James Wallwork

Wallwork was born September 17, 1930, in East Orange, New Jersey,[https://books.google.com/books?id=kGIkAQAAIAAJ&q=%22James+H.+Wallwork%22+%22September+17%2C+1930%22 Fitzgerald's Legislative Manual, 1970], p. 388. Accessed April 21, 2020. "James H. Wallwork (Rep., Short Hills) - James H. Wallwork lives at 94 Canoe Brook Road, Short Hills. He was born in East Orange, September 17, 1930." or Belleville, the son of J. Harold Wallwork (1904–1985) and Lorraine Cameron Klick Wallwork (1905–1993). He grew up in Montclair, New Jersey, graduated from Montclair High School in 1948 and was a 1952 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point.{{cite news | work=The New York Times | date=May 16, 1993 | last=Romano | first=Jay | title=Campaigning With Jim Wallwork | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/05/16/nyregion/campaigning-with-jim-wallwork.html | accessdate=January 21, 2010}} He was 13th in his class of 525.{{cite book|title=Fitzgerald's Legislative Manual of New Jersey|date=1976|publisher=Joseph J. Gribbons}} He attended the General Staff War College, where he finished first in his class of 400, and the Army Engineering School. He was the Company Commander of a Combat Engineer Company with the Army of Occupation in Germany. After he left active duty, he served as a Major in the Army National Guard.

He was an owner of Wallwork Bros., a plumbing, heating and refrigeration supply company, a family business started by his grandfather.

Wallwork was elected to the Republican County Committee in Montclair in 1957, and served as an aide to Assemblyman C. Robert Sarcone, the Assembly Minority Leader, in 1963. He was later a resident of the Short Hills section of Millburn, New Jersey.

He was elected to the New Jersey General Assembly in 1963, winning one of nine at-large seats.[http://nj.gov/state/elections/1920-1970-results/1963-general-election.pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203000652/http://nj.gov/state/elections/1920-1970-results/1963-general-election.pdf|date=2013-12-03}}, New Jersey Division of Elections. Accessed December 1, 2013. In 1965, he lost his bid for re-election to a second term, the casualty of Democratic Governor Richard J. Hughes's landslide re-election.[http://nj.gov/state/elections/1920-1970-results/1965-general-election.pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203010015/http://nj.gov/state/elections/1920-1970-results/1965-general-election.pdf|date=2013-12-03}}, New Jersey Division of Elections. Accessed December 1, 2013.

Wallwork ran for the New Jersey Senate in 1967. He won a hotly contested primary on a Reform Republican slate, finishing first in a field of thirteen candidates for six Senate seats elected at-Large in Essex County.{{cite web|title=Our Campaigns|url=http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=750566|website=www.ourcampaigns.com|accessdate=7 January 2015}} The General Election turned out to be a strong environment for Republicans; it was the mid-term election of Governor Richard J. Hughes's second term. Republicans won all six Senate seats, with Wallwork running fourth. The four Democratic Senators elected in 1965 -- Nicholas Fernicola, John J. Giblin, Maclyn Goldman and Hutchins Inge—were all defeated.{{cite web|title=Our Campaigns|url=http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=741558|website=www.ourcampaigns.com|accessdate=7 January 2015}}

With Republicans taking control of the Legislature in 1967, Wallwork was initially slated to serve as the new Majority Leader. But the Essex County Republican Chairman, William Yeomans, refused to support him, a move that essentially blackballed Wallwork from the leadership post. Instead, Frank X. McDermott. a freshman Senator from Union County, became Majority Leader.{{cite news|last1=Sullivan|first1=Ronald|title=G.O.P. Feud Hurts Essex Delegation; Fight for Control of Party Is Developing in Jersey|work=The New York Times|date=15 November 1967}}

In 1971, redistricting reduced the number of Essex County Senate seats from six to five, all elected At-Large countywide. Wallwork finished third in the General Election, a race where Democrats won three of the five Senate seats. He finished more than 6,000 votes ahead of Democrat Martin Greenberg.{{cite web|title=Our Campaigns|url=http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=741729|website=www.ourcampaigns.com|accessdate=7 January 2015}}

Another round of redistricting came in 1973 when the 25th Legislative District was created. For the first time, the state was divided into 40 legislative districts, each with one Senator and two Assemblymen. His running mate was Assemblyman, later Governor, Thomas Kean. In a Democratic landslide year, Wallwork defeated Roseland Councilman Joel Wasserman by 4,774 votes, 30,552 (54.24%) to 25,778 (45.76%).{{cite web|title=Our Campaigns|url=http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=402208|website=www.ourcampaigns.com|accessdate=7 January 2015}}

He was re-elected in 1977 against Democrat Lewis J. Paper, a former U.S. Senate aide and White House intern. Wallwork won by 12,421 votes, 35,517 (60.60%) to 23,096 (39.40%).{{cite web|title=Our Campaigns|url=http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=396431|website=www.ourcampaigns.com|accessdate=7 January 2015}}

Wallwork served as the Senate Minority Whip in 1978 and 1979, and as the Assistant Minority Leader in 1980 and 1981.{{cite book|title=Fitzgerald's Legislative Manual of New Jersey|date=1981|publisher=Joseph J. Gribbons}}

