The Fourth District is composed of ten municipalities in Gloucester and Camden counties, all just south of the city of Camden and within commuting range of Philadelphia. This rapidly growing area is characterized by a below average percentage of Asians, Hispanics and elderly; the proportion of African-Americans is similar to that found in the State as a whole. Although per capita income is generally low in the district, the total tax rate is still the third highest in the state. Democrats hold a nearly 2 to 1 advantage over Republican registrations, Democrats have a nearly 2-1 registration advantage in the district, although more than half of registered voters are not affiliated with either party.

The current district covers area that in the colonial period was part of “old" Gloucester County, which extended across the State from the Atlantic coast to the Delaware River, including all of present-day Atlantic County and Camden County, until Atlantic County was separated in 1837 and Camden County in 1844 to become independent counties. See Gloucester County, New Jersey, History and Genealogy. While the district’s early economy was largely focused on agriculture and forest resources such as lumber, in the mid-eighteenth century it also developed as a glass manufacturing center, with factories in Glassboro and Gloucester Township. Glassboro continued as an important glass-bottle manufacturing center for 150 years.

Rowan University (then Glassboro State College) was host in June 1967 to the Summit Meeting of President Lyndon Johnson and Soviet Premier Aleksei N. Kosygin. The University was re-named in 1992 after Henry Rowan, the founder and chief executive of Inductotherm Industries, (now Inductotherm Group), the largest US manufacturer of induction melting systems for the metals industry, donated with his wife $100 million to expand facilities, programs and financial aid. At the time, the Rowans' gift was the largest ever given to a public college or university in the history of American higher education. The historic Borough of Pitman was originally Pitman Grove, once a nationally prominent center of Methodist revival camp meetings that commenced shortly after the Civil War and later led to the building in 1882 of the Camp Meeting Auditorium, now a site on the state and national register of historic places.

Democratic Senator Fred Madden, Jr., was elected to his first term in November 2003 in an election that was the closest of all the 2003 races, with a mere 63-vote margin, and the most expensive in New Jersey's history, with total spending about $5.7 million. Senator Madden defeated Republican George Geist, an Assemblyman who had been appointed to fill a Senate vacancy created by the resignation in May 2003 of the district's popular Republican Senator John Matheussen, who resigned from the Senate to accept nomination by Governor McGreevey to the full-time position as president of the Delaware River Port Authority, the bi-state agency that operates the principal bridges and port facilities and the PATCO rapid transit line in the Philadelphia-Camden metro region. Senator Madden previously served as acting superintendent of the New Jersey State Police for six months beginning in September 2002, and was a candidate for the permanent position; he resigned in February 2003, shortly before Governor McGreevey announced his selection of State Police Captain Joseph “Rick” Fuentes to be the new superintendent. Madden also served for three months in the fall of 2002 as chief of detectives for Gloucester County after retiring from a 20-year career with the State Police ending as a lieutenant colonel.

Assemblyman Paul Moriarty was elected in his first Assmbly run in 2005; he is also the mayor of Washington Township and a former investigative journalist at KYW-CBS 3 for 17 years and a former news producer at WCAU-TV in Philadelphia. Assemblyman David Mayer, who was elected to his first term in November 2003 and re-elected in 2005, did not seek re-election in 2007.

In the 2007 election, Senator Madden was re-elected, defeating Republican Shelley Lovett, a Gloucester Township Councilwoman. Incumbent Assemblyman Moriarty and his running mate Sandra Love, former mayor of Gloucester Township, defeated Republicans Patricia Fratticcioli, a member of the Monroe Township Parks and Recreation Commission, and Agnes Gardiner, a former Washington Township councilwoman.

In the 2009 Assembly election, the District was the only one in the state in which the Republicans gained a seat after Assemblywoman Love announced that she would not seek re-election and was replaced on the Democratic ticket by Bill Collins, a former Gloucester Township high school track coach and the local School Board President. Collins lost the November election to Domenick DiCicco, a Republican from Franklin Township in Gloucester County who is chief legal officer for Zurich North American Claim Operation. He previously worked for insurance carrier CNA and the law firm Post & Schell.

Issues in the district include the State government budget and the level of state aid for education and other local government programs and tax relief. Higher education funding impacts employment, spending and tuition levels at Rowan University and Gloucester County College, among the district’s largest employers. State aid for schools also has a special effect on the district’s rapidly-growing school districts. The district also has relied heavily on state aid for roads, transit, and farmland preservation. Health care issues also are important to the district, given its high percentage of senior citizens and the importance of the employment and spending generated by the hospitals and other Kennedy Health System located in Washington Township and Turnersville and other health care facilities located just outside the district.