Upon the creation of a 40-district legislative map in 1973, the new 4th district consisted of portions of Gloucester County (
Elk Township,
Glassboro, Washington Township, and
Deptford Township), Camden County stretching from
Gloucester City southeast to Winslow Township, northeast to Chesilhurst and
Waterford Township, and into Burlington County's
Shamong Township and
Tabernacle Township. Dalton (with 31.3% of the vote) and Riley (with 28.3%) won the two ballot spots in the primary balloting. Dalton and Riley were elected in the November 1979 general election Riley told
The Press of Atlantic City that his decade of service in the Assembly had left him "fatigued" and that he felt relief from the weight that was removed from him by being replaced by Mullen, whom he publicly endorsed as his successor. After years in which the district had been solidly Democratic, the Republican sweep in 1991 led to a period in which the district became what
PolitickerNJ called the "#1 swing seat" in the state for more than a decade. The 1990s iteration of the district was composed of Gloucester Township, Lindenwold, and Laurel Springs in Camden County and a larger portion of southeastern Gloucester County. In the 1991 Assembly race
George F. Geist and
Mary Virginia Weber took the seat of incumbent Ann A. Mullen and her Democratic running mate Timothy D. Scaffidi. Geist and Dalton were re-elected in 1995, with Democrat Chris Manganello in third and Republican
Gerald Luongo in fourth. The $1 million spent by the candidates in the 1993 Assembly race was the most of any district in the state, and
The New York Times predicted that the parties would spend heavily in the 1995 race as each side tries to gain both seats. Dalton ran in 1997, and lost, in a bid for the
New Jersey Senate seat held by
John J. Matheussen, with Matheussen taking 50.7% of the vote, Dalton receiving 46.1% and Jame E. Barber garnering 3.2% of the vote. With Dalton's seat open in the Assembly, Geist won re-election as did his running mate
Gerald Luongo. With Luongo receiving negative press over what
The New York Times called a "questionable land deal", Democrat
Robert J. Smith II knocked off Luongo in the 1999 general election, while Geist was re-elected. In the
2001 reapportionment, Elk Township and
Clayton from the Gloucester portion of the district but more boroughs in central Camden County were added. After Matheussen resigned from the Senate in May 2003 to take the post at the DRPA, his Senate seat was filled by Assemblyman George Geist. In turn, the Republicans named
Stephen Altamuro to fill Geist's vacancy in the Assembly. In the 2003 elections, the Democrats swept all three legislative seats, with
Fred H. Madden defeating Geist in the Senate, and
David R. Mayer and
Robert J. Smith II winning in the Assembly race, knocking off incumbent Altamuro. The 2011 apportionment added Chesilhurst and Winslow Township, both from the
6th district. Municipalities that had been in the 4th district as part of the 2001 apportionment that were shifted out of the district as of 2011 are
Franklin Township (Gloucester), Glassboro, and
Newfield (all to the
3rd district). In the 2011 Assembly race, Democrat
Gabriela Mosquera took the seat that had been held by Republican
Domenick DiCicco, who had been shifted out of the district in the 2011 reapportionment. Democratic incumbent
Paul D. Moriarty and Mosquera won the election, though Mosquera's victory was challenged based on her not having been a resident of the district for a full year. Her win was declared void leaving a vacancy in the seat. The local Democratic party committee selected Mosquera to fill the vacancy in March 2012 and she subsequently won a November 2012 special election. ==Election history==