It didn’t have to be like this.

Back in January, the Independent Redistricting Commission (IRC) had a second shot at drawing new congressional and legislative lines in New York, but because of being-the-scenes squabbling, the commission never met. That failure left all map-making decisions in the hands of the super-majority Democrats in the state Legislature.

What happened? 

State Sen. Jack Martins, the Republican vice chair of the IRC, spoke with Capital Tonight. 

“Frankly, it was the unwillingness of our Democrat colleagues to actually sit down and negotiate a map,” Martins said. “We knew the Legislature had rejected both maps that were presented and we asked our [Democratic] colleagues to come together, try again and put together a product that we could all agree on. They said they wouldn’t do it.”

So, Martins said, the Republicans decided they wouldn’t meet if the Democrats wouldn’t agree to work on a single set of maps.

The results of that decision are what some have called the “heavily biased” maps drawn by LATFOR, the Legislative Task Force on Demographic Studies and Reapportionment.

“I think this may have been what they had in mind all along,” Martins said, referring to the Democrats.

He also expressed wonder that, with just a week’s notice, the Democrats could deliver fully realized maps that needed almost no changes.

“They apparently had (them) in a drawer somewhere,” he said. “I find it really hard to believe that [Democrats on the IRC] were negotiating in good faith.”

But according to LATFOR Chairman and Deputy Senate Majority Leader Mike Gianaris, Democrats have lived with these districts for 10 years and knew what changes needed to be made. 

“Nobody knows these districts like we do,” Gianaris said. “So we put a lot of hours in — the staff, the civil servants, and LATFOR put a lot of work into them because we understood the very tight timeframe we were under.”

Indeed, even with the quick turnaround, things will be tight. County boards of election need a month to prepare for petitioning, which needs to be underway by March 1. 

Gianaris also takes issue with the idea that the new maps are gerrymandered. Instead, he argues, that LATFOR did a lot of “unraveling” of past gerrymandering by Republicans.

“The most important thing is, that we are drawing these maps in a way that these communities throughout the state can be represented properly,” he said. “(These are) communities that have been chopped up and divided over time — in many instances to dilute the voting power of minority groups.”

He continued.

“You shouldn’t be comparing these maps to the maps that exist now because the maps that exist now are not fair,” he said.

The Senate and the Assembly passed the House maps on Wednesday.