page_title: Nelson Stamler
section_title: New Jersey State Senator
hierarchical_section_title: Nelson Stamler / New Jersey State Senator
caption_attribution_description: English: Pins from Stamler's campaigns for New Jersey State Senate in 1962 (left) and 1965.
context_page_description: Nelson Frank Stamler was an American Republican Party politician, prosecutor and judge. He won considerable fame in the 1950s as a racket-busting Deputy state Attorney General who waged a war on illegal gambling operations. His work was also controversial, and eventually terminated by the state Attorney General. He later won elections to the State Assembly and State Senate, and served as a Superior Court Judge.
context_section_description: In 1962, State Senator Robert C. Crane died of cancer at the age of 41, creating a special election to fill his vacant Senate seat.  With the State Senate evenly divided at ten Republicans and ten Democrats, the Special Election would determine control of the upper house.  Stamler became a candidate for State Senator.  He easily won the Republican Primary, defeating his 1957 opponent, former Assemblywoman Irene Griffin, by a margin of nearly 3-1, 17,846 to 6,300.  In the General Election, Stamler faced former Linden Mayor H. Roy Wheeler, who had come within 567 votes of beating Crane three years earlier.
  Because control of the Senate was at stake, the race between Stamler and Wheeler attracted considerable attention from statewide officials. Richard J. Hughes, who was in his first year as Governor, became heavily invested in the campaign.  With a Democratic-controlled State Assembly, Hughes needed control of the Senate to advance his legislative agenda. Senate Republicans had a rule, known as the Caucus System, that no bill could advance to the floor for a vote unless a majority of the majority caucus supported it.  Democrats had advocated a rule change.
  Both of New Jersey's United States Senators, Republican Clifford P. Case and Democrat Harrison A. Williams, campaigned actively for their party's Senate candidates.  Case and Williams were both from Union County.
  In October, Hughes accused Stamler of raising money from the New Jersey Homebuilders Association, which opposed the expansion of anti-discrimination housing laws. Stamler had attended a fundraiser at the Short Hills home of a prominent builder, Louis R. Barba.  Stamler said that the New Jersey Democratic State Committee had also solicited funds from the Homebuilders Association.  Wheeler sought to make Civil Rights an issue in his legislative race, saying that Stamler was an opponent of Civil Rights and that the Caucus System served to block Civil Rights legislation.  Stamler said that he was the sponsor of a bill that advocated fair housing in the State Assembly.
  The New York Times noted the highly negative tone of the Senate race: "The campaign has veered sharply in the last two weeks into a vitriolic struggle with attempts at character assassination overshadowing all other issues."
  The race turned out to be not all that close, with Stamler winning by 7,230 votes, 96,171 to 88,941 (52%-48%).
  Stamler was re-elected to a second term in the State Senate in 1963, defeating his Democratic opponent, three-term Assemblyman James M. McGowan, by 16,006 votes (55%-45%).
  He had to run again in 1965 after the U.S. Supreme Court, in Reynolds v. Sims (more commonly known as One Man, One Vote), required redistricting by state legislatures for congressional districts to keep represented populations equal, as well as requiring both houses of state legislatures to have districts drawn that contained roughly equal populations, and to perform redistricting when needed.  Because of its population, Union County gained a second Senate seat.  Stamler ran with Assemblyman Peter J. McDonough (R-Plainfield); they were opposed by Assemblywoman Mildred Barry Hughes (D-Union Township)) and William P. Hourihan of Elizabeth, a top executive of Standard Oil Company/Esso.  Governor Hughes was re-elected in a landslide and brought with him majorities in both houses of the Legislature.  Mildred Barry Hughes became the first woman to serve in the State Senate, edging out McDonough by a little more than 2,000 votes.  But Stamler won decisively, out-polling Hourihan by more than 18,000 votes.
caption: Pins from Stamler's campaigns for New Jersey State Senate in 1962 (left) and 1965.
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