When New York set out to redraw its congressional lines, it created the New York Independent Redistricting Commission to try and avoid the appearance of gerrymandering. However, the state left the decision of who to appoint to the legislators themselves.
“The Commission then sends its recommendation to the legislature to be approved and ultimately signed on by the governor,” said Grant Reeher, a political science professor at Syracuse University.
When Brandon Williams won the 22nd congressional seat in 2022, Reeher says it was by the slimmest of margins in a slightly more favorable district.
Winning it this year is more challenging, because Democrats chose the commission that drew the boundary lines.
The new lines added Ithaca, cut off the city of Rome, and its surrounding areas. That frustrated Republican voters on both sides of the new boundaries.
“Every time you go to vote, it seems like you have to check to see if they're still in your district,” said Randy Watson, a current 22nd congressional district voter.
“We don't have a say in what district we're in or if we can keep our representative[...] I don't even know if we were notified that the district changed other than by the candidates sending out different mailings,” said Janice Boncella, a voter forced to vote in the 21st district this year.
While some voters are frustrated, Reeher says the incentive for either party to keep their jobs and maintain power is too intoxicating to give up for the sake of fairness.
“These folks are very[...] firm about protecting their electoral interests so they're not going to subject themselves to that kind of risk again when they've already gone through the process,” Reeher said.
Which means, so long as there is a power to be had, the gerrymandering will continue for a while.
