STATEMENT FROM NEW YORK STATE CONSERVATIVE PARTY CHAIRMAN GERARD KASSAR ON THE LATEST CHAPTER IN ALBANY DEMOCRATS’ DECADE-LONG WAR ON FREE ELECTIONS
“This week, in the closing hours of the legislative session, Governor Hochul and Albany Democrats introduced a constitutional amendment to gut New York’s Independent Redistricting Commission and hand themselves the power to draw their own districts whenever it helps them. This is the latest move in a deliberate, decade-long campaign to dismantle competitive elections in this state and install one-party rule in perpetuity.
“The Democratic Party, which controls every level of state government, has for more than a decade waged a systematic, calculated war on the right of New Yorkers to choose their own government.
“In 2014, more than two million New Yorkers went to the polls and amended their own Constitution to take mapmaking away from self-interested politicians and give it to an Independent Redistricting Commission. The people spoke. Democrats have spent every year since trying to undo what the people did.
“In 2019 and 2020, Democrats rewrote the ballot-access laws in an attempt to crush third parties in the state. They tripled the vote threshold for political parties from 50,000 votes every four years to 130,000 votes every two, imposing the single most restrictive party-qualification standard in the country. The Green and Libertarian parties disappeared.
“In 2021, Democrats put their redistricting power grab directly to the voters as Proposal 1. New Yorkers rejected it by a margin of 54 to 46 percent, more than a quarter-million votes.
“So in 2022, having lost at the ballot box, Democrats ignored the will of the voters. They bulldozed the independent process and drew themselves a congressional gerrymander so brazen that New York’s highest court — the Court of Appeals, a body dominated by Democratic appointees — struck it down as unconstitutional. They were caught cheating, in broad daylight, by judges of their own party.
“Now, in 2026, they are back to try the very same basic scheme the voters already rejected. Their initiative would remove language from the State Constitution that forbids drawing districts to protect incumbents and favor a political party — the very definition of gerrymandering. It would further allow a partisan legislative majority to seize control of district maps the moment the Commission is declared to have ‘failed.’ It would allow gerrymandering with a simple majority vote. Even more cynically, this amendment would divert legal challenges away from independent judges and back into the hands of the politicians who drew the maps.
“Senate Majority leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins has the audacity to call this scheme ‘firmly rooted in the democratic process’ and a defense of democracy ‘under attack.’ The only thing under attack in New York is the voter’s ability to throw out the party in charge.
“The Conservative Party has stood against this assault at every turn. We were the ones who funded the television campaign that helped defeat Proposal 1 in 2021 when the Democrats would not even mount a defense of their own measure. We will stand against electoral corruption again now.
“This amendment must pass two separately elected legislatures and then survive the voters at the ballot box. New Yorkers have until that day to understand exactly what has been done to them over the last twelve years, and exactly who did it.
“The voters of this state already answered this question once. They will answer it again. and this time, every New Yorker will know it is not really about maps. It is about whether the people still get to choose their government, or whether one party gets to choose it for them, forever.”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Bill O’Reilly, 212-396-9117
bill@novemberteam.com
June 2, 2026
STATEMENT FROM NEW YORK STATE CONSERVATIVE PARTY CHAIRMAN GERARD KASSAR ON THE LATEST CHAPTER IN ALBANY DEMOCRATS’ DECADE-LONG WAR ON FREE ELECTIONS
“This week, in the closing hours of the legislative session, Governor Hochul and Albany Democrats introduced a constitutional amendment to gut New York’s Independent Redistricting Commission and hand themselves the power to draw their own districts whenever it helps them. This is the latest move in a deliberate, decade-long campaign to dismantle competitive elections in this state and install one-party rule in perpetuity.
“The Democratic Party, which controls every level of state government, has for more than a decade waged a systematic, calculated war on the right of New Yorkers to choose their own government.
“In 2014, more than two million New Yorkers went to the polls and amended their own Constitution to take mapmaking away from self-interested politicians and give it to an Independent Redistricting Commission. The people spoke. Democrats have spent every year since trying to undo what the people did.
“In 2019 and 2020, Democrats rewrote the ballot-access laws in an attempt to crush third parties in the state. They tripled the vote threshold for political parties from 50,000 votes every four years to 130,000 votes every two, imposing the single most restrictive party-qualification standard in the country. The Green and Libertarian parties disappeared.
“In 2021, Democrats put their redistricting power grab directly to the voters as Proposal 1. New Yorkers rejected it by a margin of 54 to 46 percent, more than a quarter-million votes.
“So in 2022, having lost at the ballot box, Democrats ignored the will of the voters. They bulldozed the independent process and drew themselves a congressional gerrymander so brazen that New York’s highest court — the Court of Appeals, a body dominated by Democratic appointees — struck it down as unconstitutional. They were caught cheating, in broad daylight, by judges of their own party.
“Now, in 2026, they are back to try the very same basic scheme the voters already rejected. Their initiative would remove language from the State Constitution that forbids drawing districts to protect incumbents and favor a political party — the very definition of gerrymandering. It would further allow a partisan legislative majority to seize control of district maps the moment the Commission is declared to have ‘failed.’ It would allow gerrymandering with a simple majority vote. Even more cynically, this amendment would divert legal challenges away from independent judges and back into the hands of the politicians who drew the maps.
“Senate Majority leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins has the audacity to call this scheme ‘firmly rooted in the democratic process’ and a defense of democracy ‘under attack.’ The only thing under attack in New York is the voter’s ability to throw out the party in charge.
“The Conservative Party has stood against this assault at every turn. We were the ones who funded the television campaign that helped defeat Proposal 1 in 2021 when the Democrats would not even mount a defense of their own measure. We will stand against electoral corruption again now.
“This amendment must pass two separately elected legislatures and then survive the voters at the ballot box. New Yorkers have until that day to understand exactly what has been done to them over the last twelve years, and exactly who did it.
“The voters of this state already answered this question once. They will answer it again. and this time, every New Yorker will know it is not really about maps. It is about whether the people still get to choose their government, or whether one party gets to choose it for them, forever.”
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