Independent experts and Republicans on Thursday assailed a proposed constitutional amendment that they said would make New Jersey’s legislative elections less competitive and help cement a Democratic majority for years to come. Democrats are fast-tracking the amendment, which would require voter approval, through the Legislature for a likely vote next week, in hope of getting the question on November’s ballot. Democrats control the Senate, 24-16, and, based on November’s elections, will expand their majority next week in the Assembly to 52-28.
“This is a bald-faced attempt to pull the wool over voters’ eyes, making them complicit in a process that will only serve to increase their own cynicism about politics,” Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, told a Senate panel in rare public remarks opposing specific legislation.
The proposal would change the process by which the state’s 40 legislative districts are drawn every 10 years. Currently, a 10-member Apportionment Commission, composed evenly of members of each party, convenes each decade to redraw districts to account for changes in the census.
Full Article: N.J. Democrats’ redistricting plan draws flak.