N.Y. state senate and congressional primaries move to August 23

ALBANY — Days after the state’s highest court tossed district maps drawn up by Democrats, an upstate judge has ordered New York to hold its congressional and state Senate primaries on Aug. 23.

Steuben County Supreme Court Justice Patrick McAllister issued the order Friday, pushing the primaries back from their original date of June 28 as a court-appointed special master crafts new district lines.

Jonathan Cervas, a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Politics and Strategy at Carnegie Mellon University, was picked by McAllister to create new nonpartisan maps for Congress and the state senate after the Court of Appeals struck down Dem-drawn districts earlier this week.

The state’s highest court ruled on Wednesday that the Democratic-led Legislature lacked the authority to redraw congressional and state Senate maps after an independent redistricting commission failed to reach a consensus.

The court battle and resulting decision have thrown New York’s election calendar into disarray.

A spokesman for the state Board of Elections said earlier this week that it’s likely other primaries, including those for U.S. Senate, governor, lieutenant governor, local offices and Assembly seats, would still be held on June 28.

“It will be up to the Legislature to determine whether or not to continue the June primary for all other offices,” McAllister wrote in his order on Friday.

Gov. Hochul, meanwhile, asked New Yorkers to remain patient as the process plays out.

“I don’t know if there’s going to more litigation around this, so it really is too premature to give a firm answer,” she told reporters at a park opening in Albany. “This is April, this will be settled in enough time for voters to know the situation as well as the candidates.”

A new lawsuit seeking to have the Assembly maps is set to be filed next week, the Daily News first reported on Friday.

Still, rumors swirled that some Democratic leaders were hoping to consolidate the process and move all of the primaries to a later date. A legislative source shot down the idea, saying that no consensus has been reached among Democrats in the State Capitol.

McAllister on Friday also approved a request from attorney Eric Hecker, representing Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers), asking for more time to submit new proposals for congressional maps to be considered by Cervas.

The judge also said that new Senate map submissions can be made May 4, two days before a hearing is scheduled with the special master.

Lawyers for the Republicans who filed the lawsuit which led to the scrapping of the maps argued that the extension was unfair since Dems ignored an earlier deadline as they waited on the Court of Appeals to weigh in.

“Petitioners complied with this April 22 deadline under very significant time pressures,” attorney Bennet Moskowitz to the judge, adding that Democrats “decided to sit on their hands, hoping that they would win on appeal.”

The two primaries could come at a significant cost for the state as holding each contest typically burns through about $30 million.

Dustin Czarny, an elections commissioner in Onondaga County, told Spectrum News on Friday that a second primary will cost at least $400,000 for his board alone.

“I think the major county boards and especially New York City and Long Island are going to see major astronomical costs that the counties are going to have to absorb,” he said.

Republicans, Democrats, or other interested parties will have a chance to defend their preferred maps in court before Cervas next Friday.

The redistricting expert, who has assisted in similar situations in other states, will then have until May 16 to submit preliminary congressional and senate maps, with final designs due on May 20, according to court documents filed Thursday.