An unsuccessful attempt was made to pass an amendment to the Constitution of New Jersey in 1926 and 1927. The intent of the amendment was to have members of the New Jersey General Assembly serve two-year terms instead of one and lengthen the terms of state senators and the governor from three years to four. The proposed amendment was passed twice by the legislature, and the text was approved by the attorney general. Before the proposal could be put before the voters for final approval, it was noticed that although the legislature had intended that Assembly members be elected biennially (once in two years), the proposed amendment provided that they were to be chosen "biannually", meaning they were to be elected twice a year. After this discovery, the legislature passed a resolution defining "biannually" to mean "biennially", and proceeded with the referendum. On September 20, 1927, the people of New Jersey voted down the proposal, and Assembly members were elected annually until New Jersey instituted a new constitution in 1947.
New Jersey was governed at the time under a constitution adopted in 1844, and votes to amend it were allowed only once in five years. Among the amendments proposed initially by the 1926 legislature, and passed again in 1927, was one known as the "term extender", which would lengthen the terms of legislators and the governor. It would also require the gubernatorial election to be in the same year as the presidential election. New Jersey, despite being strongly Republican, had elected several Democratic governors recently, and Democrats believed such a change would give the Republicans an advantage. However, the Republican majority in the legislature meant Democrats could not block passage there. The original version, passed by the Assembly in 1926, did not mention "biannually", but the version passed by the Senate and then accepted by the Assembly did use the word. After the revised proposed amendment passed the 1927 legislature, a vote was set for September 27, 1927.
When Jewish organizations protested that September 27 was Rosh Hashanah that year, Governor A. Harry Moore convened the legislature into special session to set a new date. A Democratic clerk then pointed out the meaning of biannually, and others of that party urged that the amendment be scuttled. Instead, the Republican majority, relying on authorities who stated that biannually and biennially meant the same thing, chose to pass a resolution stating that the intent was to have elections every other year and set the referendum date for September 20, 1927. There was considerable amusement at the situation, both in New Jersey and nationwide. Frank Hague, the Jersey City Mayor and Democratic political boss of Hudson County, campaigned against the provision moving the election for governor to the presidential year, alleging it was political manipulation and the mixture of state and federal politics. Republicans stated that having the larger number of voters who cast ballots for president also help choose the governor was a good thing. The Democrats were so against the proposal that they successfully opposed three of the other four amendments that were on the ballot at the same time, lest the term extender amendment pass through confusion. The term extender failed with just over 41 percent in favor, defeated by a huge turnout in Hague's Hudson County bailiwick, which voted overwhelmingly against the proposal, contrasted with light turnout and lukewarm support through the rest of the state.
Background
New Jersey's 1776 constitution was rewritten in 1844. That document, which remained in force until 1947, provided for annual elections for the New Jersey General Assembly, the lower house of the legislature, and for three-year terms for members of the state Senate. The governor of New Jersey was also to serve a three-year term.
To amend the constitution, each house of the legislature would have to pass a proposed amendment in successive years, which would put the proposed amendment on the ballot to be approved or rejected by the people. There could be votes on amendments to the constitution only once in five years. Before 1927, the voters of New Jersey had six times been called upon to decide whether to amend the 1844 constitution, most recently in 1915, but they had done so only in 1875 and 1897. In 1915, amendments to guarantee women the vote, permit excess condemnation (the power to acquire by eminent domain more land than actually needed for a public purpose) by cities and counties, and remove the prohibition on amending the constitution more often than once in five years had each been voted down by a comfortable margin. An amendment to increase the terms of the legislature and governor had been voted down in 1909. Page 5 here In the first quarter of the 20th century, three governors of New Jersey, including Woodrow Wilson, advocated a constitutional convention to thoroughly revise the state constitution, but legislative commissions that considered the question in the early 1920s did not agree, and the constitution continued in force.
1926 passage Beginning in February 1926, the legislature's joint Republican conference committee, which steered policy for that majority party in the legislature, began to consider a constitutional amendment to increase the terms of Assembly members to two years, and of senators to four years; the legislature would meet every two years instead of annually. The term of the governor would also be increased to four years, and election to that office scheduled to be at the same time as the election for U.S. president. This was seen as political to benefit the state's Republicans, who generally had greater strength in presidential election years, whereas the Democrats did better in off-year elections. Democrats had won the three most recent gubernatorial elections, with the Republicans last winning in 1916, a presidential election year. No Democratic presidential candidate had won the state with a majority of the vote since Grover Cleveland in 1892, though Wilson had won the state in his 1912 presidential run with fewer votes than William Howard Taft and Theodore Roosevelt combined. Calvin Coolidge had won New Jersey by a margin of 378,000 votes in 1924, but the following year, Democrat A. Harry Moore had been elected governor by 39,000 votes.
