Rep. Pascrell's door in the Bloomfield Municipal Building.
A new state map of Congressional districts was adopted today, and the changes will boot Rep. Bill Pascrell out as Congressman of Baristaville, starting Jan. 2013.
Under the new map, Pascrell will — if re-elected — represent the 9th District, instead of the 8th, and his territory will move to areas of both Passaic and Bergen County. He is from Paterson.
The new map splits most of Baristaville into the 10th and 11th Congressional Districts, with northern parts falling in the 11th district now represented by Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-Harding, and the southern parts falling in the 10th district currently represented by Donald Payne, D-Newark.
Pascrell issued a statement today:
The New Jersey Congressional Redistricting Commission has made their decision and so have I. I couldn’t be more ready to begin serving the people of New Jersey’s new Ninth Congressional District.
I look forward to continuing to represent the towns in Passaic County I have represented for the past 15 years. The district I represent now travels across the Passaic River into Bergen County and south into Hudson County. It continues to be a diverse one, composed of high concentrations of working families. The economic composition of the new district is fairly consistent between the old and new parts of the district. I am eager to begin meeting the residents in the new district and learn about their issues and priorities. But Bergen and Hudson Counties are not new to me, as I have many ties to the region. For example, I served as a public school teacher in Bergen County for more than a decade, and I represented part of the county when I served in the state legislature. I am confident that many of my priorities in the Congress, including quality health care, public safety funding, economic development, transportation investments, and completing environmental cleanups, will translate easily into this new district. There are important projects that need federal attention and I am committed to bringing the full resources of my office to achieving results.
I have been proud to represent the suburban Passaic and Essex County towns in the Eighth District for the past 15 years. I am eternally grateful for the trust they have put in me during that time. Local residents know that my office will always be there for them. We will always be happy to provide our professional casework assistance, even after the new lines go into effect.
I can’t see from the resolution of the map which will be our congressman (if elected.) Either way, it’s a disappointment.
Pascrel is a good guy. We’ll miss him.
Pascrell will not be, uh, “missed” by too many. Gimlet-eyed, and inordinately fond of pork and earnarks, but also none too bright. He was a staunch party loyalist who was no great shakes as either Paterson’s Mayor or area congressman.
Bergen County is much welcome to him, but I’m not sure he’ll find the running there easy unless his new district has also been gerrymandered to retain heavily Democratic precincts.
Rodney Frelinghuysen has been an effective representative for his district. As for Donald Payne, however, all I can say is “Oh brother,” and Baristaville residents are as likely to hear as much from him as they already do from Nia Gill.
In 2011, in Baristaville, I’ve seen Pascrell just about EVERYWHERE I THINK he should have been.. At senior citizen events, health fairs, river cleanups & more. I am shocked that he does’nt represent me anymore? What happened! HELLO Glen Ridge! We just lost Nia Gill (Public Education) in the Senate. Now we lose Pascrell. I fear we have lost our MIDDLE CLASS voice.
Cathar – please give us your definition of “gimlet-eyed”
New Jerseyans need to create more babies, and invite more immigrants to the state. That’s how you get more seats in the House redistricting.
The NJ.com article points out that the new districts in the northeastern section of the state will be more compact, and will assure that the districts represent the diversity of New Jersey. The simple math says that about 65,000 voters have to be added to each surviving district.
The 10 representatives from NJ each represent about 732,000 people, while representatives from other states represent extremes of almost a million (Montana) and about 550,000 per district (Wyoming).
Perhaps it is time to give each rep a proportional vote in the House based on his or her constituency. Mr Payne might get 1.1 votes for his 732,000 constituents, while the single rep from Wyoming (550,000 people) might get 0.6 votes. Maybe that’s the shakeup the House needs…
@paolo, Where to begin?
New Jersey could “invite” more PEOPLE to the state; not just immigrants from other countries, but Americans from other states. One way to do that would be to to create and preserve an environment welcoming and supportive of private businesses. As it is business, and the people they employ, find it easier and cheaper to operate in other states. Mostly, those are the states that have seen greater population growth than New Jersey over the last debate and who will see that growth reflected in more representatives in the house.
With its high taxes, excessive regulation, inefficient services and corruption, New Jersey is just not attractive to what drives growth. And Bill Pascrell has been a part of the problem his whole career. I’ve been to his events and have found him dim, uninspiring and ineffective.
If you are going to propose amending the first article of the Constitution, you should aim higher than just fiddling around with trying to water down the voice of the poor saps in flyover country.
Twainfan2, I generally mean gimlet-eyed” in the manner of one somewhat possessed of a forceful, beady, even malevolent-seeming stare (It’s a useful talent for a politician, I admit.) Pascrell does not strike me as someone I’d want mad at me (though that is tempered by my impression he isn’t terribly bright at core).
But in Pascrell’s case, and without any knowledge of his personal life and likes, I might also suspect that it could just as well refer to a famous use for, and taste for, vodka.
And while he may have showed up “everywhere he should have been,” that hardly yet makes him a forceful legislator for his district, the financially wasteful folly of his getting the run-down Paterson Falls area declared a national park notwithstanding. He is a useful absolute party loyalist, that’s all. It’s how he became mayor of Paterson.