Redistricting in 2010

by: Matthew Jordan

Tue Sep 15, 2009 at 02:11:28 AM EDT

I don't know what anyone else in the Blue Jersey community thinks, but I know nothing aggravates me more in New Jersey politics than the configuration of our current Congressional and Legislative Districts.  If one were to Google Incumbent Protection Plan - New Jersey should be at the top of the list. Democrats and Republicans share the blame on this matter. Legislators cut deals all over the State to make their districts safer - and we should not let that happen again in 2010.  

Competitive elections are the bedrock of effective and accountable representation.  We need more "toss up" Senate and Assembly races up and down the State so that legislators are governing and serving the best interests of their constituents, and not best interests of corporate lobbyists and political insiders.  I will address the political implications that will arise (for example 2 incumbent Senators from varying or like parties falling in the same district), but will not make political circumstances the basis for my analysis.    

So in the interest of creating a more effective, and more importantly, more democratic, State Legislature, I am going to propose hypothetical legislative districts.  My formula will be simple: New Jersey's population is approximately 8,682,661 people; therefore, each district should have roughly 217,067 people in them.  Secondly, I will make every effort to keep municipalities together within a County - it makes sense from a logical and logistical standpoint.  Finally, I will not breakup any cities or towns into separate districts.  Democrats effectively broke up Newark and Jersey City during the last go round, and even though my party benefited from it, I still think it is wrong.      

Some other notable points in how I will come about developing a hypothetical district: I will make every attempt to keep like communities together.  For example, my hometown of Wanaque shares a regional high school with neighboring Ringwood; as such, there is no reason why we shouldn't share our State Senator and Assembly members.  I will make every attempt to make as many districts as possible competitive and will only be looking at Bergen, Essex, Hudson, and Passaic counties in a vacuum-I don't know enough about local politics and municipalities in the other counties, so I wouldn't be able to render a fair assessment like I can for the aforementioned counties.  Therefore, I will only be creating hypothetical districts for LD27 through LD40 (while plucking the Passaic towns from LD26 and excluding LD30, which for whatever reason is listed with North Jersey legislative districts).  

Why New Jersey Needs Clean Elections

by: Matthew Jordan

Tue Jun 02, 2009 at 08:17:39 AM EDT

When you look at the configuration of New Jersey Congressional and Legislative districts the most apparent characteristic is fairly straightforward: the district either heavily favors a Democrat or Republican, and the latter usually has little chance of winning.  Most elections are uneventful, unwinnable, and inherently bad for a representative democracy.  

As a Democrat I look at the legislative map and think, this is great, there is probably not one feasible electoral scenario that will give Assembly Republicans the opportunity to control a majority.  They have to run the electoral board, holding every potentially vulnerable seat and performing well in LD1, LD14, LD36, and one of LD4 & LD38 in order to take back a majority.  All on limited resources with a broken party infrastructure.  

Out of 40 Legislative Districts in New Jersey any politically savvy person will tell you that there is probably only 2 battleground elections.  In LD1 Assemblymen Nelson Albano and Matthew Milam will fight to be reelected with Senator Jeff Van Drew not at the top of the ticket.  In LD36 Gary Schaer and Frederick Scalera are facing 2 candidates who came very close to unseating them in 2007 due to a series of local issues, mainly the Encap fiasco.  I would put Assemblyman Wayne DeAngelo higher on the list of potentially vulnerable Democrats, but the Republican recruiting effort there was just embarrassing, especially in what could be a very competitive. election in LD14 where alienated State workers are a large portion of the electorate.  

Presidential election results by Legislative District

by: Scott Weingart

Sat Jan 31, 2009 at 03:51:34 PM EST

In the November presidential election, Barack Obama carried 28 of the state's 40 legislative districts, while John McCain carried just 12. The closest districts were 12 and 21; in 12, McCain won by 435 votes out of over 113,000 cast, while in 21, Obama won by 529 votes out of over 116,000 cast.

Turnout was the highest in the fast-growing, southern Ocean County-based 9th district, where more than 124,000 people voted. The 9th also gave McCain his largest vote total-over 71,000-and his fourth largest percentage win in the state. Turnout was the lowest in the Newark-based 29th, which was also by far Obama's strongest district in the state. Obama won his largest vote total-over 73,000 votes-in the 7th district, which includes Willingboro, Mount Holly, Pennsauken and most of the river towns in Burlington County.

Only two districts that Obama failed to win by more than 11% elected Democratic legislators in 2007, and the two that did represent districts in South Jersey. All ten Republicans elected to a districts that McCain didn't either carry or lose by less than half a percentage point hail from the southern half of the state.

Table: Republican legislators in Obama districts

Legislator	District	Obama MOV
Sen. Diane Allen	7	37.9%
Sen. Bill Baroni	14	17.5%
Asm. John Amodeo	2	17.5%
Asm. Vince Polistina	2	17.5%
Sen. Phil Haines	8	7.6%
Asm. Scott Rudder	8	7.6%
Asw. Dawn-Marie Addiego	8	7.6%
Sen. Sean Kean	11	5.7%
Asw. Mary Pat Angelini	11	5.7%
Asm. David Rible	11	5.7%
Sen. Tom Kean	21	0.5%
Asm. Jon Bramnick	21	0.5%
Asm. Eric Munoz	21	0.5%

See complete results below the fold. The numbers for 27, 28, 29, 31, 32, and 33 are estimates but should be accurate to within a couple hundred votes.