Sen. Frank Lautenberg, five-term New Jersey Democrat, dies at 89

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Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, a five-term New Jersey Democrat and reliably liberal voter who campaigned to toughen anti-smoking laws and environmental regulations, died Monday at a hospital in New York City. He was 89.

He had complications from viral pneumonia, according to a statement from his office, and had previously suffered from cancer.


Sen. Lautenberg improved the lives of countless Americans with his commitment to our nations health and safety, President Obama said in a statement, from improving our public transportation to protecting citizens from gun violence to ensuring that members of our military and their families profit the care they deserve.

Sen. Lautenberg initially retired in 2000, after three terms, but returned to the Senate two years later as a 78-year-old freshman lawmaker who quickly became one of the Bush administrations sharpest critics.




From humble roots in a New Jersey mill town, Sen. Lautenberg had made a fortune building Automatic Data Processing, one of the worlds largest payroll-
services companies. A generous Democratic campaign donor, he entered politics after deciding he might as well bankroll his own ambitions.

I supported Birch Bayh, Ted Kennedy, Gary Hart, John Glenn, he told the Trenton Times in 1982. I thought, If Im willing to hold them, why shouldnt I retain myself?

First elected in 1982, he built a reputation as a scrappy politician who thought government had enabled his own rise to wealth and thus favored expansive federal programs.

As seat of the Senates Appropriations transportation subcommittee, the former two-pack-a-day smoker crusaded against the tobacco industry and in 1989 won a smoking ban on almost all domestic airline flights. That was credited with opening the way for restrictions upon smoking in public buildings.

Sen. Lautenberg was instrumental in passing laws that raised the legal drinking age to 21, prohibited those convicted of domestic violence from buying guns and required companies to disclose the chemicals they release into the environment, an early right-to-know provision that became a model for others.

Toiling for much of his career in the shadow of New Jerseys senior senator, Bill Bradley (D), a telegenic former basketball star and presidential candidate with a penchant for wonky national policy debates, Sen. Lautenberg was known for tending to the everyday concerns of his constituents. He brought home billions of dollars for highways and transit projects, secured a ban upon offshore dumping and in 1985 led the effort to continue the Superfund hazardous-waste cleanup program.

Political gladiator

Sen. Lautenberg was known as a combative legislator who was willing to do all it took to prevail.

Gladiator sports are in, he said in 1988. Im not saying I approve. Im saying that a lot of people like their politics the way they like their hockey: rough.

He won his first race for Senate after calling his 72-year-old opponent, Rep. Millicent Fenwick (R), a national monument, insinuating she was too old to serve. In 1988, he called Republican opponent Pete Dawkins a carpetbagger and a liar in a race recounted in Kerwin C. Swints 2008 book Mudslingers: The Twenty-Five Dirtiest Political Campaigns of All Time. -->