The Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University's Eagleton Institute of Politics says New Jersey will have the nation's 11th highest proportion of women in its Legislature, once Nancy Munoz is sworn into the Assembly to replace her late husband, Eric, in the 21st District. She was selected by local Republican county committees to fill that vacancy.
The Legislature will include 10 women in the 40-member Senate and 27 women in the 80-member Assembly. That's 30.8% of the Legislature, compared with 24.3 percent of state lawmakers nationally.
"For a state that ranked 43rd as recently as 2004, this is a stunning improvement, putting us on the doorstep of the top 10," said Debbie Walsh, CAWP's director.
Selecting women as party-endorsed candidates for the Legislature might help the establishment deal with the perception the government's an all-boys-club. Not that women aren't prone to the same problems that have snared some men in politics; just yesterday, a state grand jury indicted a former Atlantic City council vice president, Cassandra Clark, for allegedly voting to sell city land to a straw purchaser who'd agreed to buy it for her and deed it to a corporation she owned.
That ranking is also likely to slip in 2010. Two women in the Assembly aren't running for re-election (Democrats Nilsa Cruz-Perez and Sandra Love), and they're likely to be replaced by men (if the D's hold the seats, their candidates are William Collins and Angel Fuentes). And one woman senator (Dana Redd) is likely to be elected Camden mayor and will have to leave the Legislature early next year; no telling at this point who'll be selected to fill her Senate seat.