Fuller: Creating a Fair and Representative Congressional Map for New Jersey

OPINION

Every 10 years following the United States Census, states redraw their congressional district lines. This once-a-decade process is often rife with favoritism and bias – politicians have regularly used redistricting to cement their incumbency, disenfranchise voters, or gerrymander districts for their narrow political benefit.

This year, however, the New Jersey Redistricting Commission – for which I had the honor of serving as the Democratic Delegation Chair – adopted a strikingly different approach.

The Commission solicited an unprecedented level of public participation, convening ten in-person and virtual public hearings with participants from all over the state. In all, we carefully listened to the feedback of nearly 200 constituents and dozens of community-interest and advocacy organizations. Some even submitted their own draft maps that informed our map-drawing.

This inclusive process led to the successful development of new congressional districts that reflect the rich diversity of our home state. These districts, certified last week by a majority vote of the New Jersey Redistricting Commission, will enable voters to send strong and capable representation from both political parties to Washington over the next decade.

Throughout the process, the Commission sought to craft a new congressional map that met the high legal and social science standards set forth by our Chair, retired New Jersey Supreme Court Justice John Wallace, Jr.

Justice Wallace tasked us with developing congressional lines that met the goals of fairness and responsiveness to the electorate. He specifically asked us to establish 12 geographically contiguous districts with equal population within one person (773,585 constituents per district), while complying with federal laws like the Voting Rights Act, the U.S. and New Jersey Constitutions, and prior court decisions. He also asked us to prioritize the establishment and retention of minority-majority districts, reduce the number of split counties and municipalities, keep communities of interest together (for example, the joining of Lake Hopatcong towns in the 11th District, LGBTQ communities in the 6th District, and Orthodox communities in the 4th District), and ensure geographic compactness.

After several months of public feedback and thoughtful deliberations and with the crucial expertise of the Electoral Innovation Lab at Princeton University, our team followed the very best standards of mapmaking and developed a set of fair and representative congressional districts that reflect the principles set forth by Chairman Wallace. The map creates five majority-minority congressional districts. It limits splits in towns and counties, with nine counties having no municipal splits at all and only 14 of New Jersey’s 565 municipalities split among multiple representatives. And it maintains core competitive districts instead of resorting to gerrymandering – allowing voters to choose their representatives instead of the other way around.

This map will help deliver real and meaningful representation for all New Jerseyans, but especially voters of color, who represent 48% of the state’s population. Notably, it increases the African American population of the 10th District, recognizes New Jersey’s fast-growing Asian American and Pacific Islander populations by doubling their representation in the 3rd District, and preserves the Latino-majority 8th District.

As the first woman Democratic Delegation Chair of the New Jersey Redistricting Commission in our state’s history, I was honored to lead a fair and inclusive redistricting process under the guidance of Justice Wallace. The people of New Jersey should know that fairness and objectivity guided the drawing of their new congressional districts and will help shape the course of our state for the next decade and beyond.

Janice Fuller served as the Democratic Delegation Chair of the New Jersey Redistricting Commission. She is a resident of Ocean Township.