Cory Booker

Current Role

Cory Booker won a special election in 2013 and then officially began his 6-year senate term in 2014 to represent New Jersey. He previously served as Mayor and a City Council Member of Newark.

Booker currently serves on the following US Senate Committees: Foreign Relations, Commerce, Science and Transportation, Small Business and Entrepreneurship, Environment and Public Works.

For more details and contact information see his website: https://www.booker.senate.gov/

Early Life

Cory Booker was raised in Harrington Park, living his life as a proud New Jerseyan. After graduating from Northern Valley Regional High School, Booker received his undergraduate degree from Stanford University where he played on the varsity football team. While at Stanford, he also was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship and went on to study at the University of Oxford where he received an honors degree in History. Booker then completed his education at Yale Law School, receiving his J.D. in 1997. 

After law school, Booker moved to Newark – where he still lives to this day – and started a nonprofit organization to provide legal services for low-income families and help tenants take on slumlords, improve living conditions, and stay in their homes. 

Robert Menendez

Current Role

After serving on his school board at a young age and as the Mayor and State Legislator for Union City, Bob Menendez was elected to Congress for the first time in 1992.

He has also served as the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as well as chairing the Senate Banking Committee hearings and contributing to immigration reform in 2013.

For more details and contact information see his website: https://www.menendez.senate.gov/

Early Life

Robert Menendez (later usually known as "Bob"), was born on January 1, 1954 in New York City, to Cuban immigrants who had left Cuba a few months earlier, in late 1953. His father, Mario Menéndez, was a carpenter, and his mother, Evangelina, a seamstress. The family subsequently moved to neighboring New Jersey where he grew up in a tenement in Union City. He attended Union Hill High School, where his speech teacher, Gail Harper, helped the introverted Menendez emerge as a powerful public speaker.

Menendez explains, "My mother and Miss Harper made me understand the power of education, what it means to put a premium on learning and working hard." While at Union Hill, Menendez became the student body president. He went on to become the first in his family to go to college, attending Saint Peter's College in Jersey Citywhere he became a member of the Lambda Theta Phi fraternity. He graduated with a B.A. in political science, and subsequently earned his Juris Doctor degree from Newark's Rutgers School of Law in 1979.

Josh Gottheimer

Current Role

Josh Gottheimer represents New Jersey's Fifth Congressional District in the northernmost part of the state, which includes parts of Bergen, Passaic, Sussex and Warren counties. He was sworn in on January 3, 2017. He serves on the House Financial Services Committee where he works on three Subcommittees: the Capital Markets, Securities, and Investments Subcommittee, the Oversight and Investigation Subcommittee, and the Terrorism and Illicit Finance Subcommittee. In February, Josh was elected Co-Chair of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, where he brings Members together across party lines and finds areas of agreement on key issues like lowering taxes, cutting burdensome and unnecessary regulation, and improving infrastructure to help the American people. 

For more details and contact information see his website: https://gottheimer.house.gov/

Early Life

Josh was raised in North Caldwell, the son of a preschool teacher and a small business owner. Growing up, Josh worked in his father's store and, like your average New Jersey kid, treasured summer vacations at the Jersey Shore. His first concert was at the Meadowlands to see the one and only Bruce Springsteen!

Josh graduated from West Essex High School before attending the University of Pennsylvania, later becoming a Thouron Fellow at Oxford, and then paid his way through Harvard Law School. After finishing college, Josh went on to work in the Clinton White House as one of the youngest presidential speechwriters in history. Josh wrote speeches on topics ranging from the global economy to technology and innovation to combatting crime; he also helped draft two State of the Union Addresses.

After leaving the White House, Josh worked at the Ford Motor Company, where he helped rebuild the iconic auto company’s image and worked on the first American hybrid. Josh was also a Senior Advisor to the Chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and published the book Ripples of Hope: Great American Civil Rights Speeches.

Phil Murphy

Current Role

Philip D. Murphy is the Democratic Party nominee for Governor of New Jersey in the 2017 gubernatorial election. While planning to run for governor, Murphy launched New Way for New Jersey, an organization intended to increase his political visibility in the state. Murphy was the United States Ambassador to Germany from 2009 to 2013 during which time he dealt with fallout from the United States diplomatic cables leak matter. He served as finance chairman for the Democratic National Committee in the mid-late 2000s under Howard Dean. Prior to that Murphy had a 23-year career at Goldman Sachs, during which he held several high-level positions and accumulated considerable wealth, before retiring from there in 2006. He is additionally involved in many civic organizations and philanthropic pursuits. 

