2015 NJ LD-16th State Assembly Election

The 2015 NJ LD-16th Assembly Contest, a race between incumbent assemblypeople Jack Ciattarelli and Donna Simon, versus second-time Democratic Candidate & Princeton Physicist Andrew Zwicker plus municipal Judge Maureen Vella resulted in a Dem (Zwicker) Winning LD-16 for the first time in the seat's history

Here the republicans were decently termed incumbents — Ciattarelli first winning in 2011, and Simon in 2012. The Democrats, by contrast — such as Zwicker — came to this race after his unsuccessfull 2014 run to succeed his Mentor — Congressman Rush Holt — in the Democratic Primary, while Vella was an an attorney and municipal judge, and the Dem candidate against Republican Senator Kip Bateman in 2011.

With the Dems campainging on Gun control & tying the incumbent's to the increasingly unpopular Chris Christie, and the GOP (especially Ciattarelli) Campaigning on Tax cuts, pension reform, and against the Trenton Legislature, the race shaped up as one of the few competitive NJ assembly races in 2015.

Broadly policy-focused, there was one event of major acrimony durring the race, when in response to attacks by Vella over the latter's support from the NRA, Simon invoked her son's attendance at Virginia Tech to seek to attempt to blunt the effect of the Gun Controll attacks against the GOP ticket

In the end, however, the factor that mattered most was Spending, as the two highest spenders in this race — Ciattarelli and Zwicker — won the race.

In this sense, while Ciattarelli helped the Rs outspend Democrats in the race, his money was unable to pull Simon over the line, resulting in Zwicker joining the Assembly where he now serves.

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