ALBANY — Redistricting is the talk of the town in the state capital, again.

Albany’s leading Democrats, including Gov. Kathleen C. Hochul and the Senate and Assembly leaders, are discussing a plan to amend the state constitution and return the power to draw congressional maps to the state legislature.

At the behest of congressional Democrats including House Minority Leader Hakeem S. Jeffries, D-Brooklyn, states run by Democrats across the country have been looking to redraw their congressional maps in an attempt to add more safe Democratic seats. It’s a response to efforts in GOP-led states to redraw their own maps to add more Republican seats.

On Tuesday, U.S.Rep. Joseph D. Morelle, D-Rochester, paid the state Capitol a visit and met with Hochul and legislative leaders to discuss redrawing the state’s maps. In a press conference alongside Hochul, Morelle said the issue is “existential” and framed the push to redraw New York’s maps as a pro-democracy effort.

“We didn’t start this fight. We didn’t start it in Texas, we didn’t start it in Louisiana. But we intend to finish it,” he said.

Redrawing New York’s maps is no simple task. In 2014, voters authorized a constitutional amendment that implemented an independent redistricting commission that was to be tasked with drawing congressional and state legislative districts moving forward. The commission’s first chance to do so was in 2021, after the decennial census and when all other states underwent their own regular redistricting processes.

The commission’s bipartisan membership failed to agree on one set of maps, and through a litany of court challenges and legislative efforts to draw maps, the state Court of Appeals eventually ruled that a special master should draw New York’s maps, resulting in the congressional districts in place today.

To change the process, lawmakers would have to approve an amendment to the state constitution twice; once this year and again next year, before putting the question on the ballot in 2027 when it would need a majority of voters to support it.

The state’s Democrats have long been critical of the court decision that established the current maps, and on Tuesday Senate Deputy Majority Leader Mike Gianaris, D-Queens, said the decision was “corrupt” and that the power to draw congressional maps should be returned to the legislature. And he said that doing so wouldn’t violate the spirit of the state’s existing guidelines for congressional maps.

“I do think that reclaiming the legislature’s proper role and drawing these lines would allow for different maps to exist that are not necessarily violating the principles that we have,” he said.

If this all goes to plan, the state’s maps would be redrawn in time for the 2028 election. Morelle said that while some states have moved to redraw their districts for the election this year, not every state is moving on that same timeline.

“Some of the states that could be affected in the south may not do it until 2028, this is a longer term proposition,” Morelle said.

The redistricting fight started last summer when Republicans in Texas redrew their maps to give the GOP an edge there. When the Texas maps were changed, Democrats in California and Virginia moved to redraw their own maps for their party’s advantage. The result was essentially a wash — the GOP gains in Texas were tempered by expected losses in those states.

But last week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Louisiana’s maps were illegally racially gerrymandered, throwing out part of the Voting Rights Act that sought to protect majority-minority districts in states with significant minority populations. Now, Louisiana and a number of other southern states are looking to redraw their maps in a way that could destroy most of the minority-majority districts, a move that Morelle and state leaders in New York have said would essentially disenfranchise millions of Black and Latin voters.

Tweaking New York’s maps could net Democrats up to three more seats in Congress.

But New York’s Republican lawmakers aren’t buying Democrats’ arguments.

“It’s completely ridiculous, their reasoning is a complete lie,” Assembly Minority Leader Ed P. Ra, R-Garden City, said. “The reason is that they got caught gerrymandering our districts back in 2022, and they want another shot at it.”

Ra said he has a problem with Jeffries getting directly involved in the state’s decision making on this issue.

“Hakeem should go run back for his seat in the Assembly if he wants to dictate what goes on in our state,” he said.