Barbara P. Berman
Member of the New Jersey General Assembly
from the 6th Legislative District
In office
January 10, 1978 – January 8, 1980
Serving with Mary Keating Croce
Preceded byJohn J. Gallagher
Succeeded byJohn A. Rocco and Thomas J. Shusted
Personal details
Born (1938-04-30) April 30, 1938
Brooklyn, New York
Political partyDemocratic
ResidenceCherry Hill, New Jersey

Barbara P. Berman (born April 30, 1938) is an American Democratic Party politician who served in the New Jersey General Assembly for a single term, where she represented the 6th Legislative District from 1978 to 1980.

Early life and education

Berman was born on April 30, 1938, in Brooklyn, where she attended Erasmus Hall High School and then Brooklyn College.[1]

Public service

Before running for office in 1977, Berman had served as Camden County's Director of Consumer Affairs.[2]

Berman and her Democratic Party running mate Mary Keating Croce, who was seeking her third term in office, defeated Republicans Mario A. Iavicoli and William K. Dickey, a former Speaker of the Assembly; Berman came in second, edging Iavicoli by a 170-vote margin.[3]

When Berman took office in January 1978, she and Croce became the first pair of women to be elected to a single Assembly district in state history, and were two of the 12 women taking office in the Assembly, the highest number ever to serve together in the 80-seat body.[2][4][5]

In the 1979 general election, Republicans John A. Rocco and Thomas J. Shusted defeated Berman and Croce to win the two assembly seats in the 6th Legislative District, which covered portions of Burlington County and Camden County; Berman came in third, more than 1,300 votes behind.[6]

In the 1989 general election, with Republicans holding a two-seat margin in the Assembly, Berman and running mate Mary Ellen Talbott faced off against Republican incumbents Rocco and Shusted (the same two candidates who had knocked her out of the Assembly 10 years earlier), in a 6th District that then had 10,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans. Abortion rights played a major role in the election, with the Democratic challengers supporting a woman's right to make a choice while the incumbents supported limits, with Shusted opposing abortion under any circumstances. Rocco and Shusted pointed to their seniority after 10 years in the Assembly as a benefit to residents of the district, with Shusted serving as chairman of the Assembly Judiciary Committee.[7] On Election Day, results showed Rocco taking one seat, with Berman 122 votes ahead of Shusted for the second seat; after a recount of the 65,000 ballots cast on machines and via absentee ballots, Superior Court Judge Donald Bigley ruled that Shusted had won the second seat by a 34-vote margin. After hearing the final ruling, Berman accepted the final result, saying "I am a lady, and I wish Mr. Shusted well," continuing that "if he won, he won fairly. That's what elections are all about."[8]

In August 1991, Berman dropped her independent bid in what was a three-way race for mayor of Cherry Hill, simplifying the path for the re-election of Democrat Susan Bass Levin.[9]

References

  1. ↑ Manual of the Legislature of New Jersey, Volume 198, Part 2, p. 221. J.A. Fitzgerald., 1979. Accessed August 11, 2022. "Mrs. Berman was born in Brooklyn April 30, 1938. She attended Erasmus High School in Brooklyn and was graduated from Brooklyn College, cum laude, in 1959."
  2. 1 2 Waldron, Martin. "Women Gaining Stature in Legislature", The New York Times, December 4, 1977. Accessed October 27, 2016. "Mrs. Berman is the Director of Consumer Affairs for Camden County. She and Mrs. Croce are from the same district, and it will be the first time that both Assembly seats from one district have been held by women."
  3. ↑ Results of the General Election Held November 8, 1977 Archived March 3, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, New Jersey Department of State. Accessed November 27, 2016.
  4. ↑ Waldron, Martin. "Trenton Topics: Assembly Will Have 12 Women Members – A Record", The New York Times, November 12, 1977. Accessed November 27, 2016. "Two women were elected from one district—the Sixth, which consists of parts of Camden and Burlington Counties. This has never happened before. They are Mary Keating Croce of Pennsauken and Barbara Berman of Cherry Hill, both Democrats."
  5. ↑ Hanley, Robert. "Informality and Children Reign in Trenton", The New York Times, January 11, 1978. Accessed October 27, 2016. "Twelve women, a record number, were sworn in for two‐year Assembly terms. And for the first time in the history of the Legislature, women now occupy both seats in a single legislative district. They are Mary Keating Croce, a 49-year-old three‐term Democrat from Pennsauken, and Barbara Berman, a 39-year-old freshman Democrat and lawyer from Cherry Hill."
  6. ↑ Results of the General Election Held on November 6, 1979 Archived April 28, 2017, at the Wayback Machine, New Jersey Department of State. Accessed October 27, 2016.
  7. ↑ Sullivan, Joseph F. "A Clear Choice Confronts the Voters In One New Jersey Assembly Contest", The New York Times, October 15, 1989. Accessed October 27, 2016. "The incumbents, Republican Assemblymen John A. Rocco, 53 years old, and Thomas J. Shusted, 63, oppose a woman's right to choose abortion, while their Democratic challengers, former Assemblywoman Barbara Berman, 51, and retired Superior Court Judge Mary Ellen Talbott, 67, support that right. Mr. Rocco would allow abortions when a woman's life is in danger or in cases of rape or incest. Mr. Shusted would make no exception. The incumbents and challengers acknowledge that they present a clear choice to those for whom abortion is the overriding issue, but they differ on how important the issue will be in deciding the winners on Nov. 7."
  8. ↑ O'Brien, Ellen. "Shusted To Stay In Assembly Judge Rules Him Election Winner", The Philadelphia Inquirer, December 2, 1989. Accessed October 27, 2016. "The state's longest-run Assembly race ended, finally, in State Superior Court yesterday, when Judge Donald Bigley agreed to rule on the eligibility of 12 contested absentee ballots – and then ruled in favor of Shusted's position on each vote.... When the Sixth District votes were tallied on election night, Berman appeared to have edged back into office by 122 votes. But Shusted called for a recount, and after all the votes – including absentee ballots – were recounted by the Board of Elections, he emerged the winner by 34 votes."
  9. ↑ Carlozo, Louis R.; and Sipress, Alan. "Berman Departs Race For Cherry Hill Mayor", The Philadelphia Inquirer, August 31, 1991. Accessed October 27, 2016. "Independent Barbara Berman has dropped out of the race for mayor of Cherry Hill, leaving maverick Mayor Susan Bass Levin in a two-way battle with Republican Brian Greenberg."
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