ALBANY, New York — Democrats won the court fight. Now they’ll look to win the redistricting war.
New York’s top court Tuesday handed Democrats a victory in a lawsuit over the state’s congressional lines, ordering the restart of a redistricting process that will eventually put the maps in the hands of the Democratic-dominated state Legislature.
How much Democrats seize that opportunity will determine the fate of candidates from Long Island to Syracuse.
There’s a chance the lines might not be as ambitious as some Democrats are hoping: While the Legislature can now redraw the maps, lawmakers also need to guard against an inevitable Republican lawsuit alleging an illegal gerrymander.
Since both sides want to avoid two years of legal battles, any change might be relatively minor — perhaps just tweaking a couple of neighborhoods in the five districts Democrats lost by narrow margins in 2022 and hoping the party fares better in a high-turnout presidential year.
But there will be plenty of pressure from Democrats, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, to make sweeping changes to help the party.
“Everybody has strong incentives to draw the maps in a way that creates as many seats that are favorable to Democrats as possible,” Jon Paul Lupo, a New York City Democratic consultant, said.
Exactly what an ambitious overhaul would look like won’t be clear until they’re finalized in January or February. But there are plenty of clues to the changes that might be on tap.
The commission tasked with drafting the plans collected 51 hours of public testimony in 2021. And there have been 20 different congressional plans that have appeared in various legal proceedings — including one that Democrats attempted to enact in 2022.
Here’s a look at five changes Democrats could make if they want to swing for the fences:
1. Join Ithaca and Syracuse
The most obvious move for Democrats would be to place liberal Ithaca in the Central New York district held by freshman Republican Rep. Brandon Williams.
Doing so would add one of the most Democratic-friendly pockets of the state to a district that Williams won by only 2,600 votes last year.
A map that joins Syracuse and Ithaca with other Democratic enclaves like Cortland, another college town, would create a district where Biden dominated by........