Sen. John Brooks, citing new election map, won't seek reelection

Sen. John Brooks said Monday he won’t run for reelection, following the implementation of a new map for State Senate boundaries that carved up his current South Shore district.

Brooks (D-Seaford) said his new district no longer runs along the shore from Copiague to Baldwin and no longer includes communities and schools he’d fought for during six years in office.

Under a new redistricting map approved by a state court Friday at midnight and effective for 2022 campaigns, the district is more north-south oriented, running up through Hicksville. It also is considered more favorable to Republicans.

Brooks was often dinged by Republicans as an “accidental senator” because he first won election in 2016 in a GOP-leaning district in a local scandal year. Yet he’d won reelection twice. Now, he said redistricting is taking him out.

“You asked if I’m running for reelection. It would be more like running for election” in a new district, Brooks told Newsday in an interview. “Bethpage is new. Hicksville is new. Levittown is new. The district is totally different.”

And being 72 years old, Brooks said. “I’m not going to do that … I’m going to call it a day.”

Nassau County Republican Chairman Joe Cairo said Brooks “saw the writing on the wall.” He said the GOP will back Steven Rhoads, a county legislator from Bellmore, in a race he called “one we think we can win.”

“The change in the district is a major factor,” Cairo said. The district went from being a 52% Biden district in 2020 to 52% Trump in 2022.

Democrats have until May 31 to find a new candidate.

The departure of the three-term incumbent deals a blow to Democrats’ bid to maintain what is now a two-thirds “supermajority” in the Senate, which is enough to override any gubernatorial veto.

It’s also yet another wrinkle in the wave of campaign jockeying since the court system took over the once-a-decade process of redistricting in New York State.

The Democratic-dominated State Legislature and Gov. Kathy Hochul, also a Democrat, approved new boundaries for the Senate, Assembly and congressional delegation earlier this year. But a Republican-backed lawsuit successfully argued the Senate and congressional lines were gerrymandered and the approval process unconstitutional.

Separately, a lawsuit by a group of activists is seeking to toss the Assembly lines and move its primaries.

New maps were ordered and the congressional and Senate primaries moved to Aug. 23. The new maps boost Republican chances and make some districts more competitive. The maps pit some incumbents in the same districts and triggered some to switch districts for more favorable prospects.

Or, in Brooks’ case, to decide to step down.

He called the new 5th Senate District “winnable,” but one in which he couldn’t be as effective. He said draft maps released a week ago gave little clue the final version would be so changed, calling it a “bottom of the ninth inning” switch.

“I can leave here with my head held high,” Brooks said, citing his work on local school funding, coastal and drinking water protection and expansion of services to military veterans.

Jay Jacobs, the state and Nassau Democratic chairman, said Brooks was “greatly disappointed the communities he represented would no longer be in his district and he had a close attachment to them.”

Jacobs said the party is discussing several potential candidates.

By Yancey Roy

yancey.roy@newsday.com@yanceyroy