Cheddar News sits down with Albany-based reporter for WNYC, Dave Lombardo, to discuss two big New York political stories receiving national attention.  

Multiple Republican members of Congress accused Rep. Elise Stefanik of dog-whistling to the racist 'great replacement' conspiracy theory in some of her campaign ads. That theory inspired a racist mass shooting in Buffalo earlier this week.

On the other side of the aisle, Democratic attempts to gerrymander an extra three seats out of New York failed in the courts and a new map released by a court-appointed special master caused a furor among Democrats. 

Cheddar Politics

New York Politics Gets National Scrutiny

back everyone back up, reach out on new york politics has been making a lot of headlines this week. The tragic racist violence in Buffalo inspired multiple republicans to call out new york's most powerful Republican in the House of Representatives. And this fall's election in the Empire State was also thrown into disarray that after a new map was handed down by a state court appointed expert on Tuesday. So joining us now to break down the inside of what's happening here in new york in Albany is W. N. Y. C. S. David Lombardo, host of the capitol press room. David, Great to have you here. Thanks so much for joining us. So you've been covering new york state politics for a number of years. So I'm gonna start here with your perspective on the third most powerful House Republican Representative Elise Stefanik. She was heavily criticized for past ads referencing the racist great replacement theory. She went from one of the most bipartisan house members to now one of the most conservative ones. So what changed between 2015 and now? I think what's changed is the audience that Representative Stefanik is catering to. It's not necessarily focused on the people that she represents in the north country, but more about republicans nationally. And as a result of that focus, we've seen her really rise through the ranks of the republican establishment to the point where she is now, as you said, the number three Republican in Congress and potentially someone we need to think about as a potential speaker or majority leader if republicans are able to win back the House of Representatives in the near future. There was a point where at least Stefanik seemed like she was even lukewarm on president trump. And now she, according to multiple reports, talks to the former president on a very regular basis. Is she just more so moving with the direction of the party or has she changed here? I think she is someone who is excellent at reading the room. This is a really, really, really smart person. And when she first was running for Congress back in 2014, she was shaping her message, her profile for that district. And now, as she sees what she wants to do in the future, she's cognizant of the fact that any future as a Republican needs to revolve around some sort of subservience or support for the former president? And we see her rise is matched with the downfall of Liz Cheney who was not on board with president trump. Do you see her getting any sort of dealing any sort of repercussions for these ads? That basically, we're talking about the great replacement theory. She's now painted this saying that, look, she's not talking about the racist situation that happened in Buffalo with the shooting. She's saying this is more about an immigration amnesty thing here. But do you envision her getting any pushback or basically getting reprimanded here for this. Well, to be clear, the ads in question that were shared on social media don't mention great replacement theory, they are simply about immigration and voting potentially by undocumented immigrants in the future. And I think that that's a message that will resonate with a lot of new Yorkers, a lot of people across the country. So I think when that message is something that they hear, they don't necessarily gravitate to the idea that this is something about a larger theory. So I don't see there being any sort of negative repercussions for her. Let's move. And I want to talk now about the new new york, you know, congressional map, which has completely been thrown into disarray a few months ago, it looked like this heavily gerrymandered state. I was gonna have over 20 democrats potentially elected to Congress. Now, that looks like that's all about to change. Now, all of a sudden, you have 30 year incumbents like Carolyn maloney going up against jerry Nadler, you now have Sean Patrick maloney, the head of the D triple C choosing a different district that he lives in. But what is represented more by Mondo jones and now you're having Mander jones go up against Jamal Bowman, you have now had Hakeem jeffries who was one of the most powerful democrats in new york now saying that there this is Jim Crow esq here. What sort of your reaction to these to these new maps here. Well, first off, we just need to comment on the Jim Crow comment from Hakeem jeffries in this ad that he has where he's decrying this as Jim Crow, He's highlighting the importance of having black representatives in Congress. But one of the members that he highlights in the Ad Jamal Bowman did not get kim jeffries support in 2020. He actually backed the white incumbent. But these maps more broadly have created a lot of problems for democrats who were, as he said, originally envisioning potentially having 22 of 26 seats. Now of these 26 seats, I'd say that 15 of them are probably safely Democratic, Five of them are are safely republican. And then the other six are toss ups and in a year where the mood is not in favor of democrats, those might end up breaking heavily for republicans. And, you know, with regards to the primaries and the potentials for democratic incumbents to be set up against each other. I'm not so sure that's how things are going to shake out. There's still a lot of time, I think May 31 for some of these incumbents to decide which race is they're actually going to run in. And I think they're going to be feeling a lot of pressure to take one for the team and not necessarily run in the district that they want to run in, but running the district that's going to be best for the party because that's really what this whole process is about. This has been something that stems from the democrats, the national democrats wanting to grow the representation in new york from 19 seats to more than that. And so at the end of the day, I think what's gonna happen is whatever is best for the national democrats. I want to get your reaction on because Sean Patrick maloney again, the head of the D triple C which his whole entire job is getting democrats elected here. He is getting incredible pushback here from other democrats, alexandria Ocasio Cortez. I did an interview earlier with politico and she says it's particularly shameful as a member of democratic leadership, especially the leadership of the D triple C to ask all of us to make sacrifices. Yet they cannot seem to take this redistricting on the chin. What kind of pushback do you think Strong Patrick maloney is gonna get in all of this? And do you envision a scenario where he is forced to resign as head of this committee? I do see that as something that could potentially happen, but only if he decides to run in the 17th congressional district, the district he lives in and not the 18th congressional district, which he largely represents right now. I was shocked when he came out just right away with the announcement that he was going to run or at least plan to run in the district that he lives in. It really showed that he was putting his own future really ahead of his responsibility leading the D triple C. And I think if he does go down this route of serving in the district that is best suited for him personally. I think a strong case could be made that he's not putting the democrats nationally in enough of a priority and I think there would be a strong movement to get him to resign or have him removed by some other candidate. How do you? And by the way, friday is apparently we're going to get even more detailed maps on how this is all going to, they're going to be finalized on friday. Do you envision basically the maps that we have today being the final ones that we see friday or do you see something sort of panning something out here because maloney has basically said all of us need to take a deep breath here and wait for what happens friday. When we've seen lines drawn by special masters in the past, there have been changes from first draft to final copies. But those are situations where there's been a lot more time to actually digest them and think about them. There is five days between monday when these came out and friday when they're finally being adopted. So just from a practical sense it's hard to imagine of being major changes to these lines. Maybe some things around the margins. But for the most part I think what we see is what we get. But without this, throughout this whole redistricting process, we've been surprised. So maybe we'll be surprised again. David Lombardo, host of the capitol press room at W N. Y. C. David. Great to have you here. Thanks so much for joining us.