Printer Friendly Version

U.S. GOVERNMENT: New Jersey Elections

On Election Day this year, November 5th, New Jersey is going to elect a new United States Senator. However, even though he election is only a month away, the Democratic Party was not sure who its candidate was going to be until this week. Before this week, Robert Torricelli was going to be the Democratic candidate. But, on Monday he announced that he was going to drop out of the election. Torricelli decided to drop out of the election because he was being accused of taking illegal gifts in order to help his campaign. Candidates running in elections must abide by certain rules when they raise money for their campaigns, and it is suspected that Torricelli was not abiding by those rules. So, instead of having Torricelli on the ballot, Democrats decided that Frank Lautenberg, who used to be a senator for New Jersey, would be the Democratic candidate for Senator.

However, Republicans thought that is was against the law for the Democratic Party to switch candidates so soon before the election. According to New Jersey state law, a candidate must drop out of an election at least 51 days before the election is going to take place. But, when Torricelli dropped out of the election on Monday, it was only 36 days before the election. Therefore, according to New Jersey law, Torricelli would have to stay on the ballot. So, in order to resolve the issue, the Democrats and Republicans took the issue to the Supreme Court of New Jersey. The Supreme Court decided that the Democratic Party could be allowed to change candidates because voters should be allowed a fair choice in an election. Election laws, the Supreme Court declared, are not strict laws, because giving voters options to choose from should be most important. This Supreme Court decision makes Democrats very happy, because Torricelli was far behind the Republican candidate, Douglas Forrester. But, with the new Democratic candidate, it is a lot more likely that the Democrats will win.


-Written by Angela Schutte

Click here to tell us what you think about this story!