There’s more than enough blame to go around, after New York Democrats’ uniquely weak performance in the Congressional midterm elections. Among those taking heat: state Sen. Michael Gianaris, who oversaw the process that got Congressional maps favorable to Democrats thrown out, and replaced with less friendly?ones drawn by a special master.?

But a preliminary analysis of the results shows that the special master’s district maps probably did not play as much of a role in Democrats’ losses as some have assumed. The party may have held just one more seat if state legislators and the governor had settled for a less partisan map. And results were so poor for Democrats this year that even the Legislature’s aggressive lines wouldn’t have been a cure-all. Dems would have likely won just four out of the nine competitive seats – still losing all of Long Island.?

“The data makes clear that the problem on Election Day was a performance issue, not a district issue,” Gianaris, the deputy majority leader, told City & State after reviewing the analysis. “Under any alternative scenario of district lines, you’d have substantially the same results.”