| Is it just me, or am I beginning to notice that NJ's legislative structure is screwed up.
For one thing, New Jersey is the only state in the union in which assemblypersons and senators represent the same number of constituents. I find it a bit disheartening that there are 40 districts, and each district has 1 senator and two assemblypeople representing the same number of people. For one thing, it only gives larger constituencies in each district a voice.
This is why I propose splitting each legislative district into A and B and having one assemblyperson for each. For example, the 14th District as is will have one senator, and Assembly District 14A will consist of one assembly person representing Hamilton and West Windsor while Assembly District 14B will consist of one assemblyperson representing Plainsboro, Cranbury, South Brunswick, Monroe, and Jamesburg. This way, smaller constituencies within a district have more of a chance of being represented (especially true for ethnic minorities, who tend to be extremely scattered throughout the state).
Another major issue is that in the state legislature, a bill is voted on in the Senate first. This extremely baffles me to no end, is this some kind of statement that public policy in New Jersey is top down. Since senators sometimes serve longer terms (2-4-4), have larger constituencies, and a smaller membership, they are not as close as the assembly is to the constituency, and thus, legislation tends to be top down in New Jersey's setup.
I think these two ideas as a package would be great for politics in the state. It would create smaller targetted constitencies and public policy could be more easily influenced by the grassroots.
The cracked of each district into A and B assembly districts would actually be good for progressives. The only exception would be District 1, in which it would be likely that 1 district would contain Cape May County and Somers Point and 1 district would contain Vineland, Millville, Maurice River, Buena, and Buena Vista, which means it would be 1 conservative district and 1 progressive district.
However, progressives could benefit everywhere else, especially in the following districts:
District 2 - If Atlantic City and Pleasantville are included together in one of the A or B districts, we would have 1 strong D district and 1 swing district.
District 8 - One assembly district could contain Evesham, Mount Laurel, Moorestown, and Hainesport. The latter two are boomtowns which are trending Democratic. However, the other assembly district would be hopelessly Republican
District 11 - One such idea would be to create one district that includes Asbury Park, Long Branch, as well as the swingier West Long Branch and Eatontown (remember, Pallone wins in this area), and leave the southern Monmouth shore teabaggers in the other.
District 12 - Could very well include 1 district with Democratic East Windsor and Hightstown, swingier Marlboro, Manalapan, and Eatontown, and heavily Republican but small Millstone. Could be a split LD!!!
District 13 - Could be a split LD, with one Democratic assembly district (dominated by Old Bridge) and one Republican assembly district (dominated by Middletown)
District 16 - The southern part of the LD could be a Democrat AD, if Somerville, Hillsborough, and Montgomery (all of which went for Obama) are included. However, the northern part is too wealthy for its own good and would be a safe AD for the GOP
District 21 - The eastern part of the legislative district, centred around Union County, could definitely hold a Democratic AD (many of the towns are wealthier, but have gone D in the past)
District 39 - The eastern part of the district, closer to the GWB has a lot of areas which can potentially go D, as has happened in the past and could be a good Democrat AD. The western and north central part, however, would still be an R AD.
All in all, this could result in a net gain of 7 seats for the Democrats. |
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