The Second District includes Atlantic City and seventeen other of Atlantic County's twenty-three municipalities. Within the district, the strongest Republican voter registrations are in Longport and Port Republic, which each had over half of their registered voters declaring Republican affiliations in recent elections, while Democratic strongholds include Atlantic City and Pleasantville, where about a third of voters are Democratic.

With 40,517 residents according to the 2000 census, Atlantic City has the largest permanent population, but the City and the other municipalities also have high numbers of summer visitors and part-time residents who place pressure on government services well beyond the levels of their reported permanent population as counted in the Census.

The entire district has been greatly affected by the growth pressures from casino gambling, as well as the development constraints placed on the Pinelands region on the western edge of the district. While the population density remains fairly low, the large number of new residential building permits, ranking third highest among the districts, promises future growth. Much of the new housing spurred by Atlantic City's resurgence has occurred outisde the City, where taxes and real estate values are lower and where public schools demonstate higher performance levels than in the City itself, but recent condominium and townhouse projects within the City have generated hope that the City may now experience expanded development of new or rehabilitated housing.

Municipal government spending per capita is the second highest in the state, but spending per pupil is among the lowest in the state. Furthermore, the proportion of college graduates is well below the state average. The district is home to an above average number of African-Americans and elderly when compared to the state average.Issues affecting the district include potential new competition to casino gambling,such as proposals to authorize slot machines at race tracks; shore protection and beach replenishment; highway and transit improvements; and senior citizens programs.

In one of the hardest-fought campaigns in the 2007 election, Democratic Assemblyman and former Atlantic City Mayor James Whelan, was elected to the Senate, defeating James “Sonny” McCullough by 57 percent to 43 percent. McCulloough, the veteran mayor of Egg Harbor Township, had served in the Senate since he was selected on February 20, 2007, by vote of the district Republican committee to succeed fellow Republican Senator William Gormley, who resigned effective February 15 after serving in the Senate since 1982. McCullough was chosen in a contest over incumbent Republican Assemblyman Francis “Frank” Blee, who had been endorsed by Gormley. After briefly considering switching parties to run against McCullough, Blee decided to retire from the Assembly. Senator Whelan served as mayor of Atlantic City 1990-2001 and is a teacher at the Martin Luther King School in the City. In the 2008 legislative session, he chairs the Wagering, Tourism & Historic Preservation Committee and is a member of the Committees on Education; Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens; and State Government.

The two open Assembly seats were filled by Republicans Vincent Polistina of Egg Harbor Township, who heads an engineering firm, and John Amodeo, a former Linwood City Councilman who is employed as a crane operator and is a member of Operating Engineers Local 825. They each received 28 percent of the votes cast to beat Democrats Blondell Spellman, an attorney who was formerly counsel at the now-defunct Claridge casino in Atlantic City, with 21 percent, and Joe Wilkins, who resigned his position in August 2007 as an Assistant Commissioner in the Department of Labor in the Corzine administration, who received 23 percent.