- Scaramucci blasts Hochul for ‘totally hypocritical’ comments on migrant crisis The Hill
- With temporary status for Venezuelans, the Biden administration turns to a familiar tool The Associated Press
- How Does The Expansion Of Work Permit Eligibility Affect Venezuelans In Chicago? Here’s What To Know Block Club Chicago
- Cruz still plans to push for state-level work permits for asylum-seekers City & State
- Another Border Surge, as Biden Lets Venezuelan Migrants Work – Opinion: Potomac Watch – WSJ Podcasts The Wall Street Journal
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Tag Archives: Hochul
Mayor Adams, Governor Hochul call President Biden’s protection of Venezuelans a game changer in migrant crisis for New York City – WABC-TV
- Mayor Adams, Governor Hochul call President Biden’s protection of Venezuelans a game changer in migrant crisis for New York City WABC-TV
- Mayorkas Announces Extension and Redesignation of Venezuela for Temporary Protected Status – HS Today HSToday
- Adams and Hochul call Biden’s protection of Venezuelans a game changer Eyewitness News ABC7NY
- U.S. Will Allow Nearly 500000 Venezuelan Migrants to Work Legally The New York Times
- Adams reacts to Biden admin legalizing thousands of migrants after saying crisis will ‘destroy’ NYC Fox News
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Hochul declares state of emergency in New York ahead of Winter Storm Elliott
Most of New York is going to have a dreary Christmas weekend.
Gov. Kathy Hochul on Thursday declared a state of emergency for the entirety of New York in preparation for the massive storm that’s forecast to wallop the northeast over the holiday weekend.
The measure will go into effect at 6 a.m. Friday when Winter Storm Elliott — dubbed a “once-in-a-generation” weather event by the National Weather Service — is expected to bear down on the area.
“With Mother Nature throwing everything she has at us this weekend, I encourage New Yorkers who are considering traveling for the holidays to do so before Friday or after Sunday to stay safe,” Hochul said in a statement.
A so-called bomb cyclone, when atmospheric pressure drops very quickly in a strong storm, was predicted to develop late Thursday night into Friday near the Great Lakes.
Blizzard warnings, coastal flood warnings, high wind warnings, wind chill warnings and winter storm warnings are all in effect throughout New York.
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The state is placing a full commercial vehicle ban on I-90 from Rochester to the Pennsylvania Border, a roughly 135-mile stretch. Several roads in Erie County, which expects to get hit with 3 feet of snow Monday, will also be closed.
More than 5,000 flights have already been canceled ahead of the winter storm expected to bring blizzard conditions and record-setting temperature drops.
Parts of upstate New York will be slammed with snow while areas closer to the coast, including New York City, will face a drenching rain for most of Friday, forecasters said.
From Friday to Saturday, winds will likely reach up to 60 miles per hour as temperatures quickly plummet by up to 35 degrees in some regions, causing freezing, below-zero wind chills and icy road conditions.
“This is not like a snow day when you were a kid,” President Joe Biden said Thursday. “This is serious stuff.”
Other states have already felt the effects of the moving storm.
In Wyoming, highway patrol troopers responded to over 100 wrecks within 12 hours during a massive whiteout that the agency compared to Antarctic conditions.
One person died in Kansas City, Missouri after their car overturned into an icy creek, police said.
Denver hit its lowest temperatures in 32 years on Thursday, morning when the temperature dropped to minus 24.
With Post Wires
Support from black voters lifted Hochul over Zeldin for gov
Democrat Kathy Hochul has black voters to thank for saving her job as governor against hard-charging Republican challenger Lee Zeldin, an election results analysis shows.
While Zeldin’s law and order campaign made inroads with once blue-leaning Asian, Jewish and Latino voters, black voters were Hochul’s firewall in southeast Queens, central Brooklyn, Harlem and parts of the Bronx, the analysis found.
Hochul garnered a staggering 90% or more votes in many of the city’s predominantly Afro-American and Afro-Caribbean districts — the same working and middle class voters who propelled Mayor Eric Adams last year.
“Oh, absolutely. Oh, definitely the black community elected Kathy Hochul governor,” said state Assemblywoman Inez Dickens. In Dickens’ 70th Assembly District, residents delivered 27,968 votes for Hochul, and just 2,287 for Zeldin.
