Raymond Lesniak

Among the Republican State Senators that New Jersey Democrats would have a special interest in defeating after the 2011 legislative redistricting is Thomas Kean, Jr., the 2006 GOP candidate for United States Senate. And if Kean is successful in ousting Senate Minority Leader Leonard Lance in November, Democrats may have an even greater incentive to force Kean to battle for his own re-election next time.

So, just for fun, PoliticsNJ.com has drawn eight new legislative districts that could, hypothetically, place the former Governor’s son -- a resident of Westfield -- in harms way after reapportionment. For the purposes of these maps, we used the U.S. Census Bureau’s

**MEDIA ADVISORY**

ANTI-SMOKING MEASURES SCHEDULED FOR VOTE IN SENATE TOMORROW

TRENTON - Two measures which would limit New Jerseyans involuntary exposure to second-hand smoke are scheduled for Senate consideration tomorrow, with a media availability with State lawmakers and representatives of NJ GASP (Group Against Smoking Pollution) following the vote.

That image of presidential candidate Al Gore running up the white flag in the face of the Supreme Court decision of 2000 still mortifies Democrats, particularly Jersey Dems schooled on the battlements of in-your-face politics.

If a candidate can’t be a people’s champion, let the people be their own champions, so runs the logic of populism. At the very least, let the will of the people decide the outcome.

Such is the expressed aim of a bill co-written by State Senators Richard Codey and Raymond Lesniak, which would change how victory is determined in presidential elections, subordinating the electoral vote to the total popular will, or awarding states’ electoral votes - 15, in the case of New Jersey - to the presidential candidate who wins the most popular votes nationwide.

The Senate State Government Committee will consider legislation that would require New Jersey's electoral votes to be cast for the candidate who wins the national popular vote, not necessarily the statewide count in New Jersey. S-2695, sponsored by State Senators Richard Codey and Raymond Lesniak, seeks to include New Jersey in an “Agreement Among the States to Elect the President by National Popular Vote,” which would be effective only if enacted by enough states to "collectively possess the majority of the electoral votes required to decide a presidential win – currently 270 of the 538 electoral votes."