Blow to GOP: New York Court Orders New Map That Could Help Dems Retake House

New York Democrats helped the party narrowly lose the House majority by dropping the ball on a slate of races in the last election—and now we have Republicans like George Santos in Congress. But beyond their own mismanagement, redistricted maps drawn by a conservative court stacked by former Governor Andrew Cuomo didn’t help. Now, those maps may be on their way to getting redrawn.

On Thursday, a New York appeals court ordered new congressional maps, turning the pressure even higher on Republicans who fear a fizzled midterm performance may carry over into 2024. In the last election, the current maps at least helped them flip four House seats.

But the Appellate Division of the State Supreme Court has ordered the bipartisan Independent Redistricting Commission (IRC) to redraw the congressional lines.

The saga surrounding New York’s redistricting stems back to 2014, when residents voted to adopt a constitutional amendment that banned gerrymandering and instituted the IRC to help create fair maps. The commission met last year to draw district lines, but was unsuccessful in completing its work—the party deadlock left the commission’s work in gridlock. Consequently, the Democratic-led legislature took over and drew its own maps.

Republicans sued, and the Cuomo-stacked state Court of Appeals overturned the maps and gave the district-making authority to its own appointed special master. The resultant maps are what helped Republicans make unlikely gains in the blue state.

The court’s Thursday decision responds to a lawsuit filed by Democrats last year arguing that the special master-drawn maps were temporary, and that the commission has to complete its work in drawing maps.

And with their ruling, the commission indeed has its authority once more to draw the maps; and if there is again a deadlock, the legislature now has authority to finish the job. Republicans are appealing the decision, and while the Court of Appeals ruled against the Democrats’ maps last year, the outcome may not hold again this year. The court’s makeup is different, and is now chiefed by Judge Rowan D. Wilson, who himself dissented against the decision last year.

The implications of the case ought not be understated. An array of Republicans—like Santos, or Representatives Mike Lawler and Anthony D’Esposito—in districts that voted for Biden may have a much more difficult time defending their seats come 2024.

An anti-Ted Cruz group is calling the Texas senator out for focusing more on the Barbie movie than actual issues affecting his constituents.

Cruz has led the charge among Republicans branding the forthcoming Barbie film as Chinese propaganda. One scene of the film has a map in the background that appears to include the so-called nine-dash line, a much-disputed division of territory in the South China Sea. China has used the nine-dash line to mark its controversial territorial claims in the region.

You need to see the map to understand how absurd Cruz’s complaint is. While Vietnam has banned the film over the map, the Philippines has decided to allow the movie because the “cartoonish map” actually only shows a “make-believe journey” of Barbie Land (half of Asia is missing!).

In honor of the senator’s new obsession, the Lose Cruz PAC unveiled a collection of Cruz-inspired Barbies in an ad on Thursday. “Since Ted Cruz is more focused on attacking Barbie than doing his job, we’re launching a new collection of Barbies inspired by his (lack of) work!” the group tweeted.

The dolls include “Insurrection Barbie,” who destroys democracy; “Podcaster Barbie,” who spreads the MAGA agenda; and “Cancun Barbie,” who literally flies away from her responsibilities.

In addition to hating on Barbie, Cruz has tweeted in recent days about opposing transgender rights, about how politicized the FBI and Justice Department are, and about how “woke” President Joe Biden’s climate agenda is.

The last one is particularly ironic given that Texas is currently boiling under a heat dome, which is sending temperatures as high as 115 degrees Fahrenheit. Analysts say the record temperatures are likely due to climate change.

Florida’s chief financial officer is threatening to investigate and even fine Farmers Insurance for pulling out of the state—which he insists is due to wokeness, not climate change.

Farmers announced Tuesday that it will stop issuing new policies in Florida, and will not renew certain existing home, automobile, and umbrella policies throughout the state. The move will affect about 100,000 policies, nearly a third of Farmers’ business in Florida. The company explained that the decision was “necessary to effectively manage risk exposure.”

Floridians have seen their insurance costs skyrocket as the state gets hammered by climate change. A longer and stronger hurricane season has flooded the Sunshine State and destroyed homes and businesses. It’s quickly getting too expensive for insurance companies to keep reimbursing people for damages.

But Florida’s CFO Jimmy Patronis, a Republican, doesn’t think climate change is the problem.

“I sincerely believe that with today’s actions, Farmers Insurance is well on its way to becoming the Bud Light of insurance,” he said in a statement posted to Twitter, seemingly blaming the insurance company for being too woke.

“I have asked my team to put their heads together in holding Farmers Insurance accountable to Florida policy holders,” Patronis said. “I want additional scrutiny on this company.”

He said that his team would begin reviewing complaints against Farmers, which he threatened could result in a government investigation and even fines unless the carrier reverses course and stays in Florida.

Patronis was referring to Bud Light’s campaign with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. The business partnership infuriated people on the far right, who accused the beer maker of going “woke” and said they would switch to drinking other beers. Mulvaney revealed earlier this week that she has left the U.S., because she no longer feels safe in the country due to the right-wing backlash and the lack of support from Bud Light.

