Proposed adjustments to be made to the three Hudson County voting districts as a result of the 2000 Census would only slightly alter the state political landscape.
Hudson County has three state legislative districts: District 31, which includes Bayonne and part of Jersey City; District 32, which includes East Newark, Edgewater, Fairview, Harrison, part of Jersey City, Kearny, North Bergen, and Secaucus; District 33, which includes Guttenberg, Hoboken, part of Jersey City, Union City, Weehawken, and West New York.
The 32nd District, which is represented by Democratic Senator Nicholas Sacco and Assembly members Joan Quigley and Anthony Impreveduto, would shrink slightly in geography under a Democratic proposal. This district would give up Edgewater as well as the downtown section of Jersey City, but would move further east from its current boundary of Kennedy Boulevard in Jersey City Heights towards Central Avenue.
The 31st District, currently represented by Senator Edward O’Connor Jr. and Assembly members Joseph Doria Jr. and Joseph Charles Jr., would expand northward and eastward to take a large piece of Jersey City. The 33rd District, represented by Senator Bernard Kenny and Assembly members Raul Garcia and Albio Sires, would move slightly south to take its share of Jersey City’s riverfront.
The new state legislative districts were adopted on April 11 after 10 days of hard decisions between Democrats and Republicans on a 10-member committee assigned to making the 40 New Jersey districts conform to new Census numbers. Under federal guidelines in New Jersey, legislative districts must be within 5 percent of 210,000 people per district.
State Republicans have sued in federal court to halt the proposed changes, but local officials believe the court will rule in favor of the changes.
Republicans lost their bid on April 16 to stop the redistricting when U.S. District Judge Dickinson R. Debevoise refused to suspend any use of a proposed map. However, the whole matter was left in limbo when U.S. Circuit Judge Leonard I. Garth in Newark called for an April 23 hearing in Philadelphia.
Garth decided to allow the case to be heard before the full-three judge panel, although New Jersey Democrats believe the court will rule to accept the changes.
Statewide, the plan would move two Republican state senators out of the districts they currently represent and would create challenges to several other Republican legislators by what state officials called “unpacking” districts. This means that blacks and Latinos who were lumped together by Republicans after the 1990 census would be spread out again into a more even dispersion throughout the state.
“Ten years ago, the Republicans managed to pack districts, and this helped them gain strength,” said Assemblyman Anthony Impreveduto (D-32nd Dist.). “By packing a district, I mean, they lumped all the African Americans and Hispanics into urban districts, and this allowed Republicans to gain strength [in other districts].” This change in 1991, according to Impreveduto, helped Republicans take control of state assembly, senate and governor’s office.
“What the new map does is create a more even blend of people,” Impreveduto said. He said this was helped by a significantly more accurate 2000 Census.
Democrats had sharply criticized the 1990 Census, which they said had severely undercounted minorities and other typical Democratic supporters.
“The difference in numbers in the 33rd district alone shows how off the 1990 census was,” Impreveduto said. “The 1990 census showed 190,000 people in that district, the 2000 census showed 225,000. There is no way that district grew by that much over the last decade.”
The 33rd District includes part of Jersey City, all of Hoboken, Union City, Weehawken, West New York and Guttenberg.
Whom do they benefit?
Impreveduto said Democrats made a point of looking at the state’s districts very early to make certain that the political maps portrayed what they considered a fair representation of the populations there, rather than artificial boundaries that served one particular party. Republicans, in their published arguments before the court, claim the proposed new boundaries were designed to benefit Democrats.
Impreveduto concedes that acceptance of this plan would go a long way to helping Democrats take back the legislature in November. Just as importantly, this could become a model for the nation since New Jersey is the first state to begin the redistricting process. This is because its assembly is on a two-year election cycle.
“We may be setting a precedent here,” Impreveduto said. “What we are doing is being watched by the world.”