A federal court judge wants to boot Rep. Bob Turner out of Brooklyn and expand Rep. Michael Grimm’s Bay Ridge district into Sheepshead Bay and Homecrest, according to a new congressional redistricting maps released this week — plans that butcher the GOP’s hopes of splitting southern Brooklyn between the two Republican legislators.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Roanne Mann redrew the lines proposed by the GOP-run state Senate and the Democrat-controlled Assembly this week after political watchdogs claimed that the new district maps were too partisan.
If they’re approved, not only will Grimm expand further into southern Brooklyn, but Rep. Ed Towns’s district would stretch from Canarsie into Bergen Beach, Mill Basin and Marine Park — areas that Turner currently represents. Towns’s district will also extend into Coney Island, according to the maps.
Turner’s district will actually disappear, political insiders say.
But Turner isn’t very concerned.
“I am prepared to run in whatever district I reside in once the final lines are adopted,” Turner, who took disgraced Rep. Anthony Weiner’s seat last year, said in a statement. “This is just another step in the process.”
The state Senate and the Assembly’s district lines were quite different when they were released last week: The GOP wants to give Reps. Grimm (R–Bay Ridge) and Turner (R–Sheepshead Bay) a lot more of southern Brooklyn. Assemblymembers wanted to get rid of Weiner’s district entirely, and get rid of Turner along with it.
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2 Responses
If the Republicans were clever (which in New York is a tremendous “leap of faith”), they would run Turner for United States Senate. Due to the ridiculous shape of the current district, and his well publicized win in Weiner’s district (and Weiner manage to mess it in a extremely well publicized way), Turner is already well know throughout Brooklyn and Queens. The ability to make in-roads in the Democratic areas is a key for a Republican to win state-wide office, so he has a good chance.
Of course. Turner is much too good for the likes of the state senate, etal. I hope he continues to win.