The Eighth District is entirely composed of municipalities in Burlington County. The district includes the high-income communities of Medford Lakes, Medford Township and Moorestown, as well as relatively undeveloped municipalities with extensive forest areas, several within the jurisdiction of the Pinelands Protection Act and the New Jersey Pinelands Commission.
Mount Laurel Township gave its name to the series of famous decisions of the New Jersey Supreme Court issued from 1975 to 1985 holding that each New Jersey municipality has a State Constitutional obligation to provide its fair share of the regional need for low and moderate income housing, and which led to the Legislature's passage of the Fair Housing Act of 1985. See, e.g. Mt. Laurel And Affordable Housing In New Jersey, Business and Professional People for the Public Interest; History of Exclusionary Zoning Litigation in New Jersey, Hill Wallack. Shamong, previously known as Brotherton and still known by the local place name of Indian Mills, was the site of the first Indian reservation in the New World, comprising 3,285 acres set aside in 1758 by the colonial government of New Jersey for all remaining Indians south of the Raritan River, estimated to number only about 200.
After many of the Indians moved to New York to live with the Oneida Tribe, the reservation was closed in 1801and the land returned to the government. The district is also the site of Fort Dix, established during World War I as Camp Dix, and later a primary training and debarkation facility during World War II, the Korean and Vietnam Wars, and today a major training and mobilization center for the Army Reserve and National Guard. See Fort Dix History, US Army. Fort Dix and nearby McGuire Air Force Base are major civilian employers for the region, and direct and indirect spending by the military and its personnel are extremely significant to the economy of the district.
There are very few Hispanic or foreign born residents within the district; the proportion of African Americans, Asians, college graduates, and elderly are all around the state average. The total tax rate is only slightly above the state average, yet the school tax rate is the third highest in the state. Overall, school performance is well above the state average, with some districts recording some of the highest standardized elementary test scores and best high school graduation rates. Republicans outnumber Democrats by a sizable margin and have won most recent elections.
All three seats in the district legislative delegation were filled by new Republican legislators as a result of the 2007 election. Philip Haines, the Burlington County Clerk, was elected to the Senate to the seat held since 1997 by Senator Martha Bark. Assemblyman Francis L. Bodine, who unsuccessfully sought the Republican organization support for a run to succeed Senator Bark in the Senate, then switched parties to become a Democrat, but lost in his race against Mr. Haines in the November 2007 election. Democratic Assemblyman Larry Chatzidakis also did not seek re-election in 2007. The Assembly seats were filled by Republican Freeholder Dawn Addiego and Republican Medford Deputy Mayor Scott Rudder, who both were re-elected in 2009.
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