Steve Rothman
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New Jersey's 9th district
In office January 3, 1997 – January 3, 2013
Preceded by	Robert Torricelli
Succeeded by	Constituency abolished
Mayor of Englewood, New Jersey
In office 1983–1989
Preceded by	Sondra Greenberg
Succeeded by	Donald Aronson
Personal details
Born	Steven Richard Rothman (1952-10-14) October 14, 1952 (age 71) Englewood, New Jersey, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Jennifer Anne Beckenstein ​ ​ (m. 2006; div. 2011)​
Children	2
Residence(s)	Englewood, New Jersey, U.S.
Education	Syracuse University (BA) Washington University in St. Louis (JD)
Occupation	Attorney
Website	congressmansteverothman.com

Steven Richard Rothman^[1] (born October 14, 1952) is an American former jurist and Democratic politician who served as the U.S. representative for New Jersey's 9th congressional district, serving for 16 years from January 3, 1997, to January 3, 2013.

Rothman was a member of the House Appropriations Committee, and also served on the House Judiciary, Foreign Affairs, and Science and Technology Committees. Prior to his election to the U.S. Congress, Rothman also served as the elected Bergen County Surrogate Court judge, and the two-term mayor of the City of Englewood, New Jersey.

After the congressional redistricting of December 23, 2011, was announced, Rothman competed in a Democratic primary to continue to represent the redrawn NJ-9. He was defeated on June 5, 2012, in a primary election by fellow incumbent Bill Pascrell (formerly the congressman for NJ-8).^[2][3][4]

Early life, education and pre-congressional career

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Early life and education

Rothman was born on October 14, 1952, in Englewood, New Jersey, to Philip and Muriel Rothman; he and his twin Arthur joined an older sister Susan. Steve attended the Roosevelt Public Elementary School in Englewood until the fifth grade when the family moved to nearby Tenafly, where he completed his education in the Tenafly Public School System.^[2]

Rothman graduated in 1970 from Tenafly High School,^[5] where he was senior class president, Best School Citizen, was first clarinet, first chair in the Tenafly High School Orchestra, was a member of the Tenafly High School Madrigal Singers, played the lead in Tenafly High School's drama Twelve Angry Men, wrestled, played soccer and tennis. He was a freestyle and backstroke swimmer in a New Jersey Jewish Community Center swim league and completed his Water Safety Instructor Certificate in 1971.^[6][7]

In his senior year in high school, Rothman became the chair of the 18-Year-Old Vote Campaign for Tenafly, New Jersey, seeking to secure the New Jersey legislature's support for the proposed 26th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ensuring 18-year-old U.S. citizens the right to vote.^[8]

In 1974 he earned a B.A. degree from Syracuse University, where he majored in political philosophy.^[2] In 1972 he was selected by a student-faculty-administrator search committee to serve on the university's student supreme court (University Judicial Board) for his sophomore, junior and senior years. He was elected Chief Justice of the UJB by its members for 1973–74.^[9]

While at Syracuse, Rothman was lead singer in a folk-rock music group named "Sweet Rock."

From 1974 to 1977 Rothman attended the Washington University School of Law in St. Louis, Missouri, where he was awarded a Juris Doctor degree in 1977.^[2]

In each of his three years at law school, Rothman was a High School Law Project member, teaching a course he wrote on the "U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights" to urban and suburban high school students in the St. Louis City and Metropolitan area. In 1975, Rothman won the "Best Oralist" Award in the Washington University School of Law Moot Court Competition. In 1976, Rothman and his partner Gerald Kline placed first among twelve teams representing six law schools at the Eighth Circuit Regional Moot Court Regional Competition in Rapid City, South Dakota, also winning "Best Brief."^[10]

Rothman was admitted to the New Jersey bar in 1977 and became a practicing New Jersey attorney. In 1982, he was admitted to practice law also in New York. In 1984 he was admitted to practice law before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Early career

Rothman started his legal career as a trial associate at the firm of Miller, Hochman, Myerson and Schaeffer in Jersey City, New Jersey, in 1977. In January 1980, he started his own firm for the general practice law in Englewood in a two-room office over a barber shop on Depot Square. In 1977, Rothman moved his residence from Tenafly to Englewood.

Rothman became active in Englewood community affairs, serving as president of the Scarborough Manor Tenants' Association, where he performed pro bono legal services for the poor and elderly faced with eviction following condominium conversion.^[11] He also was the co-founder of the Englewood Hispanic Lion's Club and a member of the United Jewish Community of Bergen County and member of the Board of Governors of the Jewish Community Center on the Palisades.^[12]

Politically, he was Campaign Coordinator for various Englewood City Council-member races as well as a member of the Englewood Democratic Club, the Englewood Democratic Municipal Committee, the Bergen County Young Democrats, and the New Jersey Young Democrats. He held the office of Treasurer for the Bergen County Democratic Party, for State Senator Matthew Feldman, as well as for various Bergen County Democratic Freeholder (county legislature) campaigns.

