Congressional elections in 2024 are still nearly a year away, but a new court ruling is likely to have a significant impact on which party will prevail with control of the U.S. House on the line. NBC News reported:
A New York court on Tuesday agreed to allow the state to redraw its congressional map, a significant win for Democrats hoping to retake the U.S. House in 2024. In a 4-3 opinion issued Tuesday afternoon, the court ordered the state’s redistricting commission to draw a new map by Feb. 28, 2024. The state’s Democratic-controlled legislature will ultimately get final say over the map, however, and Republicans have warned the legislature is likely to gerrymander the map again.
My MSNBC colleague Clarissa-Jan Lim explained that the court’s decision has the potential to “significantly shift the balance of power in Congress,” which is absolutely true. When New York’s commission-drawn map was created, it allowed Republicans to flip four seats in the Empire State.
Given the GOP’s tiny majority in the House, New York’s soon-to-be-replaced map played a key role in creating the Republican majority, which might not otherwise exist.
With this in mind, some GOP members from New York didn’t seem especially pleased with the state court’s ruling. Rep. Mike Lawler, for example, whose district boundaries are poised to get a significant touch-up, told NBC News that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries “is a corrupt partisan hack.”
That’s not true, though it does reflect Republican agita.
House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik issued a joint statement with the state GOP chair that read in part, “The decision today opens the door for Democrats to rig our congressional district lines so that elections are decided not by the voters, but by politicians in a back room.”
This comes on the heels of a related statement from the New York congresswoman over the summer, when she suggested that to gerrymander a district map is to “cheat.”
On the surface, it might seem like Democrats and Republicans simply trade talking points depending on which party is about to suffer as a result of gerrymandering. Indeed, Stefanik’s statement is effectively identical to press releases I’ve seen from Democrats many times.
But just below the surface, the details matter.
Yes, it’s safe to assume that New York Democrats are poised to use their power in Albany to create a map that favors their party. And yes, for opponents of gerrymandering — and GOP members whose careers are suddenly in jeopardy — these developments are going to be discouraging.
But stepping back, there are two angles to this that are worth keeping in mind. The first is the obvious hypocrisy: Stefanik and her allies only appear outraged by gerrymandering when it’s Democrats who take advantage of their power. If there’s evidence of the GOP conference chair criticizing related efforts from her own party, it’s hiding well. But the second angle of interest has to do with solutions. While both parties have, of course, gone to great lengths to exploit majorities while drawing district maps, only one party — Democrats — wrote federal legislation that would end gerrymandering and put both parties on level footing. How many House Republicans voted for the legislation? Literally none. If Stefanik and her allies see gerrymandering as cheating, they’re welcome to join the Democratic effort to end gerrymandering at any time.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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