SOMERVILLE, N.J. – Liberal Republican State Senator Christopher “Kip” Bateman won’t seek reelection this year in LD16.
“After careful consideration and with the support of my family, I have made the difficult decision not to seek reelection to the State Senate,” said Bateman in a statement released through the Senate GOP office. “As a lifelong resident of Somerset County, it has been an honor to spend nearly 40 years serving the community I am proud to call home. I can’t begin to express how much I will miss serving our constituents. However, our state is still coping with a pandemic and I am committed to using my remaining time in office to help the countless residents who are in desperate need of our support.”
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Bateman’s district has been trending blue for years and the veteran legislator – who has been in Trenton in 1994 – faced a steep reelection climb against Democrat challenger Andrew Zwicker (one of the district’s two Democrat assemblymen).
Without a GOP incumbent, the race likely leans Democrat heading into the fall.
Bateman previously served in LD16 with Jack Ciattarelli, the frontrunner for this year’s GOP gubernatorial nomination, before Ciattarelli declined to seek reelection in 2017 to run in that cycle’s Republican gubernatorial primary against Kim Guadagno.
The New Jersey State Senate’s partisan breakdown is currently 25-15 in favor of the Democrats; losing Bateman’s seat would make it 26-14, but Republicans are optimistic that they might be able to make up lost ground in LD8 (where turncoat Dawn Addiego will face ex-Sheriff and current Assemblywoman Jean Stanfield).
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