Claim: In the 1853 New Jersey gubernatorial election, the Democratic Party candidate, Rodman Price (a lawyer, a purser in the navy, and a delegate to the first constitutional convention of California) received 38,312 votes, or 52.6 percent.
Evidence: Rodman M. Price 38,312 52.60% Democratic Price was appointed purser in the United States Navy in 1840 and was stationed in San Francisco; during the Mexican–American War, he served as an officer of the Navy; prefect and alcalde of Monterey in 1846 and the first American to exercise judicial functions in California; naval agent 1848–1850. In 1849 he was a delegate to the first constitutional convention of California and unsuccessful in the election for the state's first representatives in Congress. Rodman McCamley Price (May 5, 1816 – June 7, 1894) was an American lawyer and Democratic Party politician who represented New Jersey's 5th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives for one term from 1851–1853.