The distribution committee is due to meet at 2pm on Friday to formally approve a map of the redistribution deal, approved by Democrats and Republicans on Thursday and tentatively backed by a court-appointed 11-member, former Judge Philip Karchman.
The new map, which will begin in the 2023 election and run until 2031, calls for a primaries from Democrats between two pairs of Democratic senators in Essex and Hudson counties. He also reappoints six members of the State Assembly, although there will be no more than two in the lower house in one legislature.
The deal map also raises the prospect of re-electing newly elected Republican MPs in the 2nd, 3rd and 8th constituencies of South Jersey and gives Republicans a narrow path to gaining a majority in the legislature in a political environment that works against Democrats.
At least one commission member, former Senate minority leader Thomas Keane Jr., plans to vote against.
“There should have been more time to negotiate a fairer map,” Keane said.
Here is the basis of the new map:
Essex County
* The 27th constituency contains two senators from the Democratic Party, former governors Richard Cody and Nia Gill, in a constituency that includes Livingston, Milburn, Rosland, West Orange, Moncler and Clifton. This county includes two veteran collector, John McKeon (D-West Orange) and Thomas P. Giblin (D-Montclair). Cody was first elected to the legislature in 1973 and Gil in 1995.
* The new 34th place includes East Orange, Belleville, Bloomfield, Glen Ridge, Orange and Nutley. The line of the Democratic organization of Essex County in the state Senate is likely to get to MP Britney Timberlake (D-East Orange). Assembly member Ralph Caputa (D-Nutley) now ranks 34th, in case Timberlake will run for the Senate, with an open seat in the Assembly.
* Assembly member Mila Jesse (D-South Orange) has now moved from a suburban area that included parts of West Essex and part of Maurice County to the 28th County, which includes parts of Newark, Irvington, South Orange, Maplewood – and now Hillside in the Uniate region. This could put Jesse on a ticket with state Senator Ronald Rice (D-Newark) and Member of Parliament Cleopatra Tucker (D-Newark).
Hudson County
* The two Hudson County Power Plants, North Bergen State Senator / Mayor Nicholas Saka and Union City State Senator / Mayor Brian Stack, will now be in the same constituency and may meet in the primaries from the Democratic Party. In addition to North Bergen and Union City, the new district includes Gutenberg, Secacus, Western New York and Wyhoken. Saka’s two companions in the assembly, Assembly member Angelica Jimenez (D-West New York) and Pedro Mehia (D-Secaucus), are now in the county.
* The new Hudson area includes parts of Jersey City and Hoboken. Assembly Legal Committee Chairman Raj Mukherjee (Jersey City) may find himself in the Senate, doubling the number of South Asian Americans in the upper house. Assembly member Annette Chaparo (D-Habokken) is also in the area. If Mukherjee goes to the Senate, his seat in the Assembly will almost certainly go to Jersey City.
* The 31st district, which includes Bayonne and part of Jersey City for the past 48 years, will add Kearney. The other two municipalities of Hudson, Harrison and East Newark, will move to the 29th District of Essex County.
Morris County
The two Morris Legislatures have been substantially redesigned; instead of two constituencies from east to west, each will go from north to south, turning over the constituencies of the two current members of the Republican Party:
* Freshman Christian Baranka (R-Jefferson) will now join State Senator Anthony M. Buk (R-Buntan) and Member of Parliament Aura Dunn (R-Mendham) on the 25th. New boundaries will include Buntan, Dover, Harding, Jefferson, Madison, Mendham, Mendham, Mine Hill, Maurice, Morrisown, Mount Olive, Randolph, Rockaway, Rockaway, Victory Gardens and Wharton in County Morris County. Paseik.
* The new 26th will add Assembly member Brian Bergen (R-Denville) to the team of State Senator Joseph Pennakia (R-Montville) and Assembly member Jay Webber (R-Morris Plains). New lines will include Parsippany, Boonton, Butler, Denville, East Hanover, Florham Park, Hanover, Kinnelon, Lincoln Park, Montville, Mountain Lakes, Pequannock and Riverdale, as well as Bloomingdale, Pompton Lakes, Ringwood and Wanaque in Passaic County.
North Jersey
* The 40th arrondissement, now represented by state senator Christine Karada (R-Totowa) and assembly members Christopher DeFillips (R-Wyckoff) and Kevin Rooney (R-Wyckoff), will take Hawthorne in Poseik and Essex-Fell County, Kolno and West Caldwell in Essex. It will get rid of the four municipalities of Bergen County – Allendale, Ho-Ho-Kus, Midland Park and Waldwick to move to 39th. The 40s will also lose Pompton Lakes to Pasayka and Pequinnock and Riverdale to Morris. District 39 will no longer have Passover County.
* District 23 will now include all Warren County municipalities except Alamuchi and Independence.
* The 36th district will add Edgewater and Fairview, who spent the last decade in the 32nd district of Goodson County.
South Jersey
* Three newly elected Republican MPs, including State Sen. Ed Durr (D-Swedsbaar), with Bridgeton, whom Steve Sweeney received 792 votes (71%) in 2021, are now moving to the 1st constituency. Instead, the 3rd District gets a Republican-leaning city in the western county of Cumberland. Paulsboro and West Deptford remain in County 3.
* The second county, Atlantic County, which has been the most competitive in the state in 50 years, remains so. But the addition of Galloway is conducive to the prospect of re-election as a Republican senator and two Republicans who abolished seats in the Assembly last year.
* The 4th constituency map, originally submitted by Republicans last week, remains intact and gives the Republican Party a chance to turn over the constituency that Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Chattarelli won from 52.5% to 46.8% in 2021. It loses the towns of Camden County, Chesilhurst, Clementon, Laurel Springs and Lindenwald, as well as Pitman in Gloucester County. Instead, he adds Waterford, a village in Camden County where Chattarelli won 63% of the vote in last year’s gubernatorial election, as well as the municipalities of Buenos Aires and Buena Vista.
* District 8 adds Tabernacle, Washington and Bass River in Burlington and Falls and Malik in the Atlantic.
Central Jersey
* Manmouth’s 11th constituency – the only one to elect a Democrat to the Senate and two Republicans to the Assembly last year – is becoming a little more democratic. He adds Bradley Beach and Fair Haven and loses to West Long Branch, which Gov. Phil Murphy lost with 813 votes, a nearly 2-1 advantage.
* The 16th constituency becomes slightly more Republican with Somerville’s trade, which Murphy won with 598 votes, to the 23rd constituency for the four municipalities of Hunterdan County – Clinton, Clinton Township, High Bridge and Lebanon-Bora and Lebanon – in which Chatraley with 2,446 votes.
* District 21 is getting a little more Republican. It loses Cranford and Rosell Park on the 22nd and Kenilworth on the 20th and adds Chatham in Morris, Bernardsville and Pipak-Gladstone in Somerset, as well as Danelen, Green Brook and Middlesex in Middlesex.
