The Times Herald Record is reporting today about a redistricting court battle concerning an Assembly district that cover Kiryas Joel, and was extended to include portions of Ramapo. In the meantime, the current maps leave Ramapo's vote split up between 3 different Assembly districts, despite the fact that the Town's population of 127,000 is roughly equal to the 129,000 constituents in an Assembly district. All of the Town's sizable Orthodox neighborhoods are now in the 95th district, but will be scattered between the 3 districts under the new map. Ramapo is the only district in NY that has fewer people than an Assembly district to be split up into several districts, in violation of the State constitution.
Ramapo Councilman Yitzchok Ullman is suing against the 40 year long breakup of the town that dilutes the ultra-Orthodox community's voting power, by placing the Hasidic villages of Kaser and New Square in separate Assembly districts.
KJ's district, currently represented by Republican Annie Rabbitt, will extend to Kaser and Hasidic areas in neighboring Monsey, Rockland County. This may spell trouble for Rabbit, who was opposed by both KJ voting blocs in the last election.
OP Observation: The current redistricting map may also spell trouble for the KJ dominant voting bloc, since the other faction may align with Viznitz and Monsey groups to outweigh its legendary voting power.
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