GOP Wins Congressional Map Battle

They lost the battle over a new state legislative map earlier this year, but Republicans end 2011 on a high note. Former State Attorney General John Farmer, the tie-breaking member of the congressional redistricting committee has chosen the GOP’s map.

The new map combines northern New Jersey districts now represented by conservative Republican Scott Garrett and liberal Democrat Steve Rothman. The map gives the GOP an edge of 4 percentage points in voter registration in the merged district.

Farmer says, “The map I am prepared to support today is legally sound. Its districts are compact, contiguous, respect communities of interest and honor our state’s diversity.”

Citing the January 17 constitutional deadline for the new map, Democrats pushed to delay the vote in order to get public input. They were denied.

New Jersey's congressional delegation is losing a seat because of population changes. The delegation, now represented by seven Democrats and six Republicans, will go from 13 to 12 members after November.

All the districts will change a bit with the new map, though none as dramatically as the now-combined 5th and 9th. Each will gain population with the new districts each containing 732,000 residents.