Englewood's mayor

In 1982, Rothman ran for and won the city's Democratic Party nomination to be Englewood's mayor. Rothman was also endorsed by the Englewood Black Clergy Council and the Englewood Patrolman's Benevolent Association (the first time those two organizations had ever endorsed the same candidate for mayor). He won the Democratic primary and the November 1982 general elections. At his January 1983 swearing in, he was 30 years old. Rothman served two terms from 1983 to 1989.^[13] He remains the youngest mayor in Englewood's history.^[14]

Rothman served two terms as Englewood's mayor, from 1983 to 1989. In 1992, he was elected as the Bergen County Surrogate Court judge and remained in this position until running for Congress in 1996.^[14]

Libyan government buys Englewood property

In December 1982, just before the start of Rothman's first mayoral term, the Libyan government bought a five-acre estate "on the hill" in Englewood. There was widespread community concern that Col. Mohmmar Kaddafi, an internationally acknowledged terrorist and the dictator of Libya, a country with which the U.S. did not have diplomatic relations at the time, would take up part-time residence at the Englewood mansion and thus precipitate violent conflict in Englewood between his supporters and opponents.^[15]

Just days before Rothman was to be sworn in as the new mayor, one of Englewood's former mayors, The Reverend Walter Taylor, who was also the minister of the Galilee United Methodist Church in Englewood and the president of the Englewood Black Clergy Council, held a press conference at the United Nations Press Club and denounced "self-styled Zionists" who were seeking to keep Libyans out of Englewood. Taylor described this as a "question of Jewish influence." The next night, at the January 1983 Mayor and Council Reorganization Meeting, the other leaders of the Englewood Black Clergy Council denounced Taylor, and the Englewood Black Clergy Council appeared at the meeting to publicly disassociate themselves from Taylor's comments.^[16]

After he was sworn in, Rothman went to Washington, D.C., to lobby the Reagan State Department to use the newly enacted "Foreign Missions Act" to restrict the use of the estate to the Libyan ambassador to the United Nations and his family. In June 1983, the Foreign Missions Office of the State Department announced its decision to implement the "Act" by limiting use of the property to strictly residential and recreational purposes for the Ambassador and his immediate family. It forbade any other use of the estate by the Libyan government.^[17]

In the summer of 2009, in advance of the U.N. General Assembly Meeting, it was discovered that Kaddafi was significantly renovating the Englewood mansion and grounds to be used as one of his homes. Rothman, at that time the U.S. congressman for the 9th congressional district of New Jersey, which included Englewood, worked with the Obama State Department to continue the 1983 conditions for the Libyan government's use of the Englewood estate. Renovations ceased and Kaddafi never set foot on the Englewood property.^[18]

Other mayoral initiatives

In 1984, Rothman led the effort to save the regional Community Mental Health Organization (CMHO), a state and county-funded agency located in Englewood that served 180,000 people, disproportionately Englewood residents, in the area. He organized a successful fundraising effort by eleven Bergen County mayors after they had been notified that state and county support was being threatened by a $200,000 shortfall in CMHO accounting. Rothman helped the CMHO achieve sustained state and county support and promoted a change of private managers, making it part of another county mental health agency while it remained in the same Englewood building.^[19]

May 19, 1985, Rothman was sworn in as the new president of the Bergen County Democratic Mayors Association.^[20]

Rothman announced in 1988 that he would not seek a third term so that he could devote more time to family and his private law practice.^[21]

Personal

Rothman and his first wife had two children, John and Karen. His subsequent marriage also ended in divorce. Rothman now resides in Englewood, New Jersey.

Post-mayoral activities

Rothman continued his general practice of law in Englewood, expanding his offices and staff.

In 1989, Rothman ran unsuccessfully as one of three Democratic candidates to fill three openings on the Bergen County Board of Chosen Freeholders (the county legislature). Bergen County was the largest county in New Jersey with 850,00 people. Rothman lost the election by less than 2,000 votes.^[22]

In 1989, Rothman was appointed Chairman of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Northern New Jersey (JCRC).^[23] In 1991, Rothman hosted 500 Christians, Jews, Muslims, Bahais and Sikhs for the 5th Annual Brotherhood/Sisterhood Interfaith Breakfast, sponsored by the JCRC.^[24]

In 1990 and 1991, Rothman served as Treasurer of the respective Bergen County Democratic Party Freeholder races.

In 1990 and 1991, Rothman was also active in local affairs, joining the Wyckoff Democratic Municipal Committee and serving as its chairman. During that time, he also served as Campaign Manager for Jack Van Horne for Wyckoff Township Council. He and his wife were also members of "Wyckoff Partners In Pride," a community beautification committee of volunteers.

