Gov. Chris Christie said Monday regarding redistricting the GOP map was more fair and had more competitive districts “if you look at on the ground experience.’’
He said statisticians can make anything theoretically possible, but said the Republican map would have led to more competition. With the GOP map, “You don’t have every legislator sitting in a safe district” with incumbents whose response to constituents is glacial.
He said he does not foresee a lawsuit at this point over the map that was approved Sunday. “Let’s see what happens in the elections,” Christie said.
Christie defended his involvement in the reapportionment negotiations. “This is a partisan political operation,” he said. State party chairpersons nominate all of the members to the redistricting committee except for the tie-breaking member who is named by the chief justice of the Supreme Court. “It is a constitutional process, which is a partisan political process by its very nature.”
Governors always have been involved with redistricting talks, he said, the only difference is that he has been upfront about it.
He also made it clear he will not discuss publicly what his conversations with tie-breaking 11th member Alan Rosenthal entailed.