But Farmers is not the first insurance carrier to leave Florida. Bankers Insurance, and Lexington Insurance both withdrew from the state since last year.* Governor Ron DeSantis and state lawmakers tried to make their state more appealing to carriers by passing a law that makes it harder to sue insurance companies and budgeting $3 billion to help with hurricane season. However, DeSantis separately vetoed funding for infrastructure and drainage improvements in areas that experienced heavy flooding during Hurricane Ian in 2022.

Farmers made no mention of lawsuits in its decision to leave Florida. Republicans “need to own this failure,” Florida House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell said Wednesday.

* This piece originally misstated the insurance companies that have already exited Florida.

Turns out Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign is just full of hot air.

On Tuesday, the presidential candidate attended a press dinner on the Upper East Side of New York. But as Page Six reported, what began as an attempt to boost RFK Jr.’s campaign “descended into a foul bout of screaming and polemic farting.”

The magazine writes that an event guest had asked Kennedy about the environment. And that’s all it took to provoke “apparently drunk gossip columnist-turned-flack Doug Dechert, the host of the event,” who in a spurt of fury screamed: “The climate hoax!”

And that was then enough to wake up apparently “sleeping happily” art critic Anthony Haden-Guest, who all of a sudden opened his eyes and called Dechert a “miserable blob.”

“Shut up!” he barked at Dechert.

And chaos ensued. The duo rallied back and forth; Dechert continued on his soused rant, while Haden-Guest berated him as “f–king insane,” and “insignificant.”

Throughout it all, Page Six notes, Kenndy sat back and watched calmly—perhaps seeing value to both sides of the discourse.

But the stalemate apparently was unsatisfactory for Dechert. Page Six writes that “Dechert sensed the need for a new rhetorical tack, and let rip a loud, prolonged fart while yelling, as if to underscore his point, ‘I’m farting!’”

The whole room was stunned, unsure about what to do, and whether the plastered host was letting one loose at Haden-Guest, or at the concept of global warming generally.

“Regrettably, we may assure readers that there was no room for doubt that the climate changed in the immediate environs of the dinner table,” Page Six noted.

Kennedy kept his about-face, as another guest soon tried to change the subject. Nevertheless, another round of yelling was sparked right after, the longtime contemporaries going at each other once again.

On Wednesday, Dechert told Page Six “I apologize for using my flatulence as a medium of public commentary in your presence,” adding that he wished to be referred to as either a “gallivanting boulevardier” or a “beer-fueled sex rocket.”

Even then, the gallivanting boulevardier told the magazine that he has “zero tolerance for the climate hoax scam nonsense in any venue that I am personally funding.”

Kennedy—former member of Riverkeeper and the National Resources Defense Council, and founder of the Waterkeeper Alliance—has positioned himself as a climate change man-in-arms, but the evening embodied the incoherencies of his campaign. While previously throwing his support behind much-needed mass action like the Green New Deal, Kennedy posted a video just this week saying that “free markets are a much better way to stop pollution,” advancing the claim that climate change is “being used to control us through fear.”

Meanwhile, people across the nation remain in justifiable despair at the continued inaction on climate change. Just ask Vermonters or New Yorkers who lost their homes and livelihoods to this week’s disastrous flooding, or Texans and Floridians who have fallen ill or even lost loved ones to the sweltering heat, what they’re more afraid of: everything they’ve lost from climate destruction, or the government actually doing something about it.

Is Jim Jordan OK?

The Ohio representative was at a total loss for words Wednesday night while trying to explain his ridiculous investigation into the supposed politicization of the FBI.

The powerful House Judiciary Committee, which Jordan chairs, held a hearing on Wednesday during which angry Republicans grilled FBI Director Christopher Wray on a variety of pressing issues, including Hunter Biden’s laptop, if the bureau is shielding the Biden family, and whether the FBI is specifically targeting Donald Trump. Wray categorically denied all of their accusations.

Jordan appeared on Fox News to discuss the hearing. But when trying to push back on Wray’s claims to host Sean Hannity, Jordan suddenly was unable to string a sentence together.

He blamed his stumbling on feedback interference from his earpiece. But another reason could be that Jordan simply had nothing of actual value to say.

Republicans have repeatedly insisted that the FBI has become far too politicized, and that it unfairly targets Trump while failing to investigate President Joe Biden. Some lawmakers have even called to defund the FBI and the Department of Justice for their supposed bias. But the House GOP’s investigation into Biden, spearheaded by Jordan ally James Comer, has yet to produce any actual proof of wrongdoing.

Meanwhile, Trump has been charged with business fraud for his alleged role in making hush money payments to Stormy Daniels. He also has been charged with keeping national defense information without authorization, making false statements, and conspiring to obstruct justice. And he is still under investigation in Washington, D.C., and Georgia for his role in trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

As California Representative Ted Lieu pointed out during the hearing, “We don’t have a two-tiered system of justice. We have one Department of Justice that goes after criminals regardless of party ideology.”