For more details and contact information see his website: https://www.murphy4nj.com/

Early Life

Born and raised in the Boston metropolitan area, Phil Murphy grew up primarily in Needham and Newton, Massachusetts. According to Murphy, his family was "middle class on a good day." The family was of Irish American heritage, with Phil being third generation. By his recollection his mother, a secretary, and father, a high-school dropout who took any job he could (including those of a manager of a liquor store and of a for-pay pall bearer), lived paycheck to paycheck. At age 13 Murphy began working "under the table" as a dishwasher to augment the family income.

Both of his parents were enthusiastic supporters of John F. Kennedy and volunteered for the young scion in the United States Senate election in Massachusetts, 1952. Murphy played soccer as a boy, an interest that would stay with him in later life. The Murphy mother believed strongly in the importance of education and Phil and his three older siblings would all earn college degrees.

By his later description, Murphy put himself through college with student loans and part-time jobs. He attended Harvard University, where he was president of the Hasty Pudding Theatricals and, as he sang and danced, aspired for a time to a life in musical theater. However, he changed directions and graduated in 1979 with an A.B. degree in Economics. Further desirous of not reliving his upbringing's lack of financial security, he then attended, and received an M.B.A. in 1983 from, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Gerald Cardinale

Current Role

Gerald Cardinale is an American Republican Party politician, who has served in the New Jersey State Senate since 1982, where he represents the 39th Legislative District. Cardinale also served one term in the New Jersey General Assembly from 1980 until 1982. He is the second-most senior senator in the state, behind Richard Codey, who also came in office in January 1982 (but had served in the General Assembly since 1974).

Cardinale received a B.S. degree from St. John's University (Chemistry) in 1955 and was awarded a D.D.S. from the New York University College of Dentistry in 1959. He is a dentist by profession, and he has his office in Fort Lee, New Jersey. Cardinale was born in New York City, and resides in Demarest.

Before his service as State Senator, Cardinale spent one term in the lower house of the New Jersey Legislature, the General Assembly, from 1980 to 1981. Cardinale served as Mayor of Demarest from 1975 to 1979, and was a trustee of the Demarest Public Schools Board of Education from 1967 to 1973, serving as its President from 1969 to 1971. Cardinale served in the State Senate as Deputy Majority Leader from 1994 to 2001, as Majority Whip from 1992 to 1993, as Assistant Minority Leader from 1987 to 1989 and as Minority Whip from 1985 to 1986. He serves in the Senate on the Commerce Committee, the Judiciary Committee and the Legislative Oversight Committee.

Robert Auth

Current Role

Robert Auth is a Republican member of the New Jersey General Assembly, representing District 39. Auth was elected to the chamber in 2013 and was re-elected to a new term in 2017.

Early Life

Auth received his B.A. from New York University with majors in History and Philosophy. He serves in the Assembly on the Financial Institutions and Insurance Committee, Commerce and Economic Development Committee and the Education Committee. He is also the Chief Executive Officer at Plaza Travel and Insurance Services Ltd., a company he founded in 1985. In the past, he served as an aide to Senator Gerald Cardinale on insurance and economic matters and was a teacher for the North Bergen School District from 2004 to 2006. Auth also previously worked as an agency manager at the North Bergen Motor Vehicle Commission office. He is an aircraft pilot having flown since 1982. He and his wife Elsa have one grown son.

Holly Schepisi 

Current Role

Holly Schepisi is a Republican member of the New Jersey General Assembly, representing District 39. Schepisi was elected to the chamber in 2011 and was re-elected to a new term in 2017.

Early Life

Schepisi is the daughter of John A. Schepisi, a lawyer and former chairman of the Bergen County Republican Organization. She earned a B.A.degree from The Catholic University of America in politics and psychology in 1993, and a J.D. from Fordham University School of Law in 1997. While in college, she worked at the 1992 Republican National Convention, interned for Organization of American States, Congresswoman Marge Roukema, and a member of the British Parliament. In 2007, she began serving as the Township Attorney for River Vale, a position she held until 2011. In addition, she was also a public defender for Oakland (2012–2014) and an alternate prosecutor for Old Tappan (2010–2011) and Westwood (2002–2011).