Cleopatra Gibson Tucker (born April 9, 1943) is an American
Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to:
*Democratic Party (United States)
Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to:
Active parties Africa
*Botswana Democratic Party
*Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea
*Gabonese Democratic Party
*Demo ...
politician
A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...
, who has served in the
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
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 presb ...
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...
Tennessee State University
Tennessee State University (Tennessee State, Tenn State, or TSU) is a public historically black land-grant university in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1912, it is the only state-funded historically black university in Tenness ...
, majoring in
sociology
Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation an ...
. After moving to
Newark, New Jersey
Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.Newark Housing Authority in 1976. She retired from the Authority in 2002. She is currently the executive director of a non-profit organization called The Centre, Inc. The Centre's headquarters was named after her late husband, Donald Kofi Tucker, in 2006.
Tucker has two grown children with her late husband and is a resident of Newark's Weequahic neighborhood.
Political career
After Donald Tucker, who was both a Newark councilman and an Assemblyman, died in October 2005 and posthumously won re-election to his Assembly seat, Assemblyman Tucker was replaced in a special election convention by Evelyn Williams, who was elected to serve the remaining month of the term and to serve the first year of the full term. Williams resigned from the Assembly in January 2006 before the start of the new session, following her arrest for shoplifting, creating a vacant seat. A special election convention appointed Democratic Party activist Oadline Truitt to the seat for the first half of the term and she was re-elected in a November 2006 special election. In Truitt's first bid for a full two-year term, Tucker and Essex CountyFreeholder and former Assemblyman from the 1960s-1970s Ralph R. Caputo defeated Truitt and
incumbent
The incumbent is the current holder of an office or position, usually in relation to an election. In an election for president, the incumbent is the person holding or acting in the office of president before the election, whether seeking re-ele ...
Assemblyman Craig A. Stanley in the June 2007 Democratic primary. Tucker and Caputo had the backing of Newark
Mayor
In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well ...
Cory Booker
Cory Anthony Booker (born April 27, 1969) is an American politician and attorney who has served as the junior United States senator from New Jersey since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, Booker is the first African-American U.S. se ...
. Tucker has subsequently won re-election to the Assembly every two years since then.
In January 2011, Tucker introduced a bill that would require every bicycle in the state of New Jersey to display a
license plate
A vehicle registration plate, also known as a number plate (British English), license plate (American English), or licence plate (Canadian English), is a metal or plastic plate attached to a motor vehicle or trailer for official identificatio ...
, which would be registered with the government for a small fee. Within about a week, she withdrew her proposal.
Committees
Committee assignments for the current session are:Assemblywoman Cleopatra G. Tucker New Jersey Legislature. Accessed January 31, 2022.
*Military and Veterans' Affairs, Chair
*Human Services
*Telecommunications and Utilities
District 28
Each of the 40 districts in the New Jersey Legislature has one representative in the New Jersey Senate and two members in the
New Jersey General Assembly
The New Jersey General Assembly is the lower house of the New Jersey Legislature.
Since the election of 1967 (1968 Session), the Assembly has consisted of 80 members. Two members are elected from each of New Jersey's 40 legislative districts f ...
Renee Burgess
Renee Burgess is a Democratic Party politician who was selected in September 2022 to fill the seat in the New Jersey Senate representing New Jersey's 28th legislative district that had been held by Ronald Rice until he left office due to heal ...
(D)
* Assemblyman Ralph R. Caputo (D)
* Assemblywoman Cleopatra Tucker (D)