1967 New Jersey Senate election explained

The 1967 New Jersey State Senate elections were held on November 7, 1967.

The elections took place midway through Governor Richard J. Hughes's second term and resulted in a historic landslide for the Republican Party. The new state legislative map still elected most Senators county-wide, allowing Republicans to gain a large majority by sweeping every county except Mercer, Middlesex, and Hudson.

Background

Reapportioning

See also: Reynolds v. Sims. Until 1965, the New Jersey State Senate was composed of 21 senators with each county electing one senator. After the U.S. Supreme Court decision Reynolds v. Sims required legislative districts to be approximately equal in population (a principle known as "one man, one vote"), New Jersey entered a decade-long period of reapportioning.^[1] In 1965, the Senate was increased to 29 members, with larger counties given multiple seats and some smaller counties sharing one or two senators.

For the 1967 election, the map was entirely redone. The 1967 Districts were organized by the 1966 New Jersey Constitutional Convention. The specific Assembly districts (used for the election Senator in multi-County multi-Senator Districts) were drawn by the New Jersey Apportionment Commission. Eleven new seats were added and county lines were generally followed (11 single county districts and 2 multi-county single senator districts). As a result of a New Jersey Supreme Court decision, several existing districts were split up into districts smaller than a single county. This was contrary to apportionment scheme in the New Jersey Constitution, following the 1966 New Jersey Constitutional Convention and popular ratification.

• Mercer, Middlesex, Union, Hudson, Bergen, and Passaic counties gained one seat each.
• Essex County gained two seats.
• Atlantic, Cape May, Camden, Cumberland, Gloucester, and Salem counties gained one combined seat for a total of six.
• Burlington, Monmouth, and Ocean counties gained one combined seat for a total of four.
• Hunterdon, Morris, Somerset, Sussex, and Warren counties gained one combined seat for a total of five.

1965 District	Counties			1967 District	Counties		±
1	Atlantic, Cape May, and Gloucester	2		1	Cape May and Cumberland	1	1
2	Cumberland and Salem	1		2	Atlantic	1
3	Camden	2		3A	Salem and Gloucester (part)	1
				3B	Gloucester (part) and Camden (part)	1
				3C	Camden (part)	1
				3D	Camden (part)	1
4	Burlington	1		4A	Burlington (part) and Ocean	1	1
5	Monmouth and Ocean	2		4B	Burlington (part)	1
				5	Monmouth	2
6	Mercer	1		6	Mercer	2	1
7	Middlesex	2		7	Middlesex	3	1
9	Union	2		9	Union	3	1
11	Essex	4		11	Essex	6	2
12	Hudson	3		12	Hudson	4	1
13	Bergen	4		13	Bergen	5	1
14	Passaic	2		14	Passaic	3	1
8	Hunterdon and Somerset	1		8	Somerset	1	1
10	Morris, Sussex, Warren	2		10	Morris	2
				15	Hunterdon, Warren, and Sussex	1

Incumbents not running for re-election

Republican

• Frederick J. Scholz (District 3)
• Nelson Stamler (District 9)

Summary of results by State Senate District

1964–66 District	Incumbent	Party			Party
District 1	Vacant[2]			Robert E. Kay		Rep
	Frank S. Farley		Rep	Seat eliminated
District 2	John A. Waddington		Dem	Frank S. Farley		Rep
District 3	Frederick J. Scholz		Rep	John L. White		Rep
	Vacant[3]			Hugh A. Kelly		Rep
	New seat			John L. Miller		Rep
	New seat			Frank C. Italiano		Rep
District 4	New seat			William T. Hiering		Rep
	Edwin B. Forsythe		Rep	Edwin B. Forsythe		Rep
District 5	Richard R. Stout		Rep	Richard R. Stout		Rep
	William T. Hiering		Rep	Alfred N. Beadleston		Rep
District 6	Sido L. Ridolfi		Dem	Sido L. Ridolfi		Dem
	New seat			Richard J. Coffee		Dem
District 7	John A. Lynch Sr.		Dem	John A. Lynch Sr.		Dem
	J. Edward Crabiel		Dem	J. Edward Crabiel		Dem
	New seat			Norman Tanzman		Dem
District 8	Vacant[4]			Raymond Bateman		Rep
District 9	Nelson Stamler		Rep	Nicholas S. LaCorte		Rep
	Mildred Barry Hughes		Dem	Frank X. McDermott		Rep
	New seat			Matt Rinaldo		Rep
District 10	Thomas J. Hillery		Rep	Harry L. Sears		Rep
	Milton Woolfenden Jr.		Rep	Joseph J. Maraziti		Rep
District 11	Nicholas Fernicola		Dem	Michael Giuliano		Rep
	Maclyn Goldman		Dem	Gerardo Del Tufo		Rep
	John J. Giblin		Dem	Alexander Matturri		Rep
	Hutchins F. Inge		Dem	James Wallwork		Rep
	New seat			Milton Waldor		Rep
	New seat			David W. Dowd		Rep
District 12	William Musto		Dem	William Musto		Dem
	William F. Kelly Jr.		Dem	William F. Kelly Jr.		Dem
	Frank J. Guarini		Dem	Frank J. Guarini		Dem
	New seat			Frederick H. Hauser		Dem
District 13	Ned J. Parsekian		Dem	Fairleigh Dickinson Jr.		Rep
	Matthew Feldman		Dem	Joseph C. Woodcock		Rep
	Jeremiah F. O'Connor		Dem	Alfred D. Schiaffo		Rep
	Alfred W. Kiefer		Dem	Garrett W. Hagedorn		Rep
	New seat			Willard B. Knowlton		Rep
District 14	Anthony J. Grossi		Dem	Ira Schoem		Rep
	Joseph M. Keegan		Dem	Frank J. Sciro		Rep
	New seat			Edward Sisco		Rep
District 15	New seat			Wayne Dumont		Rep

District 3

District 3D

District 4

District 4B

Notes and References

1. News: 21 May 1965. JERSEY ORDERED TO REAPPORTION; Judge Finds Congressional Districts Unconstitutional. New York Times.
2. Book: Manual of the Legislature of New Jersey - Two Hundred and Eleventh Legislature (First Session) . 2004 . Skinder-Strauss Associates . 305 . April 18, 2020.
3. Web site: Donald Bigley, former NJ Senator, dies at 93. 2 Sep 2019. 27 June 2021.
4. Book: Journal of the One Hundred and Twenty-Third Senate . 1967 . 808–809 . July 13, 2015.