NJ-15's Reed Gusciora

The decennial (and how often does one get to use that word? ) process of legislative redistricting is moving along. The new map of New Jersey state legislative districts is set to be announced today. Now, this is not yet the new map for the state’s US congressional delegation. That is still to come, as the state will adjust to losing one of our Representatives in Washington.

This weekend, it’s all about our Assembly members and State senators. This process has been handled by 1n eleven-member commission – by law five Republicans along with  five Democrats and one Independent member, Rutgers U Political Science Professor Alan Rosenthal,  who essentially becomes the most powerful member by virtue of his crucial deciding vote.

The news today is that, despite – or perhaps, because of – the unprecedented personal involvement of Governor Christie in the process in its latter stages, the map that will be chosen will be the version as drawn by the Democrats. Now, even though I am a loyal partisan Democrat, and a literal card-carrying County Committee member, I won’t speak to the qualities of the map as a whole. I will only include a quote from the article linked above. Describing the “fairness test” likely to have been used by Professor Rosenthal in his decison-making process, Momouth University’s Patrick Murray said Rosenthal’s principles likely included having “incumbents facing a familiar electorate. In other words, incumbents should be drawn into districts where the majority of voters are already represented by them.”

So where’s the Trenton angle?

Our town for the last 10 years has been included as part of the 15th Legislative District, NJ-15, which comprises most of Mercer County. For the last several years, our delegation to the Statehouse has been Democrats Senator Shirley Turner of Lawrence, with Assemblywoman Bonnie Watson Coleman of Ewing and Assemblyman Reed Gusciora of Princeton. This morning, press reports claim that leaked information suggests that the new legislative map for NJ-15 will lose Princeton – the article doesn’t say, but I assume that means both the Borough and the Township – to the heavily Republican-registered 16th District, mostly Somerset County.

The new boundaries of NJ-15 – not fully described at press time – will include the residential addresses for Turner and Watson Coleman, but not Gusciora. That means Gusciora would either have to run for a seat from his new 16th District – an effort which the paper suggests would be daunting in a heavily Republican district even after taking in traditionally liberal and Democratic Princeton – or move to the newly-constituted 15th and defend his seat there.

At press time, although the article included quotes from Assemblyman Gusciora about his reaction to the redistricting, there were no indications as to what decision he would make regarding election. The deadline to file petitions for the upcoming June primary is next week, so any effort in either district will have to be made soon. Also, the Mercer County nominating convention, at which the County party will vote on its preferred nominees for the upcoming Primary is tentatively scheduled for next weekend.

I am proud to be represented in the Assembly by Reed Gusciora. I hope he moves within the new boundaries of the district and runs for re-election. I don’t agree with all of his positions – such as his recent comments on possibly supporting a reconstituted death penalty in the State – but he has been a fine Assembly member and a good representative for Trenton.

In the last year, I worked with Mr. Gusciora directly when he came out with me to support the tenants of the Carteret Arms on West State Street when they were in danger of having their lights shut off by PSE&G as a result of problems involving the building’s previous owners. Gusciora got in touch with PSE&G on the tenants’ behalf, and arranged a press conference at the building with his colleagues Shirley Turner and Bonnie Watson Coleman. With that support and the public attention drawn to the case of the hundreds of Trenton residents, he helped keep the power on. On many other occasions  over the last few years, he has been a good friend to Trenton. I hope he continues to be my Assemblyman.

UPDATE: I received a short note from Assemblyman Gusciora this morning saying he was looking to move. This afternoon, Trenton Democratic Chair Alysia Welch-Chester reports on Facebook that he told her at the Capitol this afternoon that he will be moving to Trenton. Welcome to the neighborhood, Reed!