New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

's 23rd 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 district includes the

Hunterdon County Hunterdon County is a County (United States), county located in the western section of the U.S. state of New Jersey. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the county was the state's List of counties in New Jersey, 4th-least populous ...

municipalities of Alexandria Township, Bethlehem Township,

Bloomsbury Bloomsbury is a district in the West End of London, part of the London Borough of Camden in England. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is the location of numerous cultural institution, cultural, intellectual, and educational ...

, Califon, Franklin Township, Glen Gardner,

Hampton Hampton may refer to: Places Australia *Hampton bioregion, an IBRA biogeographic region in Western Australia * Hampton, New South Wales *Hampton, Queensland, a town in the Toowoomba Region * Hampton, Victoria ** Hampton railway station, Melbour ...

, Holland Township, Lebanon Township,

Milford Milford may refer to: Place names Canada * Milford (Annapolis), Nova Scotia * Milford (Halifax), Nova Scotia * Milford, Ontario England * Milford, Derbyshire * Milford, Devon, a place in Devon * Milford on Sea, Hampshire * Milford, Shro ...

, Tewksbury Township and Union Township, the Somerset County municipalities of Bedminster Township, Bound Brook, Bridgewater Township, Manville, and Raritan. As well as the Warren County municipalities of

Alpha Alpha (uppercase , lowercase ) is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of one. Alpha is derived from the Phoenician letter ''aleph'' , whose name comes from the West Semitic word for ' ...

, Belvidere Town, Blairstown Township, Franklin Township, Frelinghuysen Township, Greenwich Township, Hardwick Township, Hope Township, Knowlton Township, Liberty Township, Hackettstown Town, Harmony Township, Lopatcong Township, Mansfield Township, Oxford Township, Phillipsburg Town, Pohatcong Township, Washington Borough and Washington Township.Districts by Number

. Accessed February 10, 2014.

Demographic characteristics

As of the 2020 United States census, the district had a population of 222,231, of whom 177,008 (79.7%) were of voting age. The racial makeup of the district was 160,381 (72.2%)

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 10,593 (4.8%)

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 630 (0.3%) Native American, 19,106 (8.6%) Asian, 56 (0.0%)

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 12,743 (5.7%) from some other race, and 18,722 (8.4%) from two or more races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race were 29,551 (13.3%) of the population. The 23rd district had 174,110 registered voters as of December 1, 2021, of whom 61,978 (35.6%) were registered as unaffiliated, 61,046 (35.1%) were registered as

Republicans Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

, 49,004 (28.1%) were registered as Democrats, and 2,082 (1.2%) were registered to other parties. As of 2000, the district had the largest population of any in the state and the second-highest land area, making it one of the least densely populated districts in the state. The district had a small minority population, with comparatively few African American, Asian and Hispanic residents. The district had the highest municipal tax rate in the state, but lower than average school and county taxes leave the overall rate near the statewide median. Registered Republicans outnumber Democrats by a 2-1 margin.

Political representation

The legislative district overlaps with

7th Seventh is the ordinal form of the number seven. Seventh may refer to: * Seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution * A fraction (mathematics), , equal to one of seven equal parts Film and television *"The Seventh", a second-season ep ...

and

12th Twelfth can mean: *The Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution *The Twelfth, a Protestant celebration originating in Ireland In mathematics: * 12th, an ordinal number; as in the item in an order twelve places from the beginning, follo ...

congressional districts.

Apportionment history

Upon the creation of the 40-district legislative map in 1973, the 23rd district consisted of central Morris County including

Madison Madison may refer to: People * Madison (name), a given name and a surname * James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States * Madison (footballer), Brazilian footballer Places in the United States Populated places * Madi ...

, Morristown,

Dover Dover ( ) is a town and major ferry port in Kent, southeast England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies southeast of Canterbury and east of Maidstone. ...

, and

Town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

and

Township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

of Boonton. Following the 1981 redistricting, the 23rd shifted to the rural areas of western New Jersey including the

Borough A borough is an administrative division in various English language, English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History ...

and

of Hopewell and Pennington in Mercer County, all of Hunterdon County except East Amwell Township, in Warren County Franklin Township, Greenwich Township, and the

and

of Washington, western Morris County, and Stanhope in Sussex County. For the 1991 redistricting following the 1990 census, the district shifted to most of Hunterdon County except for some municipalities in the northern part of the county, all of Warren County, and the Mercer County portion remaining unchanged. In the 2001 redistricting, the Mercer County municipalities were eliminated from the 23rd with the district only consisting of Hunterdon County save for Tewksbury Township and Califon and all of Warren County. The district experienced a major change following the 2011 redistricting; the 23rd currently consists of southern Warren County including Phillipsburg, Washington, and Hackettstown, most of northern Hunterdon County, and a spur into Somerset County with Bedminster, Peapack-Gladstone, Bridgewater, Raritan Borough, Bound Brook, and South Bound Brook. Despite the historic Republican nature of Morris County, Democrats swept the three legislative seats up for election in 1973:

Stephen B. Wiley Stephen Bradford Wiley (June 21, 1929 – October 8, 2015) was an American attorney, poet, businessman, civic leader, and Democratic Party politician. Wiley served in the New Jersey State Senate from 1973 to 1978, where he represented Morris C ...

