New York’s courts unveiled a slate of congressional districts on Monday that would loosen Democrats’ hold on key House seats and make it easier for Republicans to compete in this year’s midterm elections.
The map drawn by a court-appointed special master charged with unwinding a partisan gerrymander, unquestionably offered a less favorable playing field to Democrats than the one initially adopted by the Democratic State Legislature, and recently invalidated as a partisan gerrymander by the state’s top court.
The replacement would dramatically rearrange stalwart Democratic districts in Manhattan and Brooklyn, displacing some longtime incumbents and drawing others into a single district in a way that could pit them against each other or prompt one to retire.
For example, longtime Democratic representatives Jerrold Nadler and Carolyn Maloney, both powerful committee leaders in Washington, were drawn into a single district that extends across Manhattan.
The map also created a potentially awkward situation for Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the fifth-ranking House Democrat, by cutting Mr. Jeffries’ neighborhood from the district. He can still represent the district; residency requirements only mandates that Mr. Jeffries live in New York State.
The new map also would eliminate swathes of Democrat-friendly areas that the Legislature had added to Republican seats on Staten Island and Long Island, restoring them as marquee swing districts rather than Democratic pickup opportunities.
Jonathan Cervas, the court-appointed special master, said that his map would produce eight competitive House districts, compared with just three competitive seats he estimated that the Democrats’ map would have yielded.
A Steuben County Supreme Court judge overseeing the case, Patrick F. McAllister, was expected to approve the congressional and additional State Senate lines by Friday. His approval would formally end a protracted and embarrassing legal saga that left the decennial redistricting process in limbo for months.
Public interest groups celebrated the outcome. They said that by striking down the Democratic maps as unconstitutional, the courts had ultimately vindicated the will of New York voters, who in 2014 adopted a constitutional amendment designed to remove partisan political motivations from the mapmaking process.
Democrats were furious, not least because of the new maps’ impact on this year’s fight for control of the House of Representatives.
Party leaders in Albany and Washington had been relying on New York to use this year’s redistricting process to make significant gains and offset those of Republicans. The map approved by the Legislature and signed into law in February would have given Democrats a clear advantage in 22 out of 26 seats.
Political analysts predicted on Monday that the new court-drawn replacements could leave Democrats battling to hold on to the 19 seats they currently hold in the current political environment, and allow Republicans to add to their overall House advantage nationally.
