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| Northern NJ Apartment Locator Services : Northern NJ |  | Contents | |
| Law and Government |
| The capital of New Jersey is Trenton. The governor of New Jersey is Richard Codey (Democrat), who took over as acting governor based on his role as State Senate President upon James E. McGreevey's resignation on November 15, 2004. The state's two U.S. Senators are Frank R. Lautenberg (Democrat) and Jon Corzine (Democrat). New Jersey has 13 Congressional Districts. |
| Politically, New Jersey, like the rest of the northeastern United States, leans toward the Democratic Party. It was, however, a Republican stronghold for years in the past, having given comfortable margins of victory to the Republican candidate in the close elections of 1948, 1968, and 1976. The state was a crucial swing state in the elections of 1960, 1968, and 1992. It was named as a possible swing again in the 2004 election, following the September 11 terrorist attacks on nearby New York City and President Bush's policies after those attacks. Since the early 1980s, however, the state has given large victories to Democrats in the 1990's, while in the 2004 presidential election it was a little more close, but still an easy victory (with Kerry defeating Bush by about 6%). The last elected Republican to hold a Senate seat from New Jersey was Clifford P. Case in 1979. (Nicholas Brady was appointed a U.S. Senator by Governor Thomas Kean in 1982 after Harrison A. Williams resigned the Senate seat following the Abscam investigations. Brady served eight months.) |
| The state's Democratic strongholds include Mercer County around the cities of Trenton and Princeton; Essex County and Hudson County, the state's two most urban counties, around the state's two largest cities, Newark and Jersey City; as well as in Camden County and most of the other urban communities just outside of Philadelphia and New York City. More suburban New York bordering counties such as Union and Middlesex counties are also largely Democratic, as well as Atlantic City and the area around it. |
| The more suburban northwestern and southeastern counties of the state are bastions of the Republican party: Republicans have strong backing along the coast in Ocean County and in the mountainous northwestern part of the state, especially Sussex County and Morris County and Warren County. Somerset and Hunterdon counties, more suburban counties in the region, are also more Republican, but recently, with new immigration coming to these counties from Northern New Jersey and New York, they are beginning to become more close. |
| Most of the counties in New Jersey, however, are considered swing counties, but some go more one way than others. For an example, Bergen County, which is very Republican in the northern half of the county, is mostly liberal in the more populated parts, causing it to usually vote mostly Democratic (same with Passaic County, with a highly populated liberal south and a rural, conservative north), other "swing" counties like Cape May tend to go Republican, as they also have population in conservative areas. |
| State Constitution |
| The constitution (http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/lawsconstitution/constitution.asp) was adopted in 1947. It provides for a bicameral Legislature consisting of a Senate of 40 members and an Assembly of 80 members. Each of the 40 legislative districts elects one Senator and two Assembly members. Assembly members are elected by the people for a two year term in all odd-numbered years; Senators are elected in the years ending in 1, 3, and 7 and thus serve either four or two year terms. |
| The New Jersey Supreme Court (http://www.judiciary.state.nj.us/supreme/index.htm) consists of a chief justice and six associate justices. All are appointed by the Governor with the advice and consent of a majority of the membership of the state senate. Justices serve an initial seven-year term, after which they can be reappointed to serve until age 70. |
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