NY battle over voting map still has Democrats, GOP at odds

The panel charged with drawing New York’s congressional districts every 10 years is soliciting input from the public just in case the state’s top court throws out its current political map – again.

Or, more accurately, half the panel is soliciting input.

The five Democratic appointees on the state Independent Redistricting Commission, or IRC, issued a joint call for public comment last week, asking voters to submit their thoughts on what New York’s 26 congressional districts should look like if the Court of Appeals orders the panel to draw new district lines.

Absent from that call, however, were the committee’s five Republican appointees.

It all left a good-government organization, Citizens Union, to conclude Democrats and Republicans on the panel aren’t working together — which helped get New York into last year’s major redistricting mess in the first place.

Betsy Gotbaum, Citizens Union’s executive director and the former New York City public advocate, said the IRC should hold off on soliciting input until the Democratic and Republican appointees can “speak with a unified voice.”

“Soliciting input at this time only adds to the confusion and partisanship already present in the process,” Betsy Gotbaum, Citizens Union’s executive director, said in a statement.

“We urge members of the IRC to work together in advance of the Court of Appeals decision on congressional districting to avoid unnecessary confusion and ensure a cohesive process,”

New York’s congressional districts are the subject of a Democrat-led lawsuit that could have a significant effect on the national battle for Congress.

Last year, Republicans successfully sued to throw out a map that was favorable to Democrats — which came after the Democrat-led Legislature stepped in to draw it after the bipartisan IRC deadlocked and failed to produce a viable solution. As a result of the lawsuit, a state judge appointed an independent mapmaker to draw the districts — which were…

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