Two close congressional races that could have changed history

In 1958, Democrat Alexander Feinberg and former GOP Assemblyman William Cahill faced off in the old first district for the seat of Republican Charles Wolverton, who was retiring after 32 years in Congress. A Democratic year nationally, Cahill held on for a 1,829 vote victory, 50%-49%. Had Cahill lost his congressional race, he probably would not have won election as Governor in 1969.  (Feinberg, a Cherry Hill Democrat, became friends with the Senate candidate that year, Harrison Williams.  More than two decades later, when Williams was indicted in the Abscam scandal, Feinberg was a co-defendant.)

The other race was a 1953 Special Election for the seat of Republican Clifford Case, who had resigned during his ninth year in office to become the president of The Fund for the Republic. (Case returned to politics one year later to win the U.S. Senate seat of retiring freshman GOP Senator Robert Hendrickson). Most observers at the time expected the Republican, Plainfield Mayor George Hetfield, to easily win Case's congressional seat. His Democratic opponent was a 33-year-old lawyer and World War II veteran who had already lost races for State Assembly in 1951 and Plainfield City Councilman in 1952, Harrison Williams.

The 1953 general election turned out to be an unexpectedly good year for New Jersey Democrats. Robert Meyner, a former State Senator who won an upset victory in the Democratic primary against former Congressman Elmer Wene, beat former New Jersey Turnpike Authority Chairman Paul Troast (who beat Malcolm Forbes, then a State Senator from Somerset County in the primary) in a race many pundits of the day expected the Republicans to win. Partly on Meyner's coattails, Williams scored an stunning victory, winning by 2,075 votes -- a 50.8%-49.2% margin. He held the seat in 1954, but lost it in 1956 to Republican Florence Dwyer, then an Assemblywoman from Elizabeth.

Williams ran for U.S. Senator in 1958 and beat Hoboken Mayor John Grogan in the Democratic primary and Robert Kean in the General Election. If Williams had lost to Hetfield, the outcome of a generation of New Jersey political campaigns could have been different.

The seat Cahill won has been occupied continuously by the Republicans since Democratic Congressman Thomas Ferrell lost re-election in 1884. After Cahill was elected Governor, he was replaced by Edwin Forsythe, a former Senate President from Burlington County who died in office in 1984. Forsythe's successor was Jim Saxton, who is retiring this year after 24 years in Congress.

Wolverton won his first race in 1926 when he defeated three-term incumbent Francis Patterson in the Republican primary. Patterson worked for the Camden Courier until becoming the publisher of the Camden Post-Telegram (the predecessors of today's Gannett-owned Courier-Post) in 1894. He served on term in the Assembly and was Camden County Clerk for twenty years until he replaced the late William Browning in Congress. Browning served as a Camden school board member, City Councilman, Postmaster and for six years the Chief Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives before he won the congressional seat of the late Henry Clay Loudenslager; he died in the U.S. Capitol at age 69.

Loudenslager was elected to Congress in 1892 after ten years as the Gloucester County Clerk, defeating two-term Republican Congressman Christopher Bergen in a contest for the GOP nomination; he died in office in 1911 at age 58. Bergen succeeded George Hires, a former State Senator and Salem County Sheriff and the last Congressman from New Jersey's smallest county. Hires unseated Ferrell, a freshman Democratic Congressman and a former Glassboro school board member, Assemblyman and State Senator, in 1884.

Republicans have been able to hold the old Case/Williams seat for a half century. Dwyer stayed in Congress until her retirement in 1972 (she died in 1976 at age 74) and was replaced by State Senator Matthew Rinaldo, who beat former State Senator Jerry English and stayed in office for twenty years before a last minute decision to take a golden parachute --1992 was the last year an incumbent could retire and keep their surplus campaign warchest -- over $1 million. Bob Franks, a seven-term State Assemblyman and the GOP State Chairman won the seat in 1992 and held it until he ran for the U.S. Senate in 2000; he was replaced by Mike Ferguson that year.