Kamillah and Diane’s Hopes Dashed in NY-11 Gerrymander Fail

Supreme Court saves NYC’s lone GOP seat, leaving two Democratic hopefuls suddenly stranded.

LUTHMANN NOTE: Kathy Hochul and New York Democrats thought they had Staten Island sliced, diced, and ready to flip. Then the Supreme Court stepped in and blew the whole scheme to pieces. The failed NY-11 redistricting plot didn’t just preserve the city’s only Republican seat—it torched the political futures of two ambitious insiders. Kamillah Hanks and Diane Savino were already eyeing Congress, betting on a court-engineered map to carry them to Washington. Now, that map is dead. Their plans are dead. And the fallout is brutal. What looked like a surgical political strike turned into a public execution of Democratic lawfare—and a humiliating reality check. This piece is “Kamillah and Diane’s Hopes Dashed.”

By Rick LaRivière and Richard Luthmann

SCOTUS Slams “Frankenseat” Racial Redistricting Scheme

(STATEN ISLAND, NEW YORK) – Earlier this month, the United States Supreme Court delivered a stinging rebuke to New York Democrats’ attempt to chop up Staten Island’s congressional district. In a 6–3 emergency stay, the high court halted Manhattan Judge Jeffrey Pearlman’s order that would have carved the city’s only Republican-held seat into pieces.

Justice Samuel Alito didn’t mince words, blasting the proposed redraw as “blatantly” race-based and an inherently “odious” form of discrimination.

In plain English, the Court told Albany power brokers their gambit went too far: “Government cannot sort citizens by race to win elections.” Six justices enforced that basic constitutional rule, slapping down what critics dubbed a “racial gerrymander” aimed squarely at ousting Rep. Nicole Malliotakis.

Local Republicans rejoiced at the reprieve, calling it a last-minute salvation for Staten Island’s voice on Capitol Hill.

“This decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to keep New York’s 11th Congressional District intact helps restore the rule of law and common sense in our elections,” Malliotakis said in a statement, applauding the injunction.

The ruling all but guarantees Malliotakis will run for re-election on her existing turf – Staten Island and southern Brooklyn – rather than on a Democrat-rigged map designed to sink her. It’s a major victory for the GOP in the nationwide redistricting wars. Every seat counts when Republicans hold only a razor-thin 218–214 majority in the House, and losing this one would imperil the party’s hold on Congress.

Thanks to the Supreme Court’s intervention, New York’s lone Republican stronghold stays red for 2026 – a reality check to Democrats that even in deep-blue NYC, there are limits to hardball lawfare.

Democrats Tried to Carve Up NY-11 – and Got Cut Down

This case began when a cadre of Democratic lawyers led by Marc Elias – Hillary Clinton’s notorious election attorney – quietly launched a legal blitz to dismember Staten Island under the guise of “voting rights.” Their lawsuit argued that NY-11’s current lines dilute minority votes, citing New York’s new John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act.

In truth, it was naked power politics dressed up as civil rights. The jaw-dropping Elias plan would split the borough in half: one “Frankenstein” district stitching Staten Island’s liberal North Shore to left-leaning Lower Manhattan, and another lumping the conservative South Shore with Coney Island housing projects in Brooklyn. In blunt terms, the city’s lone GOP enclave was to be sliced up and submerged in a sea of Democratic voters.

“This is a naked attempt to disenfranchise [Staten Island] voters,” warned state GOP Chairman Ed Cox when the scheme emerged.

Initially, Judge Pearlman bought the Democrats’ argument, ruling that “Black, Latino, and Asian Staten Islanders” were being denied fair representation. But even House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries had previously admitted that the New York Voting Rights Act doesn’t apply to federal elections – a glaring fact that didn’t stop Elias and company. They pressed ahead, backed by former Attorney General Eric Holder’s redistricting outfit (bankrolled by Barack Obama), effectively throwing their own party’s House leader to the wolves.

The gambit backfired spectacularly. Alito shredded their theory in five brusque paragraphs, noting the irony that Malliotakis – the incumbent they targeted – is herself the daughter of a Cuban immigrant.

“I’m the first Hispanic to represent this district, which makes their claim ridiculous,” Malliotakis said.

The Supreme Court’s intervention froze Pearlman’s ruling and torpedoed the Democrats’ “Frankenseat” plot for now. In the war of map manipulation, Staten Island dodged a bullet – and Albany’s gerrymander generals are left licking their wounds.

Kamillah and Diane’s Hopes Dashed: Two Ambitious Pols Left High and Dry

No one is more shell-shocked by the high court’s pump fake than Kamillah Hanks and Diane Savino, two Democratic insiders who had been eyeing shiny new congressional seats in Staten Island. Hanks, a New York City Council member from the North Shore (and the Council’s Majority Whip), and Savino, a former state senator-turned-City Hall aide, were quietly measuring the drapes for D.C. offices under the Elias redistricting plan.

Now, thanks to SCOTUS, that opportunity has vanished into thin air – and with it, their fast-track tickets to Congress.

According to a source who overheard Hanks’ hubby Kevin Barry Love bragging at a Bay Street eatery in February, the plan was already in motion. As Staten Island was expected to get split, Hanks planned to run in the newly configured Staten Island-Manhattan district, while Savino had her sights on the South Shore-Brooklyn seat.

“Kevin gets loud and can’t hold his liquor. He was bragging about looking for townhouses in Georgetown and having Ritchie Torres show him around,” the source said. “I didn’t see whether Kevin was feeding Diane booze, but I hope he wasn’t.”

