The bipartisan Commission charged with drawing the boundaries for congressional districts for the next decade voted to approve a map put forward by the Democrats.  The vote was 7-6 with Democrats in favor and Republicans opposed.  Former Justice John Wallace, the 13^th and tiebreaking member of the commission sided with the Democrats.  According to the GOP, The new map could result in a nine to three Democratic advantage in the state’s 12 U.S. House seats.  Currently, Democrats hold 10 seats to the GOP’s two. Before Democratic pickups up in 2016 and 2018, the map was split evenly, with Democrats and Republicans each holding six seats.

Changes reflected in the new map include a reshuffle of the typically competitive 3rd District, which previously included Burlington and Ocean counties and is represented by Democratic Rep. Andy Kim. Ocean County was removed entirely from the district and replaced with parts of Mercer and Monmouth. Kim’s victory in 2018 was a Democratic gain from the GOP and the new map improves his chances of holding the seat in 2022.  Another change is the addition of all of GOP-leaning Warren County to the 7th District, which is currently represented by Democrat Tom Malinowski. Malinowski picked up the seat in 2018 for the Democrats.  Senator Tom Kean has already announced he is again running to defeat Malinowski and the new map dramatically improves Kean’s chances.

The new map is a result of the federal census, which happens every 10 years, and the requirement that seats in the House be allotted to states based on their population. New Jersey’s population grew from 8.8 million people a decade ago to 9.3 million, a nearly 6% increase. The number of House seats, though, remained unchanged at 12.