Drawn and quartered
Acting Steuben County state Supreme Court Justice Patrick McAllister shouldn’t worry about the calendar for this year’s primary for Congress and state Senate. If he finds that the highly partisan gerrymandered lines drawn by the Legislature’s Democratic supermajority and signed by Gov. Hochul violate the state Constitution, which they sure as shinola do, he can and should order up new, fairer lines and push back the June 28 primary into August if need be.
The one thing McAllister can’t do, even though he mentioned it from the bench during the two-hour hearing Thursday, is direct a new round of elections, with new lines, next year. While a possibility for the Senate, which conceivably could have back-to-back one-year terms for Albany, there cannot be a redo next year for Congress, as right at the very beginning of the U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 2, it has been unchanged since James Madison wrote it down in Philly in 1787: “The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States.” Twenty four months it is and will stay.
Unless McAllister tosses these warped congressional lines this year, New Yorkers will be stuck with them until at least 2025.
A week from today, March 14, McAllister will be hearing expert testimony, with the Democrats ludicrously claiming that the lines for the House are good for Republicans, because there is a high likelihood that they will prevail in some of them. The issue is how many.
Today, there are eight GOP members from New York. Under the plan adopted by the Democrats after they rejected the proposals of the state Independent Redistricting Commission, that eight would be chopped to as few as four. Hudson Valley Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, who also heads up the national Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, wanted to squeeze Republicans into just three districts.
McAllister faces a deadline of April 4. So naked is the partisan handiwork of the Dem mapmakers, this matter shouldn’t take that long to decide.