Republican and Democratic party leaders in Cattaraugus County agreed the Court of Appeals decision Wednesday throwing out new congressional and state Senate district lines has thrown things into uncertainty.
“It’s thrown a lot of uncertainty to all the congressional and state senate races,” said Democratic Party Chairman Frank Puglisi. “We had circulated petitions and we had our candidates. I wish they had done this before we circulated petitions.”
Republican Party Chairman Robert C. Keis Sr., said, “It looks like the primary will be put off until August. We can’t pass petitions until the next group of maps are approved. The court may decide that the county chairmen in a district could nominate by weighted vote, bypassing the petition process.”
“The problem with that is that you never know which way it will go,” Keis said.
“If the congressional district changes significantly and gets far enough away from Rep. Claudia Tenney, she might not be the Republican candidate from our congressional district,” Keis said.
If the county chairmen end up picking the congressional and state Senate candidates, Keis said, “It could be Joe Sempolinski from Steuben County or Cathy Young from Cattaraugus County.”
If the new congressional district includes a lot of Erie County where there are currently two congressmen, the rural counties might not be able to overcome the numbers, Keis indicated.
“I’ll be talking with state Chairman Nick Langworthy pretty regularly so I can pass information onto my committee,” Keis said. “Everything is up in the air” until new district lines are produced.
“I’d like to see Cathy run,” Keis added. A former state senator and Assembly member, Young resigned from the Senate three years ago and was named executive director of Cornell’s Center for Excellence for Food and Agriculture. “I could support Joe if Cathy didn’t run,” Keis added.
Puglisi said there is uncertainty for everyone with the district lines up in the air.
“Will there be primaries? Will different people run for different offices? I hope they have just one primary date — in August. Otherwise the boards of elections will be swamped.”
People could end up jumping districts again like Tenney, Puglisi said. “We got over 6,000 signatures on (Democratic candidate) Max Della Pia’s petitions. If another petition is required, we’ll have to go out again.”
The court could also allow the election to go forward based on the new gerrymandered lines, but require new lines for state Senate and Congress be in effect by the next election in 2024, Puglisi said.
A state Supreme Court judge in Steuben County ruled for Republican voters who sued over what they considered the gerrymandered lines for state Senate and Congress. The Appellate Court and Court of Appeals agreed.
It’s not clear whether the special master named by the court to draw new lines would drastically alter the districts as drawn by Democrat legislators after the bipartisan Redistricting Commission failed to agree on a set of maps.
On May 6, State Supreme Court Judge Partrick McAllister, who appointed Jonathan Cervas special master, will review the new maps and seek feedback. Cervas will produce final congressional maps by May 16 and seek comments by May 20. A bipartisan district map would be produced by May 24.
Then it will be up to McAllister to determine when to hold the primaries.
