Edward James Patten (August 22, 1905 – September 17, 1994) was an American

lawyer A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters. The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as w ...

and Democratic politician who represented the now-redistricted

New Jersey's 15th congressional district New Jersey's 15th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives was a relatively short-lived district that was created after the 1960 United States census, 1960 census and eliminated as a result ...

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 ...

for eighteen years, lasting from 1963 until 1981.

Early life and education

Patten was born and attended public school in

Perth Amboy Perth Amboy is a city in northeastern Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, within the New York Metro Area. As of the 2020 United States census, the city's population was 55,436. Perth Amboy is known as the "City by the Bay", re ...

, graduating from Perth Amboy High School. He attended Newark Normal School and graduated in 1927. That year, Patten also graduated from

Rutgers Law School Rutgers Law School is the law school of Rutgers University, with classrooms in Newark and Camden, New Jersey. It is the largest public law school and the 10th largest law school, overall, in the United States. Each class in the three-year J.D. pr ...

, and the following year, he graduated from

Rutgers University Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's C ...

. He was admitted to the bar in 1927 and began his law practice in Perth Amboy.

Career

Patten worked as a public school teacher in the

Elizabeth, New Jersey Elizabeth is a City (New Jersey), city in and the county seat of Union County, New Jersey, Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Mayor of Perth Amboy, New Jersey The Current Mayor of Perth Amboy is Helmin Caba, who was elected on December 15, 2020, after defeating Wilda Diaz and was sworn in on January 1, 2021. Perth Amboy, New Jersey is governed under the Faulkner Act (Mayor-Council), Mayor-Council system ...

, and held that position until 1940. A year into his term as mayor, Patten became director and counsel of the Woodbridge National Bank, a position he would hold for twenty-seven years. After serving as mayor, Patten went on to become the

county clerk A clerk is a white-collar worker who conducts record keeping as well as general office tasks, or a worker who performs similar sales-related tasks in a retail environment. The responsibilities of clerical workers commonly include record keepin ...

for Middlesex County for fourteen years, until 1954. He then served as

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 secretary of state until 1962. That year, he won the Democratic primary over George Otlowski and ran for the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

seat for the new 15th congressional district, which had been created as a result of

1960 census The 1960 United States census, conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States to be 179,323,175, an increase of 19 percent over the 151,325,798 persons enumerated during the 1950 census. This was the fi ...

data.

Congress

The Democratic Patten successfully ran the election, defeating Republican challenger Bernard F. Rodgers by nearly 20,000 votes. He was then elected into office for the

88th United States Congress The 88th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C., from January 3, 19 ...

on January 3, 1963. Patten was again challenged by Rodgers in 1964, but Patten soundly defeated him again, after receiving 63.2% of the vote.Moore (1994), pg. 1251 Patten would be challenged and re-elected again in 1966 against C. John Stroumtsos, in 1968 against George W. Luke, in 1970 against Peter P. Garibaldi, in 1972 against Fuller H. Brooks, in 1974 against E. J. Hammesfahr, in 1976 against Charles W. Wiley and Independent Dennis Adams Sr., and finally in 1978 in another election against Charles W. Wiley. He was not a candidate for renomination in the 1980

election for the 15th congressional district. In his time in Congress, Patten sponsored twenty-nine bills, all related to various purposes such as

Social Security Welfare spending is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifically to social insurance ...

human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

, and Medicare. In 1978, Patten was accused of facilitating an illegal campaign contribution from a

Korea Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically Division of Korea, divided at or near the 38th parallel north, 3 ...

n businessman as part of the

Koreagate "Koreagate" was an American political scandal in 1976 involving South Korean political figures seeking influence from 10 Democratic members of Congress. The scandal involved the uncovering of evidence that the Korea Central Intelligence Agency (K ...

scandal. Patten was cleared of charges by an 8–0 vote of the

House Ethics Committee The U.S. House Committee on Ethics, often known simply as the Ethics Committee, is one of the committees of the United States House of Representatives. Before the 112th Congress, it was known as the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct. ...

in October of that year. Patten fared far better than some of his counterparts, such as

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

representative

Richard T. Hanna Richard Thomas Hanna (June 9, 1914 – June 9, 2001) was an American lawyer and politician who served six terms as a U.S. Representative from California from 1963 to 1974. He became involved in a scandal dubbed Koreagate by accepting bribes fro ...

who was sentenced to six to thirty months in jail, and ended up serving one year in federal

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where Prisoner, people are Imprisonment, imprisoned under the authority of the State (polity), state ...

. In the Democratic primary, he captured 59% of the vote in a race against political newcomer George Spadoro. In the 1978 election, he beat out Republican Charles Wiley by a slim 2,836 vote margin.

Later career

After politics, he continued to remain active in the various organizations he belonged to, such as the

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an American civil rights organization formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du&nbs ...

Eagles Eagle is the common name for the golden eagle, bald eagle, and other birds of prey in the family of the Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of Genus, genera, some of which are closely related. True eagles comprise the genus ''Aquila ( ...

Elks The Embeddable Linux Kernel Subset (ELKS), formerly known as Linux-8086, is a Linux-like operating system kernel. It is a subset of the Linux kernel, intended for 16-bit computers with limited processor and memory resources such as machines pow ...

Kiwanis Kiwanis International ( ) is an international service club founded in 1915 in Detroit, Michigan. It is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States, and is found in more than 80 nations and geographic areas. In 1987, the organization ...

Knights of Columbus The Knights of Columbus (K of C) is a global Catholic Church, Catholic Fraternal and service organizations, fraternal service order founded by Michael J. McGivney, Blessed Michael J. McGivney. Membership is limited to practicing Catholic men. ...

, and

Moose International The Moose Fraternity (formerly The Loyal Order of Moose) is a Fraternity, fraternal and service organization founded in 1888 and headquartered in Mooseheart, Illinois. Moose International supports the operation of Mooseheart, Illinois, Mo ...

Death

Patten was a resident of

until his death on September 17, 1994, at the age of 89.

References

External links

Edward James Patten
at

The Political Graveyard The Political Graveyard is a website and database that catalogues information on more than 277,000 Politics of the United States, American political figures and List of United States political families, political families, along with other informa ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Patten, Edward J. 1905 births 1994 deaths Mayors of Perth Amboy, New Jersey Lawyers from Middlesex County, New Jersey Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from New Jersey Perth Amboy High School alumni Rutgers School of Law–Newark alumni Secretaries of state of New Jersey 20th-century American educators 20th-century American lawyers 20th-century mayors of places in New Jersey 20th-century members of the United States House of Representatives