WESTCHESTER COUNTY: Things Just Got very Interesting For Freshman Congressmen Jamaal Bowman And Mondaire Jones
LETS GET READY TO RUMBLE: Freshman Democratic Reps. Mondaire Jones of White Plains and Jamaal Bowman of #Yonkers are now in the same district.
WESTCHESTER COUNTY, NY: In what could be one of the more closely watched races, the mashup is the result of a newly proposed congressional map ( https://davesredistricting.org/maps ) that’s sent political candidates scrambling across the Hudson Valley and New York to quickly stake out their turf and figure out which of the state’s 26 districts play best to their electoral strengths.
New York’s new congressional map was drawn by Jonathan Cervas, a postdoctoral fellow at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Cervas was put in charge of the mapmaking process by Acting State Supreme Court Justice Patrick McAllister of Steuben County, a Republican.
Cervas redrew the map just as the Democrat-heavy Court of Appeals ruled a previous, Democrat-drawn map was unconstitutionally gerrymandered to benefit the party.
Cervas’ proposal – which will be subject to public comment through Wednesday before they’re finalized Friday – made major changes to the Democrat-drawn map, leaving candidates to quickly find a home district they feel they could best win in. Much of his work appeared aimed at making districts more contiguous.
Cervas scrapped the Democrats’ proposed 3rd Congressional District, an unusually shaped district that would have stretched from western Long Island, through a tiny snippet of Queens and the Bronx and up into Westchester County, which may be changing State Sen. Alessandra Biaggi plans.
The draft map of New York congressional districts posted online Monday would force the two #WestchesterCounty representatives into a Democratic primary.
Under the plan, District 17 would include central-northern Westchester, all of Rockland and Putnam counties and the southeastern corner of Dutchess County.The 17th CD is now held by #MondaireJones, but he lives in #WhitePlains, which is now covered by Jamaal Bowman's newly proposed district lines.
The draft map would put the whole lower half of Westchester in with the Bronx and a sliver of Long Island as District 16.#Yonkers resident #JamaalBowman now represents District 16.
And Sean Patrick Maloney, the chair of House Democrats’ campaign arm, announced he will be seeking reelection in the new seat, which includes Putnam and Rockland counties and parts of Westchester County, because it includes his home of Cold Spring, N.Y.
Technically, Jones could run against Maloney.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/YonkersNewswire/posts/3245781832346039/
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Westchester County Executive George Latimer's Statement on Special Master Redistricting Lines