A few days after being readmitted to the hospital, 87-year old veteran US Representative Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) sadly passed away. His family issued the announcement yesterday.
Rep. Pascrell was first elected to the House in 1996 after serving ten years as a member of the New Jersey General Assembly. While in the legislature, Mr. Pascrell was also twice elected as the mayor of Paterson, his home city.
During his 28-year congressional career, Rep. Pascrell was on the ballot 14 times and averaged 66% of the vote, dropping below 60% only twice, in his first election where he unseated then-Rep. Bill Martini (R), and in his last, the 2022 race where his victory percentage dropped to 55.0%.
His most difficult challenge, however, came in the 2012 Democratic primary. Because New Jersey lost a seat in the 2010 census reapportionment, 8th District Rep. Pascrell and 9th District Rep. Steve Rothman (D) were paired into a new 9th District that contained portions of each man’s previous CD. Though many believed Rep. Pascrell to be the underdog in that primary campaign, the veteran legislator proved them wrong and recorded a landslide 61-39% victory, thus ending Mr. Rothman’s promising political career.
In 2022, despite facing an opponent who spent just $293,000 on his campaign, the Congressman managed only a 55-45% victory margin. This, against Republican Billy Prempeh who Mr. Pascrell defeated 66-32% in 2020. Mr. Prempeh is again the Republican nominee, and now with the seat open Republicans may examine attempting to make their effort here more competitive.
Mr. Pascrell is the fourth member of the House to pass away in this Congress, the second since the July 4th holiday, and the second from New Jersey. His death follows those of Reps. Donald McEachin (D-VA), Donald Payne, Jr. (D-NJ), and Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX).
When Newark area Rep. Payne passed away, the local Democratic Party committees chose a nominee to replace him on the general election ballot after r. Payne posthumously won the June Democratic primary. The same process will occur in Mr. Pascrell’s now vacant 9th CD, so the party will have a nominee for the general election.
Though time is short to begin a campaign from scratch, the 9th District certainly favors the Democrats. The seat is located in New Jersey’s northeastern sector just across the Hudson River from Harlem, NY.
The district is almost evenly split between Passaic and Bergen Counties, in addition to including a sliver of Hudson County. The FiveThirtyEight data organization rates the seat as D+17. The Dave’s Redistricting App statisticians calculate a 58.9D – 39.3R partisan lean. The DownBallot elections website (formerly Daily Kos Elections) ranks NJ-9 as the 84th most vulnerable seat in the Democratic Conference.
The 9th’s major population centers are the cities of Paterson and Passaic. A majority of the voting age population (59.1%), are considered part of a minority group, with Hispanics, at 39.1%, being the largest segment.
There are now four vacancies in the House, three from the members who have passed away, Reps. Jackson Lee, Payne, and Pascrell, and one from a resigned member, Rep. Mike Gallager (R-WI). The Pascrell vacancy reduces the House count to 220R – 211D – 4V (3D; 1R).
The open seat count headed into the election grows to 55 with the Pascrell passing. Of these, 29 are in Democratic held districts with 25 from the Republican side, and one newly created seat within the new Alabama redistricting configuration. Another seven seats have been filled in special elections, and all but the CO-4 seat feature new incumbents running for their first full term.
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