University affected by new state district map

Princeton Borough and Township, currently represented by a Democratic senator and two Democratic Assemblymen, will become part of the heavily Republican 16th District as a result of redistricting, potentially bringing new faces to vouch on the University’s behalf.

Senator Shirley Turner, a Democrat who represents the 15th district, said she was “very remorseful” that her district lost the Borough, Township and University.

“[The University] was one of the bellwethers of the district ... It was a great asset to us,” Turner said. “It was one that I certainly rejoiced in having in the district.”

To Assemblyman Peter Biondi, a Republican from the 16th District who will soon represent the University, the newly crafted legislative lines serve as a mixed blessing, given the considerable Democratic registration of the local area.

“It’s heavily Democratic — we’re heavily outnumbered in the Borough and Township. It wouldn’t be my first choice from a demographic point of view because of the registration heavily favoring Democrats,” Biondi noted. He added, however, that just because the registration numbers were unfavorable did not mean that “we’ll turn our back.”

Unlike in other states, where the lines are drawn by state legislatures, a 10-member independent redistricting commission is tasked with the political mapmaking in New Jersey. If the commission, composed of five Republicans and five Democrats, cannot reach consensus, the Supreme Court chooses a final member to break the deadlock. As no agreement could be reached this year, political science professor Alan Rosenthal of Rutgers University cast the tiebreaking vote in favor of the map produced by the state Democrats.

Members of both parties said the map was drawn this year to make the races in each district more competitive. By adding the Borough and Township to the 16th District, which is based in the Republican stronghold of Somerset County, the commission created a more politically diverse district, Biondi explained.

Dan Preston, president of the Princeton Community Democratic Organization, said he was concerned with the new legislative map.

“We’re concerned about being taken out of our traditional district within Mercer County. It’s a district that we share a lot of common values with,” Preston said. “We’re being put into kind of unknown territory,” he added, describing the 16th District as “way more conservative.”

The lines of the new map have required two legislators in the area to move their homes to represent the same district that they had previously represented. Assemblyman Reed Gusciora, a Democrat from Princeton, has leased an apartment in Trenton to continue to serve the 15th District, which no longer includes the Township. Gusciora had just closed on his Princeton home a month ago, according to NJ.com.

As Gusciora leaves Princeton, Assemblywoman Denise Coyle said she plans to move to the Township to run for reelection in the 16th District.

According to University spokeswoman Cass Cliatt ’96, the University — primarily based in the 16th District, though it has property in the 14th and 15th districts as well — looks at this year’s redistricting “very positively.”

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“Redistricting actually allows a greater opportunity for the University to work with a broader base of legislators,” Cliatt explained, noting that the University will now be able to form new relationships with legislators. “For us, it’s not a party issue — it’s really a relationship issue.”

Turner, however, said that it remains to be seen how the new representation will affect the University.

“I think as Democrats that we were a lot more attentive to the University and to the Princetons in general,” she said. “But I guess that the new representatives of the Princetons will get to know the University pretty well. It’s like any other relationship, it takes time to grow and it has to be nurtured.”

Dudley Sipprelle, chairman of the Princeton Borough Republican Committee, said he thought the new Republican delegation would better represent the Borough, Township and University than had the previous Democratic delegation.

“We actually think that the Princetons will be ... more apt to be listened to by the Republican legislators than they were in the 15th District,” Sipprelle said, explaining that Republicans may feel some pressure to listen to their mostly Democratic constituents.

All 120 seats in the State Senate and Assembly will be up for election this November. Both houses are currently controlled by Democrats.