New Congressional District Lines May Shake Up BH Politics

By on March 6, 2012 10:58 am in Brooklyn Heights, News

The Special Master appointed by the Federal Court to develop new Congressional District lines for New York State (in the absence of the State Legislature’s ability to do so) has issued its proposed district boundaries. Brooklyn Heights had previously been primarily represented by Congresswoman Yvette Clarke, with some snippets given to Congresswoman Nydia Velasquez and Congressman Jerry Nadler. 

Now the entire nabe has been consolidated into a new 7th Congressional District incorporating all of Brownstone Brooklyn, Red Hook, Gowanus and Sunset Park to the south, a portion of the Lower East Side, DUMBO and Williamsburg to the north, and Bushwick, Cypress Hills and Woodhaven, Queens to the East.

Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries had been pressing for Brooklyn Heights to be placed into one district, and had hoped it would be the one currently represented by Congressman Ed Towns, who he’s challenging in the June Primary. While the new lines have been drawn without regard to the residential location of any incumbents, it looks as though the new district will most closely match that of Nydia Velasquez, who currently faces Primary opposition from Councilman Erik Dilan (Bushwick/Cypress Hills) and libertarian activist Dan O’Connor.

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  • epc

    Is this on the latfor site?

  • Chris

    No-LATFOR was removed from the process by the Court. This is from the Daily News.

  • Gene A. Johnson, Jr.
  • T.K. Small

    It seems that O’Connor is also running as a Democrat in the primary against Velasquez.

    http://www.danoconnor2012.com/

  • chris

    I should perhaps be clear about “next steps”. The Special Master’s proposal will be submitted to the Court, probably for consideration by next week. However, LATFOR (if it can get its act together) can try to fast-track its own District lines, subject to a vote by the Legislature and possible Veto by the Governor. If a State-proposed plan garners approval (even one larded up with gerrymandering), the Courts will likely respect it.

  • Cranberry Beret

    “Brooklyn Heights had previously been primarily represented by Congresswoman Yvette Clarke, with some snippets given to Congresswoman Nydia Velasquez and Congressman Jerry Nadler.”

    Am I missing something? 3/4 of BH is represented by Velasquez and 1/4 by Clarke. And 0 by Nadler.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York's_congressional_districts

  • Andrew Porter

    I’m old enough to remember when all of BH and part of Park Slope was under one Representative, then BH was gerrymandered into two different districts. I received literature from the new Congressional representative which talked about crack houses and abandoned buildings and thought how irrelevant this all was to BH’s needs. Hopefully this will now be corrected.

  • skunky

    O’Connor is an interesting candidate. I’m a supporter of his, and generally of throwing incumbents out, especially congresscritters. NYC’s congresscritters are some of the most awful examples of what happens when there is little to no effective opposition in each election. Towns and Clarke are prime examples of people who have done exactly nothing in congress all the years they’ve been there, and Velasquez isn’t any better. O’Connor’s a Democrat, but also a libertarian, and willing to cross party lines to get legislation passed, something none of the above have been willing to do. If there’s anything the NYPD and Bloomberg has taught me, it’s that civil liberties aren’t something you can take for granted, but you have to fight for them every day.

  • Brooklyn Tea

    Skunky…I agree with you. Well said.