New Jersey

From the 1830s through the early 1850s, Democrats and Whigs dominated the political life of New Jersey. Exercising considerable, though subtle, influence in the decade before the Civil War was the Native American (Know-Nothing) Party, an anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic group that won several assembly and senate seats. Wary of breaking ties with the South and ambivalent about the slavery issue, New Jerseyites, especially those in Essex and Bergen counties, did not lend much support to the abolitionist cause. Early Republicans thus found it advantageous to call themselves simply "Opposition;" the state's first Opposition governor was elected in 1856. Republicans controlled the state for most of the 1860s; but with heavy support from business leaders, the Democrats regained control in 1869 and held the governorship through 1896. They were succeeded by a series of Progressive Republican governors whose efforts were largely thwarted by a conservative legislature. Sweeping reformsincluding a corrupt-practices act, a primary election law, and increased support for public education-were implemented during the two years that Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, served as governor before being elected to the presidency. Between 1913 and 1985, Democrats held the statehouse almost two-thirds of the time.

New Jersey's unenviable reputation for corruption in government dates back at least to 1838, when ballot tampering resulted in the disputed election of five Whigs to the US House of Representatives. (After a House investigation, the Whigs were barred and their Democratic opponents given the seats.) Throughout the rest of the century, corruption was rampant in local elections: Philadelphians, for example, were regularly imported to vote in Atlantic City elections, and vote buying was a standard election-day procedure in Essex and Hudson counties. Wilson's 1911 reform bill eliminated some of these practices, but not the bossism that had come to dominate big-city politics. Frank Hague of Jersey City controlled patronage and political leaders on the local, state, and national level from 1919 to 1947; during the 1960s and 1970s, Hague's successor John V. Kenny, Jersey City mayor Thomas Whelan, and Newark mayor Hugh Addonizio, along with numerous other state and local officials, were convicted of corrupt political dealings. From 1969 to mid-1975, federal prosecutors indicted 148 public officials, securing 72 convictions. Brendan Byrne, who had never before held elective office, won the governorship in 1973, mainly on the strength of a campaign that portrayed him as the "judge who couldn't be bought." On the national level, New Jersey Representative Peter Rodino gained a reputation for honesty and fairness when he chaired the House Judiciary Committee's impeachment hearings against Richard Nixon. However, the state's image suffered a further blow in 1980, when, as a result of the FBI's "ABSCAM" investigation, charges of influence peddling were brought against several state officials, including members of the Casino Control Commission, whose function was to prevent corruption and crime in Atlantic City's gambling establishments.

Later in the year, New Jersey Democrat Harrison Williams became the nation's first US senator to be indicted, on charges of bribery and conspiracy, as a result of the ABSCAM probe. He was convicted in 1981 and sentenced to prison. As a result of the same investigation, US Representative Frank Thompson, Jr., was convicted in 1980 on bribery and conspiracy charges. A New Jerseyite, Raymond Donovan, was named secretary of labor by President Ronald Reagan in 1981, but he resigned in 1985 after being indicted late in 1984 for allegedly seeking to defraud the New York City Transit Authority while serving as vice president of the Schiavone Construction Company in Secaucus.

In the 2000 presidential voting, Democrat Al Gore defeated Republican George W. Bush, picking up 56% of the vote to Dole's 41%. Independent Ralph Nader garnered 3%. In 2002 there were 4,654,897 registered voters. In 1998, 25% of registered voters were Democratic, 19% Republican, and 56% unaffiliated or members of other parties. The state had 15 electoral votes in the 2000 presidential election.

In 1993, New Jersey elected its first woman as governor, Republican Christine Todd Whitman; she was reelected in 1997. In late 2000 she was named President George W. Bush's head of the Environmental Protection Agency, a post she resigned in June

New Jersey Presidential Vote by Political Parties, 1948–2000

New Jersey Presidential Vote by Political Parties, 1948–2000

2003. Democrat James McGreevey was elected New Jersey's governor in 2001. Democratic Senator Jon Corzine was elected in 2000. Democrat Frank Lautenberg, first elected to the Senate in 1982, and reelected in 1988 and 1994, returned to the Senate in 2002 after having retired in 2000. Following 2002 elections, the state's delegation to the US House consisted of seven Democrats and six Republicans. In mid-2003 the state senate was divided evenly between Democrats and Repubicans (20–20), while the General Assembly had 43 Democrats, 36 Republicans, and one independent.