Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN/AP) - The redistricting battle in New York State continues, as an independent redistricting expert that was hired by a judge to re-draw the state's Congressional district maps is holding a public hearing on Friday to discuss his plans going forward.
Community activists and lawmakers traveled to a courthouse in Steuben County to weigh in on the shape of the state's political district maps, and to ask a judge for more opportunities for the public to be heard on the matter.
The maps are due to be finalized on May 20, as the court works on a tight timeline to get the maps done after the state's highest court ruled that previous versions drawn by the Democrat-controlled legislature were unconstitutional back on April 27.
In the meantime, though, local political analyst Carl Calabrese describes the current status of the redistricting fight as "pretty chaotic right now."
"The Democrats have launched a federal case that they're trying to advance, and apparently it's just been struck down at the first level of the federal judiciary. It's a long shot, at best. They're trying to make a claim that the primary must be held in June. We'll see where it goes," said Calabrese on Friday. "There's still more courts they're going to go through, but it seems like a last-ditch effort and swinging for the fences.
"They also were talking about having one primary, an at-large primary, where everybody in New York would vote for just all the seats without district lines, which would be disastrous for Western New York. Even Congressman [Brian] Higgins said that with the downstate dominance, in terms of population in New York City, they would end up electing almost all the Congressmen from one area of the state. So I don't think that's going to get very far."
Meanwhile, another lawsuit has now started regarding the assembly districts in the state, and whether or not they fall under the same line with needing to be re-done like the Congressional districts and the State Senate districts.
"I'm not a lawyer, but I know there's a concept in law, I think it's referred to as the 'food of the poisoned tree' - if the tree is poisoned, then all the food is poisoned. So I couldn't figure out why if the process was so unconstitutional for drawing the Congressional lines, and so unconstitutional for drawing the Senate lines, why didn't the same apply to the assembly?," Calabrese asked. "That was not addressed in the decision, but there has been a court case now that's been launched by a group of Republicans to ask that question and to see if those assembly lines need to be re-drawn."
As for what Calabrese expects from the independent redistricting expert, he believes the master planner will stay neutral throughout the hearings and just take comments.
"The Democrat speakers are going to talk about how we have to have the primary and that those lines were legitimate. Republican speakers are going to say, 'No, they weren't,' and by evidence of the fact that so far all the courts have ruled that they were not legitimate, they were unconstitutional," Calabrese said. "The State Court of Appeals really issued a slap down of Democrats in their actual ruling and the decision, basically said the Democrats acted as if there was no constitution at all in the State, in a completely partisan way with just one party. Just really, really nailed them, if you read the decision. I expect you're going to hear pretty much the same type of narrative from both parties, the special master will take notes, probably not show his hand at all. Then after he's checked the box that he's had a public hearing, he'll go back to the drawing board and issue new lines some time between now and the end of the month."
The state judge that brought in the master planner is hoping they will be able to configure a new Congressional district map that is fair, competitive and will meet all of the necessary federal requirements, while also serving as a mediator, in a way, during this redistricting battle.
"The hope is that if you have a fairer map, you will have competitive districts," Calabrese said. "I think that will be this person's end goal in mind is to produce a map that gives both parties more chance, or a fairer chance in a greater number of districts to have actual competition, where basically now instead of the politicians choosing their voters, you give voters a chance to choose their politicians. That's where I think special master is going to be going."
As for the old Congressional redistricting maps that were struck down by state judges, Calabrese says at this point, the only way the map will still be valid going forward is if the Democrats' case in the federal court system were to intervene.
"It really is swinging for the fences on their part, but who knows," he said. "Once you get into court and what kind of judges you have, what the arguments are made, but right now, it looks like we're headed towards the state court driving the process and having new lines drawn by a court with a special master, an expert that's going to try to come up with fairer lines than what the Democrats produced."
Hear more of our conversation with Calabrese in the player below:
