1965 New Jersey Senate election

1965 New Jersey Senate elections
All 29 seats in the New Jersey State Senate; 15 seats needed for a majority
Senate President before election; Charles Sandman; Republican	Elected Senate President ; John A. Lynch Sr.; Democratic

The 1965 New Jersey State Senate elections were held on November 2.

The elections were the first held after the Supreme Court's Reynolds v. Sims decision, which held that New Jersey's single-seat county apportionment was unconstitutional. The ruling forced New Jersey to grant multiple seats to its largest counties (and eventually, switch to single-member districts that did not follow county lines).

The election also coincided with a landslide re-election victory for Democratic Governor Richard J. Hughes.

The result was a majority for the Democratic Party, the first since 1915.

Background

Reapportioning

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 reapportionment.^[1]

The overall effect of the reapportioning was to reduce representation for rural counties and increase representation for more populous urban counties, bringing the per person population closer to parity.

In 1965, the Senate was increased to 29 members, with larger counties given multiple seats and some smaller counties sharing one or two Senators:

County	1965 District	#	∆
Atlantic	1	2	1
Cape May
Gloucester
Cumberland	2	1	1
Salem	2	1	1
Camden	3	2	1
Burlington	4	1
Monmouth	5	2
Ocean	5	2
Mercer	6	1
Middlesex	7	2	1
Hunterdon	8	1	1
Somerset	8	1	1
Union	9	2	1
Morris	10	2	1
Sussex
Warren
Essex	11	4	3
Hudson	12	3	2
Bergen	13	4	3
Passaic	14	2	1

Incumbents not running for re-election

Democratic

Robert H. Weber (District 2) (managed John Waddington's campaign)

Republican

Charles W. Sandman (District 1) (ran for Governor)
W. Steelman Mathis (District 5)^[2]
Wayne Dumont (District 10) (ran for Governor)

Summary of results by State Senate District

County	Incumbent		New District	Elected Senator
Atlantic	Frank S. Farley	Rep	District 1	John E. Hunt	Rep
Cape May	Charles W. Sandman	Rep		Frank S. Farley	Rep
Gloucester	John E. Hunt	Rep		Seat eliminated
Cumberland	Robert H. Weber	Dem	District 2	John A. Waddington	Dem
Salem	John A. Waddington	Dem	District 2	Seat eliminated
Camden	Frederick J. Scholz	Rep	District 3	Frederick J. Scholz	Rep
Camden	New seat		District 3	A. Donald Bigley	Dem
Burlington	Edwin B. Forsythe	Rep	District 4	Edwin B. Forsythe	Rep
Monmouth	Richard R. Stout	Rep	District 5	Richard R. Stout	Rep
Ocean	W. Steelman Mathis	Rep	District 5	William T. Hiering	Rep
Mercer	Sido L. Ridolfi	Dem	District 6	Sido L. Ridolfi	Dem
Middlesex	John A. Lynch	Dem	District 7	John A. Lynch	Dem
Middlesex	New seat		District 7	J. Edward Crabiel	Dem
Hunterdon	Vacant^[a]		District 8	William E. Ozzard	Rep
Somerset	William E. Ozzard	Rep	District 8	Seat eliminated
Union	Nelson F. Stamler	Rep	District 9	Nelson F. Stamler	Rep
Union	New seat		District 9	Mildred Barry Hughes	Dem
Morris	Thomas J. Hillery	Rep	District 10	Thomas J. Hillery	Rep
Sussex	Vacant^[b]			Milton Woolfenden	Rep
Warren	Wayne Dumont	Rep		Seat eliminated
Essex	C. Robert Sarcone	Rep	District 11	Nicholas Fernicola	Dem
	New seat			Macyln Goldman	Dem
	New seat			John J. Giblin	Dem
	New seat			Hutchins Inge	Dem
Hudson	William F. Kelly	Dem	District 12	William Musto	Dem
	New seat			William F. Kelly	Dem
	New seat			Frank Guarini	Dem
Bergen	Pierce H. Deamer Jr.	Rep	District 13	Ned Parsekian	Dem
	New seat			Matt Feldman	Dem
	New seat			Jeremiah F. O'Connor	Dem
	New seat			Alfred W. Kiefer	Dem
Passaic	Anthony J. Grossi	Dem	District 14	Anthony J. Grossi	Dem
Passaic	New seat		District 14	Joseph M. Keegan	Dem

^ The seat was vacant following the death of Senator Raymond E. Bowkley in April 1965.
^ The seat was vacant following the resignation of Senator George B. Harper, who resigned in 1964 to take office as New Jersey Auditor.

District 1

District 1 (two seats) ^[3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	John E. Hunt (incumbent)	75,373	%
	Republican	Frank S. Farley (incumbent)	69,767	%
	Democratic	Leo T. Clark	65,059
	Democratic	Edward Savage	59,959
Total votes				100.00%

District 2

District 2 (one seat) ^[3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	John A. Waddington (incumbent)	32,292	56.97%
	Republican	John J. Spoltore	24,390	43.03%
Total votes			56,682	100.00%

District 3

District 3 (two seats) ^[3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Frederick J. Scholz	66,509	%
	Democratic	A. Donald Bigley	62,396	51.22%
	Democratic	Alfred R. Pierce	61,285
	Republican	John H. Mohrfeld III	59,359
Total votes				100.00%

District 4

District 4 (one seat) ^[3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Edwin B. Forsythe	34,098	52.69%
	Democratic	George H. Barbour	30,617	47.31%
Total votes			64,715	100.00%

District 5

District 4 (one seat) ^[3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Richard R. Stout	99,688	28.4%
	Republican	William T. Hiering	95,282	27.2%
	Democratic	John J. Reilly	80,832	23.1%
	Democratic	Thomas J. Muccifori	74,857	21.2%
Total votes			350,659	100.00%

