NJ legislative leaders–primarily Democrats–are supporting a horrible amendment to the NJ constitution, a purely political proposal to increase the ability of politicians to choose their voters. The usual term for it is “gerrymandering.” It would also embed the two-party system into the state’s constitution, a blatant attempt to weaken third parties like the Green and Libertarian parties. Every group that testified on the proposed amendment this past week opposed it. UUs and our allies should oppose this most recent attempt to codify gerrymandering too.
Despite the fact that this doesn’t easily fall under one of UU FaithAction’s six issue areas, it flies directly in the face of our 5th Principle: “The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large.“
For example, the amendment not only gives the sitting Senate president, House speaker, and minority leaders the power to appoint eight members to the redistricting commission. It also requires that four of those appointees must be sitting legislators. This would clearly empower elected officials to have an oversized influence on who votes in their own or their own party’s races.
Furthermore, an analysis by the Princeton Gerrymandering Project demonstrates that in creating districts that the amendment calls “competitive” could actually lead to an overrepresentation of the majority party in the legislature.
While the proposed amendment would mandate respecting “communities of interest”, there are no protections for racial equity and too few public hearings to establish truly representative communities of interest.
Additionally, the explanatory paragraphs that describe the amendment on the required statewide ballot are also misleading: they give no hint of the radical change to representative democracy this amendment entails. What seem like “motherhood and apple pie” goals are more like poisoned apples presented to an innocent public.
Finally, New Jersey would be much better served by a non-partisan redistricting process like California’s, rather than a partisan (even if bipartisan) process designed to protect incumbents, party loyalists, and further entrench the Democratic and Republican parties themselves. Our partners at the League of Women Voters proposes such a non-partisan process in their Fair Districts New Jersey Project.
Please make it a priority! Call or write your senator and assembly members to oppose SCR152 and ACR205 (and earlier SCR43 and ACR60).
What You Can Do:
1. Send an email to your legislators letting them know New Jersey deserves a fair redistricting process and fair maps!
2. Call your legislator’s district office to voice your opposition to SCR152/ACR205. Review our sample script and talking points here
3. Visit the League’s “Partisan Gerrymandering” resource webpage and learn more about the undemocratic proposals being fast-tracked through the Legislature
Thank you for your attention to this very important issue!
When, in mid June 2018, we learned that the Trump administration’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) was–on top of everything else–separating children from their parents at the U.S. border, UU FaithAction NJ stepped up our efforts to speak out. 12 UU protestors and our friends marched at the June 30th “Keep Families Together” rally in Newark NJ.