Well, Erik Peterson and his family don’t have to move.

The Democrats’ early draft map last week consigned him to GOP Sodom and Gomorrah, that is to say, the City of Trenton.

It’s probably a fair bet that Peterson, under those circumstances, would not have ended up running for and winning the mayoralty, like Democrat Reed Gusciora, then an assemblyman chopped out of Princeton ten years ago into New Jersey’s capital city, where he furthered his political career on the local scene.

Peterson wasn’t going to do that, so when the new map came out today and the Franklin Twp. resident found himself in more or less the same 23rd Republican-friendly district (Clinton, Clinton Town, Lebanon and Highbridge came out and went in the 16th, Peapack came out and went into the 21st, and Manville went in from the 16th), he felt personally gratified.

That said, he was unhappy with the way the bipartisan map cut Hunterdon County into three districts.

“This was a compromise and politics has compromise in it, but some of the way it was done disenfranchised a lot of people,” Peterson told InsiderNJ. “It’s disappointing to see Hunterdon broken up.

“It doesn’t seem right to me,” he added.

He stopped short of criticizing GOP Primary rival Tom Kean, Jr., the only Republican member of the apportionment commission who voted against the bipartisan map.

Peterson and Kean are facing off in this year’s Republican contest for the nod to go up against incumbent U.S. Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-7).

He did, though, see missed opportunities.

“Being on that commission is about leadership and having the ability to strategize in a way that is best for the folks in the state and following the Constitution,” Peterson told InsiderNJ. “All I know is that as it stands, Hunterdon has one Republican legislative district and Union County has three; and all but Lambertville in Hunterdon is pretty much solidly red.  The way your map gets drawn and your strategies are based on how you approach it.”

Kean and his former slate mate, state Senator Jon Bramnick (R-21) both sat on the apportionment commission as members of the Republican team.

“Small counties [like his own Hunterdon] shouldn’t be cut up into three because you marginalize them,” Peterson said. “I’m grateful there is at least a good portion of Hunterdon still in the 23rd district, and the people and will be represented by their values, but fellow county folks to the south and to the east will have to see. Trenton and Kingwood, for example, have nothing in common politically. How will those folks in the 15th be represented? Pro second amendment is a big issue for them.”