Do your politicians in the N.J. Legislature look like the people of New Jersey? Not really. – NJ.com

The New Jersey Legislature is made up of 120 elected officials who hail from every corner of the state and gather in Trenton to determine the laws affecting everyone in the Garden State.

But does that group truly represent who lives here?

In many ways, no.

An analysis by NJ Advance Media found the makeup of the Legislature falls well short of matching the makeup of New Jersey’s diverse population.

Though women account for 51 percent of the Garden State’s residents, only 31 percent of the Democratic-controlled Legislature is female. That’s 37 of 120 seats. If the numbers reflected the state’s population, there would be 61 women serving.

While white residents account for 55 percent of the state, white lawmakers make up 75 percent of the Legislature — 90 of 120 seats. If it reflected residents, only 66 lawmakers would be white.

The percentage of black lawmakers (15 percent) slightly exceeds the percentage of black residents (13 percent).

But only 8 percent of lawmakers are Hispanic, compared to 20 percent of the population. And only 2 percent of lawmakers are Asian, compared to 10 percent of the population.

And every one of the 40 Republicans in the Legislature is white.

The review also found the average age of a New Jersey state lawmaker is 58. The majority of the Legislature — 98 out of 120 members — hold some sort of college degree, but only 15 served in the military. And it may come as no surprise that there are more lawyers (29) making laws in the part-time Legislature than those of any other profession.

Put together, the majority of the Legislature is white, male, over-50, college-educated with no military experience.

Experts and legislators say the diversity has improved from the past. By comparison, in 1988 — 30 years before the most recent legislative election in New Jersey — 93 percent of lawmakers were white and 93 percent were men. The average age then was 49, while 104 lawmakers had college degrees, and 62 served in the military.

But most agree New Jersey still falls short.

“It’s critically important to have the legislative body reflective of what we look like and who we are in the state, because when you’re discussing policy and law that impacts the community, there have to be different lenses,” said state Sen. Teresa Ruiz, D-Essex, who is of Puerto Rican descent and, as Senate president pro tempore, is one of the highest-ranking state lawmakers in New Jersey.

This comes at a time when the three most powerful officials in New Jersey state government — Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, state Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester; and state Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, D-Middlesex — are white (and of Irish descent).

New Jersey’s lieutenant governor, Sheila Oliver, is an African-American woman.

The Legislature’s numbers also clash with the makeup of Murphy’s administration. The governor has assembled a Cabinet where women outnumber men, and he touts it as the most diverse cabinet in the U.S.

Here’s a closer look at the Legislature’s makeup:

WOMEN

A lack of female legislators is not just a New Jersey problem. The Garden State’s 31 percent currently ranks 19th out of the 50 states in the percentage of female state lawmakers, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.

About 29 percent of state legislators in the nation are female.

“We’re doing a little bit better than the national average here in New Jersey,” said Debbie Walsh, the center’s director.

At the federal level, 24 percent of Congress is female. That’s the highest in history, even though 51 percent of American residents are women. (New Jersey has two women out of 14 federal lawmakers, a 14 percent rate.)

It used to be worse in New Jersey. The state ranked 43rd in women state lawmakers four times since the Center for American Women and Politics started tracking numbers — 1989, 1991, 2001, and 2004.

Plus, Walsh said, half of the women serving in the Legislature now are women of color.

But while the state rose as high as 9th in the nation in 2014, the Legislature has been stuck at either 30 or 31 percent women since 2013.

Meanwhile, only one of the 14 Republicans in the state Senate is a woman.

“We’ve improved a lot, but not nearly enough,” said state Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, D-Bergen, the highest-ranking women in the Legislature.

Walsh said there are a number of reasons there aren’t more women lawmakers in the country:

• Governments still tend to be “very male places” and knocking off incumbents is tough.
• Women remain the primary caregivers at home, and if you don’t have a career that allows you flexibility, it’s more difficult to serve in government.
• Women tend to run for office later in life, when their children are grown, making their “trajectory in politics much shorter than men” and often keeping them from climbing the political ladder.
• There’s a perception that it’s harder for women to raise money than men.

But Walsh said there’s something specific to New Jersey that makes it more difficult for women and minorities to reach state office: the state’s political party system.

Local, county, and state parties here often endorse candidates in the primary. And that makes it more challenging for “newcomers of any kind” to win nominations, Walsh said.

“For women and people of color, it may be harder to break into the system we have,” she said.

Indeed, of the 42 Republican and Democratic party chairs in New Jersey’s 21 counties, nine are women, two are Latino, and four are black.

In 2018, the number of women serving in legislatures across the U.S. jumped from 25 to 29 percent — the largest increase in history, said John Mahoney, a policy specialist at the National Conference of State Legislatures.

But New Jersey did not benefit from the wave because there were no legislative elections in the state last year.

Still, that’s unlikely to change in November, when all 80 seats in the Assembly, the lower house, are on the ballot. Based on the candidate field, women may even lose ground.

“I still think we need to make more strides,” said Assemblywoman Eliana Pintor Marin, D-Essex. “But it’s not easy.”

MINORITIES

Racial and ethnic minorities make up only 25 percent of New Jersey’s Legislature, even though they account for 45 percent of residents in the state.

Of the Legislature’s 120 members, 18 are African-American, 10 are Latino-American (nine of whom are women), and two are Asian-American (both of whom are of Indian descent). There are no lawmakers of Chinese, Korean, or Japanese descent, nor any of Native American descent.

If the Legislature reflected New Jersey residents, there would be 15 African-American lawmakers, 24 Latino-Americans, and 12 Asian-Americans.

By comparison, 120 of the 535 members of Congress — 22 percent — are non-whites, making it the most diverse that body has ever been. But that number is still far below the 39 percent of non-whites that make up the American population (New Jersey is at 43 percent, with three blacks, two Hispanics and an Asian-American in the 14-member delegation).

State Sen. Ronald Rice, D-Essex, who has chaired the state’s Legislative Black Caucus since 2009, said the problem in New Jersey is two-fold: “Intentional racism” still exists in both major political parties and “political bosses with big money” still control who makes it to the ballot.

“They only reach out to districts when they feel they need that subgroup,” Rice said.

So how can this change?

“I think the culture and generational shift will change if black people, Latinos, and women have fortified to come together and stay together to talk about these issue,” Rice said.

When asked about having no Republican racial minorities in the Legislature, Assembly Republican Leader Jon Bramnick said he’s bothered but not surprised by it.

“Historically, minorities believe the Democratic Party was their party,” Bramnick, R-Union, said. “Of course, it makes it more difficult to recruit minorities.”

Bramnick said the GOP wants “as many minority candidates as possible.”

“If there are minority candidates looking to run at the local, county, or state level, call me immediately,” he said.

Sweeney, the state Senate president, said said increasing the number of women and minority lawmakers is a focus when the state’s leaders redraw legislative maps every decade.

“The Legislature needs to look like the state it’s in,” Sweeney said.

Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @johnsb01.

Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewArco or Facebook.

Carla Astudillo may be reached at castudillo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @carla_astudi.

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