Nicholas Scutari


Nicholas Paul Scutari is an American Democratic Party politician, who has been serving in the New Jersey State Senate since 2004, where he represents the 22nd Legislative District.
Scutari received a B.A. from Kean University in Psychology, an Ed.M. from Rutgers University in Education and a J.D. from the Western Michigan University Cooley Law School. He is an attorney, Law Offices of Nicholas P. Scutari.

Political career

Before his election the Senate, Scutari was a member of the Union County Board of Chosen Freeholders, where he became the youngest Freeholder Chairman in county history. He served as Freeholder Chairman in 1999, after serving a year as Freeholder Vice Chairman. Prior to being a freeholder, he served as a member of the Board of Education in Linden.

New Jersey Senate

He was nominated for the Senate after Senator Joseph Suliga announced that he would not seek re-election after a female casino employee in Atlantic City accused him of sexual harassment.
Senator Scutari has served on the State Government Committee, the Joint State Leasing and Space Utilization Committee, the Commerce Committee and the Judiciary Committee. Senator Scutari has held the role of Chair of the New Jersey Senate Committee on Judiciary for the longest period in modern history. He is a former Commissioner of the New Jersey Clean Elections Commission. He is also a former Vice Chairman of the Senate Education Committee. He now heads the Senate Judiciary Committee. Senator Scutari was the chief sponsor of New Jersey's Medical Marijuana law that was signed into law in 2009 and has been an advocate for the effort to legalize marijuana for all individuals over the age of 21. After a bill he introduced failed in 2014, Scutari introduced a bill in May 2017 to legalize, regulate and tax recreational marijuana use; while then-Governor of New Jersey Chris Christie was vigorously opposed to the measure, incoming governor Phil Murphy had announced that he would support legalization.

Committees

Concurrent with his senatorship, Scutari was Municipal Prosecutor for the city of Linden, New Jersey until he was ousted from the position in January 2020 for absence at court hearings. He contested the report which cited that he did not appear more than 50% of the time and is suing the city.

Family

In Italy, his cousin :it:Donato Scutari|Donato Scutari, a member of the Italian Communist Party, was elected Deputy and Senator of the Italian Republic. His uncle, Anthony Scutari, was chair of the Union County Improvement Authority.

District 22

Each of the 40 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 15th District for the 2020-2021 Legislative Session are:

New Jersey Senate