Beware this stealth bid to steal a NY GOP House – Latest News
In what appears to be like like a stealth bid to steal a House seat from New York Republicans, performing Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Jeffrey Pearlman this week is listening to arguments in a lawsuit over Rep. Nicole Malliotakis’ Brooklyn-Staten Island district — with Gov. Kathy Hochul conspicuously conspiring to override an electoral map she herself signed into law in 2024.
The plaintiffs in Williams v Board of Elections argue that the state’s 2024 Voting Rights Act requires a district that provides black and Hispanic voters higher “influence.”
Problem No. 1: The VRA says outright that it doesn’t apply to any state actions, together with the drawing of election districts.
No. 2: The plaintiffs’ “solution” will not be to add minority voters to the district, however merely to exchange its Brooklyn portion with a Lower Manhattan one — that’s, to swap one set of mostly-white voters for an additional, additionally non-black/Hispanic one which’s merely far more doubtless to vote for a Democrat.
Plainly, this isn’t about race in any respect, however a purely partisan energy play.
Making that more apparent: Malliotakis is Hispanic — her mother’s from Cuba. That sure appears to be like like at the least 50% Hispanic “influence” within the district.
Plus, the truth that the district’s largest minority is Asian voters (20%) by some means doesn’t matter in any respect: Apparently, the truth that Asians generally vote Republican means their voting rights don’t depend.
Now comes drawback No. 3: When Hochul and the Legislature revised New York’s “maps” in 2024 (after years of litigation), they selected not to mess with this district.
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Yet now the gov and state Attorney General Tish James have written the courtroom, not to ask it to toss this case, however to argue that the choose can learn the state Constitution as requiring a new district — and will even appoint a particular grasp to dictate a new map.
Judge Pearlman, by the way, labored for Hochul in a number of jobs earlier than she put him on the Court of Claims bench, from which he’s been “drafted” to function an performing Supreme Court choose.
Yet he refused to recuse himself from this case, one more transfer that sure makes it look like the repair is in.
