Joseph Maraziti

If Linda Stender wins her race against Leonard Lance, she would become just the sixth woman to represent New Jersey in the U.S. House of Representatives since the ratification of the 19th Ammendment in 1920 -- and just the second to go without beating an incumbent.

Four of New Jersey's five Congresswomen went to Washington after defeating an incumbent: Mary Norton, a Hudson County Freeholder who went to Congress in 1924 when she defeated incumbent John Eagan in the Democratic primary with the backing of Jersey City Mayor Frank Hague; Florence Dwyer, an Assemblywoman from Elizabeth, who ousted two-term Democrat Harrison Williams in 1956; Helen Meyner, the former First Lady of New Jersey, who beat freshman Republican Joseph Maraziti in 1974; and former Ridgewood Board of Education President Marge Roukema, who unsteated three-term Democrat Andrew Maguire in 1980.

New Jersey Republicans have nine non-incumbent candidates for Congress in 2008, the most since 1976 when the state's House delegation had a 12-3 Democratic majority.  For the last decade, New Jersey Democrats have held a 7-6 majority in the House.

Here's a brief history of the party turnover of New Jersey House seats:

Arthur Albohn, who passed away on Sunday at the age of 86, was the last person to defeat an incumbent member of the State Assembly in a Morris County general election.  He did it in 1979, when he ousted Democrat Rosemarie Totaro by 3,088 votes.  (The last person to defeat an incumbent State Senator in Morris County was Anthony Bucco, who unseated Gordon MacInnes in 1997.  MacInnes had beaten John Dorsey four years earlier. 

Back in 1972, when legislators still drew congressional districts with the consent of the Governor -- and when the GOP controlled state government -- court mandated redistricting led to the creation of a new Republican district in northwestern New Jersey at the expense of a Democratic district in Hudson County. 

A group of Democrats have launched a grass roots effort to draft Dana Wefer to run for the State Assembly in the 25th district, against incumbents Michael Patrick Carroll and Richard Merkt. Wefer, a 24-year-old law student, ran strong, but uphill, races for Morris County Freeholder in 2005 and 2006. In her last race, the Democratic rising star ran 3,595 votes ahead of her running mate and won endorsements from the Daily Record and eleven weekly newspapers.

Some Democrats view the 25th as potentially competitive, although Carroll and Merkt have had little trouble winning the district by solid margins in past elections. In 2005, Democrats Thomas Jackson and Janice Schindler lost by nearly 5,000 votes.

Democrats have not carried the 25th since 1993, when Gordon MacInnes unseated Senate Majority Leader John Dorsey in a contest that was almost entirely about Dorsey's ethics and his decision to block the reappointment of a Superior Court Judge. Four years later, MacInnes lost his seat to Republican Anthony Bucco.

The last Democrat to represent the district in the Assembly was Rosemarie Totaro, who won an open seat in 1977 against Republican Joseph Maraziti, a 65-year-old former Congressman and State Senator who has spent nearly forty years in politics. Maraziti had considerable political liabilities: as a member of the House Judiciary Committee, Maraziti emerged as a staunch defender of President Richard Nixon, and his friendship with one of his congressional staffers -- female secretary with no typing skills -- received national attention.