Ex-NY Gov. David Paterson rips Hochul, Dems for pushing partisan redistricting

Ex-Gov.David Paterson rapped Gov.

Kathy Hochul and fellow Democrats for a planned power grab that will allow them to carve up congressional maps — and try to reduce the number of Republican-held seats.Democrat Paterson claimed Hochul championed the partisan move to amend the state constitution because she is “completely outnumbered” by Democrats in the legislature clamoring for the change.“They’re going to draw their own maps [for partisan gain],” Paterson, a former state chairman of the state Democratic Party, said Sunday.“She’s [Hochul] almost taking a lead on it just to maintain that relationship [with the legislature’].It’s a real problem,” Paterson said on 77 WABC’s the “Cats Roundtable” program.Democrats now control 19 of New York’s 26 congressional seats.It’s part of a tit-for-tat with Republican-led states including Texas, Florida, Louisiana, Alabama and Tennessee that moved up congressional redistricting — which traditionally takes place after the census every 10 years — to try to win more GOP seats in the 2026 Midterm elections.New York joins like-minded Democrats in California and Virginia, where politicians pushed for their own partisan gerrymandering for their state’s congressional maps in a counter offensive.The proposed New York amendment, if approved, would remove the state’s ban on gerrymandering and allow the map to be changed mid-decade, opening the door for new House districts for the 2028 presidential elections.The amendment would also:Democrats, who control both houses of the state legislature and hold a more than 2-to-1 voter enrollment advantage over Republicans, would need New Yorkers to approve the measure on their November 2027 election ballots.Democratic lawmakers in the Assembly and State passed a bill to launch the constitutional amendment last week before ending the 2026 legislative session, and must do so again next year before presenting it as a referendum to voters.Partisan redistricting, kn...