Cathie Black. (Photo: Wikimedia)

Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration suffered a blow today with the release of emails surrounding the selection process of Cathie Black, the one-time schools chancellor who was forced to resign in 2011, after just 95 days in office. Ms. Black, who had no prior educational experience, drew widespread controversy amid a number of missteps. The city fought an extended, unsuccessful legal battle to keep the emails from being subject to a Freedom of Information Law request.

Overall, they detail the city's public relations efforts to improve Ms. Black's brand, including outreach to leading female figures like Caroline Kennedy for support. Additionally, the emails reveal debates over how much information about Ms. Black should be provided to reporters.

For example, Harlem Village Academies CEO Deborah Kenny appeared to question a disclosure decision of a screening for Waiting for Superman, a movie accused critics accused of being anti-public education.

"Edit seems fine. One question: are we sure we want to omit hosting the Superman screening?" she asked. “They have been asking for information on involvement as well as donations. Since almost 200 people attended, they will probably find out anyway."

Kate O'Brien Ahlers, a spokeswoman for the New York City Law Department, said she was "disappointed" by today's decision.

"The City believes that the principles permitting government employees to exchange opinions, advice and criticism freely and frankly, without the chilling prospect of public disclosure, should extend to individuals who have been elected or selected to public office but have not yet assumed office," she said in a statement.

View the emails below:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/139155993/Cathie-Black-Emails

"Professor Persily generally dismisses the Senate Majority Defendants’ (and other parties’) concerns about 'respecting the cores of prior districts,' insisting such claims are merely 'pretextual arguments for protecting incumbents,' they wrote in their letter. "As a threshold matter, incumbency protection is a traditional redistricting principle, as Professor Persily himself has previously recognized."

The letter further argued against placing incumbents politicians in the same districts if at all possible.

"[A]voiding incumbency pairings actually enhances the reality and appearance of judicial impartiality," they wrote, again contending protecting sitting Representatives should be more highly prioritized in the process.

The judge involved in drafting the redistricting plan was more than dismissive of these incumbency-protection claims and there's a reasonable probability the three-judge panel that will effect the final plan will share a similar view.

The specific objections were all centered around Republican districts, notably adding more Republican voters to the districts of GOP Congressional Members Pete King, Bob Turner, and Michael Grimm in the immediate New York City area. For example, the letter argued for a housing project, likely inclined to vote Democrat, to be removed from Mr. Grimm's district and for ideologically conservative Russian and Jewish voters to be added back into Mr. Turner's.

View the full 14-page letter below:

Last week, the court presented a draft map which contained a number of substantial changes to the electoral landscape. Notably, Congressmen Bob Turner, Maurice Hinchey, and Gary Ackerman saw their districts dismantled. Two of these districts inevitably had to be cut, as New York is required to lose two Congressional Districts this cycle. The plan additionally created a new Asian-plurality district in Queens that Mr. Ackerman has vowed to campaign for.

(Mr. Turner may be currently exploring a possible run for the U.S. Senate and Mr. Hinchey is retiring.)

Tonight's map is basically identical to the previous submission, but one particularly significant change in New York City stands out. Brooklyn Representatives Yvette Clarke and Ed Towns traded territory so areas of Fort Greene and Clinton Hill would be returned to Mr. Towns' district. As these neighborhoods are the home and base of one of Mr. Towns' challengers, Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries, Mr. Jeffries may find an easier electoral path forward for his ambitions in the latest set of lines.

View the maps below:

The Senate Democrats, however, apparently compiled the data and provided the new State Senate maps to reporters.

"Since the Senate Republicans are content on keeping the public in the dark and concealing the maps that they produced, we will do it for them," Senate Democratic spokesman Mike Murphy wrote. "Attached you will find the maps which show very clearly that there is virtually no change from their previous proposal."

"These hyperpolitical maps cannot rationally be considered a better product," he added.

At a glance, Mr. Murphy's statement about the lack of change from the previous proposal would appear to be accurate. The Politicker team struggled to find differences between the map below and the previous proposal.

The Senate Republicans, through a spokesman's statement, insisted they've "made dozens of changes to the original maps, virtually all of them based on public input ... [a]s a result, this is an even better reapportionment plan," but the most comically distorted boundaries, in New York City at least, remain.

View for yourself below:

Notably in New York City, GOP Congressman Michael Grimm's district is a touch more conservative, while the new district created in Queens, which both Assemblyman Rory Lancman and Congressman Gary Ackerman have their sights set for, looks solidly Democratic. More of Republican Rep. Bob Turner's old territory is in this new district than anywhere else, but it would be a significantly uphill battle if he sought reelection there.

View the full breakdown below:

U.S. Magistrate Roanne Mann has given a deadline at 9 a.m. tomorrow for any parties to submit comments. She then has until Monday to submit her plan to a three-judge panel. That panel will then hold a hearing for the parties on March 15th and subsequently order a plan into effect.

