As we already learned, New York is set to lose yet another congressional seat based on the results of the 2020 census, just as they had done in the previous two decades. And in the end, it came down to 89 people. That’s not sitting well with many New Yorkers, leading some to question the accuracy of the count and ask if there isn’t something that could be done about it. Count both New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo among those doing the grumbling. The blame game has been heating up all week, with de Blasio pointing the finger at Cuomo for not getting enough people to fill out the forms and Cuomo blaming… (wait for it…) Donald Trump. Because of course he would. (NBC News)
Due to the 2020 U.S. Census results, New York will go from having 27 members in the House of Representatives, down to 26 in 2023. While many who live in the state — and said they filled out their census papers — looked at those who neglected to do so, calling them “lazy” and “not informed,” lawmakers pinned the blame on each other.
“I don’t feel so good about the state, I think the state could have done more,” said New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, a frequent critic of Gov. Andrew Cuomo. For his part, Cuomo said that there was a lot going on a the time, alluding to the pandemic and shutdown, but also said part of it may be due to “undocumented people who were nervous to come forward,” fearing ICE raids during the Trump presidency.
The governor said Tuesday that he had not ruled out challenging the decision, saying they are looking at their legal options for a potential recount.
I can’t see how both Cuomo and de Blasio are shaking their heads and trying to figure out how this could have happened. Without trying to sound cruel here, there would be some serious irony observed if it turned out that 90 people who died in the nursing homes under Cuomo’s disastrous mismanagement made the difference. Or, as Allahpundit suggested in the article I linked above, perhaps 90 women were so grossed out by all of the sexual harassment claims against Cuomo that they moved out of the state in disgust. I’ll toss in one more possibility for Bill de Blasio to chew over when he’s trying to go to sleep at night. His defunding efforts and attacks on the NYPD caused steep losses in the number of uniformed officers in the Police Department. Many of them had to move away to look for new jobs. There would be some justice in all of this if 90 of those cops moved entirely out of the state to seek work in other states that are more supportive of law enforcement, wouldn’t you say?
One mayoral candidate running to replace de Blasio blamed his fixation on his failed presidential campaign. Perhaps if he’d stayed home in the city and kept pushing people to fill out their forms, he could have dredged up 90 more souls to count. Meanwhile, Cuomo blaming Donald Trump for not enough illegal aliens completing the census out of fear of getting nabbed by ICE is just hilarious. He’s blaming New York’s shortcomings in the census on the fact that the President was enforcing the law.
It’s tough to see what Cuomo thinks he can do about this situation. I was watching a report on this subject this morning where it was revealed that there have been multiple court challenges to census results over the years. But not a single one of those challenges has succeeded in court. The general consensus seems to be that if you allow one state to challenge the outcome, you’d have to let anyone who came up short by a small amount do the same.
Keep in mind that New York was in a neck-and-neck race to the bottom with Minnesota. The Empire State came out on the bottom. But if the courts allow Cuomo to “find” another ninety people, will they then have to turn around and let Minnesota look behind the couch and “find” a few more for themselves? And if so, where does it end? That pattern could continue with every state that lost seats this time.
In the end, I’d wager that one thing the courts definitely don’t want to see is any suggestion that the results of the census were not accurate. Allowing these sorts of challenges raised that precise specter. In reality, I’m pretty sure that everyone in the country knows that the decennial census has never been accurate down to the last person. In fact, it’s probably off by a figure somewhere in the millions. You’re always going to miss some people, particularly in the homeless and illegal immigrant communities. But since it’s a constitutional requirement, we’re not supposed to talk about that.
