New Jersey's 15th Legislative District is one of 40 in the
New Jersey Legislature
The New Jersey Legislature is the legislative branch of the government of the U.S. state of New Jersey. In its current form, as defined by the New Jersey Constitution of 1947, the Legislature consists of two houses: the General Assembly and the ...
2020 United States census
The United States census of 2020 was the twenty-fourth decennial United States census. Census Day, the reference day used for the census, was April 1, 2020. Other than a pilot study during the 2000 census, this was the first U.S. census to off ...
, the district had a population of 224,002, of whom 174,477 (77.9%) were of voting age. The racial makeup of the district was 86,762 (38.7%)
White
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White ...
, 57,461 (25.7%)
African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
Pacific Islander
Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. As an ethnic/ racial term, it is used to describe the original peoples—inhabitants and diasporas—of any of the three major subregions of O ...
, 32,929 (14.7%) from some other race, and 18,666 (8.3%) from two or more races.
Hispanic
The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad.
The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties for ...
or Latino of any race were 53,100 (23.7%) of the population.
The district had 149,156 registered voters as of December 1, 2021, of whom 53,472 (35.8%) were registered as unaffiliated, 73,283 (49.1%) were registered as Democrats, 20,031 (13.4%) were registered as Republicans, and 2,370 (1.6%) were registered to other parties.
The district includes New Jersey's capital, Trenton and a number of its comparatively wealthier suburbs to the north. The district has the smallest population of any district in the state, and has a comparatively higher percentage of
African-American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...
residents and a notable percentage of children in the
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF ) is a federal assistance program of the United States. It began on July 1, 1997, and succeeded the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program, providing cash assistance to indigent ...
program. Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by an almost 3 to 1 margin.
Political representation
The district is represented for the 2020–2021 Legislative Session (
Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
,
General Assembly
A general assembly or general meeting is a meeting of all the members of an organization or shareholders of a company.
Specific examples of general assembly include:
Churches
* General Assembly (presbyterian church), the highest court of pres ...
Shirley Turner
Shirley Kersey Turner (born July 3, 1941) is an American Democratic Party politician, who has been serving in the New Jersey State Senate since 1998, where she represents the 15th Legislative District.
Early life
Turner was born in Dover ...
(D, Lawrence Township) and in the
General Assembly
A general assembly or general meeting is a meeting of all the members of an organization or shareholders of a company.
Specific examples of general assembly include:
Churches
* General Assembly (presbyterian church), the highest court of pres ...
New Jersey Legislature
The New Jersey Legislature is the legislative branch of the government of the U.S. state of New Jersey. In its current form, as defined by the New Jersey Constitution of 1947, the Legislature consists of two houses: the General Assembly and the ...
Supreme Court
A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
decision '' Reynolds v. Sims'' which required the creation of state legislature districts to be made as equal in population as possible and the 1973 creation of the 40-district map, the 15th District was based in the rural northwestern counties of the state. In the 1967 and 1969 elections, the district consisted of all of Hunterdon, Warren, and
Sussex
Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the Englis ...
counties which sent one senator and two Assembly members to the legislature, elected
at-large
At large (''before a noun'': at-large) is a description for members of a governing body who are elected or appointed to represent a whole membership or population (notably a city, county, state, province, nation, club or association), rather than ...
. For the 1971 election, the district was made up of only Warren and Sussex counties, again electing one senator and two Assembly members. Republican
Wayne Dumont
Wayne Dumont, Jr. (June 25, 1914 – March 19, 1992) was an American Republican Party politician from New Jersey. He represented Warren County in the New Jersey Senate from 1952 to 1966 and northwestern New Jersey more broadly from 1968 unt ...
won both Senate elections for the 15th District in this period. In the Assembly elections, Republican Robert Littell won one seat in each of the three Assembly elections in the 15th District. Incumbent Republican assemblyman from Hunterdon County Douglas E. Gimson won re-election to the Assembly in 1967 from this district but died on May 15, 1969. Republicans chose Walter E. Foran to be the other Republican candidate in 1969's general election resulting in a lawsuit from third-place finisher Walter C. Keogh-Dwyer. Foran was elected to the other seat in 1969 and served one term until his home county was moved to the 6th District in 1971. Keogh-Dwyer sought election to the Assembly again in 1971 but was successful in this election.
Election history since 1973
In the 40-district legislative map created in 1973, the 15th District consisted of all of Warren and Sussex counties and West Milford and Ringwood in Passaic County. With the exception of the district electing one Democrat to the Assembly in the 1973 general election, the district had been solidly Republican until 1982. When redistricting following the
1980 United States Census
The United States census of 1980, conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States to be 226,545,805, an increase of 11.4 percent over the 203,184,772 persons enumerated during the 1970 census. It was t ...
shifted the district to the Trenton area, the 15th District became a strongly Democratic district. The new 15th District consisted of Trenton, Ewing, Lawrence Township, West Windsor, Princeton Township and Princeton Borough. The 1981 elections brought in Democrats Gerald R. Stockman in the Senate, along with Gerard S. Naples and John S. Watson in the Assembly. The trio remained together in office for a decade.
No changes were made to the district boundaries following the 1990 Census and 1991 redistricting.
