New Jersey's 7th congressional district

Counties and municipalities in the district

For the 113th and successive Congresses (based on redistricting following the 2010 United States Census), the congressional district contains portions of four counties and 54 municipalities.

Essex County:

Millburn (which includes the Short Hills neighborhood)

Hunterdon County (entire county):

Alexandria Township, Bethlehem Township, Bloomsbury, Califon, Clinton Town, Clinton Township, Delaware Township, East Amwell Township, Flemington, Franklin Township, Frenchtown, Glen Gardner, Hampton, High Bridge, Holland Township, Kingwood Township, Lambertville, Lebanon Borough, Lebanon Township, Milford, Raritan Township, Readington Township, Stockton, Tewksbury Township, Union Township and West Amwell Township

Morris County:

Chester Borough, Chester Township, Dover, Long Hill Township, Mine Hill Township, Mount Arlington, Mount Olive Township, Netcong, Roxbury Township, Washington Township and Wharton

Somerset County:

Bedminster Township, Bernards Township, Bernardsville, Branchburg Township, Bridgewater Township, Far Hills, Green Brook Township, Hillsborough Township, Millstone, Montgomery Township, North Plainfield, Peapack-Gladstone, Raritan, Rocky Hill, Somerville, Warren Township and Watchung

Union County:

Berkeley Heights, Clark, Cranford, Garwood, Kenilworth, Mountainside, New Providence, Scotch Plains (part), Springfield, Summit, Union Township (part), Westfield and Winfield Township

Warren County:

Alpha, Franklin Township, Greenwich Township, Harmony Township, Lopatcong Township, Phillipsburg and Pohatcong Township

Recent changes

The district has been progressing in a different direction in the past few years, turning from a once reliable Republican district to a competitive district as it has become more ethnically mixed with Caucasians comprising, as of 2009, 79% of the district, African Americans 5.7%, Asians 11% and Latinos 10%. In addition, the district is home to a large group of foreign-born residents, totaling 131,000 or 20% of the population.

History

In the 2012 general election, Republican incumbent Leonard Lance held his seat against Democratic challenger Upendra J. Chivukula. In the 2010 general election, Democratic challenger Ed Potosnak challenged Lance, but Lance defeated Potosnak by a margin of 59% to 41%. For the 2012 election, both Potosnak and former Edison Mayor Jun Choi announced their candidacies for the Democratic nomination. Choi dropped out of the race in December 2011 after redistricting left his Edison home outside the 7th District. Potosnak dropped out of the race in January 2012 to take a position as executive director of the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters, leaving a momentarily empty field for the Democratic nomination.

In 2008, Mike Ferguson (who had first been elected in 2000, replacing Bob Franks) did not seek another term. Linda Stender won the Democratic nomination unopposed, while Republican primary voters chose State Senator Leonard Lance in a field of eight candidates. In the general election, Lance defeated Assemblywoman Linda Stender by a margin of 25,833 votes.

2006 election

Source: NJ Division of Elections. Official 2006 Election Results.[1].

Major issues in 2006 race

Linda Stender campaigned on the issues of stem cell research and the Iraq War, while Mike Ferguson campaigned on the issues of Ms. Stender's prior legislative record and her close ties to New Jersey's Democratic political machine.

Effect of 2000 redistricting

New Jersey's 7th district and the 12th district were redistricted after the 2000 census by a bipartisan panel. By consensus of the panel, the Democratic and Republican parties agreed to trade areas in the two districts to make them safer for their respective incumbents. It is likely that this tradeoff, which made New Jersey's 7th less competitive for Democrats, had an effect on the outcome of 2006 election, which was decided by approximately 3,000 votes. Areas of the former 7th district such as Somerset in Franklin Township (Somerset County) that had historically voted reliably Democratic were moved into the adjacent 12th district to shore up the Democratic incumbent's hold on there, while reliably Republican Millburn was moved into the 7th. Despite the redistricting, NJ-07 is still the most competitive House district in New Jersey, and was the only one considered to be in play in 2006 by political pundits.