According to Dickens, Zeldin is too closely associated with former President Donald Trump for black voters — and isn’t seen as a moderate in the mold of former three-term GOP Gov. George Pataki. Trump endorsed Zeldin just weeks before the Nov. 8 election.
“If Zeldin was a Pataki Republican, he would have done better,” the Harlem political veteran said. “He was considered a Trumper by black voters. That was a very, very big part of it.”
Here’s a revealing breakdown of results in predominantly black districts:
- In Queens Assembly District 29, covering Laurelton, Rosedale, St. Albans, and Springfield Gardens, Hochul racked up 22,280 votes to 2,538 for Zeldin.
- In AD 32 (South Jamaica, Richmond Hill), Hochul got 18,312 votes to 2,176 for Zeldin.
- In AD 33 (Cambria Heights, Hollis, Queens Village, Bellerose) Hochul got 21,773 votes compared with Zeldin’s 3,691.
- In Brooklyn’s AD 56 in Bedford-Stuyvesant, voters showered Hochul with 25,289 votes to 1,590 for Zeldin.
- In AD 55 covering Ocean Hill/Brownsville, Hochul racked up 15,774 votes compared with 1,044 for Zeldin.
- In AD 57 in Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Prospect Heights, and Crown Heights, residents delivered 34,642 votes for Hochul and 2,940 for Zeldin.
- In AD 60 in East NY/Starrett City, Hochul got 17,588 votes compared with 1,774 for Zeldin.
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards said like other New Yorkers, black voters are concerned about crime — but focusing on locking people up is perceived as “fear mongering” and “dog whistling” without discussions about opportunities and youth programs to discourage law-breaking.
“You can have justice and safety at the same time,” Richards said. “We can’t police and incarcerate out of crime. There’s a question of access to good jobs, housing and education.”
“Zeldin’s campaign reminded black voters of Trump,” he added.
Both Richards and Dickens pointed out Hochul is well-known in their communities, having visited regularly for years when she was lieutenant governor under ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who resigned last year amid sexual harassment and misconduct accusations.
“Gov. Hochul doesn’t need a GPS to know where south Queens is. She’s been a consistent presence and attentive,” Richards said.
In Pataki’s view, it’s a cruel irony the party of emancipation that freed black people from slavery is now rejected by black voters, He saud winning a statewide race will remain out of reach unless Republicans make at least some inroads with black voters.
“We have to do far better outreach,” Pataki said. “We have to make the case on the streets in the African-American (communities) every day — not just during an election — that our policies are better for them,” Pataki said.
Blacks are disproportionately victims of crime so the GOP push to toughen the cashless bail law should resonate as well as the party’s support for charter schools as an alternative to failing public schools, Pataki said.
Zeldin, just before and after the election, told The Post he’s proud of making inroads into minority communities, but said becoming more competitive with black voters in a “longer term issue” the GOP has to address.
“We were witnessing some shifting trends amongst some of the minority communities, so it’s possible that two years or four years down the road, any of these groups might be leaning more to the right, especially if one-party rule up in Albany continues to alienate these voters,” Zeldin said. “If the issues that we’re talking about during this campaign only become even more prevalent and more desperately in need of action, that just further pushes more votes away from the Democrats.”
“So I would seek to build upon the number that we got, just over 30,” he said. “But part of that has to do with direct outreach and relationship building. I would always encourage an earlier start to be able to build those relationships. And one of the other big factors is that there are certainly some trends that we witnessed, where some groups may just naturally be voting more Republican in the future if they continue to get pushed in that direction by certain democratic policies.”
Hochul carried New York City with 70% of the vote to 30% for Zeldin, a margin he couldn’t overcome despite winning nearly all other counties in the state, including his home turf of Long Island.
Zeldin did carry some city Assembly districts with large Orthodox Jewish and Asian populations, and fared better in heavily Hispanic districts.
The Long Island congressman won conservative Staten Island 2-1, and carried six Assembly districts in southern Brooklyn and four in Queens — including Assemblyman Ron Kim’s 40th AD in the heart of heavily Asian-populated Flushing.
