The Democrats' power grab in New Jersey

You can count on New Jersey to raise the bar in corrupt politics. This week, Democrats there have crafted a scheme to strengthen their already solid grip on power. They are writing gerrymandering into the state’s constitution. To pass their blatantly undemocratic move, they’re using every trick they can to circumvent opposition.

The current method of drawing districts in New Jersey isn’t perfect, but it's straightforward enough. Each party chairman picks five people to sit on a redistricting commission. Typically, each party submits a map, and an independent arbitrator, picked by the New Jersey Supreme Court, decides which map most closely matches the state’s constitutional mandate that districts be compact and contiguous and don’t give partisan advantage.

Democrats, despite controlling both the state assembly and state Senate, want even more power.

Their proposal is a constitutional amendment that would grant politicians more control over the process, define “competitiveness” to Democratic advantage, and almost certainly give Democrats even more legislative seats by requiring boundaries to reflect recent statewide elections where Democrats have done better than Republicans.

Under the proposal, party chairmen would each appoint two members, rather than five, to the redistricting commission. The state Senate president, state Senate minority leader, assembly speaker, and assembly minority leader would each nominate two members. The final member and tiebreaker would come from the state Supreme Court.

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