Manalapan Mayor Andrew Lucas will be a candidate for the state legislature in the GOP primary from the new 12th district.
Lucas, who will make a formal announcement tomorrow, said he would defer to Assembly incumbents Sam Thompson and Ronald Dancer should either seek the vacant Senate seat. In such case Lucas will run for Assembly. Should neither incumbent Assemblyman run for Senate, Lucas will seek that seat.
Lucas said that he will not compete with Freeholder Director Rob Clifton for the Monmouth GOP line with the screening committee, but would take the race to a primary.
“I think this will be fun and reinvigorate the western portion of the Monmouth GOP,” said the Mayor.
New district 11: Comprised from parts of the old 11th and 12th. Jennifer Beck is the incumbent senator. Caroline Casagrande and Mary Pat Angelini are incumbent assemblywomen. A district with all female representatives! That is probably a historical first.
This district includes Asbury Park. Dan Jacobson’s political comeback is effectively over as he won’t challenge Jennifer Beck. Beck’s career is the creation of Jacobson’s newspaper….just ask him, he’ll swear to it.
New district 12: In addition to the Monmouth towns of Allentown, Englishtown, Manalapan, Matawan, Millstone, Roosevelt and Upper Freehold, this district includes Old Bridge of Middlesex County, the Ocean County towns of Jackson and Plumsted and the Burlington County towns of Chesterfield, North Hanover, New Hanover and Wrightstown.
Sam Thompson of Old Bridge and Ronald Dancer of Plumsted are the incumbent assembly members. There is no incumbent senator. This district creates an opportunity for Monmouth County Freeholder Director Rob Clifton, and Manalapan Mayor Andrew Lucas to run for the legislature. Dancer is also the Mayor of Plumsted. Thompson is Chairman of the Middlesex County GOP. It is unknown if either men have ambitions to move up to the Senate.
New district 13: Declan O’Scanlon of Little Silver joins Amy Handlin of Middletown in representing this district in the Assembly. Joe Kyrillos of Middletown is the incumbent Senator.
This district keeps the Bayshore from the old 13th, adds Atlantic Higlands, Highlands, Monmouth Beach, Rumson and Sea Bright from the old 11th and Fair Haven, Little Silver, Oceanport, Marlboro from the old 12th.
New 30th: Incumbent Senators Sean Kean (Wall) and Robert Singer (Lakewood)both live in this district. Singer represented both Lakewood and Howell in the old 30th. Singer has to be considered the favorite in a head to head match up with Kean in a primary.
In addition to Wall, Lakewood and Howell, the new district in comprised of the southern Monmouth coastal towns of Brielle, Bradley Beach, Avon by the Sea, Belmar, Lake Como, the Spring Lakes, Sea Girt, Manasquan. Farmingdale rounds out the Monmouth towns in the district. From Ocean County, Pt Pleasant and Pt. Pleasant Beach are in the district.
Dave Rible is the incumbent Assembly member from the new 30th and there is a vacancy. Former Howell Mayor Joe DiBella could be a contender for the Assembly vacancy. Would Kean consider going back to the Assembly? Stranger things have happened, but not very often. Running for Assembly might be the only way for Kean to continue his political career.
Multiple news outlets are reporting that Professor Alan Rosenthal, the 11th member of the Apportionment Commission will cast his vote for the Democratic map when the commission has its final meeting in Trenton at noon today.
Assemblyman Jay Webber, the Republican co-chair of the commission told Poltickernjthat his team was disappointed and believed they submitted a better map. Webber said the new map will be an improvement from the current map.
Democratic co-chair Assemblyman John Wisiewski, also the Democratic State Chairman, told Politickernjthat his side won by submitting a map the more closely complied with the standards Rosenthallaid out when he joined the commission a month ago. The Democratic map minimizes incumbency disruption and has a smaller population deviation among districts than the Republican map does.
Both sides expect that the Democrats will retain control of the legislature with the new map, but by smaller margins than their current representation.
MMM will report on the impact the new map will have on Monmouth County districts this afternoon after the map is released.
While politicians draw lines to save their jobs the People’s Map creates genuine competition
Middletown, NJ –Several articles have come out recently displaying the hysterics surrounding the possibility of a handful of legislators who may lose their jobs as a result of the Apportionment Commission’s final map. Meanwhile, an analysis of “The People’s Map” illustrates nicely how genuine competition between and among parties and incumbents can be easily achieved by simply drawing district lines according to the Constitution.
