33rd Legislative District (New Jersey)

Demographic characteristics

As of the 2010 United States Census, the district had a population of 224,489, of whom 182,918 (81.5%) were of voting age. The racial makeup of the district was 140,855 (62.7%) White, 11,648 (5.2%) African American, 1,955 (0.9%) Native American, 23,655 (10.5%) Asian, 104 (0.0%) Pacific Islander, 35,928 (16.0%) from some other race, and 10,334 (4.6%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 121,647 (54.2%) of the population. The district had 126,494 registered voters as of December 31, 2016, of whom 47,597 (37.6%) were registered as unaffiliated, 66,559 (52.6%) were registered as Democrats, 11,904 (9.4%) were registered as Republicans and 434 (0.3%) were registered to other parties.

The district is the smallest and most densely populated district in the state. The district has a majority Hispanic population, with 46% of the population being foreign born, the largest of any district. It has a relative paucity of African Americans and senior citizens.

Political representation

The district is represented for the 2016–2017 Legislative Session (Senate, General Assembly) in the State Senate by Brian P. Stack (D, Union City) and in the General Assembly by Raj Mukherji (D, Jersey City) and Annette Chaparro (D, Hoboken).

Apportionment history

The 33rd District, since its creation in 1973 along with the 40-district legislative map in the state, has always consisted of most of the cities in northern Hudson County along the Hudson River. From 1973 until 2011, it consisted of all of Hoboken, Union City, Weehawken, West New York, and Guttenberg, and a portion of Jersey City. In order to maintain a population close to one fortieth of the state's population, wards from Jersey City were added and removed as necessary to obtain this population count.

Guttenberg and West New York, which had been in the district since 1973, were shifted to the 32nd District.

Election history

The 33rd District has been reliably Democratic for decades. with Republicans making brief inroads in the 1985 elections.

Riding Governor of New Jersey Thomas Kean's wave of success in the 1985 elections, two Republicans won election, Jose Arango of West New York and Ronald Dario of Union City. The two defeated Democratic incumbents Robert Ranieri and newcomer Mario R. Hernandez

Bob Menendez was elevated to fill the Senate vacancy following the death of Christopher Jackman in January 1991. Louis Romano was then chosen to fill the vacancy in the Assembly.

After Robert Menendez was elected as U.S. Representative in November 1992, Assemblymember Bernard Kenny was chosen to fill Menendez's vacancy in the New Jersey Senate. In turn, Hudson County, New Jersey Democratic Party boss Bruce Walter picked Rudy Garcia in January 1993 to fill Kenny's now-vacant spot in the Assembly.

In the June 1999 primaries, the Hudson County Democratic Party organization was looking for "new blood" and chose to give its official support to West New York mayor Albio Sires. Four-term incumbent Louis Romano ran in the Democratic primary and lost, making him the only one of the 80 incumbents in the Assembly to lose their primary bid.

Assemblymember Rafael Fraguela was knocked off the ballot in 2003 by the Hudson County Democratic Party and chose to run for the Senate as a Republican against Bernard Kenny. Fraguela insisted that the Democrats "have been putting aside all the Hispanic Democratic candidates", while "The GOP has had open arms to the Hispanic community".

Caridad Rodriguez resigned from office in May 2011 after winning a seat on the West New York, New Jersey Board of Commissioners.

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