Stephen Sweeney

Stephen M. Sweeney (born June 11, 1959) is an American politician and labor leader who served in the New Jersey Senate from 2002 to 2022, representing the 3rd legislative district.

Sweeney was born on June 11, 1959, in Camden, New Jersey, and graduated from Pennsauken High School in 1977.

He is of Irish ancestry.

He joined Ironworkers Local 399 (of Camden, New Jersey) and gained journeyman status on January 1, 1980.

Sweeney serves as general vice president of the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers.

Sweeney sponsored a 2002 law allowing municipalities and other public entities beginning a construction project to enter into a Project Labor Agreement (PLA), an agreement that establishes the terms and conditions of employment and prohibits the use of strikes and lockouts, which can save money by reducing cost overruns and work stoppages, and contribute to decreased labor unrest.

The bill, which was signed into law in September 2003, requires guards to undergo mandated training in the use of the firearms before getting access to the weapons.

Other legislation sponsored by Sweeney and signed into law provides state pensions to surviving family members of police, firefighters and emergency services workers who die in the line of duty, as well as the law that removes the remarriage prohibition to receive death benefits for spouses of police officers and firefighters killed while serving the public good.

Sweeney also co-sponsored the law providing health benefits to New Jersey National Guard members who serve for 30 days or more on state active duty.

Sweeney sponsored "Maggie's Law", which establishes driving while seriously fatigued as a form of driver recklessness.

The first law of its kind in the United States, "Maggie's Law" was signed by Governor Jim McGreevey in August 2003.

It subjects sleep deprived drivers who have been awake for 24 hours or more to sentences of up to 10 years in jail and fines up to $150,000 if they get into fatal car accidents caused by their lack of sleep.

Sweeney first pursued the legislation when he was contacted by the mother of Maggie McDonnell, a Washington Township resident who was killed in a car accident by a driver who had been up for over 30 hours without sleeping.

A 2005 law Sweeney sponsored enabled the Delaware River and Bay Authority to establish an ethanol plant in Southern New Jersey, the first of its kind in any of the Mid-Atlantic states, a project intended to create jobs for South Jersey and supply a new market for farmers in the region.

In response to heightened security warnings around potential targets such as chemical and nuclear plants since the September 11 terrorist attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center, Sweeney pushed to require potentially vulnerable facilities to implement security standards and to explore possible safer technologies.

He sponsored legislation to allow security guards at nuclear plants to carry assault weapons and high-powered ammunition.

Sweeney served on the Gloucester County Board of County Commissioners, a post he held since 1997, and served as the Director of the board from January 6, 2006, until he left office in 2010.

On June 1, 2006, Sweeney and two Assembly Democrats, Paul D. Moriarty (D, 4th legislative district) and Jerry Green (D, 22nd legislative district), announced their support for cuts of as much as 15% to New Jersey state worker salaries and benefits as part of an effort to avoid a one-point increase in the state's sales tax proposed by Governor Jon Corzine.

He urged that workers affected by the state shutdown in July 2006 should not collect pay for the time they were furloughed, stating that he would have voted to reject the state budget if he had known that state workers would receive pay for a period when they were not working.

Sweeney was selected by the Senate Democratic Caucus to serve as Majority Leader on November 8, 2007.

During that period of time he simultaneously held a seat in the New Jersey Senate and was a Freeholder, a practice known as "double dipping" that was allowed under a grandfather clause in a 2007 state law that prevents dual-office-holding but allows those who had held both positions as of February 1, 2008, to retain both posts.

On the afternoon of November 23, 2009, New Jersey Senate Democrats chose Sweeney as State Senate President over the incumbent, former governor Richard Codey.

A member of the Democratic Party, he was the 114th President of the New Jersey Senate from 2010 to 2022.

A Union Ironworker by trade, Sweeney was frequently described as a political power broker in New Jersey politics and identifies as a moderate and a fiscal conservative.

His legislative tenure ended after he was defeated in 2021 by Republican Edward Durr in a major upset.

Following his defeat, Sweeney announced his candidacy in the 2025 New Jersey gubernatorial election.

He took office on January 12, 2010.

In the absence of the governor and lieutenant governor, Sweeney served as acting governor of New Jersey during the eastern seaboard storm of December 2010.

In January 2010, Sweeney abstained when the New Jersey Senate voted on the question of allowing same-sex couples to marry.

The bill was not passed.

Sweeney later called his abstention a mistake and said that the issue was a civil rights issue, not a religious issue.

In 2010, Sweeney helped design and pass thirty bills, known collectively as "Back to Work NJ," that aimed to help create jobs and economic growth in New Jersey.

In 2011, Sweeney proposed sweeping reforms to the public employee pension and health benefits systems that he estimates would save taxpayers over $120 billion over a 30-year period.

Sweeney also helped craft the state's two-percent property tax cap in order to control rising property taxes.

Sweeney was named as a "Politician Who's Ahead of the Curve" by Philadelphia Magazine in 2011 for his continued support of shared services between local government units.

With Republican Thomas Kean, Jr. and fellow Democrat Raymond Lesniak, Sweeney sponsored Senate Bill S2664, the "Market Competition and Consumer Choice Act" in 2011, which Verizon said would encourage the firm to create additional jobs in the state.

Following Governor Christie's use of the line item veto on the state's 2011 budget, Sweeney was quoted by The Star-Ledger as being "incensed".

In 2012, Sweeney was one of the prime sponsors of legislation that would legalize same-sex marriage.

The bill was approved in both houses of the Legislature, but was ultimately vetoed by Governor Chris Christie; Christie favored putting the issue up for public referendum.

In December 2016, Sweeney was one of several Catholic elected officials who supported legislation legalizing assisted suicide, saying that state residents should be able to make their own decisions on a topic in which "the church takes positions that are not necessarily mainstream".