Personal Sandman was born in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He graduated from
Cape May High School, attained a bachelor's degree from
Temple University in
Philadelphia, and a law degree from
Rutgers School of Law–Newark. Sandman married Marion L. Cooney of Philadelphia and they had six children. Their sons, Robert S. Sandman, Charles W. Sandman III and Richard E. Sandman, followed their father's legal footsteps, establishing a law practice in
Cape May Court House, New Jersey. Sandman had a stroke on August 18, 1985, and died at a hospital in Cape May Court House on August 26, aged 63. In the
general election, Sandman lost to
Democrat Brendan Byrne in a landslide, following the pattern where New Jersey would often elect moderate Republicans to statewide office but consistently reject more conservative Republicans. As a result, Sandman's yawning margin of defeat caused a major drubbing for Republicans in the state legislative elections where they ceded control of both chambers to the Democrats with supermajorities. Sandman was on the
House Judiciary Committee when it considered
articles of impeachment against President
Richard Nixon. He was the most vitriolic defender of Nixon in the hearings. Notably, he insisted on hearing the specifics of each alleged impeachable offense. After the release of the "smoking gun" transcript, however, Sandman announced he would vote to
impeach Nixon when the articles came up before the full House (as did every Republican who opposed impeachment in committee), calling their contents "devastating–impeachable." In the 1974 Congressional elections, Republicans suffered generally because of the
Watergate scandal that had by the time of the election forced Nixon to resign. Despite Sandman's change of heart on impeachment, his reputation was severely tarnished by his performance in the televised hearings. He was soundly defeated by Democrat
William J. Hughes, his opponent in 1974, in an election that Sandman described as "not a Republican year" Following his defeat in his reelection bid for Congress, Sandman was approached by Vice President
Nelson Rockefeller to join the Ford administration in various capacities including an ambassadorship of his choosing, Sandman declined and instead opted to accept Governor Thomas Kean's invitation to be appointed to the bench of the
Superior Court of New Jersey. == Legacy ==