New York Democrats are facing an intra-state civil war after lawmakers were gobsmacked by a new state map that pits senior lawmakers against one another and risks whittling away the party's lopsided Democratic majority of the delegation.
The anger burst into the open when
Rep. Mondaire Jones ripped Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney for tweeting that he would run in the reworked district that Jones, a progressive and member of the Congressional Black Caucus, currently represents.
'Public housing developments are divided. Historic districts are divided, you know, so hopefully, those kinds of things can be taken into consideration and fixed so you don't have that kind of division. The process was horrible,' Queens Rep. Gregory Meeks fumed to DailyMail.com.
Maloney infuriated Jones by announcing he would run against the first term lawmaker.
Some House Democrats were stunned by the move – in part because Maloney, by virtue of chairing the party's campaign arm, is charged with getting fellow Democrats reelected.
'Sean Patrick Maloney did not even give me a heads up before he went on Twitter to make that announcement. And I think that tells you everything you need know about Sean Patrick Maloney,' Jones told Politico.
Maloney lives in Cold Spring, which is inside the new 17th Congressional District, but Jones currently represents more of the redrawn district.
Maloney, 55, is a lawyer who worked on Bill Clinton's first presidential campaign and lost a 2006 run for state attorney general to Andrew Cuomo. He is the first openly gay member of Congress elected from New York.
Jones, 34, campaigned on Medicare for All and is a member of his party's progressive wing. His 2020 primary run helped nudge longtime Rep. Nita Lowey, who hadn't faced a competitive primary in years, to retire. He is the first openly gay black member of Congress.
The new map would put Jones, of White Plains, into the district of Rep. Jamal Bowman, another Black Caucus member.
Tweeted Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.): 'The draft redistricting map viciously targets historic Black representation in NY, and places 4 Black members of Congress into the same district. This tactic would make Jim Crow blush. The draft map is unacceptable, unconscionable & unconstitutional.'
The Brooklyn-based Jeffries finds his home in the district of fellow CBC member Rep. Yvette Clarke.
The map by a court-appointed expert is likely to eat into the Democrats' lopsided majority among the state delegation – and would end the career of one of the lawmakers who have been fixtures in Washington for decades.
A court will hear complaints about the new lines on Friday.
Meeks declined tried to stay out of the fray when asked about the spat between Maloney and Jones.
'Unfortunately, this special master has put members who live and don't live in districts, and just you know, without taking any of that into consideration. So you've got members that have to make decisions, and so I just think that there will be dialogue and conversation at some point once we know what the lines ultimately are.'
'After we see that they will make a determination of what happens after that,' he said.
Another battle is brewing in Manhattan.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jerold Nadler, 74, has been in Congress since 1992, and played a role in the Trump impeachment – and would be a primary Biden defender should Republicans seize control of the highly partisan panel.
Carolyn Maloney, 76, chairs the House Oversight Committee, and recently fired off letters to baby formula manufacturers.
Neither have faced a tough primary challenge in years.
'I am proud to announce that I will be running to continue to represent the 12th Congressional District. A majority of the communities in the newly redrawn NY-12 are ones I have represented for years and to which I have deep ties,' wrote Maloney, tweeting a #NY12 hashtag and a Team Maloney hashtag.
Nadler, who represents the 10th Congressional District, fired off his own tweet Monday, saying: 'I believe these newly proposed lines by the Special Master violate the NYS constitutional requirement of keeping communities of interest together and keeping the cores of existing districts largely intact. However, provided that they become permanent, I very much look forward to running in and representing the people of the newly created 12th District of New York.'
Democrats currently control 19 of the state's 26 seats. A new map passed by Democrats in Albany could have pushed that number as high as 22. But the state's high court ruled that the prior map violated a constitutional amendment on partisan gerrymandering passed by voters in 2014.
The latest map by court-appointed Jonathan Cervas would have a single district running across the middle third of Manhattan, fusing the districts east and west of Central Park.
Former Mayor Bill de Blasio told a state lawmaker he would run in Nadler's old 10th Distict, the New York Post reported.
He told state Assemblyman Simcha Eichenstein 'he is committed to running in the race,' according to the Post.
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