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Politico
Politico
National
Matt Friedman

For battered South Jersey Democrats, there's little to love in the new legislative district map

“Redistricting will not deter me,” Senate President Steve Sweeney said. | Matt Rourke/AP Photo

TRENTON, N.J. — The boundaries of former New Jersey state Senate President Steve Sweeney’s old district didn’t change much under a new legislative district map adopted last Friday in an unprecedented compromise between Democrats and Republicans.

But a few minor tweaks — most notably the removal of the heavily-Democratic city of Bridgeton in Cumberland County and the addition of several conservative rural towns in the county — will make it harder for the Democrat to make a comeback in 2023, two years after his shocking loss to Republican Ed Durr in the November election.

“Redistricting will not deter me,” Sweeney, who has privately said he plans to run for governor in 2025 but also hasn’t ruled out an attempt to reclaim his Senate seat next year, said in a phone interview.

The new map of New Jersey's 40 legislative districts presents a difficult challenge for Sweeney and his fellow South Jersey Democrats who, between Sweeney’s political acumen and the fundraising prowess of power broker George Norcross, had dominated the region for years — voting in lock-step in the Legislature and parlaying that unanimity into out-sized influence over the state Democratic Party. That, and a longstanding unofficial alliance with former Republican Gov. Chris Christie, enabled South Jersey Democrats to often get what they wanted when they wanted it.

But with a national trend of shifting political allegiances, Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy's frequent clashes with the south, and a new district map that does them few favors, that clout is going to be hard to reclaim.

“The kind of voter [South Jersey Democrats] have been counting on in the past in their get-out-the-vote efforts has just left the Democratic Party,” Monmouth University pollster Patrick Murray said, referring to blue-collar white voters the regional party had long courted. That's a mirror shift from the political change further north, where white-collar voters in once solidly-Republican suburbs have trended Democratic.

It was tough-going for South Jersey Democrats even before the new district map was adopted.

In the 2017 election, they lost a Senate seat in Atlantic County’s District 2. Two years later, they lost all three legislative seats in District 1, the southernmost district in the state. Then came the disastrous 2021 election, when Sweeney and his running mates, as well as Republican-turned-Democratic state Sen. Dawn Addiego, all lost. That left South Jersey Democrats with four Senate seats — 10 percent of the upper house — and no one occupying the top position that sets the chamber's agenda.

Meanwhile, Democratic machines further north were resurgent. In 2019, South Jersey Democrats lost an attempt to oust then-Democratic state Chair John Currie in favor of LeRoy Jones, the Essex County Democratic chair — a fight that was largely over the state chair’s authority to appoint members to the redistricting commission.

Jones, at the exclusion of South Jersey Democrats, cut a deal to assume leadership of the party, and then became openly critical of Norcross.The fight reverberated into January of this year when, after South Jersey Democrats’ allegedly attempted to hurt Jones' ally, Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.), in congressional redistricting, Jones stripped Sweeney of his place on the legislative redistricting commission. That left South Jersey Democrats with no representation on the Democratic delegation.

Under the new district map, there’s only one change that poses a big risk to any South Jersey Democratic incumbents, but none that creates significant new opportunities.

The once safely-Democratic 4th District becomes a Democratic-leaning swing district. That will likely force the party to spend resources defending its three legislative seats — money that could otherwise be spent trying to reclaim seats in the Atlantic County-dominated 2nd District, or in Sweeney’s old 3rd District.

While the GOP-held 1st District becomes a little more Democratic under the new map, the area has gone so firmly into the Republicans’ camp since former Democratic state Sen. Jeff Van Drew entered Congress — and then became a Republican — that it's unlikely to make much of a difference.

Sweeney made his displeasure with the map known before it was formally adopted, noting that it gave Republicans several key opportunities.

“In 2011, when we did redistricting, we drew a map when we only had 350,000 more Democrats [statewide] and we drew a map that could have 27 Democratic seats,” in the Senate, Sweeney said. “Now, we have a million more Democrats and we can create a map that’s 20-20 and they claim victory.” (Democrats’ actually had a voter registration advantage of a little under 700,000 in 2011).

But Sweeney refused to count South Jersey Democrats out, noting that the 3rd District now more closely resembles the one to which he was first elected. But, he said, the removal of Bridgeton makes it harder for a minority candidate, like his former running mate, Assemblymember Adam Taliaferro, to be elected.

Sweeney said he wouldn’t have allowed Democrats to agree to a compromised map with Republicans, noting that two sets of North Jersey Democratic incumbent senators are now in districts together.

“There would’ve been a different outcome. And that’s why they kicked me out," Sweeney said. "I wouldn’t have let them cannibalize members. I wouldn’t have let them put members against each other."

Jones in a phone interview declined to respond to Sweeney’s criticism, other than to say, “Everyone’s entitled to be a Monday morning quarterback.”

Jones said there was no attempt to hurt South Jersey Democrats in the redistricting process. Removing Bridgeton from Sweeney’s district, he said, came in response to members of the public who, during several public hearings, testified in favor of putting the city together with the similar small cities of Millville and Vineland.

“We paid attention to a lot of the testimony, as did [redistricting tiebreaker Philip] Carchman," he said. "And we tried to accommodate the testimony from the people, because this was a people process.”

Jones and Sweeney have at least one thing in common. Both were optimistic that, despite the apparent headwinds, Democrats could win in South Jersey.

“The question is 'can Democrats win?' Absolutely," Jones said. "If Democrats work hard, have a clear message and that becomes the work that goes into winning, yes, Democrats can win.”

Norcross also expressed optimism.

"We are very comfortable with the map and are confident of picking up the Senate and Assembly seats in LD 2 and 3 (where we lost narrowly in a very difficult year for Democrats) and maintain districts 4, 5, 6, 7," he said in a statement. "We will be very well funded to protect the interests of South Jersey."

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