New York’s chaotic primary elections for Congress, which will be held on Aug. 23, are the outcome of Democrats in Albany having tried to do an end run around the state Constitution’s ban on partisan gerrymandering. The courts smacked them down for that, and a hurried and confusing race to represent 20 million New Yorkers is now the result.
The races are important because they could help determine whether Democrats or Republicans win control of the House in November.
Yet the vote is being held in the dead of summer. Turnout is expected to be as low as the temperatures are high.
The new congressional map reconfigured the district lines in New York City and its suburbs, some of which have been in place for decades. Some of the districts, like the 10th, include parts of several previous districts. In the 17th, elected officials found that their homes no longer were within the districts they represented. So they had to either move or switch to new districts. In the 12th, the district was consolidated with another, leading to an intensely competitive primary.
More competition is good in politics, and the shapes of some of the new districts are more rational than before. But candidates were given little time to learn districts and voters to learn candidates.
The editorial board’s choices for the best candidates to represent these districts are Dan Goldman, Jerrold Nadler and Sean Maloney.