“This is bad for our democracy,” said New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy — who is also a Democrat.
“I’m the state’s titular leader of the Democratic Party, but I want to win elections fair and square,” Murphy said. “I don’t want to have anything to do with rigging elections and skewing one party against the other.”
Democrats in the Legislature shelved the proposal after the backlash, but the rift exposed what could be a theme over the next two years: The party may be of two different minds over how to tackle gerrymandering, now that the Supreme Court essentially approved the practice last week.
So will Democrats make good on frequent promises to take partisanship out of the district-drawing process, or draw maps that advantage their party where they can?