The passage by the legislature in March 1926 of a proposed constitutional amendment allowing it to enact laws permitting municipalities to pass zoning regulations caused Republican leaders to again consider what other amendments should be proposed to the voters. These included the various term-extending provisions. The efforts to pass a zoning amendment followed the New Jersey Supreme Court striking down a zoning ordinance as violative of the right of landowners to use their property. The 1925 legislature had passed amendments concerning zoning, and to have the legislature meet every two years instead of one, but these were not passed again by the 1926 legislature, as was necessary for them to be submitted to the voters. Republicans had, in their 1925 state platform, called for amendments regarding zoning and the extension of the terms of legislators and the governor.
Several amendments, sponsored by Assemblyman Clifford R. Powell of Burlington County, a Republican, were passed by the General Assembly on March 24, 1926. First, the provision for biennial sessions of the legislature passed by a vote of 54–0, and one requiring legislative elections to take place every other year, with the legislature to convene the following January, passed by 44–7. Then, an amendment that required, among other things, "The General Assembly shall be composed of members elected by the legal voters of the counties", passed the Assembly by 43–11. The provisions altering the terms of the senators passed by 44–11, as did the provision extending the governor's term. These amendments were subsequently considered by the Senate as a single package for fear some would pass and some would not, resulting in "a jumble".
The term-extending provisions were scheduled in the Senate for the portion of the session intended for bills vetoed by the governor, to begin March 31, 1926. Debate on another proposed constitutional change, to allow amendments to be voted on at a general election rather than at a special election, took place on April 2, but some senators wanted more time to consider the various amendments, and all were postponed until June 22. Distracted by a dispute over who should be the state treasurer, on June 29, the Senate adjourned until July 7, having not acted on the proposed constitutional amendments.
Late on the evening of July 19, just prior to adjourning until November, the Senate passed the term-extending provisions. The amendment that passed had been sponsored by Senator Henry A. Williams of Passaic County and was a substitute for a version prepared by a Senate committee. It provided that "the General Assembly shall be composed of members biannually elected by the legal voters of the counties". The text had been approved by Attorney General of New Jersey Edward L. Katzenbach. The proposal also would allow the Speaker of the Assembly and President of the Senate, acting together, to call a special session of the Legislature, which would allow Republican legislators to bypass a Democratic governor. It passed the Senate by a vote of 16–2.
Since the Senate had amended the proposals, they returned to the Assembly, where, also on July 19, the majority leader, Anthony J. Siracusa Jr. (R-Atlantic County) moved to suspend the rules in order to consider them. This being allowed, the package passed by a vote of 34–0. A total of eight proposals (counting the term extenders as a single amendment) passed the legislature for the first time in 1926, including two proposals dealing with zoning. The second proposal was necessary because although the first zoning proposal had passed both houses of the legislature, the General Assembly had neglected to print it verbatim in its legislative journal, as required by the constitution.
1927 passage
In his annual message on January 11, 1927, Governor Moore stated his support for a constitutional convention to revise New Jersey's governing document. He opposed, though, the lengthening of the gubernatorial term and having the governor elected at the same time as the president, describing the effort to confuse state with national politics as vicious. Senate President Francis B. Davis (R-Gloucester County), in a speech after his election as presiding officer, pledged that the proposed constitutional amendments "must have our best thought and be thoroughly considered before submission to the people".
Powell introduced the term-extender amendment in the Assembly on January 24, 1927, Page 4 here and it was reported from committee and given a second reading in the General Assembly in early February. Page 12 here It passed the Assembly on February 7 on a vote of 47–12, along party lines. Morris E. Barison of Hudson County, the minority leader, stated to the Republican majority, "you cannot elect a governor in the off years and so you have adopted this means. But let me say the battle is only beginning. Get ready for a real fight." Page 2 here
The amendment was reported from committee in the Senate on February 15, 1927. It passed 13–2 on February 22, with two of the Senate's four Democrats opposing (the other two were absent), Page 2 here On March 25, both houses of the legislature passed legislation to set a special election for September 27, 1927, to consider the proposed constitutional amendments, and this was enacted into law on March 31. There were continued reports of Democratic opposition to the amendment, spearheaded by the powerful Hudson County political boss, Mayor Frank Hague of Jersey City.
Discovery and reaction