LYSANDER — Parts of the Baldwinsville area will be represented in Albany by different legislators next year following the redrawing of districts for United States Congress and New York State Assembly and Senate.
Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay’s district will no longer include the town of Lysander. Instead, Lysander has been added to the 126th Assembly District, which includes most of southern and western Onondaga County and portions of Cayuga County, including the city of Auburn.
That district is currently represented by first-term Republican Assemblyman John Lemondes of Lafayette. At least one Democrat has entered the race in the 126th. Shortly after the maps were released, Bruce MacBain, a longtime teacher and administrator in the Moravia school district, announced his intention to run for the post.
On the Senate side, Lysander has been carved out of the 52nd Senate District and added to the 49th, a sprawling district that includes portions of four counties, including the cities of Oswego and Rome, the home of Assistant Minority Leader Joe Griffo, a Republican.
The Senate and Assembly maps are likely to face some legal scrutiny. In a statement issued on Tuesday, Feb. 1, the day the state maps were released, NYS Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt called the redistricting maps a “shameless, partisan example of gerrymandering at its worst.” He vowed to take legal action to block their implementation.
The redistricting had less of an impact on the town of Van Buren which will stay in the 129th Assembly District, currently represented by Bill Magnarelli, and the 52nd Senate District, served by John Mannion.
Contentious congressional map
All of Onondaga County has been drawn into the new 22nd Congressional District, which overlaps large portions of the current 24th District, currently served by Republican John Katko. In January, prior to the release of the new maps, Katko announced his retirement. Katko had been heavily criticized by members of his own party following his vote to impeach President Donald Trump and was facing a potential primary for the Republican line on the November ballot.
Katko won in the 24th district in 2020 despite the district favoring Joe Biden by more than 9 percentage points. The new 22nd district, which will also gain the left-leaning city of Ithaca, favored Biden by nearly 20 percentage points.
Fourteen Republicans filed a lawsuit shortly after Gov. Hochul signed the congressional map into law last week, asking the state Supreme Court to invalidate the map. The lawsuit claims the legislature had no authority to draw the maps and that the maps are “an obvious unconstitutional partisan and incumbent-protecting gerrymander.”
A few days later, the plaintiffs filed an addendum to the lawsuit challenging the newly redrawn state Senate map.
If the lawsuit is successful, the state legislature would have the opportunity to redraw the maps.
Eight candidates who reside in the new district have already started campaigning for the soon-to-be open congressional seat.
The crowded Democratic field includes Francis Conole of Syracuse, Steven Holden of Camillus, new DeWitt Town Board member Sarah Klee-Hood, Chol Majok of Syracuse, former Assemblyman Sam Roberts of Syracuse, Vanessa Fajans-Turner of Ithaca, and Josh Riley of Endicott, who said he plans to relocate to Central New York.
Only Conole, Holden and Klee-Hood are being considered for endorsement by the Onondaga County Democratic Committee because the remaining candidates did not announce their intention to run until after the committee’s deadline. Several of the candidates, however, have announced they would run in a primary election, which would take place on June 28.
On the Republican side, Tim Ko, of DeWitt, announced a bid to unseat Katko last fall. Two other candidates – John Murtari of Wayne County and Andrew McCarthy of Rome announced their intentions to run, but no longer reside in the newly redrawn district.
