Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who unsuccessfully urged the Legislature to allow an independent commission to draw the new maps, offered the same assessment last week, saying in an interview that “the challenger loses in the sprint.”

New York’s political establishment is being roiled by the closed-door map-making. The same legislative task force handles the redistricting at the state and federal levels, and at least half a dozen members of New York’s Congressional delegation have hired Albany lobbyists to represent them.

The task force plans to release a proposed set of new maps for the Legislature this week, but has not even begun to draw new maps for Congress. The number of Congressional districts must be reduced to 27, from 29, because New York’s population grew more slowly than other states’ in the 2010 census.

The conventional wisdom is that lawmakers will propose to carve up one Congressional district currently held by a Democrat and one held by a Republican. Representative Maurice D. Hinchey, a Democrat in his 10th term, announced last week that he would not seek re-election, making it more likely that lawmakers will propose to carve up his district, which stretches from Ithaca to Poughkeepsie.

Among the Republican districts most often discussed as candidates for elimination are those held by Bob Turner, who won a special election in September to represent parts of Queens and Brooklyn, and by Ann Marie Buerkle, who was elected in 2010 to represent the Syracuse area.

Even as lawmakers are reducing the number of Congressional districts, they are proposing to increase the number of districts in the State Senate, to 63 from 62, in a move Republicans say is required by a convoluted formula in the state’s Constitution, but which Democrats say is a ploy by the Republicans to improve their chances of keeping a majority.

Last week, a group of black pastors from the New York City area wrote Mr. Cuomo with concerns about how minority neighborhoods would be treated by redistricting, urging the governor “to stand up for the rights of every voter by not letting incumbent protection and silly political games outweigh community unity.”