Tag: congressional map

Judge Throws Out New York Dems’ Dream Redistricting Map

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A judge in upstate New York has rejected the state’s new congressional map for not being “bipartisan,” ordering the Democratic-controlled legislature to redraw them.

“Part of the problem is these maps were void …for failure to follow the constitutional process of having bipartisan maps presented by the [independent redistricting commission],” Steuben County Supreme Court Judge Patrick McAllister said in his decision released Thursday, according to the New York Post. “The second problem was the congressional map that was presented was determined to be gerrymandered.”

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Republicans Notch Big Win as Court Upholds North Carolina’s New Congressional Map

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A North Carolina court Tuesday upheld the state’s new congressional and state legislative lines, rejecting claims from Democratic groups that it was an unfair gerrymander giving Republicans in the state a big win.

While the case may be appealed, the decision as it stands now could impact the 2022 midterm elections, where Republicans are seeking to reverse Democrats’ narrow House majority. North Carolina is gaining a 14th seat, and the new congressional lines could give Republicans an 11-3 advantage, up from the 8-5 split now.

The Democrats’ lawyers argued during last week’s trial that the map chosen was an extreme outlier that Republicans picked solely for political gain. Republicans, however, said that the new lines were drawn legally and that the court was incapable of determining whether it was too partisan to stand.

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California’s New Congressional Map Bolsters Its Democratic Majorities

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Gavin Newsom

California’s citizen redistricting commission finalized a new congressional map late Monday that puts every Democratic incumbent in a seat that President Joe Biden won by at least 10 points.

The independent commission’s maps also put most of California’s Republican incumbents in more competitive districts. And while Democratic Reps. Alan Lowenthal and Lucille Roybal-Allard’s districts were merged to accommodate California losing a House seat, both are retiring in 2022.

“This is a good map for Democrats,” J. Miles Coleman, an associate editor at Sabato’s Crystal Ball, told the Daily Caller News Foundation, noting how the new map could even “put Trump-won seats in play, depending on the year.”

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Illinois Democrats Seek to Maximize Their Party’s Seats, Axe Republicans in New Proposed Congressional Map

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Rep. Kinzinger

Democrats in Illinois’ state legislature Friday released a new map that would shore up all of their party’s incumbents in Congress and likely eliminate two of the state’s five Republicans.

The proposal would give Democrats a 14-3 advantage in the state, compared to the current 13-5 map. Illinois is one of several states losing a congressional seat this upcoming decade, and the new map, if adopted, would shore up Democrats in Chicago and its surrounding suburbs and create a winding Democratic seat that stretches from East St. Louis up through the middle of the state.

That district includes much of what is now held by Republican Rep. Rodney Davis, and includes Springfield, the state’s capital, Decatur and Champaign, home to the University of Illinois. The new map also shores up Rep. Cheri Bustos’ northern Illinois seat by having it encompass Bloomington, home to Illinois State University.

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Ohio Republicans Fight for Current Congressional Map

Andrew Shirley

A week into a trial that will determine if the Ohio congressional districts will be redrawn before the 2020 presidential election,  Ohio Republicans have the opportunity to defend their map. Monday, attorneys representing the Ohio Republicans began calling witnesses to testify that the current congressional map of Ohio was made in good faith and was not gerrymandered. The case, Ohio A. Philip Randolph Institute v. Householder was filed on May 23rd, 2018. Per the Brennan Center: The Ohio A. Philip Randolph Institute, the League of Women Voters of Ohio, and a group of Ohio residents filed suit contenting Ohio’s 2011 congressional map is an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander that violates the First and Fourteenth Amendment and Article I of the U.S. Constitution. The plaintiffs argue the map was intentionally designed to give Republicans an 12-4 advantage and entrench their power over the course of the decade. This skewed partisan advantage, the suit argues, prevents large segments of Ohio’s voters from having their votes meaningfully reflected in their congressional delegation. In the suit, the referred to the current map as “the most egregious gerrymanders in recent history.” The current district map was drawn by the Republican party in 2011, the majority party at the…

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