Wallace at Work: a High-Stakes Game of Political Partisanship – InsiderNJ

John Wallace is an optimistic fellow.

The former Supreme Court justice ended today’s organizational meeting of the state’s Redistricting Commission with this line:

“Hopefully, we can all be in agreement.”

Well, maybe.

In the past, the equal-number of Democrats and Republicans on the commission have split, leaving the chair to cast the deciding vote.

This time around, that chair is Wallace, who, by the way, was recommended by the Democrats. Stu Rabner, the chief justice, made the pick.

The commission is charged with realigning New Jersey’s 12 congressional districts after the 2020 Census. The work must be done by next January and the new districts will be in play for the 2022 election.

This is a high-stakes game of political partisanship as each side tries to draw a map most advantageous to them. Settling old political scores also can come into play.

In a perfect world, each district would be at least somewhat competitive, but that’s not reality.

Nor would the math support that. Democrats have a registration lead of more than a million, so a 50-50 political breakdown is impossible.

Wallace said the law says the commission must hold three public hearings, but that he plans to hold more than that. Moreover, he said the public is invited to submit comments and even proposed maps to the commission.

Janice Fuller, who chairs the Democrats’ contingent, spoke of a “solemn” responsibility and said she was looking forward to an open, transparent and robust process.

Doug Steinhardt, her Republican counterpart, said he wants to create a fair map

He acknowledged the obvious, “We have a lot of work ahead.”

True, but redistricting this time around won’t be as exciting as it was 10 years ago after the 2010 Census.

New Jersey lost a seat that year and the new map resulted in two Democrats, Steve Rothman and Bill Pascrell, running against each other in a primary.

Pascrell won, thereby ending Rothman’s career as an elected official.

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