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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Census to release congressional reapportionments, N.Y. could lose two seats

New York and Alabama are watching and waiting as the Census Bureau is set to release population figures that will determine the make-up of Congress for the next 10 years.

The Empire State is all but guaranteed to lose one of its current total of 27 House of Representatives seats in the politically charged once-a-decade reapportionment of the 435 seats based on population changes.

New York could lose a second seat but the Democratic stronghold is locked in an unlikely dog fight with deep-red Alabama, which will either lose a seat or remain with six districts.

Once each state is allotted a certain number of congressional seats, then they each redraw the district lines, with the party in control in each state mostly having the upper hand to tweak things to their advantage.

Nationally, the reshuffle will likely benefit Republicans as fast-growing Sun Belt states like Texas and Florida will pick up seats at the expense of slow growth Rust Belt states like New York, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

Even California is projected to lose a seat for the first time ever as torrid growth slows in the Golden State.

In New York, the loss of at least one or possibly two seats is likely to spark a push by dominant state Democrats to get rid of at least one of the districts held by GOP lawmakers.

A likely scenario would be for Democrats to target one of two Republican-held seats on Long Island. One East End district is held by Rep. Lee Zeldin, a pro-Trump conservative, who plans to challenge Gov. Cuomo, while a second suburban seat was recently won by freshman Rep. Andrew Gambarino after veteran Rep. Peter King retired.

A sign promoting Native American participation in the U.S. census is displayed as Selena Rides Horse enters information into her phone on behalf of a member of the Crow Indian Tribe in Lodge Grass, Montana.

Democrats might also try to bolster their chances in upstate swing districts like the Utica-based 22nd district that was a virtual tossup in 2020 or the 19th district in the Catskills where Rep. Antonio Delgado will likely face a tough reelection fight.

New York, unlike many states, empowers a bipartisan commission to draw a proposed congressional map. But Democrats hold supermajorities in both the Senate and Assembly and could overrule the commission with a two-thirds vote in each house.

Source (Ny Daily news)

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