Naming the districts

[Mr.Phips]

FL-01:  Western Panhandle
FL-02:  Eastern Panhandle and Tallahassee
FL-03:  A mess of a district that connects every black majority precinct north of Orlando.
FL-04:  Northeastern Florida and Jacksonville(minus every black precinct).
FL-05:  West Central, Gulf of Mexico.
FL-06:  Pretty much everything in north central Florida that is not in FL-03 or FL-05.
FL-07:  Northeast Coast, Daytona Beach.
FL-08:  Orlando(minus black precincts).
FL-09:  Tampa suburbs
FL-10:  Pinellas County(minus St. Petersburg), Largo.  New York in the South.
FL-11:  Tampa and St. Petersburg
FL-12:  Polk county and deep south parts of Hillsborough county.
FL-13:  Sarasota
FL-14:  Fort Myers, Naples.
FL-15:  Space Coast, Cocoa Beach, Melbourne, Kissimmee.
FL-16:  West Palm Beach, Port St. Lucie, and the Everglades.
FL-17:  African American neighborhoods of Miami Dade.
FL-18:  Miami, Key West.
FL-19:  Coral Springs, most Jewish precincts in Miami Dade and Broward.
FL-20:  Broward county's Jewish areas.
FL-21:  Hialeah.
FL-22:  West Palm Beach, Boca Rotan.
FL-23:  Boynton Beach, Sunrise, Pompano Beach.
FL-24:  Upper Space Coast.
FL-25:  Southern Florida.

[Mr.Phips]

If I ever finish my remapping project, I'll post my own suggestion, though actually I had quite a bit of trouble with this area myself. It's really Sussex, Warren and Hunterdon that are a pain to fit in anywhere else; I ended up with those three combined with most of Somerset and the wealthy north end of Mercer. (Poor Princeton got stuck in that district, too.)

I'd love to see it. Did you take into account incumbents or just draw the best maps? Incumbency is going to be the biggest obstacle to drawing sane maps in 2012, unless Pallone and Chris Smith decide to swap homes.

Is the district that Smith represents now pretty much the same one that Pallone won in 1988 and 1990?

[Mr.Phips]

Is the district that Smith represents now pretty much the same one that Pallone won in 1988 and 1990?

The district that Pallone won in 1988 was a largely vertical Republican district (that never elected a Republican) that ran along the coast of Monmouth and down into the northern part of Ocean.

Chris Smith's current district is a largely horizontal district that takes up the Republican parts of Mercer County (Hamilton Twp), the northern tip of Burlington, and then out to the northern part of Ocean.

Smith's district looks quite similar to the one he won in the 1980s.  Redistricting simply took out Trenton and added the southern tip of Pallone's district.  Pallone's old district was essentially eliminated in the 1990 redistricting process—today's NJ-06 looks like the NJ-06 of 1980s, which was mostly urban Middlesex county.

Was Pallone's election in 1988 an upset?  I know most people viewed that as a basically Republican seat.  Ronald Reagan carried it 67%-33% in 1984 and H.W. carried it 62%-37% at the same time Pallone was being elected. 

[Mr.Phips]

Is the district that Smith represents now pretty much the same one that Pallone won in 1988 and 1990?

The district that Pallone won in 1988 was a largely vertical Republican district (that never elected a Republican) that ran along the coast of Monmouth and down into the northern part of Ocean.

Chris Smith's current district is a largely horizontal district that takes up the Republican parts of Mercer County (Hamilton Twp), the northern tip of Burlington, and then out to the northern part of Ocean.

Smith's district looks quite similar to the one he won in the 1980s.  Redistricting simply took out Trenton and added the southern tip of Pallone's district.  Pallone's old district was essentially eliminated in the 1990 redistricting process—today's NJ-06 looks like the NJ-06 of 1980s, which was mostly urban Middlesex county.

Was Pallone's election in 1988 an upset?  I know most people viewed that as a basically Republican seat.  Ronald Reagan carried it 67%-33% in 1984 and H.W. carried it 62%-37% at the same time Pallone was being elected. 

Yes.  Pallone's State Senate win was an upset, Pallone's House win was an upset, and Pallone's survival through the 90s redistricting round was an "upset."  Save for maybe Chris Smith, no NJ congressman has had to work harder to keep his seat.

Im not sure but I only think Chris Smith had to fight hard once to hold his seat(in 1982).  Also, Pallone's seat was made much freindlier to Democrats in the 1991 redistricting.