This morning, I wrote that the seeds for defeat for Saturday’s Special Election in the 37th RD were sown with the reapportionment of 2002, and the Republican gerrymandering and Democratic acquiescence that took place in Sussex County and elsewhere. Following that piece, I was contacted by someone with intimate knowledge of the House D’s approach to that reapportionment, and they maintain that I did not adequately nor accurately describe their position at the time.
Accordingly, in the interest of fairness, I submit their basic points w/o (as best as I can exercise discipline) my responses:
1. The House Democrats’ plan to gain control in 2002 resided in an attempt to increase the size of the House from 41 to 45 members. Under that scenario, changing demographics would have made it likely that the D’s would have gained control long before 2008. While many Democratic leaders were supposedly on board, my contact claims that President Pro-Tempore Tom Sharp shot down that proposal, along with a Senate Republican proposal to increase the size of the Senate to 23.
2. The contact maintains that the district drawn for Melanie George Marshall was done by the Republicans WITHOUT any attempt on the part of Democratic leadership to influence the decision. This was allegedly done b/c (a) Marshall had made clear that she would run; and (b) if she did so, she would almost inevitably take out either Terry Spence or Bruce Reynolds, depending on whose district she was drawn into. Thus, allegedly, the Barbell District was born.
3. Rep. DiLiberto likely would have been OK if he hadn’t moved into a house a long way from the base of his district. The R’s viewed DiLiberto as a potential statewide threat (he had been mentioned, along with John Carney and Dave Sokola as a possibility to be Minner’s Lt. Governor choice). So, when the opportunity came to remove him from the House through redistricting, Wayne Smith couldn’t resist the opportunity. (FWIW, having been to DiLiberto’s new house, I believe this to be true.)
Finally, my contact believes that, had there not been a Republican surge following 9-11, the D’s still could have taken the House in 2002, and almost certainly would not have lost both the Price and Schroeder seats by such narrow margins.
I have to head out to work, so I will withhold comments until later. I want to thank my contact for being so polite and even-handed in their remarks. I DO believe that, while they see this a little differently from me, my contact sincerely believes that their view of things is fair and accurate. I thank them for contacting me.