Speaker Roberts
Biography

Assemblyman Joseph J. Roberts, Jr.
Speaker of the General Assembly
P: 856.742.7600
F: 856.742.1831
AsmRoberts@njleg.org

Speaker Joseph J. Roberts, Jr. was born July 14, 1952. He graduated from Rutgers University and received his Masters of Government Administration at the Fels School of Government, University of Pennsylvania, in 1986.

He served on the Camden County Board of Freeholders from 1980 through 1987, and was the freeholder director four of those years. He served on the Bellmawr Board of Education and the borough council prior to becoming a freeholder.

From 1979 to 1984, he was an aide for then-Congressman James J. Florio. Speaker Roberts additionally served as board president of Big Brothers-Big Sisters of Camden County, director of the United Way of Camden County, and a member of the Bellmawr Fire and Rescue Squad.

Speaker Roberts won a special election to fill the unexpired term of former Assemblyman Francis J. Gorman, who died July 8, 1987. Speaker Roberts assumed his seat Sept. 10, 1987, and has won re-election eleven times. He had previously served as majority leader from January 2002 to January 2006. He was unanimously elected to serve as Speaker during the reorganization of the 212th Legislature in 2006. Two years later, he again received the full support of his colleagues to serve as Speaker.

In his first term as the Assembly’s presiding officer, Speaker Roberts spearheaded efforts for a special legislative session to confront New Jersey’s property tax crisis and authored the landmark CORE reform law to promote the sharing or consolidation of services among municipalities and school districts. He also championed passage of a bipartisan package of laws to improve the detection, treatment, and awareness of autism in New Jersey.

Speaker Roberts jumpstarted efforts to repeal capital punishment in favor of life imprisonment without possibility of parole, and he guided expansion of the state’s Clean Elections program in the 2007 legislative campaigns. Co-author of the landmark Municipal Rehabilitation and Economic Recovery Act to revitalize the City of Camden and other distressed urban areas, Speaker Roberts recently unveiled a comprehensive overhaul of the state’s affordable housing laws.