In Democratic circles, it was an open secret: Kamillah and Diane were gearing up to claim those congressional seats in 2026, and many were unhappy. Hanks’ hubby and brute enforcer, Love, has attacked SI Dems and New York State Assembly Deputy Majority Leader Charles Fall, claiming that he was “coming” for his leadership role.

 

“I’ve already gotten phone calls about Kevin’s very public threats against my senior citizen mother,” Richard Luthmann said. “I tell everyone who asks that we will let these issues be handled in the proper channels. As Trump says, it’s all about being treated fairly.”

Now, instead of campaigning for Congress, Hanks and Savino are left lamenting what might have been, and their collective political hands are looking like dead draws.

“The conclusion is that they’re in a political quandary. They got nowhere to go,‎” said one Staten Island political insider of the pair’s dashed hopes.

Hanks, 50, holds a leadership title at City Hall that even fellow Democrats privately call a token role – the party’s supermajority is so huge (more than 45 of 51 seats) that being “Majority Whip” is mostly ceremonial. She only got the gig so Staten Island would have a Democrat in the Council leadership, insiders snicker.

“How hard is it to count votes when you can count the number of Republicans on one hand?” the insider said.

Now Hanks’s future in elected office is murky. Term-limited out of the Council after 2025, her only remaining options are long-shot primary challenges against fellow Democrats: Assemblyman and Party Leader Charles Fall or State Senator Jessica Scarcella-Spanton in 2028.

“She’s not moving up citywide – no Staten Islander is winning Mayor or Comptroller,” the insider noted. “Congress was her way out.”

With that door slammed shut, Hanks faces the prospect of a dead-end political career by decade’s end.

And then there’s Savino. The 60-year-old veteran pol spent 18 years in the state senate and was a power broker in Albany’s bygone Independent Democratic Conference. After retiring from the Senate, she landed as a senior advisor to Mayor Eric Adams in 2022 – only to find herself pushed to the sidelines in the turmoil of Adams’ one-term administration.

City Hall sources say Savino was quietly shown the door in the shuffle of a new mayor taking over in 2026. Eyeing a comeback, Savino had banked on Staten Island’s carve-up to give her a winnable House seat. She represented parts of Staten Island and Coney Island for years, and insiders say she was ready to leverage those ties in a congressional run.

Now that the plan has evaporated. Savino is out of office, out of favor, and – for the moment – out of luck.

“Diane’s scrambling for a next act,” a Democratic insider said. “She thought Congress might be it. Not anymore.”

Kamillah and Diane’s Hopes Dashed: Malliotakis Emerges Unbeatable as GOP Cheers

If Hanks and Savino are licking their wounds, Nicole Malliotakis is doing victory laps. The second-term Republican congresswoman – the only GOP member of New York City’s delegation – now looks politically untouchable in her district. Even before the Supreme Court’s save, Malliotakis had defied the odds, twice winning in a city where Democrats vastly outnumber Republicans.

With the “Frankenseat” slain, her seat remains anchored in its current boundaries (Staten Island plus a slice of Brooklyn) and leans solidly conservative.

“She’s unbeatable in that seat, guaranteed between 60 and 70% of the vote,” one longtime Staten Island politico said.

Indeed, Malliotakis is half Cuban and speaks fluent Spanish, giving her cross-over appeal in a borough that’s more diverse than outsiders realize. Far from disenfranchising minority voters, as Democrats alleged, her presence in Congress proves voters on Staten Island will elect a Republican Latina and be darn proud of it.

Malliotakis wasted no time capitalizing on the moment.

“The Supreme Court did the right thing by stopping this blatant racial gerrymandering,” she declared, vowing to continue fighting for her constituents “without the distraction of a partisan map grab.”

Republican leaders hailed her as a hero for standing up to Albany’s scheme. In Washington, Malliotakis’s stock has only risen: she’s now New York City’s most powerful Republican voice, holding sway over federal funds flowing to the city.

“Every federal dollar’s gotta go across her desk,” quipped the Staten Island insider, noting that with President Trump back in the White House, Malliotakis’s position is pivotal.

By preserving her seat, the high court also preserved Trump’s narrow House majority – averting what could have been a Democratic pickup that tipped the balance of power. GOP strategists are breathing easier, while Democrats are left fuming at what they call a partisan judiciary.

The “spilled milk” has found its way into a Democratic primary fight. Allison Ziogas, a Pleasant Plains resident and longtime union electrician, is the Party’s pick, endorsed by Party Leader Charles Fall earlier in the week. She will face former NYPD member and educator Michael DeCillis. Troy McGhie recently suspended his campaign to throw his support to Ziogas.

Staten Island’s political map remains intact, and Malliotakis is poised to cruise to re-election in 2026 on familiar turf. Insiders say that the Dems’ congressional challenge is an exercise in futility.

“Ziogas made her announcement in Great Kills last week,” the longtime Staten Island politico said. “The last Democrat to announce on the South Shore and win was Jack Murphy, and that was before they built the [Verrazano] Bridge.”

The thwarted “Frankenseat” fiasco stands as a cautionary tale: a bold power play that collided with constitutional limits.

“They tried to pull a fast one and got smacked down,” said a veteran New York Republican operative. “Malliotakis will lay their political motives bare when she wins by 25 points.”

And as Malliotakis takes a victory lap, two would-be challengers – Hanks and Savino- are left on the sidelines, pondering the cruel whims of fate – and wondering if their big political dreams just died on the steps of the Manhattan Supreme Court.

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