Warren and Washington counties, along with Moreau and Wilton in Saratoga County, will be kept whole in a single congressional district under proposed new voting district maps that a court-appointed expert released on Monday.

The northern portion of Saratoga County, including Saratoga Springs, will now be in the 21st Congressional District.

The 21st District would extend southerly into Fulton, Montgomery and Schoharie counties, while losing a portion of Jefferson County.

U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, and Democratic candidates Matt Castelli and Matt Putorti on Monday all restated their intention of running in the 21st District, as newly drawn.

The maps, to be finalized by Friday, replace maps that the state Legislature adopted and Gov. Kathy Hochul signed in February. Those maps carved out Glens Falls and Queensbury in Warren County and moved those communities into the 20th Congressional District.

A state Supreme Court judge in late March threw out the Legislature’s planning, saying the maps were unfairly drawn to give an advantage to the Democratic Party.

Two appeals courts upheld the decision, most recently the state Court of Appeals.

The Legislature’s redistricting plan would have redrawn Glens Falls, Queensbury, Moreau and Wilton into the 20th Congressional District, where Rep. Paul Tonko, D-Amsterdam, is the incumbent.

Those communities now will remain in the 21st District, where Stefanik is the incumbent.

And the 21st District now will include Saratoga Springs.

The proposed new 21st District will include all or parts of 15 counties, including much of the North Country region that Stefanik now represents, along with some expanded contiguous territory.

Republicans hold a 13-percentage-point enrollment advantage in the new district, slightly less than the 14.6-percentage-point advantage in the district that the Legislature had adopted.

Former President Donald Trump carried the newly drawn district by 8.18 percentage points in the 2020 presidential election, according to the court-appointed expert, less than half the 19.4-percentage-point margin in the district the Legislature had adopted.

“This district — it’s just gotten more competitive,” said Castelli, a former CIA counterterrorism official from the town of Saratoga, in a telephone interview on Monday. “My commitment to defeating her (Stefanik) is steadfast.”

Castelli said he is already familiar with the district, having campaigned throughout much of it for months.

The other Democratic candidate, Matt Putoriti, a lawyer from Whitehall, restated his intention to run in a statement.

“The North Country is my home. It’s where I was born and raised …. Should the maps released today be finalized, I will continue to run in NY-21 against Elise Stefanik,” he said.

Stefanik, too, restated her intention to run for re-election in the 21st District.

“I look forward to running for re-election in NY-21 where I have been honored and humbled to earn historic support every election cycle,” Stefanik said, in a statement. “I will always work my very hardest to deliver real results for the hardworking families in upstate New York and the North Country.”

Tonko announced Monday he intends to run for re-election in the new 20th Congressional District, even though his residence is in Amsterdam, outside the boundary of the proposed new district.

A candidate is not required to live in a congressional district to run in the district, only to be a New York resident and to live in the district when taking office.

“I am deeply disappointed that the draft map removes the communities of Amsterdam and Saratoga Springs from a Capital Region district. … I urge the special master (court-appointed expert) to listen to the voters in the Capital District in his final maps. Anything less hamstrings our ability to get things done for our communities,” Tonko said in a statement. “If today’s maps are finalized, I intend to run for reelection in New York’s 20th Congressional District.”

Warren County Democratic Chairwoman Lynne Boecher said she is disappointed that Tonko will not be the incumbent running in Glens Falls and Queensbury, but is pleased that Saratoga Springs, currently a Democratic area, is being added to the district.

–

State Senate maps

–

The court-appointed expert also released proposed new state Senate maps on Monday, which would split Washington County into two separate Senate districts.

The new 45th Senate District, where Dan Stec, R-Queensbury, is the incumbent, would include northern Washington County, all of Warren, Essex, Clinton and Franklin counties, and eastern St. Lawrence County.

The new 44th Senate District, where Daphne Jordan, R-Halfmoon, is the incumbent, would include all of Saratoga County and a small portion of Schenectady County.

The new 43rd Senate District would include southern Washington County, all of Rensselaer Country, and a small portion of Albany County.