Wallwork sought the Republican nomination for Governor of New Jersey in 1981, but finished fourth in the Republican primary with 16% of the vote. He lost to Kean, who won the general election. During the campaign, Wallwork was reported to be the subject of an attempted assassination at a Veterans Administration hospital by a gunman disguised as a surgeon.{{cite news | work=Lakeland Ledger | date=April 25, 1981 | page=4A | title=Gunman disguised as surgeon foiled in attempt to Kill candidate | url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=1IwsAAAAIBAJ&sjid=oCcEAAAAIBAJ&dq=james%20wallwork&pg=1593%2C2743167 | accessdate=January 21, 2010}} The incident was determined by the FBI to be a hoax.{{cite news | work=The New York Times | date=May 1, 1981 | last=McFadden | first=Robert | title=Candidate In Jersey Terms Alleged Death Threat A Hoax | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/05/01/nyregion/candidate-in-jersey-terms-alleged-death-threat-a-hoax.html | accessdate=January 21, 2010}} In an unrelated indictment, federal prosecutors stated that the hospital chief of security had staged the attempt.{{cite news | work=The New York Times | date=June 5, 1981 | title=A V.A. Security Chief Indicted in Jersey | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/06/05/nyregion/the-region-a-va-security-chief-indicted-in-jersey.html | accessdate=January 21, 2010}}

On March 2, 1993, Wallwork made a late and surprising entrance into the 1993 Republican gubernatorial primary. The two leading candidates, both moderates, former New Jersey Board of Public Utilities President Christine Todd Whitman and former New Jersey Attorney General W. Cary Edwards, were being hammered after admitting that they had hired undocumented aliens as domestic workers in their homes. his was an issue in early 1993, after President Clinton's first two nominees for U.S. Attorney General, Zoe Baird and Kimba Wood, were forced to withdraw their nominations after admitting that they hired undocumented aliens as nannies. Wallwork billed himself as a conservative businessman, and pledged to "repeal every dime" of Governor Jim Florio's $2.8 billion tax increase.{{cite news|last1=King|first1=Wayne|title=Ex-Legislator Joins Governor Race in Trenton|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/03/03/nyregion/ex-legislator-joins-governor-race-in-trenton.html|work=New York Times|date=3 March 1993}}

Wallwork was hampered by his late start. He admitted at his announcement that his campaign had just two staffers and that he had not yet raised enough to air his first television commercial. "He's just not that well known. He's deficient in name recognition, political base, support among county leadership, and I honestly don't know whether he can become a major candidate," Cliff Zukin, a professor of political science at the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University told The New York Times. He finished third, with 24% of the vote, and carried only Atlantic County.{{cite web|title=Results of the Primary Election|url=http://www.state.nj.us/state/elections/election-results/1993-primary-election-results-governor.pdf|website=New Jersey Division of Elections|publisher=State of New Jersey|accessdate=8 January 2015}}

Governor Christine Todd Whitman appointed Wallwork to serve as the Commissioner for New Jersey on the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor.{{cite web|title=Annual Report of the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor |url=http://www.waterfrontcommission.org/annualrpt2.htm |website=www.waterfrontcommission.org/ |accessdate=8 January 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041028230949/http://www.waterfrontcommission.org/annualrpt2.htm |archive-date=28 October 2004 }}

In 1965, Wallwork married Lark Lataner of Orange, New Jersey. They had one daughter, Lyric Wallwork Winik, a book and magazine writer.[https://www.nytimes.com/1991/11/18/style/jay-winik-and-lyric-wallwork-wed.html "Jay Winik and Lyric Wallwork"], The New York Times, November 18, 1991. Accessed April 21, 2020. His son-in-law is historian Jay Winik, the author of the New York Times #1 bestseller April 1865 (2001).{{cite web|title=About Jay Winik|url=http://www.jaywinik.com/index.php/about/jay_winik/|website=www.jaywinik.com|accessdate=8 January 2015}} Following his retirement from his business, he lived in Far Hills, New Jersey[https://books.google.com/books?id=yRVPAAAAMAAJ&q=%22James+H.+Wallwork%22+%22Far+Hills%22 Annual Report - The Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor], p. not specified, Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor, 1991. Accessed April 21, 2020. "Representing New Jersey on the Commission is James H. Wallwork of Far Hills." before relocating to Bethesda, Maryland.{{citation needed|date = April 2016}}

Wallwork died in Bethesda on October 23, 2024, at the age of 94.{{Cite web |title=James Wallwork, Jr. Obituary (1930 – 2024) - Legacy Remembers |url=https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/legacyremembers/james-wallwork-jr-obituary?id=56759966 |access-date=2024-11-14 |website=Legacy.com}}

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Category:1930 births

Category:2024 deaths

Category:Republican Party New Jersey state senators

Category:Montclair High School (New Jersey) alumni

Category:People from Belleville, New Jersey

Category:People from East Orange, New Jersey

Category:People from Far Hills, New Jersey

Category:People from Millburn, New Jersey

Category:Politicians from Montclair, New Jersey

Category:United States Military Academy alumni

Category:Republican Party members of the New Jersey General Assembly

Category:Military personnel from Montclair, New Jersey

Category:20th-century American businesspeople

Category:20th-century members of the New Jersey Legislature