, who was also elected in a special election to complete an unexpired Senate term under the old

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 tha ...

Morris County district, was elected to a four-year Senate term from this district, Gordon MacInnes and Rosemarie Totaro won both Assembly seats as well. MacInnes and Totaro would both be defeated for re-election in 1975 but Totaro would again serve one term in the Assembly after winning in 1977 and MacInnes would later serve four years in the Senate from the geographically similar 25th district in 1993.

Governor of New Jersey The governor of New Jersey is the head of government of the U.S. state of New Jersey. The office of governor is an elected position with a four-year term. There is a two consecutive term limit, with no limitation on non-consecutive terms. The ...

Brendan Byrne Brendan Thomas Byrne (April 1, 1924 – January 4, 2018) was an American attorney and Democratic Party politician who served as the 47th Governor of New Jersey from 1974 to 1982. Byrne began his career as a private attorney in Newark and Eas ...

nominated State Senator Wiley to the

New Jersey Supreme Court The Supreme Court of New Jersey is the supreme court, highest court in the U.S. state of New Jersey. In its current form, the Supreme Court of New Jersey is the final judicial authority on all cases in the state court system, including cases cha ...

in 1977, his nomination was approved by the Senate, but was rejected by the Supreme Court, which ruled that as Wiley had voted to raise the salary of justices of the Supreme Court in 1974, he could not be appointed to serve on the court until after his term of office expired. Wiley served the remainder of his term in the Senate but was defeated for re-election in 1977 by Republican John H. Dorsey. After the 1981 redistricting, Senator Walter E. Foran and Assemblyman Karl Weidel, who had been elected from the 14th district in the previous election, became representatives from the 23rd. Following the death of Foran in 1986,

Dick Zimmer Richard Alan Zimmer (born August 16, 1944) is an American Republican Party politician from New Jersey, who served in both houses of the New Jersey Legislature and in the United States House of Representatives. He was the Republican nominee for ...

filled the vacant seat in the Senate and William E. Schluter won Zimmer's Assembly seat, and then continued on to the State Senate after Zimmer succeeded

Jim Courter James Andrew Courter (born October 14, 1941) is an American Republican Party politician and attorney. He represented parts of northwestern New Jersey in the United States House of Representatives from 1979 to 1991. In 1989, he unsuccessfully ...

in the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

in 1991. Schluter's Assembly seat was filled by

Leonard Lance Leonard John Lance (born June 25, 1952) is an American politician and attorney who served as the U.S. representative for , from 2009 to 2019. He ran for re-election in 2018, but was defeated by Democrat Tom Malinowski. He is a member of the R ...

. On January 24, 2009, a special election was held by a convention of Republican committee members from Hunterdon and

Warren Warren most commonly refers to: * Warren (burrow), a network dug by rabbits * Warren (name), a given name and a surname, including lists of persons so named Warren may also refer to: Places Australia * Warren (biogeographic region) * War ...

counties to fill the Senate vacancy created when Leonard Lance was elected to Congress. Marcia A. Karrow defeated Michael J. Doherty in the special election by a margin of 195 votes to 143. Doherty announced he would run against Karrow a second time in the June 2009 primary, when she would be running as the incumbent. The Hunterdon and Warren County Republican committee members held another special convention on February 21, 2009 to fill Karrow's vacant Assembly seat. In the contest, Warren County Freeholder John DiMaio defeated Hunterdon County Freeholders Matt Holt and Erik Peterson. On June 2, 2009, Doherty defeated Karrow in the Republican Senate primary by a margin of 52%-48%, making her the only incumbent to lose a primary battle that year. Doherty went on to win the November special election, defeating Democratic candidate Harvey Baron to fill the remaining two years of the term. Karrow's Senate term ended on November 23, 2009 when Doherty was sworn into office. Doug Steinhardt took office on December 19, 2022, succeeding Michael J. Doherty, who resigned to take the position as Warren County Surrigate."Steinhardt Sworn-in as State Senator for New Jersey’s 23rd Legislative District", Insider NJ, December 19, 2022. Accessed December 19, 2022. "Douglas J. Steinhardt has taken the oath of office to become the new state senator for New Jersey’s 23rd Legislative District.... Steinhardt, a resident and former five-time mayor of Lopatcong Township, was sworn-in during a session of the New Jersey Senate on December 19, 2022. Senator Steinhardt was selected to fill the remainder of former Senator Mike Doherty’s term."
/ref>

Election history

Senators and Assembly members elected from the district are as follows:

Election results

Senate

General Assembly

References

{{NewJerseyLegislatureDistricts Hunterdon County, New Jersey Somerset County, New Jersey Warren County, New Jersey 23