Fred Hartley

If John Adler and Linda Stender win their races for Congress, they'll accomplish a feat that rarely occurs in New Jersey -- winning the seat of a retiring Congressman from the other party in a contest unrelated to the drawing of new districts. The last time this happened was in 1994, when Republican Frank LoBiondo won after Democrat William Hughes retired.

The last time the GOP failed to hold the seats of retiring incumbents was in 1964, when Democrat James Howard succeeded Republican James Auchincloss, and Democrat Paul Krebs followed Republican George Wallhauser.

John Adler could be the first Democrat to capture a congressional seat (Jim Saxton's seat) in his district since Thomas Ferrell won in 1882, and Linda Stender, if she wins, she'll be the first Democrat to hold that seat (Mike Ferguson's seat) since Harrison Williams lost to Florence Dwyer in 1956.  New Jersey's House seats, with the last time the other party held them:

Fred Hartley was once the boy wonder of New Jersey politics: he was appointed to Kearny Library Commission at age 19, and in 1924, at age 21, bucked the local political establishment to election as a Kearny Town Commissioner.  In 1928, the 26-year-old Hartley became the youngest person ever to represent New Jersey in the U.S. House of Representatives: he won a three-way Republican primary by just 714 votes in a district that included parts of Essex (Belleville, Bloomfield, Nutley and parts of Newark) and Hudson (Harrison, Kearny and East Newark) counties when the Essex and Hudson GOP organizations backed different candidates (turnout was boosted by a hotly contested contest for the U.S. Senate nomination between Republican National Committeeman Hamilton Fish Kean, former U.S. Senator Joseph Frelinghuysen, former Governor Edward Stokes, former Congressman Edward Gray, and Lillian Ford Feickert, the first woman to run for statewide office) and by 344 votes (after a recount) over freshman Democratic Congressman Paul Moore.

New Jersey has only elected five Congressmen under the age of thirty: Fred Hartley, who at 26 was the youngest person to represent New Jersey in Congress; Republican Christopher Smith, now serving his 24th year in Congress, was 27-years-old when he ousted thirteen-term incumbent Frank Thompson, Jr. in 1980; Democrat James Hamill was 29 when he won a Hudson County congressional seat in 1906 (after fourteen years in Washington, he returned to New Jersey to assume a more powerful post: Jersey City Corporation Counsel); Democrat Eugene Leake, elected to Congress at age 29 in 1906, retired after just one term and began a successful business career -- he was the Chairman of American Railway Express Company and a Director of Loews, Inc.; and William Newell, a 29-year-old surgeon from Monmouth County when he was elected to the House as a Whig in 1846, retired after two terms and served as Governor of New Jersey from 1857 to 1860. Newell returned to Congress as a Republican in 1864, lost re-election in 1866, and lost a bid for Governor in 1877.