Frank Raleigh Lautenberg was an American politician who served as United States Senator of New Jersey as a member of the Democratic Party. He was originally from Paterson, New Jersey.
Lautenberg was elected five terms as Senator. He first took office in December 1982 and served three terms, retiring from the Senate in 2001. Called upon to run again one year later due to circumstances surrounding his Senate colleague Robert Torricelli's re-election campaign, Lautenberg returned to the Senate in January 2003 and was elected to one additional term in 2008. He died during his second term and remains New Jersey's longest serving senator, with a total of 28 years, 5 months and 8 days in office.
Before entering politics, he was an early partner in, and became the chairman and chief executive officer of Automatic Data Processing, Inc. In his early years, he served overseas in the U.S. Army Signal Corps from 1942 to 1946 as a part of the war effort, and after returning home his interest in American political events increased. He has been called "the last of the New Deal liberals" and was known for his legislative efforts against drunk driving, and his support of spending for Amtrak and urban public transportation, for stronger environmental regulations, greater consumer protections, and investigations of wrongdoing by Wall Street. Wikipedia
“The ocean is tired. It's throwing back at us what we're throwing in there.”
USA Today, August 11, 1988.
On the floor of the Senate, April 28, 2004 http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/04/28/lautenberg.kerry/
