1997 New Jersey General Assembly election

1997 New Jersey General Assembly election

November 4, 1997 (1997-11-04)

All 80 seats to the General Assembly
41 seats needed for a majority
Turnout56% ( 18pp)
  Majority party Minority party
 
Leader Jack Collins Joseph Doria
(stepped down)
Party Republican Democratic
Leader since January 9, 1996 January 12, 1988
Leader's seat 3rd (Gloucester City) 31st (Bayonne)
Last election 50 30
Seats won 48 32
Seat change 2 2

Results:
     Republican gain      Democratic gain
     Republican hold      Democratic hold

Speaker before election

Jack Collins
Republican

Elected Speaker

Jack Collins
Republican

The 1997 New Jersey General Assembly elections were held on November 4, 1997, for all 80 seats in the lower house of the New Jersey Legislature. The election coincided with a gubernatorial election where Republican Christine Todd Whitman won. Republicans held a 50-30 majority in the lower house prior to the election. The members of the New Jersey Legislature are chosen from 40 electoral districts. Each district elects one state senator and two State Assembly members. New Jersey uses coterminous legislative districts for both its State Senate and General Assembly.

Republicans flipped one seat in the 4th. Democrats were able to flip one seat in the 6th and both in the 7th. After eight months in office, the courts threw out the results of the 1997 election in the 7th district for Democrat Jack Conners due to problems with 160 uncounted ballots from a voting machine that affected the results for the second seat. Conners was ordered to leave office in September 1998, and Republican Ken Faulkner was seated in his place. In a November 1998 special election, Conners defeated Faulkner by 5,500 votes and was sworn into office for a second time that year.