New York makes its second appearance in our list of the nation’s Top Ten least compact U.S. House districts in the #4 spot: the state’s 28th Congressional District is affectionately known as “the earmuffs” (appropriate given both its shape and its location in the frigid northern climes along the Canadian border).

New York's 28th Congressional District: the 4th least compact U.S. House District

Although NY-28 has been represented by a Democrat for more than 20 years, it is in fact a product of a gerrymander by the once-majority Republicans of New York’s state legislature, who have long maintained a hold on state legislative districts in the northern part of the state through prison-based gerrymandering (more here and here). NY-28, however, represents a classic case of gerrymandering through “packing”: concentrating members of a voting bloc in a single district, thereby allowing the other party to win the remainder of the districts. The 28th District skirts the shores of Lake Ontario to connect Democratic enclaves in the cities of Buffalo and Niagara Falls in the west to those in Rochester, to the east. This gerrymander seemed to serve the Republicans well until NY-27 switched to Democratic in the 2004 elections and NY-25 and NY-29 flipped in 2008. Republicans still hold NY-26, directly to the south of NY-28.

It’s hard to predict what the future will hold for the shape of New York’s Congressional districts. Democrats currently control both houses of the state legislature, but the defection of two members of the Democrats’ slim 32-30 Senate majority prompted a leadership crisis earlier this year. Moreover, all of the seats in both the Assembly and the Senate are up for grabs in the November 2010 elections, leaving responsibility for the subsequent 2011 redistricting an open question.