BY RICHARD A. LEE
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
COMMENTARY
Next month, after we learn what New Jersey’s 40 Legislative districts will look like when the State Apportionment Commission completes its work, we also will get a sense of which political party fares better under the new map.
But the biggest winners in the redistricting process – at both the Legislative and Congressional levels – sometimes are not the parties themselves, but individual lawmakers.
That’s what resulted from the redistricting that took place after the 1990 Census – and it could happen again this time around. The scenarios are somewhat similar.
On the federal level, New Jersey once again is losing a Congressional seat. On the state level, as was the case after the 1990 Census, the Legislature is controlled by the Democratic Party. Unlike today, however, in 1990 the state had a Democratic Governor, Jim Florio. But by the time redistricting took place, there was a strong anti-Democrat sentiment throughout the state due to tax increases enacted early in Florio’s term.
So what happened in the redistricting process two decades ago?