Bergen County Surrogate Court judge

In 1992, Rothman ran for and was chosen by the Bergen County Democratic Party to be their candidate for the elected position of Bergen County Surrogate Court Judge. Under New Jersey law, each of the state's twenty-one counties, including Bergen County (its most populous) is required to elect a Judge of the Surrogate's Court who is responsible, among other duties, for the probating and administering of the estates of all that county's residents. Rothman won the general election in November 1992, becoming the first attorney to serve in that position in the 148 years the position had been an elected one.^[25]

During Rothman's administration, he provided the Bergen County Surrogate's Office with uniformly modern computers, which enabled a 55% increase in cases processed while reducing the number of employees by 10% through attrition. He facilitated improved access to the public by adding office phone lines and making the public documents on file in the Surrogate's Court more available by computerizing indexes and expanding availability. As Surrogate, among other personnel changes, his first hire there was an Hispanic college graduate, the first Hispanic or Spanish-speaking member of the Bergen County Surrogate's Court in history.^[26]

In March 1995, Rothman wrote and had published an 18-page booklet entitled "The Three Legal Documents Recommended For Every Bergen County Adult," which dealt with the operations of the Bergen County Surrogate's Court, probate, self-proving wills, living wills, and durable powers of attorney. Approximately 23,000 booklets were published and distributed, in English and Spanish. Rothman conducted more than 100 seminars on wills, living wills, probate and powers of attorney, speaking directly to over 10, 000 Bergen County residents.^[27]

Rothman also invested over $75 million in assets for minors who received settlements or judgments in Bergen County. During his three years in office, his federally-insured investments realized the highest rate of return of any surrogate in the state.^[28]

U.S. House of Representatives

Elections

In a district that was 90 percent non-Jewish, with no Jewish House members then representing New Jersey, Rothman was elected the first Jewish-American House member in the history of the 9th congressional district.

He was reelected to that seat seven more times.

In 1996, incumbent Democratic U.S. Representative Robert G. Torricelli of New Jersey's 9th congressional district decided to run for the United States Senate that was being vacated by Bill Bradley, creating a vacancy in the House seat.^[29] Rothman was encouraged by Democratic leaders and laypeople to run for the seat. However, the New Jersey Supreme Court required him to step down from his position as the judge of the Bergen County Surrogate's Court in order to be a candidate. Thus, in January 1996, he resigned as Bergen County Surrogate to run for the 9th congressional district House seat. In June 1996, Rothman prevailed in the Democratic Party primary to be their candidate in the general election for Congress.^[30]

• 1996: In the general election, Rothman defeated Republican County Clerk and Chairperson of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Kathleen Donovan, 56.6%–42.2%, with two independent candidates taking up the remainder of the vote.^[30]
• 1998: Rothman won reelection to a second term, defeating Mayor Steve Lonegan of Bogota, New Jersey 64.6%–33.8%, with three independent candidates receiving less than 2% of the vote.^[30]
• 2000: won reelection to a third term, defeating Joseph Tedeschi 68%–30% with two Independent candidates receiving 2% of the vote.^[30]
• 2002: won reelection to a fourth term, defeating Joseph Glass, 70%–30%.^[30]
• 2004: won reelection to a fifth term, defeating Edward Trawinski 67–32%, with the Libertarian candidate receiving 1% of the vote.^[31]
• 2006: won reelection to a sixth term, defeating Vincent Micco 71%–28%, with the Moderate Choice candidate receiving 1% of the vote.^[31]
• 2008: won reelection to a seventh term, defeating Vincent Micco 68–31% with the Independent/Progressive candidate garnering 1%.^[31]
• 2010: won reelection to an eighth term, defeating Michael A. Agosta 61%–38%, with the Green Party candidate receiving 1%.^[30]

2012 primary

On December 23, 2011, the New Jersey Congressional Redistricting Committee, in compliance with the outcome of the 2010 U.S. census and the requirements of federal law, consolidated New Jersey's then 13 House seats into 12 congressional districts.^[32][33]

The half Democrat and half Republican commission named Republican John Farmer Jr. as its ‘tie-breaker.^[34]  Farmer had previously held the roles of Chief Counsel and New Jersey Attorney General under Republican Governor Christine Todd Whitman.^[35]

On 23 December 2012, the commission chose a map advocated by Republican members, which combined New Jersey's 8th and 9th congressional districts, represented by William Pascrell and Steve Rothman respectively. It also created a new 5th congressional district.

At the time of the creation of this new map, Rothman held a 12-year tenure on the House Appropriations committee and Pascrell had a six-year tenure on the House Ways and Means Committee.^[36][37]

The Republican Plan chosen by the Redistricting Commission removed seven of the largest Democratic vote-producing municipalities from the 9th congressional district. It also moved the major Passaic County cities and towns into the 9th congressional district.^[38]

The incumbent congressman in the 8th district, lifelong Passaic County resident Congressman Bill Pascrell, the former mayor of Paterson and New Jersey State assemblyman from Passaic County, announced that he would run in the Democratic primary for the redrawn 9th congressional district. Rep. Pascrell had represented the 8th congressional district since 1997.^[39]

The incumbent congressman in the 9th district, lifelong Bergen County resident Congressman Steve Rothman, the former mayor of Englewood and elected Bergen County Surrogate Court judge, announced that he would run in the Democratic primary for re-election in the 9th congressional district. Rep. Rothman had represented the 9th congressional district since 1997.^[39]

Rothman was defeated by Pascrell in the 2012 Democratic primary.^[30] Rothman lost even though the merged district was more his district than Pascrell's; he retained 53 percent of his former territory while Pascrell retained 43 percent of his.

Electoral history