When the Avalon Herald’s first edition was published Aug. 10, 1967, with stories mainly about the Seven Mile Beach boroughs of Avalon and Stone Harbor, the State of New Jersey was reeling from the July riots in Newark and Plainfield.
Gov. Richard J. Hughes was in office, serving his second term. In the November 1965 election, Hughes defeated Republican Wayne Dumont, and the Democrats, for the first time since 1914, were in control of the General Assembly and the Senate.
During Hughes’ tenure, 2,174 laws were passed by the Legislature, a record-making accomplishment.
Cape May County residents, like others in the Garden State, were still getting used to paying a sales tax of 3 percent. That legislation, passed with the support of both parties in Trenton, was enacted April 26, 1966. It would be the state’s first such tax.
Hughes’ bid for an income tax earlier went down to defeat when members of his own party failed to support it in the Senate, although it passed the Assembly.
According to Rutgers University’s Center on the American Governor website, “But the Democratic tide ebbed in November 1967, when Republicans captured the legislature in sufficient strength to override gubernatorial vetoes. Hughes, therefore, in his final two years, made more compromises than he might have wished on measures affecting the large cities and increasing governmental services.”
In March 1967, the Department of Community Affairs commenced operation.
Also, according to the Rutgers’ website, “The state’s role in education grew when the Department of Higher Education, separate from the existing Department of Education, was created in January 1967 with a chancellor and a state board.
It would be two years later that state voters would agree to a state lottery that went before them in November 1969.
In August 1967, as the war raged in South Vietnam, President Lyndon Johnson appointed Hughes to a panel that would watch over the South Vietnamese elections.
First District Legislators
Since 1967 was still six years from the 1973 date when the state formed a 40-district Legislature, the 1st District included Cape May, Atlantic, and Gloucester counties.
At present, the district included all of Cape May and Cumberland and parts of Atlantic counties.
According to Wikipedia, in the 1965-67 Senate session, there were two representatives: Frank S. Farley and John E. Hunt, both Republicans. Hunt’s seat became vacant when he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.
In the following two Senate sessions, Republican Robert E. Kay, of Wildwood, was elected in 1967 for a four-year term.
For the two-year Assembly sessions from 1967 until 1973, Republicans held both seats for the three Assembly elections during this period with James Cafiero and James Hurley winning in 1967.
In Congress
In 1967 through the 90th Congress, the Garden State was represented in the U.S. Senate by Harrison A. Williams, a Democrat and Clifford P. Case, a Republican.
Representing the 2nd Congressional District was U.S. Rep. Charles W. Sandman Jr., an Erma resident.
Cape May – Governor Murphy says he doesn't know anything about the drones and doesn't know what they are doing but he does know that they are not dangerous. Does anyone feel better now?
