TOMPKINS COUNTY, N.Y.—New York’s Congressional and state Senate maps have been drafted after a long redistricting process that pushed primaries and left candidates and constituents alike in the lurch.
With the final version of the maps set to publish May 24, drafts indicate that Tompkins County has been placed into New York’s 19th Congressional District, or NY-19.
The Ithaca Voice had previously profiled the six Congressional and three Senate candidates running in NY-22, which Tompkins County was included in, and candidates who had been running to represent Tompkins County have been releasing statements about how they plan to move forward.
Josh Riley announced that he will continue his campaign for NY-19, which includes Broome County, where he was born and raised. “I’m humbled by the support we’ve received and excited to keep the momentum going in New York 19,” he said.
Earlier in May, Riley received endorsements from the Democratic Committee chairs in Broome, Chenango, Cortland and Tioga counties, and most recently, former Congressional nominee Tracy Mitrano.
“Voters of the 19th District deserve a representative in Congress who doesn’t take corporate money and who votes for constituents, not special interests,” Mitrano said. “Josh has vowed to fight for the economic development of our district, and social and environmental justice.”
Below is a list of the other candidates previously profiled by the Voice who are no longer running to represent Tompkins County.
Vanessa Fajans-Turner announced May 22 that she was dropping out of the race. “Tompkins County, and my hometown of Ithaca, have been drawn into New York’s 19th congressional district, which spans 11 counties extending from Tompkins through the Catskills and east across the Hudson Valley to the Massachusetts border,” the press release said. “This new district is very different from the one in which I have been campaigning and building voter trust since launching in February.”
Another candidate from Tompkins County, Republican Mike Sigler, quietly dropped out of the race as reported by Syracuse.com on May 23. After NY-19 was announced as Tompkins County’s district, separating it from the district that includes Onondaga, Madison and Oneida counties, Sigler endorsed Steve Wells rather than making a decision about which new district to move his campaign forward in.
“I’d have to drive about 40 minutes just to get to the district. That’s a great barrier,” Sigler told Syracuse.com. Sigler confirmed his decision to The Ithaca Voice.
NY-19 has also gained two new candidates: Marc Molinaro (R), who represented New York State Assembly District 103 from 2007 until 2012, and Jamie Cheney (D), a mom, farmer and small business owner of a B Corp with the goal of creating flexible roles for working parents. The Voice will be monitoring new candidate announcement as they occur.
Francis Conole and Sarah Klee Hood, both Onondaga County natives, will continue to run in the revised NY-22, which does not include Tompkins County.
Sam Roberts issued a statement saying that the Finger Lakes, Southern Tier and Central New York regions are important to him regardless of the district they are in. “My hope is that the redistricting doesn’t get in the way of the people needing great representation,” it said. The statement did not specify a district otherwise.
The Democratic primary has been rescheduled from June to Aug. 23, 2022.