James Wallwork

James Harold Wallwork (born September 17, 1930 in Belleville, New Jersey) is an American Republican Party politician who served in both houses of the New Jersey Legislature and twice sought the Republican nomination for Governor.

Wallwork grew up in Montclair, New Jersey, and was a 1952 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point. He was 13th in his class of 525. He attended the General Staff War College, where he finished first in his class of 400, and the Army Engineering School. He was the Company Commander of a Combat Engineer Company with the Army of Occupation in Germany. After he left active duty, he served as a Major in the Army National Guard.

Wallwork was elected to the Republican County Committee in Montclair in 1957, and served as an aide to Assemblyman C. Robert Sarcone, the Assembly Minority Leader, in 1963. He was an owner of Wallwork Bros., a plumbing, heating and refrigeration supply company, which was a family business that was started by his grandfather.

He was elected to the New Jersey General Assembly in 1963, but lost his bid for re-election in 1965, the casualty of Democratic Governor Richard J. Hughes' landslide re-election.

In 1967, Wallwork was elected to the New Jersey State Senate running as a Reform Republican. Five Senators were elected from Essex County, and Wallwork and his running mates were victorious against the Democratic incumbents.

He was re-elected in 1971, 1973 and 1977. His running mate was Assemblyman, later Governor, Thomas Kean. Wallwork was an early proponent of fiscal conservatism and gave bonus awards paid from his own state salary to state employees who came up with workable ideas to save taxpayer money.

Wallwork sought the Republican nomination for Governor of New Jersey in 1981, but finished fourth in the GOP primary with 16% of the vote. He lost to Kean, who won the general election. During the campaign, Wallwork was reported to be the subject of an attempted assassination at a Veterans Administration hospital by a gunman disguised as a surgeon. The incident was determined by the FBI to be a hoax. In an unrelated indictment, federal prosecutors stated that the hospital chief of security had staged the attempt.

In 1993, Wallwork again ran for Governor, finishing third in the GOP primary with 24%. The winner was Christine Todd Whitman. After she was elected governor, Whitman appointed Wallwork to serve as the Commissioner for New Jersey on the New York-New Jersey Waterfront Commission.

He married the former Lark Lataner of Orange, New Jersey in 1965. They have one daughter, Lyric Wallwork Winik, a book and magazine writer.