New Jersey Lottery
The New Jersey Lottery is run by the U.S. state of New Jersey. Its In-house draw games are: Pick-3, Pick-4, Jersey Cash 5, Pick-6, Quick Draw, and Cash Pop. Its multi-jurisdictional draw games are: Cash4Life, Mega Millions, and Powerball. The ...
television host Dick LaRossa ran as a Republican in 1991, having registered with the party only five days before that year's filing deadline. He defeated incumbent Gerald R. Stockman by a narrow 50.9%-49.1% margin.Gray, Jerry "Television's 'Lottery Guy' Strives to Stay in Senate" ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', September 4, 1992. Accessed June 24, 2010. His Republican running mate John W. Hartmann knocked off Naples, while Democrat Watson was narrowly re-elected to a sixth term in office. Hartmann, a 24-year-old student at the
Seton Hall University School of Law
Seton Hall University School of Law is the law school of Seton Hall University, and is located in downtown Newark, New Jersey. Seton Hall Law is the only private law school in New Jersey, and, according to the ''U.S. News & World Report'' rankin ...
, became the youngest Republican ever elected to the Assembly.
In the 1993 elections, Democrats sought to recoup their losses suffered in the 1991 Republican landslide. In the Assembly,
Shirley Turner
Shirley Kersey Turner (born July 3, 1941) is an American Democratic Party politician, who has been serving in the New Jersey State Senate since 1998, where she represents the 15th Legislative District.
Early life
Turner was born in Dover ...
and
Joseph Yuhas
Joseph Yuhas (born July 19, 1956) is an American politician who served in the New Jersey General Assembly from the New Jersey's 15th legislative district, 15th Legislative District from 1994 to 1996.
References
1956 births
Living people
D ...
ran for office, winning back Hartmann's seat from the Republicans. LaRossa faced Stockman for a second time in 1993, with the incumbent receiving endorsements from the AFL-CIO, locals of the
Communication Workers of America
The Communications Workers of America (CWA) is the largest communications and media labor union in the United States, representing about 700,000 members in both the private and public sectors (also in Canada and Puerto Rico). The union has 27 ...
and the New Jersey State Patrolmen's Benevolent Association. LaRossa won re-election despite the challenge. Yuhas stepped down after a single term in office and was replaced on the ballot in 1995 by
Reed Gusciora
Walter Reed Gusciora (born March 27, 1960) is an American Democratic Party politician who has served as the mayor of Trenton, New Jersey since 2018. He previously served from 1996 to 2018 in the New Jersey General Assembly, where he represented t ...
enclave
An enclave is a territory (or a small territory apart of a larger one) that is entirely surrounded by the territory of one other state or entity. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is sometimes used improperly to deno ...
boroughs, Pennington and Hopewell. This addition led to longtime Republican legislator and Pennington resident
William E. Schluter
William Everett Schluter (November 5, 1927 – August 6, 2018) was an American Republican Party politician from New Jersey, who served in both houses of the New Jersey Legislature in two separate instances.
Early life and career
Schluter was born ...
to retire from the state senate and run as an
independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s
* Independe ...
in the
gubernatorial election
A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of politica ...
that year. For the entire decade, Turner, Gusciora, and Watson Coleman were all reelected to their seats. In the 2011 redistricting, the 15th regained West Windsor and picked up East Amwell, West Amwell, and Lambertville in Hunterdon County, but lost the Princetons to the Republican-leaning 16th District. Gusciora, then a Princeton Township resident, moved to a house in Trenton to continue representing the district. The trio were elected twice more but Watson Coleman was elected to
Congress
A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...
in
2014
File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wa ...
. To replace Watson Coleman, Mercer and Hunterdon County Democrats chose Mercer County Democratic Party Chair and former FreeholderElizabeth Maher Muoio.
Muoio was nominated by Governor
Phil Murphy
Philip Dunton Murphy (born August 16, 1957) is an American financier, diplomat, and politician serving as the 56th governor of New Jersey since January 2018. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the United States ambassador to Germa ...
to serve as the Treasurer of New Jersey. She resigned from office effective January 15, 2018, as well as from her position as director of economic development for Mercer County in order to begin work in the executive branch, in advance of her April 12 confirmation by the
New Jersey Senate
The New Jersey Senate was established as the upper house of the New Jersey Legislature by the Constitution of 1844, replacing the Legislative Council. There are 40 legislative districts, representing districts with an average population of 232, ...
; her resignation came less than a week after being sworn into office for her second full term in the Assembly.Curran, Phillip Sean "Assemblywoman Muoio resigns, creating vacancy in legislature" CentralJersey.com, January 17, 2018. "State Assemblywoman Liz Muoio, a Democrat who represented parts of Mercer and Hunterdon counties since 2015, resigned her seat to join the Murphy administration, thus creating a vacancy that many Democrats want to fill.... But she submitted her resignation to the Assembly clerk on Friday to become acting state Treasurer until she gets confirmed by the Democrat-controlled state Senate. Her resignation took effect at the end of business Monday, according to an aide. She also left her job as the Mercer County director of economic development." Trenton Councilwoman and Mercer County Democratic Committee chair Verlina Reynolds-Jackson was chosen at a February 10 convention on the second ballot from a field of three candidates to succeed Muoio until a November 2018 special election, and was sworn in on February 15.
Gusciora was elected Mayor of Trenton on June 12, 2018. Prior to being sworn in, he resigned from the Assembly on June 30. Mercer County Freeholder Anthony Verrelli, who finished runner-up to Reynolds-Jackson at the previous convention, was chosen at a special convention held on July 26 on the second ballot from a field of four candidates to fill Gusciora's seat; he was sworn in on August 6. Both Reynolds-Jackson and Verrelli will compete in a November 2018 special election to complete the unexpired terms.