In a representative democracy, elected officials wield tremendous power over the communities they serve. They set policy agendas and determine legislative priorities, vote on legislation or ordinances, are responsible for state, county, or city budgets and contracts, and oversee allocation of public resources and services. They also appoint members of the public to important advisory and regulatory commissions and boards. A truly representative government requires governing bodies that are reflective of the population they serve. In New Jersey, many public leaders, researchers, activists, journalists, democracy experts, and others have long sought to measure and better understand the demographics of the state’s elected leadership and craft solutions to address representation gaps.
Over 3,700 elected positions exist in New Jersey from the municipal level through federal congressional offices. To gain a clearer picture of how closely these officials mirror the state’s population, we must measure the demographics of those who currently serve. Defining the problem is critical to finding a solution. These data provide the foundation for studying and analyzing trends, illuminating disparities in representation, and offering insights for potential interventions in problem areas.
Unfortunately, demographic data collection is challenging. While some can be sourced from publicly available information and datasets, a significant amount of demographic data – especially data about race, ethnicity, and gender identity or expression – is gathered through self-reporting. This type of data collection is typically labor-intensive and expensive when conducted independently of other established collection methods (for example, via government forms individuals are required to complete for other reasons). Moreover, it relies on voluntary participation and reporting of personal demographic identities by public figures via surveys and personal outreach. For all these reasons, in-depth demographic data about New Jersey’s elected officials has neither been available consistently nor comprehensively.
In January 2022, P.L. 2021, c.414. S4004 – passed nearly unanimously by the state legislature and signed into law by the governor – directed the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) and the Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling (ECPIP) at Rutgers University to design and execute a survey that would collect demographic background information of state appointed officials (excluding judges) and elected officeholders (excluding school boards). The explicit goal of the legislation was to build a database of the state’s elected and appointed officials by gender, race, and ethnicity. Implicit goals of the legislation were to gain better clarity about demographic representation of the state’s government leadership and to offer party leaders and others a tool to help develop practical interventions for diversifying New Jersey leaders whose decisions affect the lives of the state’s citizens. Peripherally, the establishment of this database may also help spotlight for the general public the importance of elected and appointed leaders and inspire more citizens to serve their communities by seeking public leadership roles. While this project is specific to New Jersey, this report provides clarity on both the hurdles and opportunities for this type of data collection and representation assessment, which could be useful in other states exploring this type of study of their own elected leaders.
Finally, in an era when public trust in government institutions is eroding and in which strengthening democracy is more critical than ever, government should work to ensure citizens have access to more information about their public leaders. This project is a model of how data can help illuminate problems related to representation in policymaking, provide useful context for decision-making, and offer tools to increase diversity in civic participation.