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 ...

's 23rd Legislative District is one of 40 in the New Jersey Legislature. As of the 2011 apportionment, the district includes the Hunterdon County municipalities of Alexandria Township, Bethlehem Township, Bloomsbury, Califon, Clinton Town, Clinton Township, Franklin Township, Frenchtown, 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 Canada * Hampton, New Brunswick *Ha ...

, High Bridge, Holland Township, Kingwood Township, Lebanon Borough, Lebanon Township, Milford, Tewksbury Township and Union Township, the Somerset County municipalities of Bedminster Township, Bound Brook, Bridgewater Township, Peapack-Gladstone, Raritan and South Bound Brook, and the

Warren County Warren County is the name of fourteen counties in the USA. Some are named after General Joseph Warren, who was killed in the Battle of Bunker Hill in the American Revolutionary War: * Warren County, Georgia * Warren County, Illinois * Warren County ...

municipalities of Alpha, Franklin Township, Greenwich Township, Hackettstown Town, Harmony Township, Lopatcong Township, Mansfield Township, Phillipsburg Town, Pohatcong Township, Washington Borough and Washington Township.Districts by Number
New Jersey Legislature. Accessed February 10, 2014.

Demographic characteristics

As of the

2020 United States census The United States census of 2020 was the twenty-fourth decennial United States census. Census Day, the reference day used for the census, was April 1, 2020. Other than a pilot study during the 2000 census, this was the first U.S. census to of ...

, 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 hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...

, 10,593 (4.8%)

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

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

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. As an ethnic/racial term, it is used to describe the original peoples—inhabitants and diasporas—of any of the three major subregions of O ...

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

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties forme ...

Latino Latino or Latinos most often refers to: * Latino (demonym), a term used in the United States for people with cultural ties to Latin America * Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States * The people or cultures of Latin America; ** Latin A ...

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, 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

For the 2022–2023 session, the district is represented in the

State Senate A state legislature in the United States is the legislative body of any of the 50 U.S. states. The formal name varies from state to state. In 27 states, the legislature is simply called the ''Legislature'' or the ''State Legislature'', whil ...

Michael J. Doherty Michael J. Doherty (born May 24, 1963) is an American Republican Party politician who has served as the surrogate of Warren County, New Jersey since November 30, 2022. He previously served in the New Jersey Senate representing the 23rd Legisla ...

( R, Washington Township, Warren County) and in the

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 ...

by John DiMaio (R, Hackettstown) and Erik Peterson (R, Franklin Township, Hunterdon County). The legislative district overlaps with 7th and 12th congressional districts.

District composition since 1973

Upon the creation of the 40-district legislative map in 1973, the 23rd District consisted of central Morris County including Madison, Morristown, Dover, and

Town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

and

Township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, C ...

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-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle A ...

and

of Hopewell and Pennington in Mercer County, all of Hunterdon County except East Amwell Township, in

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 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 New Jersey. The office of governor is an elected position with a four-year term. There is a two consecutive term term limit, with no limitation on non-consecutive terms. The official r ...

Brendan Byrne Brendan Thomas Byrne (April 1, 1924 – January 4, 2018) was an American politician, statesman, and prosecutor, serving as the 47th governor of New Jersey from 1974 to 1982. A member of the Democratic Party, Byrne started his career as a priva ...

nominated State Senator Wiley to the

New Jersey Supreme Court The Supreme Court of New Jersey is the 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 challenging th ...

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 (United States), Republican Party politician from New Jersey, who served in both houses of the New Jersey Legislature and in the United States House of Representatives. H ...

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 in the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

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 ...

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

Warren A warren is a network of wild rodent or lagomorph, typically rabbit burrows. Domestic warrens are artificial, enclosed establishment of animal husbandry dedicated to the raising of rabbits for meat and fur. The term evolved from the medieval A ...

counties to fill the Senate vacancy created when Leonard Lance was elected to Congress.

Marcia A. Karrow Marcia A. Karrow (born March 10, 1959) is an American Republican Party (United States), Republican Party politician who is the mayor of Flemington, New Jersey, Flemington, New Jersey. She previously served in the New Jersey State Senate representi ...

defeated

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

, who resigned to take the position as

Surrigate.

Election history

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

Election results

Senate

General Assembly

References