Preceded by District created Children three Succeeded by John H. Dorsey Spouse(s) Judith Alexander Wiley Party Republican Party | Political party Republican Role Politician Preceded by Joseph J. Maraziti Name Stephen Wiley | |
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Full Name Stephen Bradford Wiley Born June 21, 1929
Morristown, New Jersey ( 1929-06-21 ) Alma mater Princeton University
Columbia Law School Died October 8, 2015, Shelburne, Vermont, United States Books Hero Island, Mockingbird Come Home, Latitudes: New and Selected Poems Education Princeton University, Columbia Law School | ||
Stephen Bradford Wiley (June 21, 1929 – October 8, 2015) was an American Democratic Party politician who served in the New Jersey Senate from 1973 to 1978, where he represented Morris County. He was an unsuccessful candidate for Governor of New Jersey in the 1985 Democratic primary election.
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Biography
Wiley was born on June 21, 1929 in Morristown to Katharine (née Pellett) and J. Burton Wiley and attended Morristown High School, graduating in 1947. His father had been the district's superintendent of schools. He earned his undergraduate degree from Princeton University in 1951 and was awarded a law degree from Columbia Law School in 1954, before going on to serve in the United States Army from 1954 to 1956. After completing his military service, Wiley was named in 1957 to serve as Assistant Prosecutor for Morris County. He was named in 1960 as legal counsel to Governor of New Jersey Robert B. Meyner.
A resident of Morris Township, Wiley was a practicing attorney, specializing in litigation in federal and state courts. After Meyner left office in 1962, he and Wiley formed a law practice. As of 1973, Wiley joined the firm of Wiley, Malehorn and Sirota in Morristown.
Political career
In the aftermath of the Watergate scandal in 1973, Wiley ran for the State Senate in two separate but concurrent elections. One election was a special election in the 10th legislative district, consisting of the entirety of Morris County, to fill the remaining term of Joseph J. Maraziti who had been elected to the United States House of Representatives in the previous year. The other election was for a four-year term in the newly formed 23rd Legislative District consisting of central Morris County municipalities. In both elections, he faced Republican Assemblywoman Josephine Margetts. He defeated her in both elections (by two points in the special election and by six in the regular election) becoming the first Democrat to win a Senate seat from Morris County in sixty years.
Wiley was sworn into the Senate on November 12, 1973 serving two months of Maraziti's unexpired term from the at-large Morris County district. Later in his full Senate term, he served as Chair of the Senate Education Committee, the Joint Committee on the Public Schools and the Senate Rules Committee. He was responsible for drafting legislation which became the Public School Education Act of 1975, which established a state income tax in New Jersey that was specified as a source for school funding in addition to locally assessed property taxes. He was named a top legislator by New Jersey Monthly magazine.
Governor Brendan Byrne nominated Wiley to the New Jersey Supreme Court in 1975 following the retirement of Frederick W. Hall. His nomination was approved by the Senate, but was challenged by former Assemblyman David Friedland as Wiley had voted to raise the salary of justices of the Supreme Court in 1974. After two years of appeals, the State Supreme Court rejected his nomination because of the pay raise vote, Wiley could not be appointed to serve on the court until after his term of office expired. After his vote to establish a state income tax, he was defeated in the 1977 general election by Assemblyman John H. Dorsey 54%-46%.
Wiley ran for the Democratic Gubernatorial nomination in 1985, focusing on the state's toxic waste problem as a campaign issue, as he targeted incumbent Republican Thomas Kean. Wiley also focused on the Kean administration's failure to provide state aid to public schools under the formula dictated by the Public Education Act of 1975 that Wiley sponsored. Wiley and former U.S. Attorney Robert Del Tufo were excluded for a candidates forum held on New York City television station WABC-TV Channel 7. Though he received the endorsement of former Assembly Speaker S. Howard Woodson in the June primary, Wiley came in a distant fourth place with 8.6 percent of the vote, behind winner Peter Shapiro with 31.0%, State Senator John F. Russo with 26.6% and Newark mayor Kenneth A. Gibson with 26.1% (though he did carry his home county of Morris).
Later life
Following his Senate defeat, he founded a second law firm named Wiley, Malehorn, Sirota and Raynes, Morris Cablevision, the county's first cable television company, and the First Morris Bank and Trust. He also founded the Morris County United Way and raised money for the restoration of what is now Mayo Performing Arts Center.
At the age of 70, Wiley started writing poetry. He and his wife Judy sold their Morris County home in 2012 and moved full-time to South Hero, Vermont on Lake Champlain; they later moved to nearby Shelburne, Vermont. He died October 8, 2015 in Shelburne at the age of 86.