Joseph Ax

(Reuters] – On Monday, a court-appointed specialist released a New York district map that was far less favorable than the plan originally adopted by legislators. The draft is likely to hurt Democrats’ prospects for the election of November.

In February, Democratic majority in state legislature passed a map which would have likely won 22 of 26 state seats at the U.S. House of Representatives for the party. The new maps, which favor Republicans in Texas and Florida would be partially offset by this map. Democrats are hoping to keep control of Congress during the election.

However, the top court of the state ruled in favor of the New York plan. It violated an Amendment to the State Constitution, adopted by the voters in 2014. This amendment prohibited manipulating districts lines based upon partisan considerations.

Jonathan Cervas was appointed as a special master by the court and postdoctoral fellow at Carnegie Mellon University. He released the draft Monday. It is likely that the state court will finalize it Friday, after having allowed interested parties to make comments.

According to political analysts and given the favorable political climate in the country, the new map may make it more difficult for Democrats, especially to retain the 19 seats that they control.

This plan may also lead to some uneasy Democratic matchups. Jerrold and Carolyn Nadler were longtime Democratic representatives. Their districts were combined to create one seat in Manhattan. It could force them into a primary race.

Sean Patrick Maloney is the Democratic Party’s chairman of its congressional campaign arm. He stated on Twitter (NYSE 🙂 that he will run for a new district held currently by Democratic Representative Mondaire.

Michael Li from the Brennan Center for Justice in New York University is a redistricting expert. He estimated that Democrats might win only 16-17 seats in an election with Republican leanings, while they could grab 21-22 seats in a Democratic wave.

For Republicans to win majority control of the House they will need only to flip 5 seats nationwide in November. They would be able to block many of the President Joe Biden’s plans for his second term.