Express-Times: Coomes: A glance back and look ahead at House

July 28th, 2008

WASHINGTON, D.C.| A row of politicians lined up under former U.S. Rep. Mary Norton’s portrait and together tugged a red drape, revealing the half smile of the first woman to represent New Jersey in Congress.

Norton now looks out over the House labor committee room. Her portrait spent years in a storage closet.

U.S. Rep. Rush Holt, D-Hunterdon, had a hand in moving the portrait and last week during an unveiling ceremony he praised Norton’s work on pushing a 40-hour work week and a minimum wage.

Norton served in Congress from 1925 to 1951. After Norton, New Jersey voters sent four more women to Congress, though the current delegation — 13 representatives and two senators — are all men.

Democrat Linda Stender, who’s competing against Republican Leonard Lance for the open congressional seat in the 7th District, is the only woman running as a major party candidate for Congress in New Jersey aside from Camille Andrews, who said she would give up her spot on the ballot if Democratic Party leaders in South Jersey decide to replace her.

National magazines have discovered the unusual life story of Democratic congressional candidate Dennis Shulman, a blind rabbi.

Already The New Yorker and Time have written blurbs on Shulman, who’s challenging U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett, R-Warren.

Shulman also is a psychologist. He graduated from Harvard. “And I have a ’sunny disposition,’” Shulman pointed out, quoting from The New Yorker’s description of him.

“People are interested in the story. I realize I’m not the typical lawyer, who’s been in the Statehouse for 20 years, running for office,” Shulman said Friday from Oregon, where he traveled to officiate a wedding. “But because of that, I have a different kind of voice I would bring to Washington.”

If Shulman were to win in November, he’d be the first rabbi to serve in Congress, and he’d be the first blind member since the 1940s.

(Read more at Express-Times)

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