Lautenberg, Frank Raleigh (1924-2013), was a long-time United States senator. Lautenberg, a Democrat, represented New Jersey in the U.S. Senate from 1982 to 2001 and from 2003 until his death in 2013.
Lautenberg was born in Paterson, New Jersey, on Jan. 23, 1924. He served in the United States Army Signal Corps from 1942 to 1946, during World War II. He earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Columbia University in 1949. From 1952 to 1982, he served as chief executive officer of a data processing firm he founded. He also was commissioner of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey from 1978 to 1982.
In December 1982, Lautenberg was appointed to the Senate to finish the term of Senator Nicholas F. Brady, who had resigned. Brady’s term ended in January 1983, and Lautenberg then began to serve a six-year term of his own, to which he had been elected in November 1982. Lautenberg was reelected in 1988 and 1994.
Lautenberg became the ranking Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee. He also served on the committees on Appropriations, Intelligence, and Environment and Public Works. In 1989, Lautenberg pushed a bill through the Senate that became a law banning smoking on all domestic airline flights. He backed a similar measure in 1993 that banned smoking in most federal buildings. He supported legislation to fund environmental cleanup efforts. He also favored legislation that would prohibit anyone convicted of domestic violence, including spouse or child abuse, from possessing a gun.
Lautenberg retired from office in 2001. However, in October 2002, Democratic Party leaders asked him to come out of retirement. They requested that he replace New Jersey Senator Robert G. Torricelli in Torricelli’s bid for reelection to the Senate in November. While campaigning, Torricelli had been severely admonished by the Senate Ethics Committee for having accepted gifts from a campaign contributor during his 1996 election campaign. Torricelli denied that he had violated Senate rules, but he decided to withdraw after polls showed that he had fallen far behind his Republican opponent, Douglas Forrester. Republicans argued that making a ballot change such a short time before the election was illegal. However, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that Lautenberg’s name could be put on the ballot. Republicans appealed the case to the Supreme Court of the United States, but the court declined to hear the case.
In the 2002 election, Lautenberg defeated Forrester. Lautenberg was reelected in 2008. He died on June 3, 2013.
