Craig Coughlin


Craig J. Coughlin is an American Democratic Party politician, who has served in the New Jersey General Assembly since 2010, where he represents the 19th Legislative District. He has served as the Speaker of the New Jersey General Assembly since 2018.

Early Life

Coughlin received a B.S. degree from St. John's University and a J.D. degree from St. John's University School of Law. He served on the South Amboy Board of Education from 1983 to 1987. In 1987 he was elected to the South Amboy Borough Council, serving until 1993. He worked as an attorney before serving as a municipal court judge for Edison Township in 2005.

Controversy

In 2016, shortly after attaining the position of Assembly Speaker, Coughlin formed the law firm Rainone Coughlin Minchello. Coughlin's firm includes four other attorneys who worked for Decotiis FitzPatrick & Cole LLP, providing legal services to municipal and county governments totaling $14 million dollars in FY2016. As of 2017, Coughlin's firm secured contracts with dozens of local municipalities totaling over $1 million.
Coughlin's law firm currently provides for-profit legal counsel to the Middlesex County Improvement Authority, and has recently acquired a $150,000 public contract with North Brunswick to fulfill the position of Municipal Attorney.
The was awarded a $70 million contract by NJ Transit to manage the North Brunswick Train station project. In a statement made to Bloomburg, Coughlin denies any conflicts of interest or "involvement with respect to Middlesex County’s or the improvement authority’s discussions with the state concerning North Brunswick transit village and never had any intention of performing any work in connection with this project."

New Jersey Assembly

He resigned from the court in 2009 to run for the General Assembly seat vacated by Joseph Vas, after the Democratic candidate, South Amboy Mayor John O'Leary, dropped out of the race. On September 8, 2009, a special convention of Middlesex County Democratic Committee members selected Coughlin to appear on the general election ballot along with running mate John Wisniewski. Coughlin won the general election and was sworn into office on January 12, 2010. On November 13, 2017 was selected by the Assembly Democratic Conference to be Speaker of the Assembly starting in January 2018 when the new legislative term begins.

Committees

Each of the forty districts in the New Jersey Legislature has one representative in the New Jersey Senate and two members in the New Jersey General Assembly. The other representatives from the 19th District for the 218th Legislature are:

New Jersey Assembly