New Jersey Senate

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The New Jersey Senate is the upper house of the New Jersey Legislature. It consists of 40 Senators, who are elected in a "2-4-4" cycle, representing districts with average populations of 210,359 (2000 figures). The "2-4-4" cycle was put into place so that Senate elections can reflect the changes made to the district boundaries on the basis of the decennial United States Census. (If the cycle were not put into place, then the boundaries would sometimes be four years out of date before being used for Senate elections. Rather, with the varied term, the boundaries are only two years out of date). Thus elections for Senate seats take place in years ending with a "1", "3" or "7" (e.g., 2001, 2003 and 2007 this decade).

Interim appointments are made to fill vacant legislative seats by the county committee or committees of the party of the vacating person. The office is on the ballot for the next general election (regardless if all other Senate seats are up in that year, such as in years ending with a "5" or "9", such as 2005 and 2009 this decade), unless the vacancy occurred within 51 days of the election. Then the appointment stands until the following general election.

Currently there are 22 Democratic Senators, and 18 Republican Senators.

Current Composition
Affiliation Members
  Democratic Party 22
  Republican Party 18
Total 40
Majority 4

Contents

Senatorial courtesy is a Senate tradition that allows home county legislators to intercede to prevent consideration of a local resident nominated by the Governor for a position that requires Senate confirmation.[1] Any of the senators from the nominee's home county can invoke senatorial courtesy to block a nomination, temporarily or permanently, without any obligation to justify the basis of their actions.[2]

Governor Corzine nominated Stuart Rabner on June 4, 2007, to be the next Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court, replacing James R. Zazzali, who was nearing mandatory retirement age.[3] Shortly after the nomination, two members of the Senate from Essex County, where Rabner resides, blocked consideration of his confirmation by invoking senatorial courtesy. State Senator Ronald Rice had initially blocked the nomination, but relented on June 15, 2007, after a meeting with the governor.[4] Nia Gill dropped her block on June 19, 2007, but did not explain the nature of her concerns, though anonymous lawmakers cited in The New York Times indicated that the objection was due to Rabner's race and Governor Corzine's failure to consider a minority candidate for the post.[1]

Also in June 2007, Loretta Weinberg used senatorial courtesy privileges to hold up consideration of a new term in office for Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli.[2]

The leadership for the 212th legislative session, which started on January 10, 2006, is as follows:

District map (2001 redistricting) colored by 2004 to 2007 term Senator party
District map (2001 redistricting) colored by 2004 to 2007 term Senator party

  1. ^ a b Jones, Richard G. "Senator Drops Objections to Corzine Court Nominee", The New York Times, June 20, 2007. Accessed June 20, 2007. "Senator Gill had delayed Mr. Rabner’s confirmation hearing by using “senatorial courtesy” — an obscure practice through which senators who represent the home county of nominees may block consideration of their confirmations."
  2. ^ a b Carmiel, Oshrat. "Deadline looms for Molinelli's job", The Record (Bergen County), June 20, 2007. Accessed June 20, 2007. "Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli, whose term expired last month, may have to wait until the fall to be considered again for a second term if state Sen. Loretta Weinberg doesn't sign off on his nomination today.... Weinberg is invoking an unwritten practice called senatorial courtesy, which allows state senators to block consideration of gubernatorial nominees from their home counties without explanation. The courtesy tradition, as applied to Molinelli, requires each senator from Bergen County to sign off on his nomination before the Judiciary Committee can consider the nomination."
  3. ^ "Source: Corzine picks Rabner as chief justice, Milgram as AG", Courier News, May 31, 2007. Accessed May 31, 2007.
  4. ^ Associated Press. "Opposition Ebbs on Corzine Judge", The New York Times, June 15, 2007. Accessed June 20, 2007. "Ronald L. Rice, an Essex County Democrat and state senator, said yesterday that he would no longer block Gov. Jon S. Corzine’s nomination for chief justice of the State Supreme Court."

Current members of the New Jersey Senate
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1: Nicholas Asselta (R)
2: James J. McCullough (R)
3: Stephen M. Sweeney (D)
4: Fred H. Madden (D)
5: Wayne R. Bryant (D)
6: John Adler (D)
7: Diane Allen (R)
8: Martha W. Bark (R)
9: Leonard T. Connors (R)
10: Andrew R. Ciesla (R)

11: Joseph A. Palaia (R)
12: Ellen Karcher (D)
13: Joseph M. Kyrillos (R)
14: Peter Inverso (R)
15: Shirley Turner (D)
16: Walter Kavanaugh (R)
17: Bob Smith (D)
18: Barbara Buono (D)
19: Joseph Vitale (D)
20: Raymond Lesniak (D)

21: Thomas Kean, Jr. (R)
22: Nicholas Scutari (D)
23: Leonard Lance (R)
24: Robert Littell (R)
25: Anthony Bucco (R)
26: Robert Martin (R)
27: Richard Codey (D)
28: Ronald Rice (D)
29: Sharpe James (D)
30: Robert Singer (R)

31: Sandra Bolden Cunningham (D)
32: Nicholas Sacco (D)
33: Bernard Kenny (D)
34: Nia Gill (D)
35: John Girgenti (D)
36: Paul Sarlo (D)
37: Loretta Weinberg (D)
38: Joseph Coniglio (D)
39: Gerald Cardinale (R)
40: Henry McNamara (R)
Democrat (22 seats) | Republican (18 seats)
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