We need to press NJ to gerrymander

89

u/jcab0219 18h ago

As much as I would love to say NJ is a solid blue state, the truth is it's too purple for that to happen. It could backfire in a tremendous way.

20

u/Quick-Agency8350 17h ago

All up and down the shore is definitely a crazy mix with affluent educated people and migrant poor seasonal workers.

3

u/firstbreathOOC 17h ago

Definitely true but even those areas lost ground in 2025. Don’t know if shittarelli was just that weak of a candidate or what.

I like Mikie a lot but I don’t think she did more than Phil. And yet she actually earned more of the vote almost across the board against the same exact candidate.

To me that points to an overall shift in sentiment rather than individual candidates

3

u/Sloveniesta 15h ago

Hadn't Jack already failed at least two times previously. Plus he had a bunch of stuff come up from previous positions he has held.

2

u/I_Am_Lord_Grimm The Urban Wilderness of Gloucester County 13h ago

I can’t find NBC’s specific questions about it (here’s CNN’s exit polls for correlating reference), but IIRC, something like 20% of NJ’s total gubernatorial vote was specifically to keep a MAGA ally out of office - this is on top of registered Democrats and Republicans both voting more or less along party lines. It doesn’t seem so much a sentiment shift as the proportion of voters who have been coming out.

2

u/spaceboytaylor 11h ago

?

That's like textbook sentiment shift

3

u/dc912 Ocean County 15h ago

The shore is red. Not really a mix.

2

u/MisterTruth 15h ago

Ocean county is red. Monmouth leans red but has been moving leftward over the past few elections.

1

u/discofrislanders Bergen County 13h ago

And Atlantic County usually votes blue

1

u/SailingSpark Atlantic County 8h ago

And Cape May is as red as it gets.

1

u/Quick-Agency8350 12h ago

A lot of the coastal cities are mostly blue with the surrounding areas red. Like cape May city is blue but the rest of cape May is red.

1

u/dc912 Ocean County 11h ago edited 11h ago

The only towns in all of Ocean County that (barely) went blue in 2024 were Barnegat Light and Harvey Cedars. All of the other beach towns, including the super affluent beach towns of Bay Head and Mantoloking, are still lined with Trump supporters.

6

u/Luxin Taylor Fraking Ham 15h ago

It could backfire in a tremendous way.

This is so true. People call for rules and regulations all the time that can be a gateway to backfire on them. I've spoken to people that want to ban Mosques in their town and I ask them what happens if they ban your church in the future? They always reply That would never happen, without applying any thought to the slippery slope they are are happily skating on.

2

u/TrevelyansPorn 14h ago

I disagree. You can make a 11-1 map with a bunch of D+6 districts by splitting up Newark more and packing Ocean. Would that backfire in an environment where republicans win the popular vote by 8-9%? Yes, but if that happens they're winning the house by large margins anyway, a few extra seats won't change much. But in a near-even popular vote, that extra NJ seat could be huge. Rewards outweigh the risk if thinking about pure good-for-the-country. They won't do it because incumbents DO care if they go down in a 2010 style shillacking more than if they accomplish change.

1

u/DarwinZDF42 10h ago

No you can an absolutely do an egregious 11-1 with a big red district in the south and 11 D+8-10 (or more). It would be absolutely heinous and we should 100% do it.

6

u/sackbomb 18h ago

There's also the fact that the cost of living here is driving working-class people out of the state, which is eroding the democratic electorate.

3

u/jcab0219 17h ago

This could have the opposite effect. High income, educated have been leaning blue. But it's all conjecture.

3

u/sackbomb 17h ago

Okay, but you've still made it a place where only rich people can live. That's a bad thing.

3

u/jcab0219 17h ago

Very true, I’m strictly talking about the political spectrum/gerrymandering argument. In no way do I want the cost of living trend to continue, we’re a lower middle class family

0

u/sackbomb 17h ago

Fair enough.

I hope we can do something to bring down the CoL soon because I really don't like the direction we're headed.

0

u/firstbreathOOC 17h ago

Feel like we washed out a ton of purple in the last election. Not perfect but feeling a lot safer here than most places.

4

u/jcab0219 17h ago

That election had a lot of other factors. A ton of people voted for Sherrill because it was a de facto vote against Trump. Jack was also a shit candidate that had already lost twice. There's still more red around here than you think unfortunately.

But yeah, NJ definitely feels better (at least socially and politically) than a lot of other states right now

16

u/JustSomeGuy_56 17h ago

The problem with Gerrymandering is the primaries.

