Sandra Bolden Cunningham (born September 4, 1950) is an American Democratic Party politician, who has been serving 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 Delawa ...
State Senate since 2007, where she represents the 31st Legislative District. She was sworn into office on November 8, 2007. She is the widow of former
Jersey City
Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.Glenn Cunningham, who died in 2004.
Bolden was an actress and was a part of the Negro Ensemble Company. She became the executive of the Hudson County Bar Association in 1988 after working various county jobs in Essex County.
Political career
Following her husband's death, there were reports of interest by Cunningham to seek her late husband's Senate seat to which he was elected in 2003 and was reported to be considering a run for Mayor of Jersey City in a May 2005 special election. She became president of the Sandra and Glenn Cunningham Foundation and has supported causes in Jersey City through the foundation. In 2006 signs in Jersey City touted her as a candidate for the U.S. Senate vs. Sen. Robert Menendez and State Sen.
Tom Kean Jr.
Thomas Howard Kean Jr. ( ; born September 5, 1968) is an American Republican politician and the U.S. representative-elect from New Jersey's 7th congressional district. From 2001 until 2003, he was a New Jersey General Assemblyman, representing t ...
Menendez and her late husband were bitter political rivals. She did not seek the U.S. Senate seat and announced her candidacy for the state senate in the Democratic primary against Sen. Joseph Doria in 2007.
Doria, the mayor of
Bayonne
Bayonne (; eu, Baiona ; oc, label= Gascon, Baiona ; es, Bayona) is a city in Southwestern France near the Spanish border. It is a commune and one of two subprefectures in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine r ...
, dropped out of the race in March 2007. Assemblyman Louis Manzo, who first won his seat on a ticket with Mayor Cunningham, challenged Cunningham in the Democratic primary for the Senate. During the primary race, Cunningham received the support of the Hudson County Democratic Organization and Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy, who had previously opposed her and her late husband. One of Cunningham's running mates for the Assembly was former State Sen. L. Harvey Smith, who had been defeated by her husband in a bitter 2003 Senate primary. Cunningham defeated Assemblyman Manzo in the Democratic primary in June 2007. She was virtually unopposed in the November general election, defeating independent candidate Louis Vernotico with over 87% of the vote.
Following Doria's October 2007 resignation to become Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, Cunningham was elected on October 23, 2007, by a special election convention to serve the remainder of Doria's term, which expired in January 2008. Cunningham served the remainder of Doria's term before beginning her own four-year term and was sworn into the state senate on November 8, 2007.
In the Senate, she has been assigned to serve as chair of the Higher Education; she also sits on the Budget and Appropriations Committee and Labor Committee. She is the current senate majority whip, holding the position since 2008.Senator Cunningham's legislative webpage
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 ...
. Accessed January 24, 2022.
In 2012, ''
The Hudson Reporter
''The Hudson Reporter'' is a newspaper chain based in Hudson County, New Jersey. ''The Hudson Reporter'' publications mainly focus on local politics and community news. The oldest newspaper in the chain is the '' Hoboken Reporter'', founded in 1983 ...
'' named her #6 in its list of Hudson County's 50 most influential people, with
North Bergen
North Bergen is a township in the northern part of Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the township had a total population of 63,361. The township was founded in 1843. It was much diminished in territory by ...
mayor and State Senator
Nicholas Sacco
Nicholas J. Sacco (born November 17, 1946) is an American Democratic Party politician, who has been serving in the New Jersey State Senate since 1994, where he represents the 32nd Legislative District. Sacco serves in the Senate as the chair ...
ranked first on the list.
District 31
Each of the 40 districts in the New Jersey Legislature has one representative in 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, ...
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 ...
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 ...
. Accessed January 11, 2022.
*Senator Sandra Bolden Cunningham
*Assemblywoman
Angela V. McKnight
Angela V. McKnight (born March 10, 1977) is an American Democratic Party politician who has represented the 31st Legislative District in the New Jersey General Assembly since she was sworn into office on January 12, 2016.
A resident of Jersey ...
Jersey City
Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.Glenn Cunningham in 1990 and got married on January 7, 1998, in
Nassau
Nassau may refer to:
Places Bahamas
*Nassau, Bahamas, capital city of the Bahamas, on the island of New Providence
Canada
*Nassau District, renamed Home District, regional division in Upper Canada from 1788 to 1792
*Nassau Street (Winnipeg), ...
,
Bahamas
The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the a ...
. While Glenn Cunningham was campaigning for and later won the Jersey City mayoral election in 2001, Sandra Cunningham often accompanied her husband at public events and political meetings. Glenn Cunningham died on May 25, 2004, of a heart attack.
DWI Incidents
In 2006, Cunningham pled guilty to operating a vehicle under the influence of drugs or alcohol. The 2006 guilty plea stemmed from a ticketed incident in November 2005. During the incident, she had a
blood alcohol concentration
Blood alcohol content (BAC), also called blood alcohol concentration or blood alcohol level, is a measurement of alcohol intoxication used for legal or medical purposes; it is expressed as mass of alcohol per volume or mass of blood. For example ...
of .18, according to public records. She paid a $708 fine.
In March 2021, Cunningham was charged for driving while intoxicated after sideswiping two cars parked near her home with her
Infiniti G35x
The Infiniti G Line is a series of compact executive cars produced by Infiniti, a luxury division of Nissan, for the 1991–1996 and 1999–2016 model years. The first two generations of the Infiniti G (P10 and P11) were sedans based on the ...
. On 3 June 2021, Cunningham plead not guilty to the DWI and careless driving charges; the case is currently pending trial and discovery. If found guilty, Cunningham could face "from 2 to 90 days in jail and a one year loss of her driver’s license."
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 ...