Hillary Clinton returns to trail for struggling Hochul, slams GOP
Clinton was critical of Zeldin as well as other Republicans, hitting Kari Lake, the Republican gubernatorial nominee in Arizona, for making a joke about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband being violently attacked in his home. The speakers often highlighted the issue of abortion rights.
“Don’t take it for granted, because I’ve heard my opponent say, ‘Oh, don’t worry. The day after the Dobbs decision nothing changed in the state of New York. So don’t worry,’” said Hochul, speaking of protecting abortion rights and referencing the Supreme Court decision to strike down Roe v. Wade in June. “You know why nothing changed in the state of New York? Because I’m the governor.”
While Democrats across the country have run heavily on abortion since the high court reversed the decision ending the constitutional right to the procedure, some in the party have said that the fear of losing the right to an abortion is shaping up as a less motivating factor in blue states such as New York, because of existing protections and Democratic-led state government committed to preserving it.
In interviews with The Washington Post, some students attending the event said they were concerned about how Democrats will fare in the midterms, and noted a lack of enthusiasm among their peers compared with past elections.
Mia Davidson, a Columbia University student, noted a surge of outrage among young voters after the Dobbs decision but said that energy has dropped as Election Day approaches.
“I think that enthusiasm went away and I don’t know that the Democratic Party did a ton to really keep young people engaged, but at the same time, some of that is on us, we sometimes chose not to be,” she said.
Hochul’s struggles come as Democratic congressional candidates in New York and other blue states are also struggling, forcing party leaders to devote time and resources to some races that appeared less favorable to Republicans earlier this year.
Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, echoed Hochul’s pitch in her remarks, taking Republicans to task over abortion rights and seeking to tie Zeldin to former president Donald Trump, who supports the GOP contender.
“Of course they want to turn back the clock on abortion, they spent 50 years trying to make that happen,” said Clinton, speaking of Republicans. “But they want to turn back the clock on women’s rights in general, on civil rights, on voting rights, on gay rights. They are determined to exercise control over who we are, how we feel and believe and act, in ways that I thought we had long left behind.”
Hochul is the first woman to serve as governor of New York. Formerly the lieutenant governor, she took office after the resignation of Democrat Andrew M. Cuomo last year. Clinton highlighted the historic nature of Hochul’s tenure in the state’s top job.
“I really appreciate the way she’s bringing new leadership and stability and new hope for our future to New York, and I think it’s about time since this was the state where the women’s suffrage movement was born,” Clinton said.
Harris denounced Republican efforts to restrict abortion access and ran through a list of Democratic accomplishments with the Biden administration.
Democratic women in New York political leadership who spoke at the event stressed the need for voters to show up to vote for Hochul and not take the election for granted. Some recent polls show Hochul leading Zeldin, but by single-digits in a state that generally leans heavily toward Democrats.
Zeldin has lauded the Dobbs decision, but he has also said he would not change New York’s law. In a campaign ad released last month he said, “As governor, I will not change and could not change New York’s abortion law.”
The Republican has focused on rising crime in the state — an issue Republicans have highlighted elsewhere across the country. Clinton responded in her remarks, accusing the GOP of fearmongering.
“I have to also just reflect that I’ve seen, and I’m sure you have if you — maybe you don’t watch television — but if you did, you would see what I see, which are ads about crime every 30 seconds, right? No solutions, but just a lot of really fearful, scary pictures and scary music,” said Clinton.
She referenced the attack on Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi, who was assaulted last week by an intruder with a hammer, criticizing the response by some Republicans such as Lake, who have sought to turn the attack into a punchline. (“Nancy Pelosi, well, she’s got protection when she’s in D.C. — apparently her house doesn’t have a lot of protection,” Lake recently said.)
“An intruder hits an 82-year-old man in the head with a hammer, who happens to be married to the speaker of the House, and the Republicans joke about it. The woman running for governor in Arizona jokes about it,” said Clinton. “Now why would any sensible person want to give power to somebody who thinks it’s funny that a person gets assaulted in his own home? So you know, they don’t care about keeping you safe. They want to keep you scared, so that you can’t think straight.”
Echoing other Democrats, the speakers here also cast Republicans as a threat to Social Security and Medicare. And Hochul made a direct pitch to young voters at one point, saying, “I want you to feel the weight on your shoulders as you march out of here. With that determination, the guts and courage that all of those who came before us had to pass down this gift to us.”
