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Aim to save seniority, congressional redistricting panel told
There was far more talk of minimizing turnover than encouraging competitive races Thursday at a public hearing of the commission in charge of redrawing New Jersey’s congressional districts.
The commission, in charge of redrawing the state’s congressional districts, took testimony for the first time this year in a mostly empty theater on the Rutgers University campus.
A common theme — voiced by the three Democratic elected officials as well as the one political scientist who spoke — was that the commission ought to make continuity a goal.
The state’s loss of a seat in the House of Representatives, from 13 to 12 as a result of population shifts to states in the South and West, makes that trickier because two incumbents must wind up in the same district.
But that loss also makes continuity more important, said Assemblyman John S. Wisniewski of Middlesex County, the Democratic Party state chairman. (Symons, Gannett)
