Gov. Phil Murphy said the state’s Democrats intend to nominate their half of the legislative redistricting commission ahead of next week’s deadline, but he gave little indication of how soon that announcement would come.
“There’s a date by which we have to name the members of the commission … so we’ll make it by then,” Murphy said during Monday’s COVID-19 briefing.
Under state law, members of the Legislative Redistricting Commission must be appointed by Nov. 15. Republicans named their half of the 10-member panel in April.
Essex County Republican Chairman Al Barlas will lead that team. He’ll be joined by Senate Minority Leader Thomas Kean, Jr. (R-Westfield), Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick (R-Westfield), former Republican State Chairman Michael Lavery, and Salem County Republican Chair Linda DuBois.
There’s been less clarity about the Democratic half of the commission. As part of a deal that ended the intra-party fight between State Democratic Chairman John Currie and Essex County Democratic Chairman LeRoy Jones, Democrats in Hudson, Bergen, Essex and Middlesex Counties were each given one of Currie’s five picks.
The last slot went to South Jersey, and Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-West Deptford) in April announced he would be taking that seat.
But the Democratic State Committee has since contested the existence of the deal, and it’s not clear whether Sweeney will actually emerge with a seat on the redistricting panel.
Further complicating the matter is a constitutional amendment approved by voters on Tuesday that would keep the current map in place until 2023 if New Jersey does not receive Census data by Feb. 15. That measure won’t affect the deadline to name commission members. Even if it did, the results of that referendum won’t be certified until after the deadline has passed.