by Doug La Rocque
Both the NYS Court of Appeals (the State’s highest court) and a Federal Appeals court recently held that the new congressional and State Senate districts, as redrawn by the State Legislature, were in fact gerrymandered in favor of the Democratic party, and ordered a Special Master to redraw those lines. On Monday, May 16, those new districts were revealed and it set off a flurry of activity. One of the largest redraws involved Rensselaer County’s congressional representation. Currently, most of the County falls within the 19th Congressional District, which is occupied by Representative Antonio Delgado, while the Troy area is in the 20th District, represented by long time incumbent Paul Tonko. Now, all of Rensselaer County moves into the 20th district. It would encompass the cities of Albany and Schenectady, but not Amsterdam, Congressman Tonko’s place of residence.
That fact however, does not preclude Representative Tonko from seeking re-election in that district. New York State law says a congressional representative must only live in the state. If Mr. Tonko is re-elected, it is widely expected he would move into his new district.
Why not run in the district Amsterdam is moving into? Well that happens to be the 21st district, currently held by Representative Elise Stefanik, the number three Republican in Congress and a district that heavily favors Republicans. Mr. Tonko is a Democrat.
Republican Liz Joy is currently the party’s pick to run in the 20th district. She was defeated by Representative Tonko two years ago. A State Supreme Court Judge has pushed the primary for Congress and the State Senate back to August and re-opened up the primary petitioning window. So, if someone wanted to challenge Ms. Joy in a primary they would have to start circulating their own nominating petitions, something that appears to be unlikely.
State Senate Seat Wide Open
The Master also made changes to the 43rd Senate District, currently represented by Daphne Jordan, a Saratoga County resident. The new district boundaries now include Rensselaer County, as well as portions of Albany and Washington counties, but no longer Saratoga County. While Ms. Jordan could still run in her old district while living outside of it once, she would have to re-locate for any future elections. At this point, it appears Senator Jordan will seek the Republican nomination to run in her new district. That opens up a race to replace her. One name has already come forward, that of 107th Assembly District representative Jake Ashby, who announced on Tuesday he would seek the GOP nomination. In his press release, Assemblyman Ashby said “after careful consideration and consulting with my family, friends and colleagues, I am honored to formally announce my candidacy for the 43rd New York State Senate District.” Mr. Ashby is the current Assembly Republican Vice-Chairman and an Army combat veteran who has represented much of the new Senate District since taking office in April of 2018.
He also says “I look forward to this exciting opportunity to continue serving our outstanding Capital District community and am committed to representing the people of Albany, Rensselaer and Washington Counties in our State Legislature.” An interesting point here is that should Assemblyman Ashby have chosen instead to seek re-election, he would have been unopposed. Even more interesting now is that whoever the Committee to Name Replaces chooses to run for that seat instead will also be unopposed. The Assembly districts were not changed and will still have a June primary date, so it is too late for nominating petitions to be circulated for that race.
Former Rensselaer County Executive candidate Andrea Smyth has already filed petitions for the Democratic line in the district, but since the primary opportunities have been re-opened, she may face some opposition for that nod.
