Plainfield - The 'hinge' of two Districts
Is it time for New Jersey's Democratic-led Legislature to steal a page from Karl Rove's playbook?
To the great glee of Rove and Co., the US Supreme Court ruled in June of 2006 that the Texas GOP's redistricting plan could stand, except for one small portion. (See articles cited at end of post.)
The Court also ruled that state legislators may REDRAW CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT MAPS AS OFTEN AS THEY WISH.
This all came to PT while watching the returns on Tuesday in New Jersey's 7th Congressional District race -- Linda Stender vs. Mike Ferguson.
You will recall that in 2001, in the mandatory redrawing of district lines following the 2000 Census, Plainfield was REMOVED from the 7th CD and put into the 6th CD -- Frank Pallone's district. See maps below.
2001 Redistricting - 6th CD - Plainfield ADDED.
(As always, click on image to enlarge or print.)
2001 Redistricting - 7th CD - Plainfield REMOVED.
(As always, click on image to enlarge or print.)
Plainfield was hardly necessary for Rep. Pallone to continue to ride high and get reelection by generous margins every two years. Getting us was like icing on the cake, to coin a metaphor.
On the other hand, taking Plainfield away from Mike Ferguson's district was an effort to ensure a safe seat for the GOP -- in exchange for Rush Holt being assured another safe Dem seat in the 12th CD.
Why should anyone even raise the question at this time?
Aside from a desire to see Karl Rove hoist by his own petard?
That, plus noting another interesting fact: Ferguson only beat Stender by 3,653 votes. Plainfield delivered 6,054 votes to Menendez and 5,329 votes to citywide candidate Harold Gibson.
You do the math. Either figure would have put Stender in Congress.
But wait! There's more!
Pundits have been talking about the 'blue-ing' of the suburbs for some time now, and the 2006 election offers some tantalizing hints in New Jersey.
PT noticed that Caldwell, Chatham Township and Mountain Lakes -- all longtime 'safe' Republican strongholds, elected Democratic councils and mayors this go-round.
Closer to home, South Bound Brook, which has been Republican as long as PT has been in NJ, saw a Dem sweep of the Council and mayoral races.
So. A modest proposal.
Would it not be right and proper for Plainfield's Assemblyman Jerry Green to introduce legislation to redraw the New Jersey congressional districts posthaste and RESTORE Plainfield to its rightful Congressional District?
Let the regerrymandering begin.
-- Dan Damon
On the US Supreme Court ruling --
Washington Post: "Justices Affirm GOP Map For Texas; Other States May Follow Suit"Not getting your own CLIPPINGS email daily? Click here to get started.
MSNBC: "Court rules state legislators may draw new maps as often as they like"
The exception in the Supreme Court ruling was the infamous 25th CD 'fajita strip' redistrict plan, which the Court threw out.
The map below -- taken from the Wikipedia gerrymander article -- illustrates this outrageous attempt. The new orange district is the infamous 'fajita strip.'
2 comments:
A good point, Dan. The question I have is why the districts were redrawn this way in the first place, since I assume they were changed by a Democrat-controlled state Legislature. The numbers show Plainfield's 6,000+ votes would've tipped the scales in Stender's favor ... but would've cost Pallone nothing over the past eight elections. So why would Democrats remove a pocketed stronghold from the House equation when those votes were obviously pivotal? Back-room deals, anyone ...?
2004:
Fernandez: 70,942
Pallone: 153,981
2002:
Medrow: 42,479
Pallone: 91,379
2000:
Kennedy: 62,454
Pallone: 141,698
1998:
Ferguson: 55,180
Pallone: 78,102
1996:
Corodemus: 73,402
Pallone: 124,635
1994:
Herson: 55,287
Pallone: 88,922
1992:
Kyrillos: 100,949
Pallone: 118,266
"...why the districts were redrawn this way in the first place, since I assume they were changed by a Democrat-controlled state Legislature."
New Jersey has taken redistricting out of the political process and turned it over to an independent Redistricting Commission. An equal number of democrats and republicans and one impartial chairperson decide the district boundaries. The law creating the Redistricting commission can only meet once, in years ending in "1".
So the short answer is, state law doesn't allow "regerrymandering". Other states do allow it, but not New Jersey.
The real fight will be in 2010. Due to populations shifts, New Jersey will likely lose a seat, meaning we'll only have 12 districts and the lines will have to be redrawn, forcing two incumbents to run against each other.
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