TRENTON — It’s been one month since state officials received detailed Census data from the federal government, and, as expected, Democrats and Republicans have not come to an agreement on a new legislative district map based on it. Later today, the leaders of the commission charged with redrawing the state’s 40 legislative districts will tell chief Justice Stuart Rabner...
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The Democratic (left) and Republican (right) heads of the commission discuss adding a tie-breaking member with their respective counsels in this January photo.TRENTON — It’s been one month since state officials received detailed Census data from the federal government, and, as expected, Democrats and Republicans have not come to an agreement on a new legislative district map based on it.
Later today, the leaders of the commission charged with redrawing the state’s 40 legislative districts will tell chief Justice Stuart Rabner they haven’t agreed, at which point he will be able to appoint a tie-breaking member.
Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Middlesex), co-chair of the commission, confirmed its five Republican and five Democratic members have not come to an agreement. He and fellow co-chair Assemblyman Jay Webber (R-Morris) will both sign a letter to Rabner informing him that they haven’t agreed this afternoon, Wisniewski said.
Rabner is expected to name Rutgers professor Alan Rosenthal, who studies state legislatures, as the tie-breaker – a very important role, since he will likely be the deciding vote on what the state’s legislative district map looks like for the next 10 years.
Every 10 years, the state has to redraw its 40 legislative districts to conform with Census data.
Rosenthal, who chairs the legislature’s ethics commission, was twice the 13th tie-breaking member of the commission that redraws the state’s U.S. House district boundaries, in 1992 and 2001.
From today, the commission has one more month to come up with a new map of state legislative district boundaries. Most legislative districts in New Jersey tend to lean towards one party or another, so the map’s configuration has a huge influence on which party will control both houses of the Legislature.
A process to redraw the state’s congressional districts will begin in June. That is also expected to be contentious, since New Jersey is going from 13 House districts to 12 because the state’s population has not grown as fast as states in the south and west.
Previous coverage:
• N.J. redistricting panel member refuses to attend public meetings until he has an official role
• With release of census data, N.J. Legislature has 60 days to come up with redistricting map
• N.J. Democrats ask Republicans to disclose donors to organization funding redistricting efforts
• N.J. redistricting could shift legislative seat toward southern part of state
• N.J. legislative redistricting commission starts process that will redraw congressional lines
• N.J. Democrats, Republicans agree on Rutgers professor as 11th member of redistricting commission