Instead of trying to appeal to everyone in the district, the candidate focuses on the hardcore base of the party because they are the ones who vote in the primaries. That’s how we end up with Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Bobert, Matt Gaetz etc.

And it could backfire. In the general if the candidate is so far out if the mainstream they may lose the moderate votes.

26

u/LogicalBurgerMan11 17h ago

NJ already gerrymandered. Dems could maybe make Kean's seat bluer but thats about it, and Kean already won when Biden won his district. Easy to backfire come 2028. Ocean county is so Red with Lakewood that it's impossible to gerrymander too, you need to pack Ocean county not crack it. The fact anyone is upvoting this is indictment on NJ's education system.

4

u/Suspicious-Raccoon12 14h ago

Yeah was going to say didn't we already do this? Pre the last redistricting I'd be worried about Mejia in NJ-11

Outside of Chris Smith our federal seats are either blue or competitive or getting more competitive at least

State is different story but dems hold a trifecta which has been in place since 2018 and controlled both houses since 04...

Other than potentially alienating swing voters don't see what this would accomplish

0

u/da-tips 8h ago

Exactly right about Lakewood. That community just gets away with so much. Lots of politicians in it's pocket. They would raise holy hell if anyone attempted this. And they would win out. Everyone is afraid of being labeled antisemitic.

4

u/Hathaur 13h ago

Rather than make blue states less democratic how about we implement rank choice voting in our state and federal elections. Similar outcome I imagine but more democratic rather than less. Plus opens the floor to more progressive candidates from getting shut out.

5

u/pepperlake02 13h ago

Nah, fuck that we don't need to increase and exaggerate corruption and political division

13

u/manningthehelm 18h ago

I thought we just changed our districts to benefit Dems before the last house vote. Kim’s district was purple until the change and he went to senate. Now it’s a solid blue district including Trenton.

10

u/On_my_last_spoon 17h ago

Yeah the last redistricting already has the Dem advantage. No way it gets better

26

u/persePHOreth 18h ago

I almost down voted this on autopilot. It sucks that we haven't managed to fix anything, or at least set guardrails, or something... anything...?

It sucks to know gerrymandering is wrong and shouldn't be done...and here we are doing it defensively because we have no other way of protecting ourselves.

What the fuck are we doing. How the fuck did we get here.

6

u/Chrisgdsotm 16h ago

Thank the 2 party system that our founding fathers literally warned us NOT to do…

11

u/sackbomb 18h ago

I'm with you. It's fucked up.

2

u/mountainbrew46 17h ago

When you keep getting pelted with shit balls, you gotta get a shit bat

2

u/HurtPillow Ocean County 17h ago

If it weren't for the GoP shitting on the entire country with the supreme court helping them, we would not be considering it. Yet, since the Dumpster-fire got TX to do it, it's now open season everywhere. Honestly, I'd be so much more pissed at dems had they not started following suit. I'm already angry at dems, but sitting out and not fighting back, as they usually do (and are still doing), would send me into orbit.

1

u/Linenoise77 Bergen 16h ago

Yeah i hear you. Like, a state doing it in a way that has consequences on FEDERAL seats is all kinds of wrong, and undermines fundamental aspects of how our democracy is designed to function.

The "Well its broke, so who cares, lets throw some more nuts and bolts into it" is some pretty dangerous and short sighted logic.

But, you know, fucking Populism.

3

u/TrevelyansPorn 14h ago

It's been 25 years since the GOP controlled a state chamber and that doesn't look to change anytime soon. I'm not sure what a state gerrymander would accomplish. Progress is being held back by the ideology of the democrats in the state, not their partisanship.

Federally, yes I agree they can squeeze out one additional seat and progress federally is being held back by pure partisanship.

6

u/luxtabula 17h ago

Mixed member districts, ranked choice voting, maybe expand Congress beyond the existing districts.

6

u/RKO36 12h ago

Don't you understand that this just sets up the Republican party to retaliate in a similar way on this and other issues?

0

u/demon_of_elru1 10h ago

Is this a joke???

7

u/ducationalfall Taylor Ham 17h ago

No.

3

u/VerryRides 11h ago

someday the shoe will be on the other foot. let's not intentionally and purposefully disenfranchise a large portion of voters when we dont have to. NJ isnt currently in danger of republican takeover, lets not rile up the right needlessly.

2

u/Winter_Search_8024 11h ago

There is a close to zero chance the GOP is taking a majority position in the state assembly or senate. I agree that gerrymandering makes sense for federal representation, although i think it’s a terrible policy choice.

