NEW YORK, March 6 (UPI) -- A federal magistrate has issued a draft map for redrawing New York state's congressional districts to push the state Legislature to act.
After releasing the plan late Monday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Roanne Mann set a deadline of 9 a.m. Wednesday for comment on her plan, The New York Times reported. She is scheduled to submit her final plan to a three-judge appellate panel Monday.
The state Senate and Assembly released their maps last week. The Republicans control the upper house and the Democrats the lower.
The number of congressional districts in New York must be cut from 29 to 27 as a result of the 2010 Census. Mann's map would eliminate one district in the Hudson Valley now held by a retiring Democrat and another in New York City held by a Republican.
The district in the New York boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens formerly represented by Democrat Anthony Weiner would also disappear. Bob Turner, who won a special election after Weiner resigned amidst a "sexting" scandal, would most likely have to run in what would be a majority-black district.
