This coastal district is comprised of 11 Ocean County municipalities and Manasquan in Monmouth County. Toms River (formerly Dover Township) and Brick Township, with populations of 89,706 and 76,119 respectively, were by far the largest municipalities as reported by the 2000 US Census, well over three times the population of Point Pleasant, the third largest municipality at 19,306 in 2000. The district also includes two of New Jersey's wealthiest municipalities, the adjoining oceanfront towns of Bay Head and Mantoloking, which have reluctantly adjusted to New Jersey court decisions opening public access to their beaches by non-residents. Other resorts within the district, including Seaside Heights, Point Pleasant Beach, Lavallette and Manasquan, actively seek both seasonal and day-trip visitors to their beaches and amusements. Both recreational and commercial fishing is important to the district economy, and large marinas are located in Point Pleasant Beach and Manasquan. The demand for shore real estate has led to sharp increases in property values in one of the fastest-growing districts of the state.

The district ranks third highest of the 40 districts with 17.1% of its residents 65 years or over, according to the 2000 US Census. Perhaps due to the high number of seniors, the district also ranks lowest in the state in its school spending per pupil. Municipal government expenditures also are relatively low, with only eight districts spending less per capita on local government purposes. See New Jersey Legislative District Data Book, Center for Government Services, Rutgers University.

Republicans hold about a ten-point margin in the percentage of registered voters over Democrats, and the GOP controls the legislative delegation as well as most county and local offices in the district. Senator Andrew Ciesla has served in the Senate since 1992; he is a member of the Law & Public Safety and Transportation Committees and was Assistant Majority Leader from 1994 through 1997. Assemblyman James W. Holzapfel, an Assembly member since 1994, is managing partner of the Citta, Holzapfel, Zabarsky, Leahey and Simon law firm in Toms River. He is a member of the Committee on Regulated Professions. Assemblyman David Wolfe, a professor at Ocean County College, has been an Assembly member since 1992. He is currently Deputy Republican Leader and a member of the Budget and Education Committees.

In the 2007 election, Senator Ciesla was re-elected, defeating Democrat Britta Forsberg-Wenzel, a Council member in Lavellette Borough, and Libertarian Jim Miller of Toms River. In 2009, the incumbent Assemblymen also were returned to office with over two-to-one margins, defeating Democrats Charles Tivenan, an attorney in Brick Township, and Eli Eytan, a Toms River attorney who is a member of the board of trustees of the New Jersey State Bar Association.

Issues within the district have included development policy; transportation and congestion; the environment; and health care. Environmental health issues have been a concern for several years as a result of findings released in September 1997 by the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services that there were significantly higher rates of certain childhood cancers than expected in what was then Dover Township (now Toms River). See Citizen’s Guide to the Childhood Cancer Incidence Update: Dover Township (Ocean County), New Jersey, New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services January 2003. Some residents have attributed the health problems to the toxic waste discharges to area drinking water supplies in the 1960s and 1970s of the former Ciba-Geigy chemical plant.