DAVID MARCUS: New York Dems pull dirty districting trick as 'aw shucks' Indiana GOP folds
New York City has only one Republican member of Congress, Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, who represents Staten Island, the city's only red borough, and parts of South Brooklyn that are purple. An absurd and obviously partisan judicial ruling on Wednesday has put the seat at risk.
This isn’t just political hardball, it's a fastball to the face. But too many Republicans are too "principled," or too scared, to retaliate.
State Supreme Court Justice Jeffrey Pearlman, who was not only appointed by far-left Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul, but once served as her chief of staff, found that the district map, which was signed into law in 2024 by Hochul herself, is suddenly unconstitutional.
Incredibly, Hochul agrees that she and the New York Democrats themselves signed into law an unconstitutional district just over a year ago, and her state government has refused to defend its own map in court.
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The judge said there was strong evidence of a "racially polarized voting bloc," as well as "a history of discrimination that impacts current day political participation and representation," and "that racial appeals are still made in political campaigns today."
Having lived from 2013 to 2023 in the district, I can tell you this argument is a bag of nonsense, set on fire and left on the doorstep of sanity. It does not remotely represent the reality on the ground, where there are no smoldering racial tensions.
The judge also finds, ludicrously, that residential Staten Island has more in common with the skyscraper-strewn Financial District of Lower Manhattan than the Brooklyn of homes and churches it is literally connected to by the Verrazano Bridge.
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In reality, deceitful Democrats want to swap right-leaning White voters in Bay Ridge with left-leaning White voters in the ritzy FiDi.
This is as blatant as partisan gerrymandering gets, and in corrupt New York state, that is saying a lot.
Democrats will argue that they are just responding to redistricting efforts by the GOP, but the Texas Republicans only started engaging in what the Democrats have done forever.
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That’s why there are no GOP seats in all of New England composed of states where 45% voted for Trump. Likewise, Illinois, New Mexico and others have nearly no GOP districts.
The response by states like Texas has prompted the Democrats to see if they have left anything on the table anywhere, hence this New York duplicity along with similar plans in Virginia.
The problem for Republican voters, who would love a fair shake, is that states like Indiana still won’t respond. As usual, Dems are united and playing fast-break basketball, while the GOP is taking the "high road" and playing as the Washington Generals.
We see this as well with the blue slips in the Senate needed for judicial confirmations. Democrats abuse it, and now Trump has filled only 15 out of over 90 US attorney seats. He can’t get anyone confirmed if Democrats can block it.
It’s the same with the filibuster and government shutdowns. They left plays smashmouth, and the GOP just gets played.
Vice President JD Vance has been leading the charge to stiffen the spine of the soft GOP of yesteryear. He called out Indiana state Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray, and he wasn’t subtle.
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"I’d like to thank (Bray) for not even trying to fight back against this extraordinary Democrat abuse of power. Now the votes of Indiana Republicans will matter far less than the votes of Virginia Democrats. We told you it would happen, and you did nothing," Vance wrote on X following Virginia's plan to erase GOP seats.
Where is the lie in this?
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What do Indiana Republicans think the "aw shucks, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington" routine is going to achieve? That they can hold their heads up high for two years as a Democrat-controlled House impeaches President Donald Trump two or three more times?
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From the very first time quill met cartography to carve out a Congressional district in the 1780s, the practice has been fraught with politics. It always will be.
But just because Democrats spent recent decades as the side abusing the system the most doesn’t mean Republicans must resign themselves to that stilted status quo.
If sanity prevails in the Empire State, admittedly a big ask, then a federal judge will squash Pearlman’s partisan, and frankly absurd, ruling, keeping the district intact.
Whether Malliotakis’ district survives as is or not, and don’t count her out either way, Republicans need to fight back with all guns blazing, not with one Hoosier hand tied behind its back.