Below are some of the intra-party battles created as a result of the non-gerrymandered map produced by the Bayshore Tea Party Group:
·District 4: Sen. Steve Sweeney (D) v. Sen. Fred Madden (D)
·District 13: Sen. Joe Kyrillos (R) v. Sen. Jenifer Beck (R)
·District 21: Sen. Barbara Buono (D) v. Sen. Bob Smith (D)
·District 27: Sen. Anthony R. Bucco (R) v. Sen. Joseph Pennacchio (R)
·District 31: Sen. Brian Stack (D) v. Sen. Nicholas Sacco (D)
·District 9: Asm. Ronald Dancer v. Asw. Diane Gove v. Asm. Brian Rumpf
There are 11 additional districts in which incumbents of the same party would be pitted against one another. This is what representative democracy should look like.
While politicians holed up in lavish accommodations at one of New Brunswick’s finest hotels wheel and deal for their own personal benefit, voters are left with the scraps from a rancid political meal. “The People’s Map” changes that dynamic and forces long-term incumbents, many of whom have benefited for a decade from our previously Gerrymandered districts, to defend their records with their constituents and actually campaign for reelection.
It is a uniquely American ideal that no man should be entitled to the benefit of another’s labor. This ideal is no more applicable than in the world of electoral politics.
Upon discovering the information, primary map-maker and Bayshore Tea Party Group Redistricting Committee Chairman Sean Spinello stated:
“One thing that struck me with all the attempts at manipulating the matchups and wanting easy victories was that it sounded like old time boxing promoters…except with less integrity.”
The Bayshore Tea Party Group was heartened recently by NJ Apportionment Commission Co-Chairman and Assemblyman John Wisniewski’s statement citing the importance of adhering to the NJ Constitution with regard to the legislative map drawing, as reported in The Star-Ledger on March 28.
As per Chairman Wisniewski’s admonition, we expect that the Commission will issue a map fully compliant with law and the New Jersey Constitution, such as “The People’s Map.”
Please visit our website at www.bayshoreteaparty.org for information on how you can become involved with the effort to restore American Exceptionalism and fix our broken government. [email protected] or call 732-842-6652 for more information.
The Bayshore Tea Party Group Headquarters is located at 275 Rt. 35N in Middleotwn,NJ. Please contact
The following is the methodology I employed to construct the Bayshore Tea Party Group’s “People’s Map.” Thank you to More Monmouth Musings for allowing me to address some of the confusion and misinformation that has been spread elsewhere.
1. The People’s Map was drawn solely based on federal legal requirements and New Jersey Constitutional requirements. No voter registration data or incumbent residency information whatsoever was known specifically so they could not cause intentional or even subconscious bias in the map drawing
2. The map was drawn using only US census data, a map of New Jersey, pencils, paper, calculators and a copy of the New Jersey Constitution. These items do not cost much. No computers or mapping programs were utilized. No “funding” or “support” was provided for the mapping “project”, which consisted of unpaid concerned citizens working for long hours to draw a map that meets federal legal and New Jersey Constitutional requirements.
3. “The People” for whom the map was drawn are all the people, regardless of party affiliation, who want the law followed and do not want the law disregarded in favor of ad hoc self-interested decision making by politicians. Admittedly, if someone wants a gerrymandered map that violates law and results in voter nullification and non-competitive elections, “The People’s Map” is not for you.
4. Some critics of our map are reading the wrong part of the State Constitution as the basis of their complaints, citing Article XI, rather than Article IV. It is no wonder that “no matter how many times I read this provision”(i.e., Article XI), the author did not find the New Jersey Constitutional districting requirements. Specifically, Article IV, Section II, Paragraph 3 of the New Jersey Constitution provides in relevant part:
“The Assembly districts shall be composed of contiguous territory, as nearly compact and equal in the number of their inhabitants as possible, and in no event shall each such district contain less than eighty per cent nor more than one hundred twenty per cent of one-fortieth of the total number of inhabitants of the State as reported in the last preceding decennial census of the United States. Unless necessary to meet the foregoing requirements, no county or municipality shall be divided among Assembly districts unless it shall contain more than one-fortieth of the total number of inhabitants of the State, and no county or municipality shall be divided among a number of Assembly districts larger than one plus the whole number obtained by dividing the number of inhabitants in the county or municipality by one-fortieth of the total number of inhabitants of the State.” (Emphasis Added).
