Currently, the 34th District is 4 percent black. First-term Sen. Norman Robertson, a Passaic County Republican who represents the district, watched the proceedings intently. He would likely lose his seat under the plan. Bryant testified that in his district, blacks made up only 26 percent of the voting-age population. I call it critical mass.
Republicans contend that no coalitions among . . .
About a third of his district is Latino. U.S. Rep. Robert Menendez, a Democrat from Union City, told the tribunal that black and Latino voters often formed coalitions. Assemblyman Wilfredo Caraballo, a Latino Democrat from the 28th District, said he expected such changes to increase opportunities for minority candidates. Among those testifying yesterday was Bartels, who had broken a partisan deadlock on the apportionment commission. He said he had tried to establish two things - that existing minority legislators would not be put in serious jeopardy, and that there was a fairly good probability that minorities would be nominated and elected in the new districts.