Newtown’s Fate In Redistricting

May Be Decided By High Court

By Steve Bigham

The redistricting of Connecticut is scheduled for completion at the end of the month and local officials are hoping Newtown will enjoy a larger piece of the pie this time around.

The nine-person committee charged with redrawing the lines is required to finish its task by November 30. If not, the issue goes to the State Supreme Court. Early indications are that that is where it will end up.

Redistricting occurs every ten years following the release of the US Census figures. Newtown’s population grew by 20 percent to more than 25,000 residents during the 1990s, meaning it is now big enough to have its own state legislator. Each district is now broken up into 22,553 people.

 State officials say, however, that just because Newtown has 25,000 people does not automatically mean that one legislator will represent the whole town. There is a good chance that Newtown will once again be cut and pulled apart into other districts.

“The realities are we don’t know where we’re going to begin to make the first cuts,” explained Gary Berner, director of redistricting services for the House Republican caucus. “It’s not a perfect science. You can’t combine both respect for town lines and equal representation perfectly. You always have to bring the argument back that you could do this for Newtown if you started in Newtown.”

State Rep Julia Wasserman said Newtown has always had good representation in Hartford and will continue to no matter what happens.

“If they change the district it will enable me to spend more time here, but as it is now, Newtown has three excellent representatives in Pat Shea and John Stripp, along with State Senator John McKinney. As it is right now, Newtown actually has four votes up in Hartford,” Rep Wassermann said.

Currently, there are 151 legislative districts in Connecticut, which now has a population of approximately 3.4 million people.

Republican State Representative Arthur O’Neill (69th District) of Southbury is a member of the Redistricting Committee. He expressed doubt this week that the issue will be resolved by the deadline.

“We haven’t made any decisions. Everything is up in the air. I thought at one point in time we were making a lot of progress. However, the last few times I met with Democratic counterparts, they didn’t want to negotiate,” he explained.

The biggest stumbling block, Mr O’Neill said, was the fact that despite the changing demographics, the Democrats want to keep things the same. They are the ones who stand to lose the most, he said.

“The areas where Democrats rule shrank while Republican areas grew. We’re telling them they have to lose districts in core cities because those core cities shrank,” Mr O’Neill said. “They are reluctant to face the demographic realities that have occurred. It’s a complicated process. It’s a gigantic jigsaw puzzle.”

Newtown’s Fractured Representation

Since 1965, Newtown has been represented in Hartford by one, two, or three different individuals who each were responsible for a portion of the town. These representatives, however, have constituents in other towns, creating what some feel has been fractured representation over the years. Even Rep Wasserman who is widely known as Newtown’s state legislator must represent a large piece of Bethel in addition to her Newtown duties. Pat Shea (112th District) represents Monroe and a section of Newtown, while John Stripp (136th District) represents Redding, Easton, and small piece of Newtown. Most of Mrs Shea’s and Mr Stripp’s constituents live elsewhere.

Former state representative Mae Schmidle said Newtown has always been a “patch-up town,” being lumped in with small chunks of other communities. She believes the town could very well end up with three different representatives again, despite its population growth. It all depends on what the powers that be decide.

“Redistricting is 100 percent political. Each party tries to garner as many communities into their camp as they can. That’s how they do the federal redistricting too,” she explained. “Newtown is neither fish nor foul. The largest representation is unaffiliated voters. So, if you are Republican town, then the Republicans will go to bat for you or if you’re a Democratic town, then the Democrats will go to bat for you. If you’re predominantly unaffiliated, you don’t have a strong representation.”

In the past, redistricting has always started along the shore and worked its way north. That may explain why Newtown has always been paired with Fairfield, Monroe, and Easton for state senatorial representation, rather than with towns which with it has more in common.

“Newtown has never been the center of a senate seat. The senators from our area always seem to come from other towns,” Mrs Schmidle said.

Before 1965, each Connecticut town had its own representative and some of the larger cities had two. States were free to draw lines for US Congress, state representatives and state senate. A federal ruling, however, required “equal representation under the law.” Every state had to redo is districts to provide for the “one person, one vote” policy.

The state is expected to finalize the redistricting maps by the end of this year and will be in place prior to the November 2002 statewide elections.