5. Partisan gerrymandering is not one of the “foregoing requirements” that permits municipalities/counties to be split among more districts than prescribed by the New Jersey Constitution. The Commission does NOT have the discretion to gerrymander by manipulating districts as it chooses for partisan advantage at the expense of the REQUIRED New Jersey Constitutional criteria such as population equality and limitation on municipal/county splits among districts. Only when discretionary factors such as the odious practice of partisan gerrymandering do NOT cause non-compliance with required Constitutional and legal criteria may such discretionary factors be considered.Additionally, once we actually adopt a Constitutional map, there will be less dramatic district changes in the future.What the partisan interests seek to do presently is to perpetuate an unconstitutional map by arguing it is in the interest of The People, rather than themselves, to look backward and protect incumbents.
6. While we have not yet seen the final map, based on the press reports of horse-trading districts and attempts to fix match-ups like old time boxing promoters, it is hard to imagine a resulting map that will comply with the New Jersey Constitution’s limitations on splitting municipalities and counties. By way of comparison, the current legislative districting map has 26 additional municipal/county “over-splits”; while “The People’s Map” has 3 since only 3 were necessary to meet the district legal requirements of population equality, contiguousness and compactness. Three was the best I could do. If possible, a different map with either 2, 1, or 0 extra splits would be even better, and I would encourage anyone who may make such a map to offer it publicly prior to Sunday’s vote irrespective of impact on incumbent protection.If rather than the Constitutional limitation on municipal/county splitting, will the map be considered Constitutional if it violates the population requirements – NO.
7. A principle of conservatism is to want the law to be followed and if the law is not suitable, to follow the legal process to change the law. It is not conservative in any way to only want the law followed when it suits one’s personal interests, and to disregard the law when it does not. It is conservative to want our nation to be a nation of laws, not of men engaging in ad hoc lawless decision making while providing aristocratic handouts, such as tenured lifetime appointments as “elected” officials resulting from gerrymandered districts, “cleared primaries,” and no limitation on terms in office. It certainly is not conservative of any elected official to participate in or support lawless district mapping for their self-interest.
8. A government that is not accountable to the people at the ballot box will not be accountable to the people.
9. I will support any map that all meets legal and Constitutional requirements and continue to oppose any map that does not.
10. The Bayshore Tea Party Group fully supported drawing a map based solely on legal requirements (what else should be considered, really?) regardless of the outcome with respect to “incumbent protection” in either party. We have been accused through shameless innuendo, and without any basis whatsoever, of choosing a side in the mapping to further some partisan interest. Whose side are we on? – The side of the law. And we would hope that all Commission members, as well as every one of our current legislators – also known as “lawmakers” who have sworn to uphold the law – would be on the side of the law rather than on the side of legal disregard for self-interest. The partisan interests at stake are not Democrat and Republican; they are The People and the respective party establishments. The bi-partisanship we need now is not an 11th hour power sharing agreement between partisan Commission members, it is the establishment “crossing the aisle” to join The People. If Commission members truly represent the interests of The People, why wouldn’t they support the same map as a Commission member as they would if an independent voting member of the public? Over half of New Jersey voters are independent and neither Democrat nor Republican.
11. While others in the Bayshore Tea Party Group provided significant and time consuming help with the mapping effort, I drew the map’s districting, and re-drew it, and re-drew it until it was of unimpeachable Constitutionality. Others in the Bayshore Tea Party Group learned of the specific districting when the map was completed. I do not know Governor Christie nor any of his staff. No elected official, staff member, or other person related to any political party or agenda was consulted in any way or involved in any aspect of the mapping whatsoever. It is truly a map of People, not party.
12. Although I am concerned by the lack of elected officials and potential candidates seriously addressing the current problems of our great nation, I am not and will not be a candidate for any elected office. It is very clear the impact that a private citizen with a pencil, pad, calculator and desire to follow the law can have on the public arena. I will continue my efforts as a private citizen to advocate for lawful, principled government and leaders of uncompromising integrity. I, and the Bayshore Tea Party Group, encourage all citizens – whether Democrat, Republican, third-party or independent, to do the same to protect The People’s liberty and make a positive impact on our communities, states, and America, the greatest nation on God’s earth.
