By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog
The need for redistricting reform should be self-evident, Save Jerseyans.
Strip politics out of it for a moment. Why would anyone, in any industry or position, public or private, feel an impetus to serve anyone besides himself or herself when there’s virtually no chance of being fired for poor performance? Yet that’s the system gifted to us by the Supreme Court and the late Alan Rosenthal. Each legislative election cycle, only a small percentage of districts see the successful candidate prevail by less than 10-points and the popular will for change is muted by gerrymandering. Check out your latest property tax bill for evidence of how well that works!
Jon Bramnick’s got a way to fix it; on Monday, he announced plans to introduce a constitutional amendment that would fundamentally transform the way New Jersey redistricts every ten years.
The Assemblyman Minority Leader pitched a few other solid ideas, too, ideas which he took on the road Tuesday in Ocean City with freshman Assemblyman Sam Fiocchi. But what’s more important than making sure our leaders are actually accountable to us?
In that sense, it’s undeniably the most worthwhile thing entertained in Trenton in this blogger’s lifetime…
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Hh8NU6KCOc
This could actually be my new favorite person in New Jersey for this week!! 🙂
Or people could just vote. This no new taxes thing is nothing but Democrat welfare. Maybe if we let them raise all the taxes they want, people would start to vote for someone else.
Under Article the First (ratified in 1792, but nobody knew until 2011), with Congressional Districts at a maximum of 50,000 persons, gerrymandering at the Federal level would still happen, but would be far less effective. If Bramnick’s plan positively impacts NJ State Legislative Districts, (video won’t play), then I would certainly support that, as well.
Frederick The original House members were all elected at-large. That is why there is no district residency requiremnt except to live in the state.
If the plan is keeping the redundant 3 members each for 40 districts, it will be a sham.