BATH – The center of New York’s political universe shifted to this Southern Tier village Friday as a court appointed elections expert weighed proposals from politicos and ordinary citizens alike for new – and fair – districts in this year’s congressional and State Senate elections.
And if Jonathan Cervas, the “special master” from Pittsburgh assigned the task by a State Supreme Court justice hearing the case in Steuben County, was unfamiliar with the politics and diversity of New York State, he received quite the education Friday. Representatives from political parties and good government groups argued for their proposals, but so did members of practically every minority from the teeming neighborhoods of New York City.
New York’s highest court today declared unconstitutional the congressional and State Senate maps drawn earlier this year by the State Legislature, voiding their use for the scheduled June 28 primary election, and ordered a new date – possibly as late as August.
Cervas heard from Chinese, from Filipinos, from Haitians and Dominicans. Representatives of the Black, Jewish and Latino communities chimed in, too, all seeking to preserve their “communities of interest” and, in the process, their voting power. It may have been summarized by John Henry, an Albany attorney representing the approximately 50,000 Orthodox Jewish residents of Kiryas Joel in Orange County. Henry explained that the growing community shares common interests, speaks Yiddish and should occupy a common district as a community of interest.
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“In order to prevent abridgement of their rights, the Village of Kiryas Joel needs to be in the same district.” he said.
About two dozen others submitted testimony to Cervas in a proceeding supervised by Justice Patrick F. McAllister, who ruled in April that the Democratic-controlled State Legislature violated the State Constitution by gerrymandering congressional and Senate districts (the Assembly was not included) after an Independent Redistricting Commission created by a 2014 amendment hopelessly deadlocked.
A federal judge in New York on Wednesday refused to stand in the way of a proposal to move New York’s congressional primaries to Aug. 23, rejecting the Democrats’ plea that the primaries should be held as originally planned on June 28 along district lines that the state courts have ruled to be unconstitutional.
McAllister’s decision was ratified by the Appellate Division and the Court of Appeals, resulting in Cervas receiving the assignment to draw districts that meet a number of constitutional requirements, including protecting communities of interest.
Witnesses from Madison and Tompkins counties (and nobody from Western New York) were the only upstaters to testify. And while all kinds of Republican versus Democrat arguments ping-ponged back and forth, Cervas mostly listened to a parade of witnesses from New York City. Asian-Americans emphasized their status as the city’s fastest growing minority. Lloyd Feng of the Coalition of Asian-American Children and Families said his ethnic group now constitutes 18% of New York City, with much larger numbers in Manhattan’s Chinatown and other neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens.
He asked Cervas to disregard “unity” maps submitted by several good government groups and consider the needs of minority communities. Sandra Choi made the same argument about Asian-Americans.
“It is imperative our communities be kept together,” she said.
Even a member of Congress made the 5 1/2 hour drive from New York, arguing that his Hispanic community in the South Bronx has been assigned its own district for decades and the tradition should continue. Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-Bronx, called the lines in his district the “gold standard” of apportionment and “the precise opposite of gerrymandering.”
Image of petitioners proposed remedial Senate map
But participants in the original lawsuit also submitted arguments Friday as they, too, attempt to persuade Cervas of the merits of their cases. Sean Dutton, representing Republicans who won their original lawsuit, said their map proposal adheres to all constitutional requirements while respecting the rights of minority communities. He called the district lines “compact,” “contiguous” and “comparing favorably to the 2012 map.”
He noted the GOP plan preserves the Southern Tier district now essentially represented by Rep. Tom Reed, R-Corning. And Craig Bucki, attorney for Assembly Democrats, said their map also keeps the Southern Tier intact.
“That’s especially important, going back to the days of Congressmen Stan Lundine and Amo Houghton,” he said, referring to former congressmen from Jamestown and Corning, respectively.
Bucki made one of the only references to Western New York when he addressed Senate districts, maintaining that the previous map rejected by the courts that joins Amherst and part of Buffalo should be preserved.
“The Town of Amherst on the Senate map should be kept with the City of Buffalo because of (similar) transportation and a burgeoning minority community,” said Bucki, a Buffalo attorney.
Image of Common Cause proposed senate map
He also said the new Democratic maps no longer project a 24th Congressional District in which incumbent Rep. Chris Jacobs, R-Orchard Park, would have to represent voters from Niagara County to Watertown and Jefferson County.
Last week, McAllister appointed Cervas to serve as the special master to fashion the new congressional districts. A postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Politics and Strategy at Carnegie-Mellon University and a research associate at the Princeton Gerrymandering Project, Cervas previously worked on redistricting in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Georgia and Utah.
Cervas is scheduled to propose a new congressional map for the state by May 16. Comments on that map are due May 20, and a final nonpartisan district map will be issued by May 24.