Most respectfully submitted to my fellow citizens,
Senator Sean Kean could have a bigger problem than Dan Jacobson in his quest for renomination to the State Senate.
According to a report on Politickernj the proposed legislative map favored by the Democrats on the redistricting commission puts Kean of Wall Township in the same district as Senator Robert Singer of Lakewood.
Without knowing the composition of the entire proposed district assessing each senator’s prospects in a head to head primary would be purely speculative. However Singer would start with a decided advantage based upon the size of the two senators’ home towns. Lakewood has 12,636 registered Republicans. 3813 Lakewood Republicans voted in the 2009 primary and 873 voted in the 2007 primary. Wall has 6,171 Republicans. 2507 voted in the 2009 primary, 457 in 2007.
Neither Kean nor Singer are favorites of Governor Christie. Kean was uninvited from Christie’s Monmouth County press conference after the December blizzard. Until recently, Singer was a “double dipper,” serving both in the Senate and on the Lakewood Township Committee.
As the horse trading escalates in New Brunswick through Sunday, trading Kean or Singer for a more competive district elsewhere in the state, perhaps moving Atlantic City into an Ocean County dominated district, thereby putting Senator Jim Whelan’s Democratic seat at risk could be considered a good trade by the Christie loyalists on the commission.
Politickernj and The Star Ledger have both reported that the final map will be adopted on Sunday at noon.
Bayshore Tea Party Group to Lead Demonstration to End Partisan Gerrymandering
Together with groups and voters from around the State, BTPG will gather in New Brunswick
Middletown, NJ – As reports leak out about the usual “Soprano State” dealings in New Brunswick- incumbents attempting to persuade the Apportionment Commission to protect their jobs and “their” districts-the Bayshore Tea Party Group together with other concerned groups and voters from around the State will gather at Monument Park in New Brunswick to demand an end to partisan Gerrymandering in New Jersey
Where: Monument Square
317 George St.
New Brunswick, NJ
When: 7 PM, Wednesday March 30, 2011
Since having released a map of unimpeachable Constitutionality on March 25, 2011-one wholly devoid of illicit considerations such as the protection of incumbent legislators-“The People’s Map” has received widespread and bipartisan praise from scholars such as Monmouth University’s Patrick Murray as well as from individual Republicans, Democrats and unaffiliated voters. The support from such disparate political viewpoints represents a statewide disgust with the practice of politicians selecting their voters rather than voters electing their representatives.
That practice is Gerrymandering and it must stop.
Members of the Bayshore Tea Party Group and other concerned citizens will hold a constant demonstration from tonight at 7PM until the Commission votes on the map that will bind New Jersey for the next 10 years.
All groups and individuals concerned with the odious process of Gerrymandering and with the intentional dilution of their vote on the altar of protecting incumbent politicians are invited and encouraged to attend.
It’s time the voters of New Jersey stood up and demanded an end to partisan Gerrymandering. That time is now.
Please visit our website at www.bayshoreteaparty.org for information on how you can become involved with the effort to restore American Exceptionalism and fix our broken government.
The Bayshore Tea Party Group Headquarters is located at 275 Rt. 35N in Middletown, NJ. Please contact [email protected] or call 732-842-6652 for more information.
The stakes are apparently very high as the Legislative Reapportionment Commission works almost around the clock this week to settle on a map that could determine the partisan control of the New Jersey State Legislature for the next 10 years.
The 5 Democrats and 5 Republicans on the commission are working to convince the 11th “Independent” member or the commission, Dr. Alan Rosenthal, PhD of Rutgers to choose their proposed map. Rosenthal is said to be trying to either forge a compromise map or will choose one. Politickernj is reporting that Rosenthal is using the Democratic map as his foundation.
But who are the stakes high for?
Ultimately the stakes are high for all New Jersey residents, as what is decided this week will inevitably impact the quality of all of our lives over the next decade. But are most New Jersey residents even paying attention?
Are the commissioners in New Brunswick working so hard this week for the good of the people of the State, or are they fighting for power, control and the money that comes along with it. Certainly there are commissioners that have pure motives. I’d like to think that they are Republicans. Surely my Democratic readers hope the same of their side.
