New Jersey’s 2023 legislative elections results proved, once again, that New Jersey is a blue state.
The Democrats will maintain a 25-15 majority in the State Senate. And while at first it appeared that they would pick up five seats in the Assembly, that turned out to be six so they will hold a 52-28 majority in that chamber in the new session.
In South Jersey, Democrats regained control of the 3rd District. Former Assemblyman John Burzichelli won back the seat that former Senate President Steve Sweeney lost to Ed Durr two years ago, one of the most shocking defeats in recent electoral history. He brings with him Heather Simmons, a Gloucester County Commissioner, and Dave Bailey, the CEO of a non-profit organization.
Democrats also held the 4th district whose demographics became considerably more Republican following redistricting. Assemblyman Paul Moriarty was elected to fill the Senate seat currently held by Fred Madden who is retiring. Elected to fill the two Assembly seats are Dan Hutchison, an attorney, and Cody Miller, who works for Rowan College of South Jersey and serves as a school board member in Monroe Township in Gloucester County.
One of the most surprising Democratic victories in the state took place in the solidly red 8th district in Burlington County. Republican incumbent Brandon Umba was declared the winner of one of the two Assembly seats on election night. However, after provisional and all mail-in ballots were counted, Andrea Katz took the lead and was declared the winner over a week after election day. She is the current Democratic chair of Chesterfield.
In Central Jersey, in probably the most expensive race in the State, the Democrats retained control of the 11th District Senate seat held by Vin Gopal and picked-up both General Assembly seats, which had flipped Republican in the 2021 election. Newly elected Assemblymembers are Margie Donlon, a physician, and Luanne Peterpaul, an attorney.
Two party changes occurred in Monmouth/Ocean County. In the 12th District, the Senate seat, which was held by a Republican turned Democrat, flipped back to the Republican party with a victory by Owen Henry, the current Mayor of Old Bridge. In the solidly Republican 30th District, one of the two Assembly seats was won by a Democrat, Rabbi Avi Schnall.
Democrats prevailed in two additional highly competitive races. In the 16th District, Senator Andrew Zwicker won re-election along with Assemblyman Roy Freiman and newcomer Mitchelle Drulis, a legislative staffer and small business owner. In Bergen County, Senator Joe Lagana, Assemblywoman Lisa Swain and Assemblyman Chris Tully held off a strong Republican challenge in District 38.
From a political perspective, the Democrats were bolstered by deeper pockets and a strong game on-the-ground. From a policy perspective, a Rutgers-Eagleton poll released on Monday showed that voters were focused on kitchen table issues such as the economy and cost of living and not cultural issues such as parental involvement in choices made by children in school (a key plank for most Republican candidates). Nonetheless, abortion was a strong issue for the Democrats particularly in the 3rd District where they capitalized on inflammatory remarks made by the Republican Senator regarding women having a choice about pregnancy.
Right after the election, Senator Nick Scutari of Union County and Assemblyman Craig Coughlin of Middlesex County were re-elected to their positions as Senate President and Assembly Speaker, no surprise to anyone. Senator Teresa Ruiz and Assemblyman Louis Greenwald will continue as majority leaders of their respective houses. Senator Ruiz comes from Essex County and Assemblyman Greenwald from Camden County. It appears that the status quo will be maintained for the next levels of majority leadership in both houses. The Republicans re-elected Senator Anthony Bucco of Morris County and Assemblyman John DiMaio of Warren County as their leaders.
The biggest changes are expected to come when committee chairpersons and memberships are determined by leadership in each house sometime in December. Even with the Democrats retaining control of both houses, 10 current committee chairs will not be returning to the Legislature next session. In the Assembly, five current chairs have moved up to the Senate, leaving those positions open as well.
As we move through the Lame Duck session which began in late November, the issues that have been on the front burner include clean energy policy, teacher shortages and a smoking ban in casinos. Filling judicial vacancies, veteran home reform and changes to the Open Public Records Act (OPRA) are likely to surface in the coming days. As it polled well and was an important issue to some Democratic victories, we could see action on abortion access. As set right now, however, it is a limited schedule with relatively few committee meetings and voting sessions on the calendar before the 220th Legislature concludes its business on January 9, 2024.
Porzio Governmental Affairs will update you as more information becomes available.
This post was updated on November 29, 2023