Normally the process of drawing new legislative maps takes place once a decade, to account for population shifts as reflected in the latest Census data. But Gov. Kathy Hochul says the normal rules no longer apply.

“We’re in charge, and we’re sick and tired of being pushed around,” she said at a news conference Monday.

Hochul and state Democratic leaders want to re-draw the state’s congressional lines to create more Democratic-leaning districts — a direct response to a similar effort by Republicans in Texas.

But that would almost certainly require changing the state constitution, a time-consuming process that requires legislative approvals and then a statewide ballot question.

What You Need To Know

  • Gov. Hochul and Democratic leaders want to re-draw New York’s congressional map, a direct response to a similar effort by Texas Republicans

  • New congressional lines would require a state constitutional amendment and couldn’t take effect until 2028 

  • Under proposed legislation, New York lawmakers could only re-draw maps if another state initiated the process first

“The soonest any of this can happen would be voter approval in November of ’27, which would allow us to intervene in the ’28 congressional election cycle,” Queens state Sen. Michael Gianaris said.

Currently, legislative maps are drawn by the state’s bipartisan Independent Redistricting Commission. But legislation introduced by Gianaris would allow lawmakers to step in if another state circumvents the process first.

“We’re playing a game that has 49 other players right now,” he said. “And if one or many of them decide to not play by the rules, so to speak, and do these off-cycle redistrictings, we don’t think we should sit by and let the House of Representatives be corrupted with that kind of imbalance.”

Good government groups have cried foul, noting the process would allow for virtually no public input.

“The legislature could just draw the maps in the middle of the night and vote on them the next day under this amendment, so it could be a pretty secretive process,” said Rachael Fauss, senior policy advisor at the good government group Reinvent Albany.

Democrats would face some constraints: the state constitution currently prohibits drawing maps for partisan advantage. In 2022, the state Court of Appeals threw out a Democratic-drawn map for doing just that. Any similar attempt would draw more legal challenges.

Hochul and other state Democratic leaders say Republicans have forced their hand, but critics aren’t buying it.

“Do you want to burn the village to save it?” Fauss said. “Is New York going to save American democracy by doing the exact bad things that other states are doing? I think voters are not who’s being thought of first here.”