Hochul says 'all is fair in love and war' on redistricting re-do

And Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado joined the CapCon podcast this week. (Link inside)

Good afternoon — it’s Thursday and Tequila Day.

In today’s CapCon:

• Hochul said Thursday she and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries will “see what our options are” in response to Republicans’ redistricting in Texas.

• What Delgado told me led to his decision to challenge Hochul in 2026. (Free link)

• New York is preparing to regulate the very deep drilling required for geothermal heating and cooling systems.

• A new bill would restrict the number of bets that can be placed on a mobile sports betting platform.

• Schools in New York will now have to be prepared for the possibility of students experiencing a cardiac emergency.

Names in today’s CapCon: Hakeem Jeffries, Kathy Hochul, Antonio Delgado, Mike Lawler, Patrick Burke, Phil Steck, Bobby Carroll, Andrew Gounardes, Linda B. Rosenthal, James Skoufis, Bill Magnarelli, David Weprin, Liz Krueger

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☀️ Summer Sale: Click here for a free 30-day trial of CapCon. Thanks for reading!

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🔊 CapCon Pod: Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado joined us for a new episode of the Capitol Confidential podcast this week. Listen on our website here, the Times Union’s website or wherever you get podcasts.

There’s a free link to a story I wrote today on part of our conversation further below.

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(Jeff Boyer/Times Union)

🗺️ Hochul says she’ll talk to Jeffries about redistricting

When House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries was asked if he thought New York should redraw its congressional districts this year, he deferred to Gov. Kathy Hochul.

His answer was in response to a question about whether Democrats would seek to redraw maps in states they control if state lawmakers in Texas approve new lines this month. The new districts are expected to favor Republicans.

Democrats in California haven’t ruled out doing the same thing but it would be a heavy lift in a short amount of time.

And in New York, redistricting is something that few want to reopen. Long story short, the lines for Congress in New York have changed twice since the last census.

It’s unclear if New York even has the option to draw new lines before 2032.

Voters here approved an amendment to the state constitution in 2014 that created the Independent Redistricting Commission, a bipartisan entity that’s responsible for redrawing electoral districts each decade after the census is completed.

If the commission can’t come to a consensus on a new set of maps, the Legislature is allowed to draw and approve them instead.

The language enshrined in the state constitution only allows for new lines to be drawn outside of that process if that’s ordered by a judge. There’s nothing in there that gives the Legislature power for a random redrawing.

Because of that, there hasn’t appeared to be any wiggle room for the maps to be reconsidered by Democrats, who’ve expressed no desire to do so.

But Hochul said Thursday that she’s not closing the book on what Democrats might be able to do in response to the Republican redistricting in Texas.

“What I’m going to say is all’s fair in love and war because we are following the rules,” Hochul said. “But there’s other states that are violating the rules and are going to try and give themselves an advantage.”