Will Newtown Become A Single Assembly District?

By Steve Bigham

A 20 percent increase in population over the past ten years means Newtown may finally get its own state representative in Hartford, a politician Newtown can truly call its own.

For more than 30 years, Newtown has had to share its legislators with others towns.

Re-districting occurs every ten years following the release of the US Census results. Earlier this year, those results indicated that Newtown’s population had risen to more than 25,000 residents, meaning Newtown is now eligible for one consolidated voice in Hartford.

Since 1965, Newtown has been represented in Hartford by one, two or three different individuals who each were responsible for a portion of the town. However, these representatives have constituents in other towns, creating what some feel has been fractured representation over the years. Even State Rep Julia Wasserman (106th District), who is widely known as Newtown’s state legislator, must represent a large piece of Bethel in addition to her Newtown duties. Pat Shea (112th District) represents Monroe and a section of Newtown, while John Stripp (136th District) represents Redding, Easton and small piece of Newtown. Most of Mrs Shea’s and Mr Stripp’s constituents live elsewhere.

Currently, there are 151 legislative districts in Connecticut, which now has a population of approximately 3.4 million people. Officials must now reconfigure the state into 151 sections of 22,553 people.

Beginning in June, the re-districting issue is expected to become a hot topic in Hartford as legislators scramble for positioning. The state’s newly formed Redistricting Committee will conduct hearings to solicit comments from residents about their feelings on how the state should be redistricted. A public hearing in Waterbury has been scheduled for the evening of July 10, at a location to be announced.

With a population above 25,000 residents, Newtown would now seem eligible to receive a state rep of its own. However, according to Gary Berner, the director of redistricting services for the House Republican caucus, it doesn’t always break that way.

“The realities are we don’t know where we’re going to begin to make the first cuts,” Mr Berner said. “It’s not a perfect science. You can’t combine both respect for town lines and equal representation perfectly. You always have to bring the argument back that you could do this for Newtown if you started in Newtown.”

Former state representative Mae Schmidle said Newtown has always been a “patch-up town,” being lumped in with small chunks of other communities. She believes the town could very well end up with three different representatives again, despite its population growth. It all depends on what the powers that be decide.

“Redistricting is 100 percent political. Each party tries to garner as many communities into their camp as they can. That’s how they do the federal redistricting too,” she explained. “Newtown is neither fish nor foul. The largest representation is unaffiliated voters. So, if you are Republican town, then the Republicans will go to bat for you or if you’re a Democratic town, then the Democrats will go to bat for you. If you’re predominantly unaffiliated, you don’t have a strong representation.”

In the past, redistricting has always started along the shore and worked its way north. That may explain why Newtown has always been paired with Fairfield, Monroe and Easton for state senatorial representation, rather than with towns that it has more in common with.

“Newtown has never been the center of a senate seat. The senators from our area always seem to come from other towns,” Mrs Schmidle said.

Before 1965, each Connecticut town had its own representative and some of the larger cities had two. States were free to draw lines for US Congress, state representatives and state senate. However, a federal ruling required “equal representation under the law.” Every state had to redo is districts to provide for the “one man, one vote” policy.

The state is expected to finalize the redistricting maps by the end of this year and will be in place prior to the November 2002 statewide elections.