Lance: Honored to Represent All Bridgewater

With the recent congressional redistricting, Bridgewater will no longer be divided—instead of splitting the seventh and 11th districts, the town will sit squarely in the seventh following the 2012 elections.

Bridgewater has recently been under the purview of Rep. Leonard Lance (R-7) and Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-11), with the two congressmen each representing about half of the town. But the recent redistricting based on the 2010 census puts the town solely in the seventh district, currently represented by Lance.

“I am honored to have all of Bridgewater in what is congressional district seven, and hope after the November elections that I will continue to represent the great township of Bridgewater,” Lance said during the Republican Committee meeting Monday. “I will try to represent to the best of my ability, and will work with the new mayor as I worked with the previous mayor.”

The change in districts has also lost New Jersey as a whole a congressional seat, lowering its numbers from 13 to 12, beginning in 2013.

“That’s unfortunate,” Lance said. “We gained in population by 4 percent, but the country grew by 8 percent.”

And with the redistricting, Lance said, the seventh district itself has grown from 54 municipalities to 75, and includes the loss of Woodbridge and the gain of Millburn Township.

“Beginning next year, the municipalities will be more cohesive, and it will be slightly more area,” he said.

The newly reapportioned seventh district includes much of Somerset County, excluding Manville and Bound Brook. But it does include Bernards, Bernardsville, Far Hills, Bedminster, Hillsborough, Somerville, Warren and Branchburg.

Lance, in a separate interview, acknowledged that he has big shoes to fill as Frelinghuysen will begin to represent a different area and lose Bridgewater from his district, beginning in 2013.

“Rodney has done a tremendous job, first elected to Congress in 1994,” he said. “But the new district lines across the state have more compact districts.”

Somerset County, Lance said, will now have about 285,000 of the about 730,000 residents in the seventh district.

“There are more residents from there in the seventh district than from any other county,” he said.

For the remainder of the year, Frelinghuysen will still be representing part of district seven, and he will continue to take care of the residents he serves until the change next year.

“Of course I will continue to represent all of Morris County and parts of Somerset County for another year, and that means listening to the voices of the people and carrying their views to Washington,” he said. “I will continue to fight for lower taxes, government accountability, stronger national security and more economic security and freedom."

Frelinghuysen said he has been pleased to represent part of Bridgewater over the years, and he will now begin to get to know the new townships added to the 11th district in Essex and Passaic counties.

“I’ve enjoyed a warm working relationship with elected officials, civic leaders and residents of so many wonderful communities in Somerset County over the years,” he said. “Congressman Lance is a good friend and excellent congressman, and I’m pleased that his future service will include several towns in Morris and Somerset counties that I’ve been privileged to represent.”

Lance said he will continue through the rest of the year working with Frelinghuysen and other representatives on issues that concern Bridgewater and other townships through Somerset County and the state as a whole.

“Number one is the state of the American economy,” he said. “Even in a county like Somerset, which is largely affluent, the number one goal is to have greater employment because of the unemployment rate in the country and in New Jersey.”

“The focus will continue to be on trying to help strengthen the American economy,” he added.

Both Frelinghuysen and Lance will be up for election this November.