Politics of New Jersey moderate Republicans. The 1980s Asian-Americans immigrated to the northeastern and central parts of the state. These often voted Democratic. Today, the [[New Jersey State Legislature|state legislature]] is overwhelmingly Democratic, and has been since the early 2000s. As of December 2016, there are over 860,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans. Democrats do well in the populous counties closer to New York City and Philadelphia, like [[Essex County, New Jersey|Essex]] and [[Camden County, New Jersey|Camden]] counties as well as in Mercer County, which has the state capital Trenton. Republicans do well along the [[Jersey Shore]] and in northwestern counties, like [[Morris County,
History of the New Jersey State Constitution later on July 2, 1776, the first New Jersey State Constitution reflected the turbulence and uncertainty of the moment. Its primary objective was to provide a basic governmental framework and preempt New Jersey's fall into anarchy. And yet despite being conceived in a state of military emergency, this Constitution was durable enough to serve as the charter document for the State government for the next 68 years. A notable aspect of this original 1776 New Jersey State Constitution is that it provisioned suffrage to citizens without regard to gender or race. New Jersey stood alone among the original thirteen states