District 6

1965 general election^[3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Sido L. Ridolfi (incumbent)	56,231	62.2%
	Republican	William E. Schluter	33,821	37.4%
	Socialist Labor	Joseph J. Frank	284	0.3%
Total votes			90,336	100.00%

District 7

1965 general election^[3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	John A. Lynch (incumbent)	114,955	34.2%
	Democratic	J. Edward Crabiel	111,893	33.3%
	Republican	Edgar Hellriegel	55,154	16.4%
	Republican	Albert L. Ichel	54,470	16.2%
Total votes			336,472	100.00%

District 8

1965 general election^[3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	William E. Ozzard (incumbent)	39,596	50.3%
	Democratic	Arthur S. Meredith	39,185	49.7%
Total votes			78,781	100.0

District 9

1965 general election^[3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Nelson Stamler (incumbent)	99,327	27.4%
	Democratic	Mildred Barry Hughes	92,102	25.4%
	Republican	Peter McDonough	90,261	24.9%
	Democratic	William P. Hourihan	81,226	22.4%
Total votes			362,916	100.00%

District 10

1965 general election^[3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Thomas J. Hillery (incumbent)	89,839	31.4%
	Republican	Milton Woolfenden Jr.	85,192	29.8%
	Democratic	Ruth C. Mitchell	57,038	20.0%
	Democratic	Irene Mackey Smith	53,823	18.8%
Total votes			285,892	100.00%

District 11

1965 general election^[3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Nicholas Fernicola	145,589	13.7%
	Democratic	Maclyn Goldman	143,795	13.5%
	Democratic	John J. Giblin	143,040	13.4%
	Democratic	Hutchins F. Inge	135,959	12.8%
	Republican	C. Robert Sarcone (incumbent)	128,815	12.1%
	Republican	Irwin I. Kimmelman	116,205	10.9%
	Republican	James E. Churchman, Jr.	112,995	10.6%
	Republican	William F. Tompkins	112,128	10.5%
	Independent	George C. Richardson^[a]	10,409	1.0%
	Independent	Kenrick O. Stephenson^[a]	5,970	0.6%
	Independent	David Blumgart^[a]	5,305	0.5%
	Independent	Fredrick Waring^[a]	4,476	0.4%
Total votes			1,064,686	100.00%

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Richardson, Stephenson, Blumgart, and Waring ran on the "United Political Freedom" line.

District 12

1965 general election^[3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	William Musto	154,183	24.7%
	Democratic	William F. Kelly Jr. (incumbent)	152,975	24.6%
	Democratic	Frank Guarini	152,263	24.4%
	Republican	William Bozzuffi	52,363	8.4%
	Republican	John J. Grossi, Jr.	51,891	8.3%
	Republican	Victoria Borsett	50,649	8.1%
	Independent	James C. Lynch^[a]	3,204	0.5%
	Independent	Beatrice Waiss^[a]	2,772	0.4%
	Independent	Willie Mae Mason^[a]	2,741	0.4%
Total votes			623,041	100.00%

^ ^a ^b ^c Lynch, Waiss, and Mason ran on "The New Frontier" line.

District 13

1965 general election^[3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Ned J. Parsekian	174,438	14.1%
	Democratic	Matthew Feldman	159,236	12.9%
	Democratic	Jeremiah F. O'Connor	156,888	12.7%
	Democratic	Alfred W. Kiefer	152,844	12.4%
	Republican	Peter Moraites	148,092	12.0%
	Republican	Marion West Higgins	148,035	12.0%
	Republican	Arthur W. Vervaet	144,890	11.7%
	Republican	Nelson G. Gross	143,532	11.6%
	Conservative	Thomas J. Moriarty	4,408	0.4%
	Independent	Louis Berns^[a]	1,256	0.1%
Total votes			1,233,619	100.00%

^ Berns ran on the "Fusion" line.

District 14

1965 general election^[3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Anthony J. Grossi (incumbent)	75,497	28.8%
	Democratic	Joseph M. Keegan	73,698	28.1%
	Republican	Arthur J. Sullivan	57,326	21.9%
	Republican	John F. Evers	55,042	21.0%
	Socialist Labor	Harry Santhouse	442	0.2%
Total votes			262,005	100.00%

References

^ "Jersey Ordered to Reapportion – Judge Finds Congressional Districts Unconstitutional". New York Times. May 21, 1965.
^ "Some Ocean County GOP History". Observer. August 13, 2009. Archived from the original on July 9, 2021. Retrieved July 2, 2021.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ "Results of the General Election Held November 7, 1965" (PDF). Secretary of State Robert J. Burkhardt. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 9, 2021. Retrieved July 2, 2021.

[3] The seat was vacant following the death of Senator Raymond E. Bowkley in April 1965.

[4] The seat was vacant following the resignation of Senator George B. Harper, who resigned in 1964 to take office as New Jersey Auditor.

[UPF-6] Richardson, Stephenson, Blumgart, and Waring ran on the "United Political Freedom" line.

[TNF-7] Lynch, Waiss, and Mason ran on "The New Frontier" line.

[8] Berns ran on the "Fusion" line.

[1] "Jersey Ordered to Reapportion – Judge Finds Congressional Districts Unconstitutional". New York Times. May 21, 1965.

[2] "Some Ocean County GOP History". Observer. August 13, 2009. Archived from the original on July 9, 2021. Retrieved July 2, 2021.

[genresults-5] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ "Results of the General Election Held November 7, 1965" (PDF). Secretary of State Robert J. Burkhardt. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 9, 2021. Retrieved July 2, 2021.

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