Emma Sherman-Hawver, a Columbia student attending the event, said she was glad Clinton was holding an event for Hochul, noting her state ties.
“I think if she can play it strategically, then it helps a lot,” Sherman-Hawver said. “Obviously there are places in the country that may not be as supportive, but I think here is like if you were to go anywhere, I think it’s a really good choice that she came here.”
But Jack Lobel, another Columbia student and spokesperson for the Gen Z-focused group Voters of Tomorrow, said Democrats need to put more work into their outreach to young voters.
“It is unreasonable for Democrats to expect that young people turn out but then don’t put in money into outreach, they don’t put in effort and time,” Lobel said. “It seems like the only people who are focused on Gen Z outreach is Gen Z, and that’s really something that is not going to be sustainable if Democrats want to keep winning in the future.”
Hochul losing steam in governor’s race, major predictor says
Another major political prognosticator has shifted the tightening New York governor’s race in Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin’s direction — after predicting for months that incumbent Gov. Hochul would cruise to victory.
The respected Cook Political Report changed its rating from “solid Democrat” to “likely Democrat” on Friday, acknowledging a closer-than-expected race that New York Dems are rushing to help save.
The rating revision came two weeks after RealClearPolitics declared the Hochul-Zeldin contest to be a toss-up.
Hochul — who led the Long Island congressman by 24 points in one August poll — has seen her lead dwindle to the single digits in recent weeks, as Zeldin slammed her on the state’s crime crisis and she caught flak from critics who accused her of using $1 billion in taxpayer funds as a vote-buying slush fund.
Two polls released Friday, including one from left-leaning Slingshot Strategies, gave Hochul a 6-point lead among likely voters.
“We do see a genuine enthusiasm gap where Zeldin actually leads with the most likely voters to turn out,” said Slingshot pollster Jeff Coote.
The Slingshot survey of 1,000 likely voters, which had a margin of error of 3.1%, found crime to be the top issue for 24% of voters, with 14% citing inflation and 10% most concerned about gun violence.
Early voting starts Saturday in the closely watched race.
Hochul losing steam in governor’s race, major predictor says
Another major political prognosticator has shifted the tightening New York governor’s race in Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin’s direction — after predicting for months that incumbent Gov. Hochul would cruise to victory.
The respected Cook Political Report changed its rating from “solid Democrat” to “likely Democrat” on Friday, acknowledging a closer-than-expected race that New York Dems are rushing to help save.
The rating revision came two weeks after RealClearPolitics declared the Hochul-Zeldin contest to be a toss-up.
Hochul — who led the Long Island congressman by 24 points in one August poll — has seen her lead dwindle to the single digits in recent weeks, as Zeldin slammed her on the state’s crime crisis and she caught flak from critics who accused her of using $1 billion in taxpayer funds as a vote-buying slush fund.
Two polls released Friday, including one from left-leaning Slingshot Strategies, gave Hochul a 6-point lead among likely voters.
“We do see a genuine enthusiasm gap where Zeldin actually leads with the most likely voters to turn out,” said Slingshot pollster Jeff Coote.
The Slingshot survey of 1,000 likely voters, which had a margin of error of 3.1%, found crime to be the top issue for 24% of voters, with 14% citing inflation and 10% most concerned about gun violence.
Early voting starts Saturday in the closely watched race.
NY Gov. Kathy Hochul leads Rep. Lee Zeldin by 14 points ahead of Nov. 8 election: Poll
A new Siena College poll shows Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul with a 14-point lead over Republican nominee Rep. Lee Zeldin ahead of the Nov. 8 election.
When asked who they’d “vote for today” with Hochul and Zeldin as the candidates for their respective parties, 53% of respondents said they’d vote for the governor while 39% said they would vote for Zeldin.
Another 7% said they “don’t know” or had no opinion and 2% said they would not vote for governor at all.
“Fourteen weeks is a long time in politics, and we know most voters don’t really begin to focus on elections till after Labor Day. Still, Hochul has an early – but certainly not insurmountable – lead,” pollster Steven Greenberg said.
“Hochul dominates in New York City, leading by nearly 50 points, while Zeldin has slim 3-point leads both upstate and in the downstate suburbs,” Greenberg said.
