The tie-breaking 13th member of the committee, John J. Farmer Jr., chose the Republican proposal, which was approved Friday with a 7-6 committee vote in Trenton.
U.S. Rep. Steve Rothman, a liberal Democrat who represents parts of Hudson, Passaic, and Essex Counties, took the hardest hit. His hometown of Fair Lawn was merged into the Republican-leaning Fifth District represented by Rep. Scott Garrett, a Republican and the state's most conservative member of the U.S. House. The rest of Rothman's district was siphoned off to Rep. Bill Pascrell, a Democrat.
Democrats also lost a fight in South Jersey. The revised map removes Cherry Hill, a Democratic-leaning township, from the Third District represented by freshman Rep. Jon Runyan, a Republican.
Democrats on the committee scoffed at the Republican argument that Runyan's district remains competitive without Cherry Hill, which was moved to the already strongly Democratic district represented by Rep. Rob Andrews, a Democrat.
"The notion that District Three is a competitive district is frankly a work of fiction," said former Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts Jr., who led the Democrats on the board. "It is less competitive than the current district."
But Farmer, the dean of Rutgers Law School in Newark and a former state attorney general, said the map was a genuine compromise between the two parties.
"I have exasperated all my colleagues at this table in an effort to drive compromise and bring both parties together," Farmer said at Friday's hearing in Trenton.
Rothman, first elected to Congress in 1996, said he would announce his plans soon. If he does not run against Garrett, he could move to Pascrell's district (where voters already know him) and challenge Pascrell in a primary.
"I am looking at all my options as a result of the new map," he said in a statement.
