Why isn’t the New Jersey congressional map bluer?

After doing some research recently I discovered that the state of New Jersey, which has a huge Democratic partisan advantage, is currently holding six Republican congressional seats! This is six out of thirteen total seats. Why aren’t these Republicans receiving more of a challenge?? Now I do realize that the Democrats are poised to pick up two of these six seats this fall, but why aren’t more of the state’s Republican representatives receiving stronger challenges?? One of the representatives, R-Frank LoBiondo represents a district with a CPVI of D+4, but yet his district is considered safely Republican this election cycle. Another excellent example would be R-Chris Smith representing a district with an R+1; his district also on the safe Republican list. This is a state where pick ups should be easy! It is quite clear that at least four out of the six are sitting in gerrymandered districts when all the Democratic seats in the state have a D+5 or higher, but the Republican seats only have an R+1.

Ugh… Craziness… Maybe in 2010 they will get the challenge from the Democrats that they should be getting now.

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