James Wallwork

Early Life and Military Career

Wallwork was born September 17, 1930 in Belleville, New Jersey, the son of J. Harold Wallwork (1904-1985) and Lorraine Cameron Klick Wallwork (1905-1993). He grew up in Montclair, New Jersey, and was a 1952 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point. He was 13th in his class of 525. He attended the General Staff War College, where he finished first in his class of 400, and the Army Engineering School. He was the Company Commander of a Combat Engineer Company with the Army of Occupation in Germany. After he left active duty, he served as a Major in the Army National Guard.

Businessman

He was an owner of Wallwork Bros., a plumbing, heating and refrigeration supply company, a family business started by his grandfather.

Political career

Wallwork was elected to the Republican County Committee in Montclair in 1957, and served as an aide to Assemblyman C. Robert Sarcone, the Assembly Minority Leader, in 1963.

New Jersey State Assemblyman

He was elected to the New Jersey General Assembly in 1963, defeating Democratic incumbent John J. Miller, Jr. by 2,185 votes. In 1965, he lost his bid for re-election to a second term, the casualty of Democratic Governor Richard J. Hughes' landslide re-election. He trailed Democrat David Mandelbaum by 26,003 votes.

New Jersey State Senator

Wallwork ran for the New Jersey State Senate in 1967. He won a hotly contested primary on a Reform Republican slate, finishing first in a field of thirteen candidates for six Senate seats elected At-Large in Essex County. The General Election turned out to be a strong environment for Republicans; it was the mid-term election of Governor Richard J. Hughes's second term. Republicans won all six Senate seats, with Wallwork running fourth. The four Democratic Senators elected in 1965 -- Nicholas Fernicola, John J. Giblin, Maclyn Goldman and Hutchins Inge—were all defeated.

With Republicans taking control of the Legislature in 1967, Wallwork was initially slated to serve as the new Majority Leader. But the Essex County Republican Chairman, William Yeomans, refused to support him, a move that essentially blackballed Wallwork from the leadership post. Instead, Frank X. McDermott. a freshman Senator from Union County, became Majority Leader.

1967 Essex County State Senator General Election Results

In 1971, redistricting reduced the number of Essex County Senate seats from six to five, all elected At-Large countywide. Wallwork finished third in the General Election, a race where Democrats won three of the five Senate seats. He finished more than 6,000 votes ahead of Democrat Martin Greenberg.

1971 Essex County State Senator General Election Results

Another round of redistricting came in 1973 when the 25th legislative district was created. For the first time, the state was divided into 40 legislative districts, each with one Senator and two Assemblymen. His running mate was Assemblyman, later Governor, Thomas Kean. In a Democratic landslide year, Wallwork defeated Roseland Councilman Joel Wasserman by 4,774 votes, 30,552 (54.24%) to 25,778 (45.76%).

He was re-elected in 1977 against Democrat Lewis J. Paper, a former U.S. Senate aide and White House intern. Wallwork won by 12,421 votes, 35,517 (60.60%) 23,096 (39.40%).

Wallwork served as the Senate Minority Whip in 1978 and 1979, and as the Assistant Minority Leader in 1980 and 1981.

Candidate for Governor of New Jersey

Wallwork sought the Republican nomination for Governor of New Jersey in 1981, but finished fourth in the GOP primary with 16% of the vote. He lost to Kean, who won the general election. During the campaign, Wallwork was reported to be the subject of an attempted assassination at a Veterans Administration hospital by a gunman disguised as a surgeon. The incident was determined by the FBI to be a hoax. In an unrelated indictment, federal prosecutors stated that the hospital chief of security had staged the attempt.

On March 2, 1993, Wallwork made a late and surprising entrance into the Republican gubernatorial primary. The two leading candidates, both moderates, former New Jersey Board of Public Utilities President Christine Todd Whitman and former New Jersey Attorney General W. Cary Edwards, were being hammered after admitting that they had hired undocumented aliens as domestic servants in their homes. This was an issue in early 1993, after President Clinton's first two nominees for U.S. Attorney General, Zoe Baird and Kimba Wood, were forced to withdraw their nominations after admitting that they hired undocumented aliens as nannies. Wallwork billed himself as a conservative businessman, and pledged to "repeal every dime" of Governor Jim Florio's $2.8 billion tax increase.

Wallwork was hampered by his late start. He admitted at his announcement that his campaign had just two staffers and that he had not yet raised enough to air his first television commercial. "He's just not that well known. He's deficient in name recognition, political base, support among county leadership, and I honestly don't know whether he can become a major candidate," Cliff Zukin, a professor of political science at the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University told the New York Times. He finished third, with 24% of the vote, and carried only Atlantic County.

Waterfront Commissioner

Governor Christine Todd Whitman appointed Wallwork to serve as the Commissioner for New Jersey on the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor.

Family and Retirement

He married the former Lark Lataner of Orange, New Jersey in 1965. They have one daughter, Lyric Wallwork Winik, a book and magazine writer. His son-in-law is historian Jay Winik, the author of the New York Times #1 bestseller April 1865 (2001). Following his retirement from his business, he lived in Far Hills, New Jersey before relocating to Bethesda, Maryland.