now you can judge the political struggle yourself.
To help voters assess what will happen in the narrowly divided chamber, where a dozen seats are likely to be competitive, we took our analytical game up a notch.
We created an interactive map that uses the Partisan Value Index to help handicap where there are races that could be in play based on the electorate’s past voting behavior.
You can find it on www. timesunion.com.
The Cook Political Report created the Partisan Value
Index (PVI) in 1997 to calcu congressional late whether a district leaned toward the right or left on the political spectrum. The value is based on the district’s past two presidential votes compared to the national results, with the difference indicating how far off center the district’s electorate is.
The PVI was designed for congressional elections because their results are generally more closely aligned with national election trends.
Democratic consultant Bruce Gyory said the PVI could be useful this November because national politics will likely inform how New Yorkers vote further down the baleach lot, like in state Senate races.
“This year, what will drive most voters to the polls will be to express themselves for and against Trump, and therefore the Cook Partisan Voters Index will be instructive,” he said.
Mapping this data presented a challenge because nearly half of the Senate districts are in the densely populated New York City area.
We tackled this problem with a “tile map,” which represents district with a square. The squares give each district the same weight and preserve the districts’ relative location. The resulting interactive may look like a crazy giraffe but it effectively illustrates the power divide.
We included a handy explainer tool to help you navigate the geography of the state in this format. (Unfortunately, it won’t resolve the longstanding debate about the borders of upstate New York.)
Now, you can predict who will win the Senate. When you figure it out, let us know.