New York Reps Enlist Lobbyists for Redistricting Battles

Last Thursday, Politico reported that two Democratic congressmen from New York State had hired lobbyists in an effort to keep their districts from being redrawn in a way that might threaten their incumbency.
 
U.S. Representative and Queens Democratic Party Chairman Joe Crowley has engaged Brian Meara of Brian Meara Public Relations, LLC, a lobbyist with close ties to the New York’s powerful Democratic House Speaker Sheldon Silver, while Buffalo-area Rep. Brian Higgins has hired veteran Albany lobbyist Patricia Lynch, of Patricia Lynch Associates Inc.
 Politico reported that 4th district Rep. Carolyn McCarthy and 18th district Rep. Nita Lowey are also considering hiring lobbyists to defend their interests in the upcoming redistricting process, in which New York State will lose two of its twenty-nine seats in the U.S. House.
 
Hiring lobbyists to protect incumbent representatives from redistricting is far from a new practice. At the beginning of last decade, for instance, when New York was also set to lose two representatives, several incumbents hired lobbyists to protect their interests. In 2001, Lynch worked for Democratic Reps. Maurice Hinchey and Gary Ackerman toward that end.
 
Richard Emery, a redistricting expert and partner at the firm Emery, Celli, Brinckerhoff & Abady, LLP, says that there is nothing wrong with an incumbent concerned about the effects of redistricting hiring a lobbyist, but adds that he is not entirely sure that it is necessary. “I have never heard of a House representative that didn’t have pretty good access to the process of redistricting, but it is certainly their right to hire a lobbyist,” says Emery. “The regrettable part is it puts pressure on other [representatives] to do the same.”
 
Hiring lobbyists to represent the interests of incumbents in redistricting is perfectly legal, but it highlights the political nature of the decennial process. As the public has become more aware of the ways in which incumbents influence redistricting, there has been a growing movement to place the process in disinterested hands. Toward that end, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomoproposed a bill last month that would create an independent redistricting commission of the sort that former New York City Mayor Ed Koch has promoted. This proposal has encountered opposition from some entrenched New York state lawmakers.
 
Emery, however, remains hopeful that an independent redistricting commission will be created in New York. “If the governor is committed to vetoing plans that are unfair, and each house [of the state legislature] is willing to look at the other house before legislation is passed to make sure it is fair, than there is hope that independent redistricting could prevail,” he says. Emery recalls that in last decade’s redistricting process, redistricting plans in New York faced a number of court challenges due to their blatant violations of compactness and standards for population size to protect incumbents. “The sword of Damocles here is in the form of the U.S. district court or the Second Circuit Court of Appeals drawing lines,” says Emery.  “That usually results in flexibility [from lawmakers] because of the lack of desire to have the courts draw the lines.”
 
The big question is which areas of the state will lose out as a result of congressional redistricting. With populations shifting away from the economically downtrodden Buffalo area, at least one district in that region may be absorbed into a larger one. Some have speculated that vulnerable districts include Higgins’s 27th district; as the open 26th district, held until recently by Republican Chris Lee; and Democratic Rep. Louise Slaughter’s 28th district. Two districts in other parts of the state may also be affected by redistricting: Democrat Tim Bishop’s 1st district, covering the Eastern end of Long Island, and the sprawling, Republican-leaning 23rd district bordering Canada, currently represented by Democratic Rep. Bill Owens.
 
The current level of uncertainty, along with the famously unruly nature of politics in Albany, leaves Emery convinced that the process will ultimately devolve into chaos. “I think there will at least be a patina of independent redistricting,” he says. “But I think that the pressure to deviate from the independent redistricting process will be enormous at the last minute.” When asked if he believes that an independent plan would be passed and its plan implemented, Emery called that a “50/50 proposition.”
 Noah Rothman is the online editor at C&E. E-mail him at nrothman@campaignsandelections.com