NYC Republicans Fume As Redistricting Commission Prepares To Submit New Congressional Lines To State Legislature
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Changes in New York Congressional districts are creating some controversy. New district maps could give Democrats an edge in 22 of the 26 seats.
And as CBS2's Marcia Kramer reported Tuesday, Republicans are furious.
The 11th Congressional District represented by Republican Nicole Malliotakis includes all of Staten Island and like-minded neighborhoods on the other side of the Verrazano Bridge, like Bay Ridge.
READ MORE: See Proposed 2022 Redistricting Maps
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Under the new redistricting plan those areas are replaced by the heavily Democratic neighborhoods of Sunset Park, Gowanus, and Park Slope, Kramer reported.
"The Democrats are always looking for a way to get ahead. Staten Island is more Republican than Park Slope. It's a disadvantage," Staten Island resident Anthony Bolanich said.
"I don't think it's fair that the Democrats are reforming a district to favor the Democratic party," Sal Campanelli said.
"It's so typical of them to do the imbalance," Rose Campanelli added.
"This is an assault on the people of Staten Island and southern Brooklyn and a blatant attempt to take their Congressional seatm to silence their voices," Malliotakis said.
The same thing will affect an upstate district where Republican Claudia Tenney will have to run in Republican Lee Zeldin's Long Island district. GOP Chair Nick Langworthy calls it, "The most brazen and outrageous attempt at rigging" an election and is threatening to sue.
But Sen. Michael Gianaris, the chair of the Redistricting Commission, says bring it on.
"We had our lawyers look at these lines backwards and forwards, upside down, and right side up. We are confident that all the requirements have been met," Gianaris said.
Gianaris is unsympathetic to Malliotakis.
"It's not unusual that someone would cry about it if they think they're disadvantaged, but we don't know what the outcome is going to be inn an election. It's up to the voters," Gianaris said.
FLASHBACK: Congressional Redistricting All But Finalized
Betsey Gottbaum of good government group Citizens Union says, "The lines, themselves, seem so wacky."
She points to Long Island Congressman Tom Suozzi's district, which will go across the Sound as far as Westchester County's Rye Brook.
And how about this: Malliotakis' district includes Park Slope, where the neighborhood's most notorious resident, Bill de Blasio, could conceivably run.
The new Congressional lines are expected to be approved by the state Legislature on Wednesday. Then, Gov. Kathy Hochul gets to weigh in. On Tuesday, she declined to say whether the new lines actually do favor Democrats.