William J. Martini

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William J. "Bill" Martini (born January 10, 1947 in Passaic, New Jersey) is a current United States district court judge. Before his judicial service, Martini was a Republican Party politician who represented New Jersey's 8th congressional district (map) in the House of Representatives, where he served from January 3, 1995–January 3, 1997.

Martini graduated from Passaic High School, Villanova University in Philadelphia, and received his law degree from Rutgers University in 1972.

Martini started his career as an assistant in the Hudson County prosecutor's office in 1973. The following year, he was named an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey, and served in that post until 1977. He went into private practice after that.

Martini would eventually land in Passaic County again, and won election to the city council in Clifton, New Jersey in 1990. He would add a position on the Passaic County Board of Chosen Freeholders to his resume in 1992.

In 1994, the Republican Party nominated Martini for Congress in New Jersey's 8th congressional district. He faced off against one-term incumbent Herbert Klein, who had fallen out of favor with the voters. Riding that, plus the wave of the 1994 Republican Revolution's disillusion with the Democratic Party, Martini defeated Klein and took one of the 54 seats in the House of Representatives the Republicans gained that year. In addition, he was the first Republican to win an election in the district since Gordon Canfield won his last re-election bid in 1958.

Martini was defeated for re-election in 1996 by Paterson mayor Bill Pascrell, and was one of 8 Republican Representatives elected in the 1994 Republican Revolution to be defeated in their re-election bids. He has not run for political office since then.

In 1999, the Governor of New Jersey Christine Todd Whitman named Martini head of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, a post in which he served for three years.

On January 23, 2002, Martini was nominated to serve as a judge in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey by President Bush. The Senate confirmed him, and on November 19, 2002, he took his seat on the bench. Martini was one of five New Jersey district court judges to be confirmed in 2002, and is one of 24 judges currently sitting on the district court.

[edit] Electoral history

New Jersey's 8th congressional district: Results 1994–1996^[1]

Year		Democrat	Votes	Pct		Republican	Votes	Pct		3rd Party	Party	Votes	Pct
1994		Herb Klein	68,661	49%		William J. Martini	70,494	50%		Bernard George	Conservative	2,213	2%
1996		William J. Pascrell, Jr.	98,861	51%		William J. Martini	92,609	48%		Jeffrey M. Levine	Independent	1,621	1%

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Voting record maintained by The Washington Post
• Department of Justice resume
• Federal Judicial Center biography

Preceded by Herbert Klein

Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New Jersey's 8th congressional district 1995–1997

Succeeded by Bill Pascrell Jr.