Dem
51
GOP
49
New York Democrats are very much hoping to have new, much more gerrymandered maps in place for this year's elections. If the legislature does not grant itself more time (which it certainly could do), then they really need to get the maps in place prior to the state's April 4 filing deadline. And before that, the legislature has to reject the maps put together by the state's bipartisan redistricting commission.
Yesterday, the legislature took care of the latter portion of that, refusing to accept the redistricting commission's proposed maps. The vote was 99-47 in the state Assembly and 40-17 in the state Senate. New York Republicans say that their Democratic colleagues don't want fair maps, which is true. New York Democrats say that the commission's maps are supported by the most right-wing Republicans in the state, which is also true, if only because those right-wing Republicans know this is the best they are going to get.
Presumably, the Democrats already have maps locked and loaded and ready to go. We would also guess they will drag their feet a bit before releasing them, so that any court challenges would come too late for this cycle. It's dirty pool, but that's the way the game is played these days. After all, North Carolina Republicans are doing exactly the same thing to favor their team. (Z)