Control of the House of Representatives could hinge on a court-appointed special master in New York tasked with drawing new congressional and state Senate lines in the upcoming weeks following a decision by the state’s highest court throwing out the gerrymander approved by Gov. Kathy Hochul and Democratic legislators weeks ago.
Democrats had hoped that politically friendly maps in the Empire State would help them defend their slim majority in the U.S. House while maintaining their supermajorities in the state Senate and Assembly.
The Court of Appeals, however, ended up siding with a lower court decision that found the redrawn lines unconstitutional.
That means Jonathan Cervas, a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Politics and Strategy at Carnegie Mellon University, is now the special master in charge of drawing the new maps for Congress and state Senate.
“Jonathan Cervas is a highly respected, non-partisan election expert,” said Jeff Wice, an adjunct professor at New York Law School, who worked with Cervas in a redistricting case in Tennessee. “[He is] not prone to influence by any political party. He will avoid that to every extent.”
State Supreme Court Justice Patrick McAllister appointed Cervas earlier this month in anticipation of the Court of Appeals declaring the Democrat-friendly maps illegal under a 2014 amendment to the state Constitution barring partisan gerrymandering. He has previously worked on redistricting efforts across the countrying, including maps in Pennsylvania that received bipartisan support.
“I am thrilled to assist the New York courts in delivering constitutional maps that will provide equal representation for all New York residents for the next decade,” Cervas said in a brief statement to The Post. He did not elaborate on the time table and process he expects for redrawing the maps for Congress and state Senate.
The Assembly map will hold because the GOP did not specifically challenge it in court.
John Faso, a former congressman who advised the plaintiffs challenging the maps, said he anticipates the Board of Elections and the courts will agree to a shortened petition period requiring fewer signatures for candidates to get on the ballot in an Aug. 23 primary for Congress and Senate.
“Jonathan Cervas appears to have the necessary qualifications to do the job. We’re confident because his work will be supervised by Judge McCalllister,” Faso told the Post Thursday.
A spokesman for the Board of Elections did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.
Critics of the now-voided congressional and state Senate maps have noted how Democrats stood to gain a lot under the maps state lawmakers approved along party lines weeks ago.
This includes adding super-blue Park Slope to the Staten Island-based swing district currently represented by Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis.
Another district would have added parts of the Bronx and Westchester to a Nassau-based district. The new boundaries extended just beyond the Westchester residence of state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi, who is currently running in the primary to replace Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi.
The now-voided state Senate map would have also caused headaches for Republicans like state Sen. Daphne Jordan, who found her residence was being placed in an adjoining district.
“I give the special master the benefit of the doubt as a neutral party,” Republican state Party Chair Nick Langworthy told reporters in a virtual press conference Thursday.
A spokesman for state Senate Democrats, Mike Murphy, said in a statement that they still believe in the constitutionality of the new maps, but will work with the special master to develop maps that are as close as possible to what Albany lawmakers approved along party lines weeks ago.
“The State Senate maps in particular corrected an egregious partisan gerrymander and have not been overturned on the merits by any court,” Murphy said in the statement. “We will make our case to the special master appointed by the court.”