Brace for battle as Hochul revives New York’s gerrymander threat

Republicans and all fair-minded New York voters dodged a bullet in March.

That’s when the US Supreme Court halted a lawsuit that aimed to redraw New York City’s only GOP House seat out of existence — the third round of Empire State redistricting in as many election cycles.

But on Wednesday the gerrymander frenzy among New York Democrats sparked anew, after the high court struck down race-based redistricting in a landmark case.

Gov. Kathy Hochul howled that the justices were “clearly carrying out Donald Trump’s will with this decision.”

State Sen. Mike Gianaris (D-Queens) called it “a five-alarm fire for the defense of free and fair elections.”

Both immediately leaped at the chance to turbocharge their dream strategy: amending the state Constitution to “reform” its ban on partisan gerrymandering.

Compared to that effort, the failed lawsuit targeting a single district, now held by GOP Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, was small potatoes.

That complaint — spearheaded by Democratic “superlawyer” Marc Elias — argued that the Staten Island-centered 11th Congressional District disenfranchised minority voters (even though Malliotakis is herself a Latina).

It was a nakedly partisan attempt by Democrats to get Rep. Hakeem Jeffries one seat closer to the speaker’s gavel in November’s midterm elections. 

Now, it turns out, that wasn’t the final battle in New York’s redistricting wars.

On the face of it, Albany Democrats’ hands are tied in this regard: The state Constitution restricts partisan gerrymandering, with a measure that’s the most robust of any state in the country.

An amendment that was approved overwhelmingly by voters in 2014 — after passing in the Legislature with bipartisan support — empowers an independent redistricting commission, not elected legislators, to draw district lines once a decade, following the federal Census.

But last summer, Gianaris and Assemblyman Micah Lasher (D-Manhattan) introduced another amendment that would allow Albany to redraw New York’s House districts whenever another state conducts a mid-decade redistricting — as Texas did last year.

The Gianaris-Lasher amendment can’t take effect until approved by two consecutively elected Legislatures, as well as the voters in a referendum.

And now, Hochul is throwing her weight behind it.

“New York has always led the fight for voting rights and we’ll lead again,” she posted Wednesday.

“I’m working with the Legislature to change New York’s redistricting process so we can fight back against Washington’s attempts to rig our democracy.”

It isn’t the first time Albany Democrats pushed to undo the reforms voters demanded in 2014. 

After taking control of both houses of the Legislature in 2019, Democrats put forward an amendment that would have gutted the Constitution’s anti-gerrymandering safeguards.

But their scheme to return the Empire State to the bad old days when partisanship reigned over the redistricting process was foiled . . . by the voters. 

When the amendment went before the public in the 2021 general election, it lost handily, and the state Constitution’s protections against partisan gerrymandering remain in effect today.

Beyond partisanship, the amendment’s sponsors are likely to push for a vote on it for personal political reasons. 

Lasher is in a tough race for the Democratic nomination to replace retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler. 

Sponsoring this attention-grabbing partisan amendment undoubtedly bolsters his name recognition, and his odds of a primary win, in one of the country’s most liberal House districts.

And the 56-year-old Gianaris, the political architect of the Democrats’ 2018 state Senate takeover, is retiring this year: Getting the Legislature to approve the first passage of this amendment would be one last feather in his cap — and a helpful calling card for future political efforts.

Passing this amendment through two consecutive Legislatures is the easy part: After all, Albany Democrats enjoy lopsided majorities in both houses.

But getting the state’s voters to go along with such an obscenely partisan constitutional amendment might not be as much of a layup as Lasher, Gianaris, Hochul and their comrades might think. 

The voters of New York certainly skew Democrat, but at key moments they’ve shown Democratic elites that they have an independent streak.

Voters in 2021 didn’t just reject Albany’s attempt to water down the Constitution’s ban on gerrymandering; they also defeated amendments backed by Democratic leaders that would have allowed for same-day voter registration and no-excuse absentee voting. 

Even in New York, one of America’s bluest states, voters — over the wishes of the Democratic establishment — were willing to defeat these cynical attempts to undermine the state constitution’s electoral safeguards.

They should get ready to do so again.

Joseph T. Burns is a partner in the law firm Holtzman Vogel and a New York state-based election lawyer.