The Bayshore Tea Party Group has proposed a map that meets all the requirements set out in the Constitution. Turns out that, as a side benefit that proposed map also increases the competitiveness of the districts, and likely would increase minority representation, according to Monmouth University pollster Patrick Murray’s analysis of the map.
So why are they working so hard in New Brunswick? Why can’t both sides and Rosenthal just embrace the BTPG’s Constitutional “People’s Map?”
It turns out that there are “principles” not found in the State or U.S Constitutions driving the efforts. Perhaps I should say principals rather than principles. The principle principals are incumbents. The districts belong to them. The office’s they hold are theirs, not the people’s. That’s how it is in practice.
Even Rosenthal buys into incumbent protection. He puts it in noble sounding academic jargon, espousing the “continuity of representation” and the value of crafting a map that is “minimally disruptive.”
Continuous for who? Minimally disruptive to who? Rosenthal’s rhetoric and scholarly writings make it sound as if “continuity of representation” and “minimal disruption” are of value to the electorate. But are they?
It seems to me that most people are oblivious to what legislative districts they live in and relatively few know who their representatives are.
I don’t have empiracle data to back that hunch up, so I called Patrick Murray. He said that he is unaware of recent polling data of residents awareness of their districts or their legislators, but that he shares my hunch.
So I took to the streets. Main Street in Belford actually, to find some data. This is what I found:
Watch the video. Some of it is pretty funny. While not as scientific as one of Murray’s polls, I doubt the results would change with a larger statistical sample and with interviews throughout the state. Decades of miserably low turnout in legislative elections are statistically significant enough to conclude that most people are not paying attention to the legislature, and don’t know who their legislators are.
Maybe a Constitutional, non-gerrymandered map would change that. Maybe people would pay attention and vote if their vote mattered.
Sure, I feel for my friends in the legislature who would be maximally disrupted by the adoption of the BTPG’s map. But the offices they hold and the districts they represent don’t belong to them.
There won’t be real change in Trenton, the city won’t be turned upside down, unless there is a legislative map adopted that does not take into account the residency of incumbents.
The Republicans on the commission should embrace the BTPG’s map and invite Rosenthal to join them.
Revised Map Makes Minor Substantive and Cosmetic Changes
Middletown, NJ – The Bayshore Tea Party Group issued a revised version of “The People’s Map” to the Apportionment Commission. The changes are as follows:
· Moves Egg Harbor Township, Weymouth and Estell Manor from District 2 to District 1;
· Moves Atlantic City, Brigantine and Absecon from District 1 to District 2;
· Makes cosmetic corrections to several inadvertently miscolored municipalities that do not affect the population outcomes of any other District.
In response to inquiries received following the release of “The People’s Map”, the Bayshore Tea Party Group Redistricting Committee would like to clarify some questions the public may have with the creation of our map:
“The People’s Map” was created entirely by hand and without the assistance of any computer program, such as the program in use by the Apportionment Commission and political parties;
“The People’s Map” was drawn using public census data obtained via the internet, pencils and a calculator;
No funding or other outside support from any person or organization was provided for the creation of “The People’s Map”. The aforementioned pencils, paper and calculators were provided by the Bayshore Tea Party Group, which is funded entirely through the generous donations of our members and the public.
The Bayshore Tea Party Group would like to acknowledge and thank Monmouth University’s Patrick Murray for the notes he provided upon his review of our map.
BTPG would also like to publicly acknowledge Jim Meyer of Gateway Press in Atlantic Highlands, NJ for his hard work in preparing “The People’s Map.”
Please visit our website at www.bayshoreteaparty.org for information on how you can become involved with the effort to restore American Exceptionalism and fix our broken government.
The Bayshore Tea Party Group Headquarters is located at 275 Rt. 35N in Fairview, NJ. Please contact [email protected] or call 732-804-3733 for more information.
Governor Chris Christie has spent the day with Republican members of the of the Redistricting Commission, according to a report published on Politickernj.
The commission, 5 Democrats, 5 Republicans and 11th member Dr. Alan Rosenthan of Rutgers have been holed upped at the Heldrich Hotel in News Brunswick today. Democrats and Republicans have been meeting with Rosenthal separately throughout the day, making their respective cases for the new legislative map’s configuration.
