New Jersey: Government, Politics, and Higher Education

The New Jersey legislature consists of a senate of 40 members and an assembly of 80 members. The governor serves a four-year term and may be reelected once. New Jersey sends 12 representatives and 2 senators to the U.S. Congress and has 14 electoral votes. Although Democrats outnumber Republicans in registered voters (by over a million people, as of June 2021), control of the governorship has alternated between the two parties over the last five decades.

New Jersey's two best-known institutions of higher learning were established in the 18th cent.—Princeton Univ., at Princeton, as the College of New Jersey in 1746; and Rutgers Univ., mainly at New Brunswick, as Queen's College in 1766. Among other New Jersey educational institutions are Fairleigh Dickinson Univ., with three campuses; Seton Hall Univ., mainly at South Orange; Stevens Institute of Technology, at Hoboken; the Univ. of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, with five campuses; and a number of state colleges. The Institute for Advanced Study, at Princeton, is one of the leading research centers of the country.

Sections in this article:

• Introduction
• Racial Tensions and New Economic Development
• Political Struggles and a New Constitution
• Governmental Reform and Civil War
• The Revolution and Economic Expansion
• Early Settlement to Statehood
• Government, Politics, and Higher Education
• Economy
• Geography
• Facts and Figures

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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