William E. Bishop

William E. Bishop (September 26, 1932 – January 15, 2003) was an American Republican Party politician who represented the 25th Legislative District in the New Jersey General Assembly from 1982 to 1984, after taking office in a special election to fill a vacant seat.

William E. Bishop
Member of the New Jersey General Assembly from the 25th district
In office May 3, 1982 – January 10, 1984 Serving with Arthur R. Albohn
Preceded by	James J. Barry Jr.
Succeeded by	Rodney Frelinghuysen
Personal details
Born	(1932-09-26)September 26, 1932 Greeneville, Tennessee
Died	January 15, 2003(2003-01-15) (aged 70) Morristown, New Jersey
Political party	Republican
Residence	Rockaway Township, New Jersey

Early life and education

Born in Greeneville, Tennessee on September 26, 1932, Bishop graduated in 1950 from Chattanooga High School and served with the United States Navy during the Korean War. He went to college at the University of Tennessee and City College of New York.^[1]

Political career

Bishop served from 1976 to 1979 as a councilmember in Rockaway Township, New Jersey and took office as mayor in 1980. He resigned as mayor when he won election to the General Assembly in 1982.^[2]

Assemblyman James J. Barry Jr. resigned from office on February 22, 1982, to take a position as Director of the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs in the administration of Governor of New Jersey Thomas Kean. Bishop was chosen on the second ballot of a Republican Party special convention. In a special election held in April with fewer than 20% of registered voters casting ballots, Bishop beat the Democratic Party candidate, Rockaway Borough Mayor Bob Johnson, and independent Rosemarie Totaro.^[3][4] He was sworn into office by Justice Stewart G. Pollock on May 3. He cited helping the governor address the "horrendous fiscal picture he inherited" as what he saw as the top priority for the legislature.^[5]

Bishop was one of only two members of the Assembly to vote against a proposed ballot referendum that would push a mutual nuclear freeze between the United States and the Soviet Union. Bishop insisted that nuclear arms reduction should only be achieved through talks between the two superpowers and called the proposed ballot initiative a "cop out".^[6]

In the June 1983 Republican primary for a full term of office, Bishop lost to Morris County Freeholder Rodney Frelinghuysen and fellow incumbent Arthur R. Albohn, with Frelinghuysen more than two thousand votes ahead of Albohn, who came almost 900 votes in front of Bishop for the two Assembly seats.^[7]

References

1. "William E. Bishop Jr., 70, former state assemblyman", Daily Record, January 18, 2003. Accessed January 14, 2022. "William E. Bishop Jr. died suddenly Wednesday morning, Jan. 15, 2003, in Morristown Memorial Hospital. He was 70. Born Sept. 26, 1932, in Greenville, Tenn., he was formerly of Knoxville, Tenn., and was a resident of Rockaway Township since 1965, moving there from West New York. He was the son of the late Rev. William E. Bishop Sr. and the late Mary (Campbell) Bishop. He graduated from Chattanooga High School in 1950, and attended the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and City College of New York. He served his country in the Navy during the Korean War from 1951-1955."
2. Manual of the New Jersey Legislature, p. 266. Accessed January 14, 2022. "After his election, Mr. Bishop resigned as mayor of Rockaway Township, ending six years of service in the municipal governing body. He was a councilman from 1976 to 1979, and became mayor in January, 1980."
3. "Consumer chiefs successor elected", Central New Jersey Home News, April 21, 1982. Accessed January 14, 2022, via Newspapers.com. "Mayor William Bishop of Rockaway Township, in a campaign that attracted few voters to the polls, has been elected to an Assembly seat from Morris County. The Republican edged Democrat Robert Johnson, mayor of nearby Rockaway Borough, and easily defeated Rosemarie Totaro of Denville, a former Democratic assemblywoman running as an independent. Bishop received 7,132 votes to 6,330 votes for Johnson and 3,160 for Totaro, according to County Clerk Larry Mills. There are about 90.000 registered voters in the 17 Morris County communities in the 25th District."
4. Wildstein, David. "The history of special elections in the 25th district November 15 special election convention to replace Anthony R. Bucco in the State Senate will be the third in the Morris-based district", New Jersey Globe, September 26, 2019. Accessed January 14, 2022. "Bishop beat Johnson by 802 votes, 43%-38%."
5. "Assembly seats filled", Herald News, May 4, 1982. Accessed January 14, 2022, via Newspapers.com. "Two special-election winners took their seats as members of New Jerseys 200th Legislature at the General Assembly session on Monday. Nicholas R. Felice and William E. Bishop were sworn by state Supreme Court Justice Stewart G. Pollock.... Bishop replaces Consumer Affairs Commissioner James J. Barry, who had been elected to a fourth term in November but was subsequently chosen by Kean for the consumer affairs directorship. The 49-year-old Bishop, who lives in Rockaway Township, told a reporter he thought the first business of the current legislative session is to help Kean 'turn around the horrendous fiscal picture he inherited.'"
6. "'Freeze' Vote Being Seen As Indicator", The New York Times, October 17, 1982. Accessed January 14, 2022. "Last May, the Assembly approved the measure, 72 to 2. The two nay votes were cast by Arthur R. Albohn, Republican of Morristown, and William E. Bishop, Republican of Rockaway Township.... Mr. Bishop called the referendum a 'cop out' because, he said, anything other than an immediate multilateral reduction would diffuse efforts to achieve a decrease in armament."
7. "Frelinghuysen Upsets Bishop In 25th District", Bernardsville News, June 9, 1983. Accessed January 14, 2022, via Newspapers.com. "With overwhelming support from his home territory, Republican Rodney P. Frelinghuysen of Harding Township won an easy victory over his opponents in a three-way battle for two N.J. Assembly seats up for election in the 25th Legislative District. Frelinghuysen garnered 8,800 votes in Morris County's 341 districts, while Republican incumbents Arthur Albohn took 6,428 and William E. Bishop received 5,538 votes."