Political experts say a pathway to victory for Zeldin requires winning at least 30% of the vote in Democrat-dominated New York City while winning big in the surrounding suburbs and upstate.
The Siena poll showed the Long Island Republican Zeldin ahead of Hochul with suburbanites 46% to 43% and with a 48% to 45% advantage among upstate voters over the Buffalonian governor.
Hochul has the support of 70% of voters in the hard-left-leaning Big Apple compared to 21% for Zeldin.
The incumbent governor is up in every demographic category based on race, age and income in the survey of 806 likely voters conducted July 24 to July 28.
Black voters favor Hochul by a 78% to 8% margin, but the poll shows her with just six-point and eight-point leads among white and Latino voters.
The candidates are running close among voters 35 to 54 year olds, with Hochul leading 46% to 43%. She is up by 15 points among older voters and 35 points among voters younger than 34 years old.
Women are favoring Hochul by a whopping 26 points while Hochul and Zeldin have 46% support each among men.
A total of 31% of respondents have a favorable view of Zeldin with 28% saying they have an unfavorable view while Hochul received favorable marks from 46% of voters alongside 41% who disapproved.
While 36% of New Yorkers believe the Empire State is heading in the right direction, just 19% say the same about the country – an all-time high that could help Republicans like Zeldin campaign on such issues as historically high inflation.
New Yorkers are split on Democratic President Joe Biden, who is rated as favorable and unfavorable by 46% of respondents to the Siena poll.
The results of the poll are similar to a separate survey released Tuesday morning by Emerson College Polling, which showed Hochul with a 16-point edge over Zeldin, with similar margins separating the candidates in New York City and other regions of the state.
While Zeldin appears to be falling short of his electoral targets, he appears better positioned at this point in the race compared to other recent GOP nominees.
A 2018 Siena poll showed Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro, a Republican, was 22 points behind Democratic incumbent Gov. Andrew Cuomo weeks after they won their respective party primaries, held in September that year.
“While Democrats have taken the last four gubernatorial elections, Zeldin’s current 14-point deficit matches the closest Republicans have come in those races, when Andrew Cuomo defeated Rob Astorino 54-40% in 2014. In August 2014, Cuomo led Astorino by 32 points, 58-26%,” Greenberg said in the press release.
But Zeldin has ground to make up if he wants to replicate the success of George Pataki, the last Republican to serve as governor.
Republican challenger George Pataki led Democratic Gov. Mario Cuomo by 3 points statewide – with an 11-point edge in New York City – in an October 1994 poll conducted by The New York Times/WCBS-TV News ahead of Pataki’s upset victory over the three-term incumbent that November.
Other GOP candidates on the statewide ticket in November 2022 appear to face even longer odds than Zeldin of becoming the first Republican to win a statewide election since Pataki won his third term in office in 2002.
US Sen. Chuck Schumer and state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli have 21-point leads in their respective races against Republican nominee Joe Pinion, a former Newsmax host, and banker Paul Rodriguez, according to the Siena poll.
State Attorney General Letitia James is 14 points ahead of commercial litigator Michael Henry in her own reelection bid.
Hochul has raised more than $34 million in her bid to become the first woman to get elected governor after taking over last August for ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who resigned amid multiple scandals.
Campaign finances disclosures filed in mid-July show her with $11.7 million on hand to spend for the campaign ahead compared to $1.6 million for Zeldin.
In recent months, she has campaigned heavily on abortion rights and gun control following controversial decisions by the US Supreme Court that might be weighing down Republicans’ chances in the Empire State this November.
“Although a small majority of Republicans support the Dobbs decision, it is opposed by 89% of Democrats, 60% of independents, and at least of 62% of voters from every region, age group, gender, and race,” Greenberg said in reference to the recent SCOTUS decision on abortion.
“Support for the new law expanding eligibility requirements to obtain a permit to carry a concealed weapon – background checks with character references and firearms safety training courses – is through the roof with all demographic groups,” he added about new state laws passed following another ruling striking down longtime New York rules on carrying concealed weapons.
New York Gov. Hochul declares state disaster emergency over monkeypox
People wait on line to register for a monkeypox vaccination shot on July 29, 2022 in New York City.
