Speaking for Bergen County

I feel your pain (0.00 / 0)

Dear Senator Weinberg,

We're not happy here either. Despite what Dean John Farmer said, the third district is not more competitive. With the removal of Cherry Hill and the addition of Brick, the third is solidly Republican and will send Jon Runyan's rubber stamp Tea Party vote back to Congress for the next decade.

I find it difficult to understand why the commission (and this includes both parties) feels it is important to protect incumbents. Yes, seniority is a factor, but it seems to me that incumbents should be challenged every so often and should run on their merits, not their incumbency.

Incumbency gives us not only people like Jon Runyan, but it abets arrogance and dubious behavior like that exhibited recently by Rob Andrews.

Perhaps the best system is to program all the VRA parameters into a computer, and let the software decide.

Signed,
Disgruntled Citizen

Blog: http://www.deciminyan.org

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by: deciminyan @ Sat Dec 24, 2011 at 12:10:23 PM UTC

Keeping Cherry Hill in CD3... (0.00 / 0)

...was probably what disqualified the Democratic map in the warped mind of the 7th Republican member of the CRC or at the very least, gave him his very weak justification for picking the Republican map.

I know that I read somewhere that Farmer called the new CD3 a "fair fight" district, which is ludicrous, because it wasn't a fair fight before.  The results in 2008 and 2010 were the exceptions, not the rules.  Even if Farmer had accepted the Democratic map, you were never going to find someone who made CD3 as competitive as John Adler, and sadly for a number of reasons, the least of which being political, he is no longer with us.

With all due respect, Steven, I think that you and the other progressives in South Jersey have to accept the fact that your part of the state is Republican/DINO territory and that is not going to change anytime soon.  There are just enough Democratic voters in your part of the state for one safe D district and three safe R districts or two competive districts and two safe R districts.  Until you guys destroy the Norcross political machine, they are more than happy to maintain the status quo at the expense of everyone else.

As I wrote in my comment below, I would not be surprised if all of this was part of a quid pro quo between Christie, Adubato, and Norcross.  I also think that it is illogical to take one town out of an entire county and place it another district.  Cherry Hill belongs in CD1 with the rest of Camden County whether you or anyone else in CD3 likes it or not.

As far as seniority is concerned, that is just a load of crap that the Democratic and Republican establishments feed us to justify their incumbency protection strategies.  Seniority has not given NJ its fair share of federal dollars for decades and whomever represent us over the next decade will continue to fail to bring back our state's fair share of federal dollars.

If anything, the opposite is true.  The best way to bring federal money back to a state is to have competitive districts that both the Democratic and Republican leaders have to invest in both in terms of campaign dollars and federal dollars.

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by: Bertin Lefkovic @ Sat Dec 24, 2011 at 20:56:52 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Fair (0.00 / 0)

I think I read he said the district was "fair.". Far different than a fair fight.

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by: 12mileseastofTrenton @ Mon Dec 26, 2011 at 13:35:00 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

You say tomato... (0.00 / 0)

...I say tomato.  A rose by any other name.

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by: Bertin Lefkovic @ Mon Dec 26, 2011 at 14:29:19 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

And as a coastal resident, I'm not happy either (0.00 / 0)

Except for Congressman Pallone NJ has no coastal representation and the 6th CD is really even more of a Middlesex districit now then it was.

Monmouth and Ocean counties are split across three districts and the 2nd sprawls across the southern part of the state essentially diluting the interests of Cape May and Atlantic Counties.

While this isn't a huge change, this is the second redistricting in a row where the coastal counties and towns have been assigned to west jersey based districts.

I don't think this bodes well for the maintenance of NJ's unique treasures.  

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by: JackHarris @ Sat Dec 24, 2011 at 17:29:38 PM UTC

"Commonality of Interests" (0.00 / 0)

I guess didn't mean much to Dean Farmer

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by: Senator Loretta Weinberg @ Sat Dec 24, 2011 at 19:54:05 PM UTC

not sure what does (0.00 / 0)

Occam's Razor tells us that the simplest explanation for something is usually the correct one.  The fact that Farmer was the AG under a Republican Governor could tell us all that we need to know.

What is inexplicable is why the Democrats on the CRC were willing to accept him as the CRC's 13th member unless we go back to Occam's Razor and recognize that the Democratic establishment in NJ cares less about our congressional delegation than they do our legislative majorities in Trenton.

And if Governor Christie's ambitions are focused more on DC than NJ, it is very possible that the results of both redistricting processes could be the product of yet another quid pro quo between Christie, Adubato, and Norcross.  Maybe his decision to crash the legislative proceedings at the Heldrich was just a pose to cover up the backroom deals that he made.

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by: Bertin Lefkovic @ Sat Dec 24, 2011 at 20:27:58 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Which district are you in? (0.00 / 0)

Garrett's or Pascrell's?  If you live in the new 5th and Rothman decides to move back to Englewood to run in the new 9th, is there any chance that you would consider taking on Garrett?  You would undoubtably be our best hope against him.  After Rothman and you, Paul Aronsohn would probably be our next best bet.  Does Connie Wagner have any Congressional ambitions?  It would be nice for NJ to be able to send a woman to Washington for a change.

It appears as if the Bergen Republicans are equally displeased by the map that their representatives on the CRC created as they were hoping that the new 5th would lose all of Warren County and at least half of Sussex County, becoming a Bergencentric district that would enable one of their own to unseat Garrett in a primary.  It is interesting that the Democratic map would have been much better for them as well.

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by: Bertin Lefkovic @ Sat Dec 24, 2011 at 20:19:12 PM UTC