David Nir, an attorney who now heads the left-leaning Daily Kos Elections blog that closely monitors redistricting developments across the country, said he expected the three-judge panel would adopt the proposed map wholesale.

"In all likelihood, I'd expect the three-judge panel to adopt the magistrate's final map with few if any changes," he told The Politicker. "Given the amount of work the magistrate has put into drafting these maps, and her close familiarity with the new lines, I'd be surprised if the three-judge panel chose to second-guess her."

The main obstacle that could divert this plan from being enacted is the Legislature suddenly coming together to pass their own map before the court's process is finished, possibly with a signature on the plan from Governor Andrew Cuomo that effects their alternative redistricting plan into law.

However, a redistricting expert mused to The Politicker that there might not be enough panic in New York State's Congressional delegation to push Albany to overcome their differences.

"It appears that more members of the delegation either can live with this plan, or are not at the point of demanding change through a deal with Albany," he said.

Indeed, a couple Representatives in Long Island have seen their districts upended, but they generally all have landing zones. Only GOP Congressman Bob Turner, who is half-way into his first term, is left with no winnable district to run for reelection in whatsoever. The only other district eliminated by the court's map belongs to a retiring Democrat, Congressman Maurice Hinchey. Thus the pain is divided equally between the two parties, further mitigating the need for emergency legislative action.

The leader of the Democrats in the State Assembly, Speaker Shelly Silver, didn't even seem too upset with the plan, calling the plan a "template" for their own processes. However, he did indicate his interest in getting a plan passed before the courts finish their intervention, something that could still very well happen, although with a rapidly diminishing window of time.

Regardless of where the lines settle, it seems inevitable they'll settle soon. At the Congressional level at least, the intense electoral chaos may finally be at an end on March 15th.

New York's proposed 6th Congressional District.

One of the interesting twists of the court's draft proposal for New York's Congressional lines is the new Asian-plurality district created in Queens, and Democratic Assemblyman Rory Lancman, who had been campaigning against GOP Congressman Bob Turner, just announced he would be likely to shift his focus there should the final boundaries look like the draft map.

“The Special Master’s lines came out today, and while I can’t predict what the final lines will ultimately look like, the Special Master’s district six is centered around my home and communities that I have represented in the Assembly, on the community board and as a civic leader for over twenty years," he said in a statement this morning.

"I look forward to the opportunity to run for Congress when the lines are finalized," he added.

If Mr. Lancman does indeed run for this new district, it could place him in a Democratic primary with an incumbent. Nassau Congressman Gary Ackerman, who has roots in Queens, may decide this district would be a better choice for him than running against fellow Democratic Reps. Carolyn McCarthy or Steve Israel. Or, if Queens County Democratic Chairman, Congressman Joe Crowley, decides he prefers this all-Queens seat to his new heavily Latino district stretching into the Bronx, he may run here as well.

Mr. Turner's district, as The Politicker already noted, is entirely dismantled. The freshman Republican's house is placed in an African-American majority district while his base in southeastern Brooklyn is split between two other heavily Democratic districts.

The lines the judge released today are not final, and may shift either because Albany is able to pass their own map in time or because the judge is persuaded to modify them for whatever reason over the course of the next week or two.

The court's map for parts of New York City.

The special master involved in redrawing New York's Congressional districts released the court's draft map this morning, and certainly not every incumbent is going to be pleased. And, unlike the proposals from the State Assembly and Senate majorities, this draft will likely contain far more legal weight as the process moves forward over the next week.

At first glance, the map appears to eliminate Congressman Bob Turner's Queens-based seat and Upstate Congressman Maurice Hinchey's one as well. The map additionally eliminates a Nassau County district, dismantling Rep. Gary Ackerman's the most.

A new plurality-Asian district is created in Queens, which Mr. Ackerman may choose to run for. However, Congressman Joe Crowley, whose district was converted into a 48% Latino seat with more of the Bronx, might also prefer to run for that new seat as well, should the map hold.

Notably, veteran Congressman Charlie Rangel's district shifts out of Manhattan and into The Bronx to become not only become majority-Latino, but also more heavily African-American. In what could throw a wrinkle in his competitive primary, Congressman Ed Towns' Brooklyn district pulls out of northern Brooklyn to absorb Russian and Irish neighborhoods from Mr. Turner's old district.

Capitol Confidential has a good breakdown of how the maps affect the Capitol Region and Capital Tonight has some analysis of how they affect the rest of Upstate New York.

Albany may still be able to put the brakes on this court-drawn map if they can pass their own proposal through the State Assembly and State Senate and get it signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo, but they're rapidly running out of time.

View the maps for yourself below, or click here for a more detailed look. Click here to view the demographics breakdown.