ABSTRACT
A clear lesson to be learned from the most recent round of legislative redistricting in the United States is that extending minority representation in directions suggested by the "Gingles" rule involves a tradeoff with the traditional value of representing geographic communities. This chapter describes the New Jersey's experiment with redistricting by commission and turns to the tradeoff between representing geographic communities and Gingles-style improvements in minority representation. The success of New Jersey's experiment in redistricting its legislative districts has persuaded the state's political activists, journalists, and citizen groups that this mixed process really is a better way of redrawing legislative boundaries and should be extended to other levels of government. The chapter focuses on New Jersey's distinctive model of redistricting by mixed commission that can help to find a balance between the goals of equalizing population, enhancing minority representation and of representing compact geographic communities.
