Fulop formalizes complaint against Dem plan to split Jersey City three ways

In a letter sent yesterday to Legislative Apportionment Commission tiebreaker Philip Carchman, Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop formalized his objections to the Democratic-proposed legislative map, which would divide Jersey City into three different districts.

“The ‘Turnpike Map’ currently under consideration by the New Jersey Legislative Apportionment Commission violates the Constitution of the State of New Jersey by proposing to improperly and unnecessarily divide the City of Jersey City amongst three legislative districts – the 31st, 32nd, and 33rd,” Fulop wrote. “The commission must not approve any proposed map that divides Jersey City amongst more than its two current legislative districts, the 31st and 33rd.”

Fulop said that the constitution bars counties and municipalities from being divided among legislative districts “unless necessary to meet [other] requirements.” Because Jersey City’s population of 292,449 can easily fit within two legislative districts, Fulop argued splitting it in three cannot be defined as “necessary” given the constitution’s language.

The written objection is a formalization of what Fulop previously expressed on Twitter; several other Hudson County politicians have also voiced their disapproval of the plans since they were released on Monday. 

Under the current district lines, Jersey City is divided in two, with the majority of the city in the 31st legislative district and the remainder in the 33rd. But Hudson County’s population growth made the current district divisions impossible, as the municipalities in the 31st and 33rd districts are now collectively much larger than two legislative districts.

The Democratic plan solved this problem by leaving the current lines largely unchanged, but with the 32nd district taking a small chunk of Jersey City to relieve excess population. The Republican plan, meanwhile, kept a two-way split in Jersey City but caused more disruption to the north by shifting Hoboken into the 32nd district and forcing an incumbent-on-incumbent Assembly matchup.

There is some precedent to splitting Jersey City in three; in fact, the 2011 map was the first time since the modern state legislative system debuted in 1973 that the city was put in only two districts. But during the 2011 redistricting process, both parties agreed to split Newark and Jersey City only once, creating a precedent that may be hard to walk back ten years later.