predecessor successor birth_place office almae_matres termstart termend birth_date spouse article_title name
joseph bubba nia gill paterson , new jersey new jersey state senator rutgers university january 1998 january 2002 april 12 , 1951 peggy robertson norman m. robertson
 norman m. robertson
norman m. robertson

norman m. `` norm '' robertson -lrb- born april 12 , 1951 in paterson , new jersey -rrb- , is an american republican party politician and attorney who served a single term in the new jersey senate , from 1998 to 2002 .
he earned his undergraduate degree from rutgers university with a major in political science and was awarded his law degree from the fordham university school of law .
an attorney by profession , robertson served on the passaic county board of chosen freeholders , where he was the chairman of the freeholder finance and administration committee .
he was also chairman of the passaic county utilities authority and served on the urban economic development task force .
in 1982 , robertson was the republican nominee for congress in the 8th district against democratic incumbent robert roe , but won only 29 % of the vote .
he ran again for congress again in 1992 when roe retired , but lost the republican primary to joseph bubba by a 63 % -25 % margin .
in the 1997 republican primary , robertson , a clifton native , defeated five-term incumbent joseph bubba , a native of totowa who was the only incumbent to lose a primary election -lrb- several would lose their seats in the coming general election -rrb- .
robertson won the general election in 1997 with 53.9 % of the vote , defeating democrat joan waks , who had garnered 46.1 % of the vote .
while in the senate , robertson served as vice chair of the senior citizens , veterans ' affairs and human services committee , on the judiciary committee and on the state government , banking and financial institutions committee .
robertson , a white republican , sharply criticized the apportionment commission 's 2001 redistricting map , stating that his `` belief is that the map is racist '' because it reduced the voting strength of african-american voters in essex county calling it `` the result of a manipulation of the african-american community to serve the white political establishment '' .
robertson lost his bid for re-election in 2001 to then-district 27 assemblywoman nia gill , after heavily democratic communities -lrb- including gill 's -rrb- had been added to the 34th district as part of the 2001 redistricting .
district 34 had long been a republican stronghold ; the redistricting also cost nine-term incumbent assemblyman gerald h. zecker to lose his seat .
in a three-way race , gill took the seat with 64.9 % of the votes cast , robertson receiving 34.4 % and marie yvrose celestin receiving under one percent of the vote .
