Democratic Party redistricting picks:

LeRoy Jones – Essex County Democratic Committee Chair

Gary Taffet – Middlesex County power broker

Steve Sweeney – Senate President

Cosmo Cirillo – West New York Commissioner

Diane Testa – Fairview Administrator

No progressives. No representatives from Gov. Phil Murphy’s office.

Priorities:

Protecting Sweeney, who resides in a red zone of the state;

Tweaking state Senator Joe Lagana (D-38);

Tweaking state senator Joe Cryan (D-20).

Hard to make significant incursions.

Questions?

Do they squeeze state Senator Ronald Rice (D-28)? Do they squeeze Senator Nia Gill (D-34)?

“Someone,” a source told InsiderNJ, “will draw the short straw.”

The fact that the governor did not have a pick perturbed allies who wanted Murphy to have a stronger hand.