John Smith | Corbis News | Getty Images
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state disaster emergency Friday night over the continued spread of monkeypox.
She said the emergency declaration would lead to swifter response and better vaccination distribution. It came a day after the New York State Commissioner of Health declared monkeypox an “imminent threat to public health.”
“I am declaring a State Disaster Emergency to strengthen our ongoing efforts to confront the monkeypox outbreak,” Hochul tweeted Friday.
Hochul indicated the state is an emerging center for the virus, which manifests in symptoms of rashes and lesions across the body, extremities and genitals.
New York has recorded the most cases of the virus nationwide — 1,345 — followed by California with 799, according to Centers of Disease Control and Prevention data last updated Friday.
“More than one in four monkeypox cases in this country are in New York State, and we need to utilize every tool in our arsenal as we respond,” Hochul wrote.
The emergency, enacted through executive order, allows EMS personnel, pharmacists, midwives, physicians and certified nurse practitioners to administer vaccinations, the governor’s office said in a statement.
The state was already in the process of securing more vaccines, expanding testing, and distributing information via a website and a text notification system, the governor’s office said.
On Thursday, Hochul said a new federal government allotment would mean 110,000 additional doses of the monkeypox vaccine for the state, for a total of 170,000 so far.
The governor emphasized the importance of getting vaccines to neighborhoods and communities affected by rapid spread.
“It’s especially important to recognize the ways in which this outbreak is currently having a disproportionate impact on certain at-risk groups,” she said in the late-Friday statement.
The virus, spread through physical contact, can develop flu-like symptoms, and its initial impacts can last as long as four weeks.
Because men who have sex with men are in the virus’ highest- risk cohort, the World Health Organization on Wednesday recommended people in that group limit their number of sexual partners as a precaution.
Monkeypox cases have been reported this year in 71 countries where it was previously unknown or unreported, according to the CDC.
The U.S. has recorded 5,189 cases this year, according to CDC data as of Friday.
Oh Thursday the city of San Francisco declared its own health emergency over the virus.
Hochul Chooses Antonio Delgado as New Lieutenant Governor
Gov. Kathy Hochul announced on Tuesday she had chosen Representative Antonio Delgado, a Democrat from the Hudson Valley, as her new lieutenant governor, the second-highest ranking position in New York State.
Mr. Delgado is expected to serve as Ms. Hochul’s running mate as she campaigns for a full term this year. He will replace former Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin, who was indicted on federal bribery charges last month, leading to his abrupt resignation.
A group of New York Democrats empowered with formally replacing Mr. Benjamin endorsed the choice of Mr. Delgado as Ms. Hochul’s running mate Tuesday morning, ensuring that he will be on the ballot in June’s party primary, according to three people familiar with the process. Jay Jacobs, the Democratic Party chairman, was expected to fly required paperwork approving the choice to Albany later on Tuesday.
Mr. Delgado, 45, who has represented New York’s 19th Congressional District since 2019, has proved he can win hotly contested elections and will help Ms. Hochul diversify her ticket. He identifies as African American and Latino, with family roots in the West African island nation of Cape Verde.
Like Ms. Hochul, he hails from outside New York City, where much of the Democratic primary electorate resides, and has campaigned as a political moderate.
“Having won competitive primary and general elections for Congress, Representative Antonio Delgado is a battle-tested campaigner who has the experience to serve New Yorkers and the work ethic to get our party’s message out to voters, unite communities, and lift up Democratic candidates statewide,” Ms. Hochul said in a statement.
The announcement came one day after state lawmakers passed legislation on Monday at Ms. Hochul’s behest to allow Mr. Benjamin’s name to be removed from the state Democratic primary ballot and replaced with another candidate ahead of the primary for governor, scheduled for June 28.
Mr. Delgado will have to give up his congressional seat to serve out the remainder of Mr. Benjamin’s term as lieutenant governor, a largely ceremonial role entrusted with few statutory duties. The lieutenant governor also serves as governor when the governor dies, resigns, is impeached, or is absent or disabled.
Mr. Delgado was likely to face a difficult re-election fight this fall. Democrats had tried to add friendly voters to his district when they approved a new congressional map earlier this year, but the state’s highest court struck down the newly drawn district lines last week. Court-drawn lines are likely to make the seat far more competitive.