NJ Democrats reassert their control of the Legislature, even as some races tightened

Democrats are poised to retain control of the New Jersey Legislature, as some districts thought to be vulnerable fell their way — including Bergen County's 38th.

District 38 — a longtime Democratic stronghold represented by incumbent state Sen. Joe Lagana and Assembly members Lisa Swain and Chris Tully — was considered a possible flip for Republicans.

But the race was called in Lagana's favor by the Associated Press very early Wednesday. By midday, with 97% of the vote counted, Lagana held a 27,260 to 20,878 vote lead over challenger Micheline Attieh.

Swain and Tully, with 97% of the vote tallied, held slimmer leads over challengers Gail Horton and Barry Wilkes. Swain and Tully had 26,555 votes and 26,155, respectively, compared to Wilkes and Horton, with 21,013 and 21,022, respectively. The Associated Press called the race in the Democrats' favor late Wednesday morning.

The winning Democrats, led by Bergen County chairman Paul Juliano, entered a ballroom at the Hasbrouck Heights Hilton at 12:38 a.m. — as Bruce Springsteen’s "Born to Run" played in the background — to declare victory.

“If you look at what happened all over the state, Democrats won,” Lagana said. “Because we ran on good issues and we ran on real issues. Republicans ran on false issues and spread absolute nonsense across the state and the voters saw through it.”

District 38 was redistricted last year, potentially shifting the political balance. The district lost Passaic County's Hawthorne and gained Teterboro, South Hackensack, Little Ferry and Moonachie. The remainder of the district includes Bergenfield, Fair Lawn, Glen Rock, Hasbrouck Heights, Lodi, Maywood, New Milford, Oradell, Paramus, River Edge, Rochelle Park and Saddle Brook.

The election results released throughout the state Tuesday are not official and are not set to be certified until Nov. 22.

NJ election results 2023: Polls have closed, some races called

Gopal wins in battleground Shore district

District 11 in Monmouth County, viewed by many as a battleground and the only one in the state with split representation, appeared to be a win for Democrats as the early, unofficial results rolled in.

Incumbent state Sen. Vin Gopal said that “Monmouth County showed up in numbers we have not seen before in an off-year election” and that he and his running mates are “thrilled that our entire ticket has earned the overwhelming support of voters.”

If the results hold up, his running mates, Margie Donlon and Luanne Peterpaul, would be first-time members of the Assembly.

“To be the first female practicing physician legislator in New Jersey history is an awesome responsibility that I do not take lightly,” Donlon said. “On the campaign trail, I vowed to always follow facts and science when making decisions in the Assembly and I am excited to fulfill that promise.”

Peterpaul said she is “beyond humbled to have earned the support of Monmouth County residents” and that she is “also humbled to be making history as the first openly gay woman elected to the New Jersey Legislature.”

“I stand on the shoulders of countless trailblazers who fought for equality and opened the door for people like me to serve my community in elected office,” she said.

State Senate, Assembly results: Control of the New Jersey Statehouse on the line in 2023

Ed Durr — who unseated Senate President Steve Sweeney — is out

Another race many were monitoring closely, District 3 — made up of parts of Cumberland, Gloucester and Salem counties — seemed set to return to Democratic control.

Incumbent state Sen. Ed Durr trailed former Assemblyman John Burzichelli by nearly 5,000 votes late Tuesday night as results continued to roll in. Durr shocked the state political machine two years ago with a grassroots victory over then-state Senate President Steve Sweeney.

Meanwhile, Democrats may have gained a seat in the Assembly in District 30 with Democrat Alexander Schnall leading incumbent Assemblyman Ed Thomson. Republican Assemblyman Sean Kean was reelected in the district that includes towns in Monmouth and Ocean counties.

In Atlantic County’s District 2 race, the Republican incumbents appeared to fend off a challenge from a reshuffled Democratic slate. In that race, Sen. Vince Polistina and Assembly members Don Guardian and Claire Swift seem likely to retain their seats.

A rematch two years in the making in District 16 saw state Sen. Andrew Zwicker poised to beat Republican Michael Pappas for the second time. The district includes parts of Mercer, Somerset, Hunterdon and Middlesex counties, and was expected to be competitive by many throughout the state.

Zwicker’s running mates, incumbent Assemblyman Roy Freiman and Mitchelle Drulis, who is seeking to replace Assemblywoman Sadaf Jaffer, also held leads late Tuesday night.

Early voting, mail-in ballots — and expected low turnout

Polls were open for 10 days of early in-person voting and for 14 hours on Election Day. Voters who requested ballots to vote by mail, nearly 920,000 in all, had weeks to submit them. Election reforms enacted over the last few years have made it possible for those ballots — if they were postmarked by Tuesday — to be considered valid as long as they are received by Nov 13.

Turnout was expected to be low this year, as it historically has been in years without statewide or federal races atop the ballots.

More than 545,000 votes had been cast before the polls even opened on Tuesday — 124,197 from early in-person voting and 421,573 from vote-by-mail ballots, according to the state’s Division of Elections — equaling about 8% of the 6,494,988 registered voters in New Jersey.

Assembly seats are up for grabs every two years but when it comes to the state Senate, New Jersey subscribes to a "2-4-4" approach to elections, where seats are up for election every four years except for the first term of a new decade. This allows for the latest reapportionment to be used as soon as possible.

Need to know: Our guide to New Jersey's 2023 elections for Legislature, local offices and school boards

Competitive races and the issues

Though all 120 seats in the Legislature were up for grabs on Tuesday, much of the attention in the run-up to Election Day was focused on a handful of races and a few issues.

Democrats, who have controlled both the Assembly and the state Senate for two decades, spent considerable time and money trying to paint their opponents as radical extremists, warning of a rollback of reproductive health care rights.

Meanwhile, New Jersey Republicans have been much more focused on parental rights in schools and tapping into a base that is angry about New Jersey Department of Education policy, which limits the ability of school officials to notify parents when a child is signaling a change in gender.

Another issue that has been at the forefront, especially in the week leading up to Election Day, is wind energy. The decision by Danish company Ørsted to cancel its plans to develop two massive wind farms off the South Jersey coast was a disappointment to clean energy advocates, but the project has drawn reproach from Republicans throughout the campaign season. They alleged that early work on the project was killing whales.

The Democrats were the majority party in both chambers of the Legislature going into Election Day, with a 25 to 15 majority in the Senate and a 46 to 34 majority in the Assembly, but many voters can expect to see some shakeup in their districts merely because so many lawmakers have decided it’s time to move on.

There were nearly two dozen legislators who decided not to run again and one who lost in the primary in June. Assemblyman Joseph Egan announced his retirement in July, and just a few weeks later, state Sen. Dick Codey announced his retirement after spending half a century in the Legislature.

This was also the first legislative election to use the newly drawn maps based on the 2020 census results.

Katie Sobko covers the New Jersey Statehouse. Email: sobko@northjersey.com

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ election 2023: Democrats hold state Senate, Assembly