The 8th District representative is Bill Pascrell, a Democrat with a feisty Jersey-guy demeanor elected in 1996. He grew up in Paterson, the grandson of Italian immigrants. His father worked for the railroad, and Pascrell was the first one in his family to graduate from college. He worked his way through Fordham University, served in the Army, and then taught high school for 14 years. From there Pascrell went into politics, first as director of Paterson’s public works department, and then as school board president. In 1987, he was elected to the New Jersey Assembly. In 1990, Pascrell was elected mayor of Paterson but continued to serve in the Assembly—a common practice in New Jersey until the legislature voted in 2007 to stop the practice. In 1996, Pascrell challenged first-term U.S. Rep. Bill Martini, a Republican, whom Pascrell portrayed as the tool of an “extremist” House leadership. His ads showed Martini’s face on a puppet being manipulated by Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Despite Martini’s support from the Sierra Club and labor unions, Pascrell won 51%-48%. Read More

The 8th District representative is Bill Pascrell, a Democrat with a feisty Jersey-guy demeanor elected in 1996. He grew up in Paterson, the grandson of Italian immigrants. His father worked for the railroad, and Pascrell was the first one in his family to graduate from college. He worked his way through Fordham University, served in the Army, and then taught high school for 14 years. From there Pascrell went into politics, first as director of Paterson’s public works department, and then as school board president. In 1987, he was elected to the New Jersey Assembly. In 1990, Pascrell was elected mayor of Paterson but continued to serve in the Assembly—a common practice in New Jersey until the legislature voted in 2007 to stop the practice. In 1996, Pascrell challenged first-term U.S. Rep. Bill Martini, a Republican, whom Pascrell portrayed as the tool of an “extremist” House leadership. His ads showed Martini’s face on a puppet being manipulated by Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Despite Martini’s support from the Sierra Club and labor unions, Pascrell won 51%-48%.

In the House, Pascrell has compiled a liberal record on economics and a more moderate one on cultural and foreign issues. He has voted for some restrictions on abortion, including a ban on partial-birth abortions and a parental notification requirement when a woman under 18 crosses state lines for an abortion. In 2002, he voted to authorize the use of force in Iraq, and, on the Homeland Security Committee, he has been a voice for strengthening homeland defense, calling for improved communications among first responders. “How is it we can talk to people on the moon, but we can’t talk one block away?” Pascrell asked. In February 2011, he also succeeded in restoring $510 million in fire department grants that Republicans had proposed to chop.

At home, he endeared himself to Bruce Springsteen fans when he joined them in their gripes against Ticketmaster after the ticket service advertised drastically marked-up seats through a subsidiary’s website just minutes after several of the Jersey rocker’s shows had sold out. When Russian businessman Mikhail Prokhorov sought to buy the New Jersey Nets basketball team in 2010, Pascrell called for an investigation into Prokhorov’s investment bank’s ties with Zimbabwe to see if they violated U.S. sanctions. The National Basketball Association called his claims misinformed and approved the sale, a move the congressman called “extremely short-sighted.”

Pascrell has also been a big supporter of the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) office. After the program suffered budget cuts, Pascrell joined with Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Wash. to get $198.5 million restored to the office. The provision was attached to the Justice Department spending bill that passed the House in November 2011.

Pascrell landed a seat on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee in 2007 after years of lobbying for a spot. He worked with labor and consumer groups to promote “fair trade,” and to expand the Trade Adjustment Assistance program for workers who have lost their jobs. Two other pet projects of Pascrell’s were successful: A bill to designate Paterson’s Great Falls as a 120-acre national park, which was enacted in 2009. When in 2008 a Montclair High School football player died from a brain injury, Pascrell introduced a bill requiring states to pay for neurological testing of student-athletes. The House passed his bill in 2010 calling for development of a new set of concussion-management guidelines for student athletes. In October 2011, he pushed for brain injuries to be covered under the 2010 health care law.

As his party’s political fortunes began declining in 2010, Pascrell was among the Democrats who was open in venting his frustrations. When White House spokesman Robert Gibbs speculated that the Democrats’ House majority was in doubt in the 2010 election, Pascrell told The Washington Post, “What the hell do they think we’ve been doing the last 12 months? We’re the ones who have been taking the tough votes.” During the debt ceiling standoff in the summer of 2011, Pascrell said his own party should shoulder some of the blame. He criticized House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi for refusing to accept any deal with cuts to entitlement programs. “Nancy and I are close, but we don’t always agree,” Pascrell told the Newark Star-Ledger. “I’ll do all I can to protect Social Security and Medicare, but if everything is on the table, then everything is on the table.”

He has harbored ambitions for statewide office, and expressed interest in running for governor in 2001. But his support of former Gov. Jim Florio in the 2000 Senate Democratic primary against Jon Corzine left him on the losing side of the state’s Democratic establishment. In 2005, he supported Corzine for governor in the hopes of succeeding him in the Senate, but the appointment went to U.S. Rep. Robert Menendez. Having gained a Ways and Means seat, Pascrell is less likely to move elsewhere.

Since his first election to the House, Pascrell had received at least 62% of the vote against weak challengers. But the 2011 round of redistricting put his comfortable House seat in jeopardy. The new 9th Congressional District included his home base of Paterson, but it contained a large share of Democratic colleague Steve Rothman’s old Bergen County-based district. Yet Rothman’s home of Fair Lawn was placed in the new Republican-leaning 5th District in the northernmost part of New Jersey. Many state Democrats were hoping Rothman would run in the 5th against incumbent Rep. Scott Garrett, R-N.J. But Rothman moved to Englewood and ran in the 9th, setting up a primary showdown against Pascrell.

Throughout the campaign, Pascrell hammered Rothman for running against him as opposed to taking on Garrett. Despite the fact that the new 9th included more of Rothman’s old district than Pascrell’s, this argument resonated and Pascrell used it frequently. Rothman portrayed himself as the more liberal candidate and the “Democrat’s Democrat.” Rothman attacked Pascrell’s record on abortion rights and received an endorsement from NARAL Pro-Choice America. Rothman also ran an ad pointing out Pascrell’s 2000 vote to repeal the estate tax, with Pascrell saying “Republicans had great ideas.” PolitiFact called the ad misleading: Pascrell’s quote was actually about health care reform and he later voted against estate tax repeal a number of times. Pascrell insisted he was a true Democrat and touted his work on President Barack Obama’s 2010 health care law.

Their voting records were actually quite similar. A National Journal study of votes in 2011 found that Pascrell was the 121st most liberal House member and Rothman ranked 129th. They were both liberal on economic issues and more centrist on foreign policy. The race became a game of turnout, with Pascrell’s Passaic County machine up against the Rothman Bergen County team. Former President Bill Clinton endorsed Pascrell. Though Obama officially remained neutral, his top political adviser David Axelrod campaigned for Rothman. During the 2008 Democratic presidential primary, Pascrell endorsed Hillary Clinton while Rothman supported Obama. A late May 2012 Pascrell internal campaign poll showed the two candidates virtually tied at 43%. But in the end, the race was not even close. Pascrell won easily, 61%-39%.