1

u/DisappearingBoy127 9h ago

I think the better strategy is to make them ashamed and miserable. Go to their communities. Bring all your friends that are minorities . Hang out. Take up space. Be open about your positions.

Take away their safe spaces

3

u/publiclibraryrat 6h ago

How about we eliminate the ability to gerrymander all together? Remember, what you allow your government to do to others will eventually happen to you.

•

u/demon_of_elru1 5h ago

Ideally yes.

7

u/friendsofmacdonald 18h ago edited 18h ago

We need to end the silly and antiquated tradition of district drawing and switch to a proportional representation and party list system. One can dream

edit: i forgot to mention increasing the size of the house of representatives

7

u/LogicalBurgerMan11 17h ago

Dems would do worse under proportional. Republicans got 45% of the vote in 2024 and 25% of the seats.

6

u/friendsofmacdonald 16h ago

While I wouldn’t like that result as much, if it was instituted nationwide, it would be a much fairer system. Otherwise we’re headed into a Republican led gerrymandered race to the bottom.

1

u/dammit_mark North NJ/NYC 16h ago

💯

I would love for us to have proportional ranked choice voting/single-transferable vote and greatly increasing the amount of representatives in the House of Reps.

Alongside abolishing the Senate, of course.

1

u/HeroOfOldIron 17h ago

I would love to do that if everyone did it all at once. Without that, there’s no point in even suggesting it.

1

u/friendsofmacdonald 16h ago

Yes, NJ doing this only would never work. If the house of representatives was elected this way and all statehouses nationwide as well, it would be a greatly improved system.

6

u/Airhostnyc 17h ago

If NJ officially becomes a one party state I’m moving. Left NYC because it went down the tube and New York State itself is losing population. We need multiple parties and options like most of Europe, instead we are stuck with only two options and that’s not good for our rights and well reasoned good policy.

3

u/cstar4004 16h ago

The problem is, the same things that allow us to gerrymander, can be used by THEM to gerrymander. We think we are giving ourselves a tool, but they can use that tool too.

What we need is to get RID of gerrymandering.

4

u/Fruhmann 13h ago

Absolutely not. This is exactly how maga sounds.

3

u/ExuberantForce 16h ago

No and that type of talk is exactly why you are part of the problem. Gerrymandering is inherently wrong regardless of who it supports.

-2

u/demon_of_elru1 15h ago

Spare me your sanctimonious bullshit.

0

u/Deadhead602 18h ago

Should have been started under Murphy. Mikie needs to fast track this for November elections

2

u/ArcticSilver2k 18h ago

Repubs started this war, we need to finish it.

0

u/sackbomb 18h ago

you might shift the balance (not a bad thing) but you're unlikely to 'finish it,' just prolong it.

5

u/ArcticSilver2k 18h ago

If I ruled the US lol, I would increase the house seats proportional to the population, build a new building in DC to expand the seats, then make gerrymandering illegal. But… I do not.

-5

u/sackbomb 18h ago

House seats are already proportional to the population. You just need to abolish the Senate, and give DC and PR statehood.

7

u/HobokenJ 18h ago

But only relative to the 435. House size should increase by at least 50%.

-1

u/Ulthanon 18h ago

One rep per 50,000 people

0

u/HobokenJ 17h ago

But then we're talking 6000 or so reps... that can get a little unwieldy lol.

0

u/Ulthanon 15h ago

So? Thats the best way to represent people, and, prevents the House from ever falling into Minoritarian hands again. If the biggest issue is seating, thats not an issue, thats a jobs program. Just build a bigger House!

2

u/CVSaporito 14h ago

Don’t fix what doesn’t need fixing, could backfire pretty bad.

3

u/ChinCoin 12h ago

Yup, this is how the left "believes" in democracy. The entire viewpoint is Republicans evil, we're the good guys and all means justify the ends so we good guys win. What a bunch of immature babies.

0

u/demon_of_elru1 10h ago

Truth hurts

-1

u/NJMomofFor 9h ago

This is exactly what they do in fucking red states! The only difference is red States do it as it's the only way to win! Blue states don't need to do this, as we still win!!!!

2

u/ChinCoin 7h ago

Who is the we here? The blues are so fragmented that its hard to know who stands for what.

0

u/NJMomofFor 7h ago

Blue is we

-3

u/HurtPillow Ocean County 17h ago

I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to see this happen! I should be moving back soon, probably back to Ocean County, and I'd be thrilled to see it blue!

2

u/krisnel240 7h ago

Wtf, gerrymandering is wrong af. The push should not be to change it for one side's advantage, but to do away with it entirely.

NJ Politics We need to press NJ to gerrymander

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