Political Whisperer
By Robert Hornak
There’s an old English phrase – too clever by half – that is used for situations where someone thinks they’ve come up with a great idea or plan, and that plan backfires or creates more problems than it solves.
That’s exactly what Albany Democrats have done by pushing their plan to hold most local elections in even numbered years just before they want to hold a 2027 public referendum to overturn the 2014 referendum they championed to stop partisan gerrymandering in the decennial redrawing of district lines.
Here’s what happened.
In 2014 Republicans still controlled the state senate. With Democrats outnumbering Republicans two-to-one statewide, NY Democrats desperately wanted control of the chamber and essentially unfettered control over state legislation. The problem was Republicans in the Senate, with their majority, were in control of redrawing Senate lines, as they had just done in 2012 keeping them as favorable to Senate Republicans as possible.
Democrats then came up with a brilliant idea. They discovered that most New Yorkers liked the idea of a more non-partisan approach to governing and were not enamored with the partisan redistricting process. Hence, a public referendum was put on the ballot in Democrat-friendly 2014, the same year as the election for governor and the other statewide offices.
The referendum passed that year with 57% of the vote, creating an Independent Redistricting Commission to redraw district lines. This would block either party from using their majority vote to push through lines that were drawn for partisan advantage.
In 2025 Democrats got the idea that they could increase their chances in local and county elections in places like Nassau and Suffolk, areas that used to be more purple but have moved strongly to the right, by moving those elections from odd-numbered years where there were few other elections on the ballot, to even numbered years, where turnout was higher and national issues often strongly influenced the races.
This legislation passed, and while there is no guarantee this will actually change the vote in these down ballot races, Democrats successfully moved these elections that were supposed to take place in 2027 to this year.
Yippee for the Democrats. Another win. Or is it.
Now in 2026 with the battle for control of the House raging and many states taking advantage of their ability to hold mid-decade redistricting and others trying to authorize it, NY just outmaneuvered itself.
Albany authorized a mid-decade redistricting in an attempt to get into the fight and help flip the House. The only problem now is that pesky public referendum from 2014, which still prevents them from drawing the lines in the partisan fashion they desire.
And, to make things worse, they need the new referendum to be on the ballot in 2027 in order to redraw the lines for the 2028 elections. But they just moved most of the elections that could drive turnout in their favor to even year election cycles.
And to add insult to injury, recent polling by Sienna University shows that most New Yorkers don’t support changing redistricting rules back to the partisan model that Democrats schizophrenically fought to eliminate but now want back. In fact, only 21% of registered voters said it would be “good” for New York with a solid 44% saying it would be “bad.” Even Democrats don’t like with idea with barely a quarter of the party members supporting the idea.
And, of course, Democrats huge advantage in NYC has been what has given them a virtual lock on statewide elections since 2004, but while NYC is exempt from the even year requirement and all municipal elections will be still be in odd years, there are almost no elections in NYC in 2017 other than two DA’s and some judges.
Siena spokesperson Steve Greenberg told Politico, “There’s a lot of work to do for those who want to get this amendment passed.”
NY Democrats are twisting themselves into pretzels trying to figure out how to completely shut Republicans out. To paraphrase Princess Leia, the more they try to tighten their grip, the more elections they will see slip away.
Robert Hornak is a veteran political consultant who has previously worked for the NYC office of the Republican Assembly Leader and served as Executive Director of the Queens Republican Party. He can be reached at rahornak@gmail.com and @roberthornak on X.
