Sen. Raymond J. Lesniak - 2016 "Man of The Year" in New York

SEN. RAYMOND J. LESNIAK BIOGRAPHY

A lifelong resident of Elizabeth, Senator Raymond Lesniak graduated Thomas Jefferson High School in 1964 and served in the US Army 1967-1969. He graduated Rutgers University, class of 1971, and graduated with honors from St. John’s Law School in 1974. He served in the State Assembly from 1978 to 1983, and has been in the Senate since 1983. He currently chairs the Senate Economic Growth Committee, serves as Vice Chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, and is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Throughout his public service career, Senator Lesniak has championed a wide range of legislative efforts.

Early in his tenure, he sponsored landmark environmental policies, such as the Environmental Cleanup Responsibility Act (ECRA), the Safe Drinking Water Act, and the Pesticide Control Act, making New Jersey the first-in-the-nation to tackle such issues. The laws hold polluters responsible for their actions and saved New Jersey from the serious consequences to residents’ health and quality of life and to economic growth from having contaminated water, air and land.

Senator Lesniak’s Tax Incremental Financing Act gave New Jersey the most powerful tool in the country to attract private investment and create jobs. It has been responsible for creating thousands of construction jobs and attracting hundreds of millions of dollars in private investment to New Jersey, which will result in tens of thousands of permanent jobs for NJ residents.

In order to keep New Jersey’s gaming industry competitive, Senator Lesniak sponsored the law to legalize sports wagering at New Jersey casinos and racetracks, and has pushed to allow casinos in Atlantic City to expand their operations into intrastate Internet wagering. He has also fought to overturn the federal Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992, a law that gives four states – Nevada, Delaware, Oregon and Montana – a monopoly on legal sports wagering in the United States, while bolstering illegal sports book operations run by organized crime and offshore betting websites everywhere else.

Senator Lesniak has been a strong advocate for higher education and sponsored legislation signed into law to create the cabinet position of Commissioner of Higher Education to provide a stronger voice on behalf of higher education in New Jersey. He also sponsored a law that increased opportunities for colleges and private entities to enter into public-private partnerships for the construction of new facilities on campus.

In addition to being an advocate for environmental protection, job creation and higher education, Senator Lesniak has been an advocate for social justice.

He sponsored the repeal of the death penalty and replaced it with life without parole, making New Jersey the first state in the nation to abolish the death penalty in over thirty years. Since then, New Mexico, Illinois, Connecticut and Maryland have followed New Jersey’s lead.

For over a decade, Senator Lesniak was at the forefront of efforts to pass legislation to allow same-sex couples to marry in New Jersey. Today, same-sex marriage is law in the State of New Jersey.

Senator Lesniak has sponsored legislation to reform the criminal justice system, to put the focus on treatment, rather than incarceration, for criminal offenders dealing with drug and alcohol addictions. He sponsored the law expanding the drug court program in New Jersey, allowing thousands of inmates to enter into an intensive drug treatment program as an alternative to incarceration, and he authored the law repealing the ban on ex-offenders working in establishments that serve alcohol. Senator Lesniak believes that providing treatment and work opportunities for offenders will result in less repeat offenders and save tax dollars.

Senator Lesniak has worked with the New Jersey Humane Society and other animal welfare advocacy organizations to sponsor bills designed to prevent animal cruelty and help preserve nearly extinct animal species throughout the world. He has sponsored bills to crack down on the black market trade in tiger body parts which is driving tigers to the brink of extinction, to prohibit “gestation crates” which are designed to prevent pregnant pigs from turning around or lying down comfortably, and to prevent the slaughter of horses for human consumption in New Jersey. He’s the primary sponsor of legislation that bans the trade, sale, and distribution of shark fin products. He sponsored the first law in the nation which banned the trade of ivory products to help save elephants and other ivory tusk bearing mammals from extinction.

Senator Lesniak has authored two books: The Road to Abolition: How New Jersey Abolished the Death Penalty and What’s Love Got to Do With It?: The Case for Same Sex Marriage, co-authored with fellow marriage equality sponsor Loretta Weinberg, which outlined the fight to legalize same sex marriage in New Jersey, highlighting the legislative debate and the evolution of civil rights in history. Senator Lesniak also founded The Road to Justice and Peace, a non-profit organization devoted to promoting social justice causes in New Jersey and abroad, and NJ4Haiti, a nonprofit humanitarian organization created in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake in Haiti in 2010 to raise funds and ship supplies to aid in the nation’s recovery.

In 2009, Senator Lesniak became only the second American, in its 20 year history, to win the prestigious international human rights award at Le Memorial de Caen, the D-Day and Human Rights museum in Normandy, France, besting thousands of contestants from throughout the world for his speech: “The Road to Justice and Peace.”

Senator Lesniak is founder of Imagine The Possibilities (Formerly Democrats for the Soul) a charity which helps out at soup kitchens, visits senior centers, nursing homes and veterans homes, and provides entertainment and conducts bingo games. At its Operation Santa event, members fulfill Christmas gift requests from children in foster homes and from poor families and present the gifts to the children at a Christmas Party with food, a Christmas D-Jay, and Santa. For many of the nearly 200 children, it’s the only present they get at Christmas.

Senator Lesniak has received numerous awards for his legislative work, including the “Public Service Award” from the Jewish Educational Center; “Paul L. Troast Award for Distinguished Public Service” from the New Jersey Business and Industry Association; the “Good Guy Award” by the New Jersey Women’s Political Caucus; “Legislator of the Year” by the Medical Society of New Jersey and ASAH; “Man of the Year” by the Jewish National Fund and American Cancer Society; the Medal of Honor from The National United Youth Council, Inc.; and “Humanitarian of the Year” by Community Access Unlimited and the Middlesex County Substance Abuse Program. He has been honored for two consecutive years by the United States Humane Society as the “Legislator of the Year.” He has also been honored by Lambda Legal for championing the cause of marriage equality and was inducted into Garden State Equality’s Hall of Fame.

Senator Lesniak is active in the Polish community and served as Grand Marshal of the 2004 Pulaski Day Parade in New York City. He was also honored by the Polish American World as “Citizen of the Year” in 1982, and is a member of the Polish Legion of American Veterans.

Senator Lesniak is a leader in the Democratic Party. From 1992 to 1993, he served as Chairman of the New Jersey Democratic State Committee and was NJ Chair of the Clinton-Gore and Gore-Lieberman presidential campaigns.

Senator Lesniak is a partner in the law firm Weiner Lesniak.

Source: http://raymondlesniak.com/