Future of new Queens Senate district in limbo
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The future of the newly created Queens Senate District 17 is up in the air as a court-appointed special master redraws New York State congressional and State Senate lines. Map via Redistricting and You/CUNY Graduate Center
By Jacob Kaye
Exactly what will happen next in the state’s redistricting saga is largely unknown – however there are a few districts throughout the state and in Queens that will likely be redrawn by the state’s appointed special master beyond recognition.
Queens’ State Senate District 17 may be one of those districts.
The district, which covers portions of Long Island City, Sunnyside, Woodside, Woodhaven, Maspeth, Ridgewood, Richmond Hill, Glendale, Ozone Park and Greenpoint, was created by state lawmakers in February, during what has now been deemed an unconstitutional redistricting process.
Had the state lawmakers’ redistricting maps been upheld in court, voters would have, for the first time, cast ballots in the district in the now-postponed June primary.
But whether or not Senate District 17 stays as is, has its electoral lines altered or is eliminated altogether is up in the air after four of the seven justices on the Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, ruled last week that congressional and State Senate districting maps drawn by state Democrats in February were unconstitutional.
The high court ruled that lawmakers violated a 2014 constitutional amendment when they took over map drawing duties from the New York Independent Redistricting Commission after the commission failed to submit a final map by its deadline. The decision also found that the Democrats leading the redistricting process had politically gerrymandered electoral lines throughout the state.
Jonathan Cervas, a postdoctoral fellow at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, will now serve as the special master responsible for drawing the congressional and State Senate lines New York will use for the next decade.
Hank Sheinkopf, a political consultant and political science professor, told the Eagle that while much is still unknown about how the state’s Senate and congressional lines will be drawn, some areas, including Senate District 17, may be ripe for reconfiguration.
“Nobody can know much about anything,” Sheinkopf said. “But you could make the argument that districts that go across counties and boroughs are likely to be stripped out.”
While District 17 is mostly concentrated in Queens, it does dip into Brooklyn.
The district was created as a result of population changes in New York City – the same population change that led to the loss of a Republican-held congressional district in Upstate New York and the basis of the lawsuit that led to the maps being tossed.
The population of the area the district covers saw above-average growth over the past decade, due in large part to the growing population in Long Island City.
There are currently four candidates declared in the race – former City Councilmember and candidate for borough president Elizabeth Crowley, Democratic Socialists of America-backed Kristen Gonzalez, former City Council candidate Japneet Singh and Greenpoint resident Françoise Olivas.
Senate District 17 candidates Japneet Singh (top left), Kristen Gonzalez (top right), Elizabeth Crowley (bottom left) and Françoise Olivas (bottom right).
Because the seat wasn’t created until February, the candidates running in District 17 had an accelerated timeline to collect petition signatures and bring in campaign cash. It may now all be for naught.
As the special master configures the state’s new districting lines, candidates in the race told the Eagle that they aren’t changing much about their campaigns until they know for sure if the district is or isn’t altering.
“Having done all of this work so far, we are just really seeing this as, we're gonna wait, but we're organizers and we're gonna keep organizing,” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez has put her field events on hold, for now, but has continued with other aspects of the campaign.
“We’re just taking this week to reassess and figure out what the best next steps in the interim look like, but it doesn't really change what the larger purpose this campaign has been serving, which is a vehicle for organizing,” she added. “We'll still keep advocating for all of the same policies, and the platform that we put forward.”
Like Gonzalez, Crowley said that she’ll continue to speak with voters and will readjust for what is now an August primary – a judge ordered Friday that the primary election for congressional and Senate seats be held on Aug. 23 but left it up to the state to decide whether or not to hold Assembly and gubernatorial primaries on the same day or on the original June date. Splitting the primary could have widespread financial consequences for New York’s tax payer, as each election costs millions of dollars.
“It changes the timeline,” Crowley said of the Court of Appeals decision. “We’re moving forward and we’re looking forward to getting more direction from the state, namely, the Board of Elections.”
When speaking with voters, Crowley said that most were excited to be part of a new district but added that some were surprised it covered neighborhoods in two boroughs.
Singh said that he’s heard a similar response, and has considered that a flaw of the district, himself.
“There's no reason why Richmond Hill and Eastern Queens are connected to North Brooklyn – it's just two different demographics, two different sets of problems,” he said.
Though Singh isn’t pleased with the court’s decision, he lays the blame with the state Democrats who drew the maps in the first place. Singh, a member of the Queens’ Southeast Asian American community, was one of many fighting for a unified Richmond Hill, Ozone Park and South Ozone Park in the redistricting maps, a wish that didn’t come to fruition.
“[The special master] can completely screw us and take the seat and put it elsewhere – they can put it upstate, they may just make it all Brooklyn or they might cut out Richmond Hill and give more to Brooklyn or cut out Brooklyn and make it a Queens only district, which is the best thing in my mind,” Singh said.
“This is what happens when a group of people have too much power,” he added.
Olivas, who has continued to campaign and speak with voters despite the Court of Appeals’ decision, said that she agrees with Singh, and feels voters in Richmond Hill weren’t considered enough by state Democrats when drawing the lines.
“I'm really curious if there's a way for better representation for that part of Queens,” Olivas said.
For newer candidates without much connection to the Democratic party, like Olivas, the potential for having to again collect petition signatures is worrisome, she said.
“It's frustrating,” Olivas said. “Do we have to petition again, or what does that look like? Because it can be expensive if you don't have a machine behind you.”
Cervas has until May 20 to submit the state’s new district maps.
