Charles Sandman

Paul Stuart Aronsohn would become the eighth Rotarian-American to represent New Jersey in the U.S. House of Representatives, if he wins his November race with GOP incumbent Scott Garrett. He would also become the third Rotarian-American in the thirteen member New Jersey delegation, joining Hugh James Saxton and Frank LoBiondo.

The first New Jersey Rotarian American to win a House seat was Charles Wolverton, a Republican from Camden County who served as Assembly Speaker (while Walter Edge was Governor) before winning election to Congress in 1926. He spent 32 years in the House before retiring in 1958; his open seat was won by Assemblyman William Cahill, who became Governor eleven years later. In that 1969 GOP gubernatorial primary, Cahill defeated another Rotarian-American, Charles Sandman, a former Senate President who won an adjacent South Jersey House seat in 1966. Four years later, Cahill lost his bid for a second term when Sandman defeated him in the Republican primary.

One could argue Saxton and LoBiondo hold the Rotarian-American seats. Saxton holds Wolverton's old seat, while LoBiondo has the seat once held by Sandman. One of Sandman's predecessors in the second district was Elmer Wene, a Rotarian-American chicken farmer from Cumberland County. Wene was elected to Congress in 1936, but lost the seat two years later. He was elected Cumberland County Freeholder in 1939 and regained his House seat in 1940. After four more years in Congress, Wene ran for an open U.S. Senate seat; he lost to Republican Alexander Smith by a narrow 40%-49% margin. He won a State Senate seat in 1946, and lost a bid for Governor in 1949 to Republican Alfred Driscoll by a 52%-47% margin. He lost a race for Congress in 1950 and was defeated in the 1953 Democratic primary for Governor by Robert Meyner.

Gordon Canfield, a Rotarian-American Republican from Passaic County, was elected to Congress in 1940 after spending eighteen years as Secretary to his predecessor, Congressman George Segar. Canfield spent twenty years in the seat now occupied by Bill Pascrell, Jr.

The seventh Rotarian-American Congressman was Hugh Addonizio, who was a 34-year-old World War II veteran when he defeated an three-term GOP Congressman Frank Sundstrom in 1948. Addonizio left Congress in 1962 to run for Mayor of Newark; he lost his bid for re-election in 1970 to Kenneth Gibson, prior to his conviction on federal corruption charges. The Rotarian-American spent five years in prison.

Other prominent Rotarian-Americans in New Jersey politics include: William Albright, a State Senator from Gloucester County in the 1930's; Clarence Case, a former State Senate President (he represented Somerset County from 1918 to 1929) and New Jersey Supreme Court Justice, and the uncle of U.S. Senator Clifford Case; Joseph Chinnici, a Cumberland County Republican who served in the Assembly from 1972 to 1988; Joshua Haines, a Republican State Senator from Camden County from 1918 to 1920; Republican Charles Loizeaux, a former Mayor of Plainfield who was a State Senator from Union County from 1933 to 1941; and Robert Weber, a Cumberland County Republican who served in the State Assmebly from 1958 to 1960 and in the Senate from 1960 to 1966.

The New Jersey Legislature is often the breeding ground for gubernatorial candidates, but by 2009 it will have been 81 years since a sitting state legislator has been elected Governor -- the last time was in 1928, when Morgan Larson, a Republican State Senator from Middlesex County, won.

Over the last fifty years, only four incumbent legislators -- State Senators Malcom Forbes (1957), Wayne Dumont (1965), Raymond Bateman (1977) and James E. McGreevey (1997) -- have won gubernatorial primaries, and all four have lost their general elections.

More often, incumbent legislators to lose gubernatorial primaries: Paul DiGaetano, who won just 5.5% in 2005, Alan Karcher in 1989, Chuck Hardwick, Bill Gormley and Gerald Cardinale in 1989; John Russo in 1985, Frank Dodd, William Hamilton, Joseph Merlino, Barry Parker, James Wallwork and Anthony Imperiale in 1981; Thomas Kean and Raymond Garramone in 1977; Ralph DeRose and Ann Klein in 1973; Harry Sears, Frank McDermott and William Kelly in 1969; Charles Sandman in 1965, and Walter Jones in 1961. Still, seven of the last eleven Governors had served in the Legislature.