Raj Mukherji


Raj Mukherji is the Majority Whip of the New Jersey General Assembly. He was first elected to serve as a State Assemblyman in the New Jersey Legislature in 2013 and represents the 33rd Legislative District. He is also a lawyer, medical cannabis and healthcare executive, former Deputy Mayor of Jersey City, former municipal prosecutor, and political science professor. In 2015 and 2017, Mukherji was reelected to a second and third term, respectively. He is the only former Marine and the only Asian American in the General Assembly.
According to media reports, he started multiple successful businesses before leaving his teens and was sworn into his first public office at age 24.
At 28, Mukherji on a ticket with Carmelo Garcia won a six-way Democratic primary election for the Assembly by a 36-point margin in 2013 and won the November general election by a 20-point margin, becoming the second South Asian legislator in state history. In 2016 and 2017, Mukherji was identified by POLITICO as the most prolific lawmaker in the state because of his primary sponsorship of more bills signed into law than any other legislator. Mukherji serves as Vice Chair of the Assembly Telecommunications and Utilities Committee and serves on the Assembly Budget Committee.
New Jersey's 33rd Legislative District includes the Hudson County municipalities of Jersey City, Union City, Hoboken, and Weehawken. It is the most densely populated and ethnically diverse legislative district in the state.

Early life, education, and career

Mukherji is the son of Indian American immigrants who arrived from Calcutta in 1970. According to news accounts, he supported himself through high school, college, and grad school as an emancipated minor when economic circumstances forced his parents to return to their native India. After suffering a pituitary tumor, stroke, and other ailments, Mukherji's father – an accountant and musician – could no longer work as a result of his health but could not afford health coverage without employment.
Labeled a "wunderkind" by the media, Mukherji was previously the CEO of an Internet consulting and software development company that he founded while in the sixth grade. Mukherji later sold the company to a federal contractor to enlist in the Marines two weeks after the September 11 attacks at age 17, where he served as a reservist in military intelligence. The young entrepreneur withdrew from high school at 15 to enroll in an early college program at Bard College at Simon's Rock, eventually earning his bachelor's degree from Thomas A. Edison State University. He also holds a masters from the University of Pennsylvania and a Juris Doctor, cum laude, from Seton Hall Law School, and he has performed on Broadway.
At 19, Raj cofounded a public affairs firm that he grew into the state's third largest lawyer-lobbying firm, reportedly through his ties to New Jersey Democratic establishments and the Obama administration. He has also been a real estate developer and healthcare entrepreneur, brokering hospital sales and owning a surgery center and other healthcare investments. In 2011, he was named an annual "Legends" honoree by the . He has starred on an episode of MTV's Room Raiders and has appeared as a guest commentator on various television news programs.

Prior public service

At 24, Mukherji was appointed by the Mayor of Jersey City and confirmed by the City Council to replace Lori Serrano as the youngest Commissioner and Chairman to ever serve on the Jersey City Housing Authority, the state's second largest public housing authority and a $70 million agency serving over 16,000 residents and over 6,700 households. During Mukherji's tenure, the JCHA was applauded by HUD for attaining the highest score for Section 8 management among similar agencies in the state. The agency was also showered with federal grants and aid from the Obama administration, which dispatched then-U.S. Secretary of HUD Shaun Donovan to Jersey City on multiple occasions to announce tens of millions in competitive federal grants the agency had won.
At 27, Mukherji was tapped to fill a vacancy as Deputy Mayor of Jersey City, New Jersey, the state's second largest city with a $500 million operating budget. According to The Jersey Journal, while Deputy Mayor, Mukherji declined the $110,056 salary and a city-issued car, instead opting to earn one dollar per year due to "the austere economic climate."
Mukherji was previously appointed by then-U.S. Senator Jon Corzine to his Military Academy Board in 2003. In 2004, Governor Jim McGreevey appointed him to the Governor's Council on Volunteerism and Community Service. He was also a Superior Court-appointed member of the .

Legislative career

In his first term, Mukherji has been a primary sponsor of dozens of bills that passed both houses and were signed into law by Governor Chris Christie, including:
Other proposed laws sponsored and championed by Mukherji, which advanced during the 2014–15 legislative session, included:
Mukherji became embroiled in controversy when he was tapped to be the new Chairman of the . Amidst his nomination, critics opposed the Housing Authority's plans to demolish and redevelop a six-tower 549-unit public housing project known as Montgomery Gardens. Later, while under Mukherji's leadership, the agency came under fire for its strict "One-Strike" eviction policy, enabled by federal legislation enacted under President Clinton, allowing housing authorities to evict entire households where a resident is charged with a serious crime. While defending the legislation, Mukherji convened public hearings prior to ordering an overhaul of the One-Strike policy, telling Jersey City Independent that the policy had "served as a deterrent and important tool to reduce drug-related and violent criminal activity in public housing certain revisions may be appropriate to ensure an equitable policy and eviction process... We want to be fair and equitable to criminal defendants, as the presumption of innocence must be sacrosanct, while being mindful that our foremost responsibility is to do all that we can to keep our tenants safe."
Raj Mukherji pled guilty to a trespassing charge with the Middlesex County Prosecutor's office after initially being
indicted by a Middlesex County Grand Jury on two counts of stalking and one count each of witness tampering, burglary and contempt.
As a teenager, Mukherji pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of possession of a fake identification in 2004 that was used for underage drinking.