Zimmer, Dick, 1944 August 16-

Richard Alan Zimmer (born August 16, 1944) is an American lawyer and politician. A member of the Republican Party, he notably served as the U.S. Representative from New Jersey's 12th congressional district from 1991 to 1997.

Born in Newark, New Jersey and raised in Hillside, Bloomfield, and Glen Ridge, New Jersey, he graduated from Glen Ridge High School before earning B.A. and LL.B. degrees from Yale University. In the summer of 1965, he worked in the Washington, D.C. office of Republican U.S. Senator Clifford P. Case, after which time he became active in Republican politics. After receiving his LL.B. in 1969 he worked as an attorney in New York and New Jersey for several years, first for Cravath, Swaine & Moore and then for Johnson & Johnson. In 1973, he was elected to the Common Cause National Governing Board, a nonpartisan, nonprofit advocacy group and think tank with the mission to make political institutions more open and accountable. From 1974 to 1977, he served as chairman of New Jersey Common Cause. As chairman he successfully lobbied for New Jersey's Sunshine Law, which made government meetings open to the public and also championed campaign finance reform.

After moving to Delaware Township in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, he was elected to the General Assembly in 1981, serving until 1987. He was the prime Assembly sponsor of New Jersey's first farmland preservation law, resulting in the permanent preservation of 1,222 farms in the state. Zimmer also sponsored the legislation creating the state's radon detection and remediation program, which became a national model. He was chairman of the Assembly State Government Committee from 1986 to 1987. In 1987, following the death of State Senator Walter E. Foran, Zimmer won a special election to replace him in the New Jersey Senate. He was later elected to a full term. In the Senate he served on the Revenue, Finance and Appropriations Committee.

In 1990, Zimmer ran for the U.S. House of Representatives from New Jersey's 12th District, winning the Republican primary and general election. Zimmer served three terms in the House, winning reelection in 1992 and 1994. As a Congressman, Zimmer is best known for writing Megan's Law (U.S. Public Law 104–145), which requires notification when a convicted sex offender moves into a residential area. As a member of the Ways and Means Committee, he sought the elimination of wasteful spending and undue taxation. He was ranked the most fiscally conservative member of the United States Congress three times by the National Taxpayers Union and was designated a Taxpayer Hero by Citizens Against Government Waste every year he was in office. In 1996, Zimmer won the Republican primary for New Jersey's Class 2 U.S. Senate seat but lost in the general election to Robert Torricelli.

After leaving Congress, he worked at the Princeton office of the Philadelphia-based law firm Dechert Price & Rhoads. From 1997 to 2000, Zimmer also taught as a lecturer in Public and International Affairs at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School. After losing a 2000 bid for his old 12th District seat, he joined the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in 2001, where he is of counsel. In 2008, Zimmer won the Republican primary for New Jersey's Class 1 U.S. Senate seat, losing to incumbent Frank Lautenberg in the general election. On March 11, 2010, Zimmer was appointed by Governor Chris Christie to be the chairman of the New Jersey Privatization Task Force, charged with developing plans to privatize certain state government operations as a cost-cutting measure.

Opposed to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, Zimmer backed Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson in 2016 and Democratic nominee Joe Biden in 2020. In February 2021, Zimmer announced he was running for the New Jersey Senate and General Assembly. However, he dropped out of both races later that month.