Charles W. Sandman Jr.
Judge of theNew Jersey Superior Court
In office 1984 – August 26, 1985
Appointed by	Thomas Kean
Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromNew Jersey's2nd district
In office January 3, 1967 – January 3, 1975
Preceded by	Thomas C. McGrath Jr.
Succeeded by	William J. Hughes
House positions Member of theHouse Judiciary Committee
96thPresident of the New Jersey Senate
In office 1964–1965
Preceded by	William E. Ozzard
Succeeded by	John A. Lynch, Sr.
Member of the New Jersey Senate fromCape May County
In office 1956–1966
Preceded by	Anthony J. Cafiero
Succeeded by	Seat eliminated
Solicitor ofLower Township
In office 1951–1962
Preceded by	T. Millet Hand
Succeeded by	George James
Personal details
Born	Charles William Sandman Jr. October 23, 1921 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died	August 26, 1985(1985-08-26) (aged 63) Cape May Court House, New Jersey, U.S.
Resting place	Cold Spring Presbyterian Church
Party	Republican
Spouse	Marion L. Cooney
Children	6
Education	Cape May High School
Alma mater	Temple University (B.A.) Rutgers School of Law–Newark
Military service
Branch/service	United States Army Air Corps
Battles/wars	World War Two (POW)

Charles William Sandman Jr. (October 23, 1921 – August 26, 1985) was an American politician who representedCape May County in theNew Jersey Senate from 1954 to 1966 and represented southernNew Jersey in theUnited States House of Representatives from 1967 to 1975. A member of theRepublican Party, Sandman ran for the Republican nomination for Governor of New Jersey thrice, losing toWayne Dumont in1965 andWilliam T. Cahill in 1969. He finally received the nomination by defeating Cahill in1973, but lost the election toBrendan Byrne in a historic landslide.

Sandman was born inPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania. He graduated fromCape May High School, attained a bachelor's degree fromTemple University inPhiladelphia, and a law degree fromRutgers School of Law–Newark.^[1]

Sandman married Marion L. Cooney of Philadelphia and they had six children.^[2] Their sons, Robert S. Sandman, Charles W. Sandman III and Richard E. Sandman, followed their father's legal footsteps, establishing a law practice inCape 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.^[2] At the time of his death, he was a resident of theErma section ofLower Township, New Jersey,^[2] and was interred inCold Spring Presbyterian Cemetery inCold Spring, New Jersey.

Sandman served in theUnited States Army Air Corps as a navigator duringWorld War II, and spent seven months as aprisoner of war in Germany after being shot down.^[2]

Before serving in Congress, Sandman was elected to three 4-year terms in theNew Jersey Senate, in 1955, 1959, and 1963. He held the post ofMajority Leader of that body in 1964 and 1965. In 1966, he ran forCongress while still holding his State Senate seat, which he resigned upon winning the federal office. He was a delegate to theRepublican National Conventions in1956,1960,1964 and1968.

In 1973, Sandman ran for governor as a conservative, defeating moderate incumbent RepublicanWilliam T. Cahill in the Republicanprimary election in a victory that "shocked party leaders", according toThe New York Times.^[3] In thegeneral election, Sandman lost toDemocratBrendan 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.^[4][5][6]

Sandman was on theHouse Judiciary Committee when it consideredarticles of impeachment against PresidentRichard Nixon. He was the most vitriolic defender of Nixon in the hearings.^[7] 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 toimpeach Nixon when the articles came up before the full House (as did every Republican who opposed impeachment in committee), calling their contents "devastating–impeachable."^[8]

In the 1974 Congressional elections, Republicans suffered generally because of theWatergate 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 DemocratWilliam J. Hughes, his opponent in 1974, in an election that Sandman described as "not a Republican year"^[9] Following his defeat in his reelection bid for Congress, Sandman was approached by Vice PresidentNelson 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 theSuperior Court of New Jersey.

In 1986 all members of theLower Township School District school board agreed to rename Lower Township Consolidated School to Charles W. Sandman Consolidated School.^[10]

In the 2019Apple TV+ series,For All Mankind, actorSaul Rubinek played Sandman in a fictional storyline aboutNASA,Wernher von Braun and other space issues.

New Jersey gubernatorial election, 1973^[11]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Brendan Byrne	1,414,613	66.67%	28.18
	Republican	Charles W. Sandman Jr.	676,235	31.87%	27.79
	American Independent	A. Howard Freund	6,412	0.31%	N/A
	Independent	Alfred V. Colabella	5,088	0.24%	N/A
	Socialist Labor	Robert Clement	4,249	0.20%	0.06
	Libertarian	John A. Goodson	3,071	0.15%	N/A
	Independent	James J. Terlizzi, Sr.	2,670	0.13%	N/A
	Independent	Stanley R. Knis	2,108	0.10%	N/A
	Communist	Kenneth F. Newcombe	2,008	0.10%	N/A
	Independent	Angelo S. Massaro	1,898	0.09%	N/A
	Independent	Jack D. Alvino	1,843	0.09%	0.35
	Independent	George Gilk	1,814	0.09%	N/A
Majority			738,378	34.80
Turnout			2,122,009
	Democraticgain fromRepublican		Swing

United States House of Representatives elections, 1966^[14]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican	Charles W. Sandman Jr.	72,014	51.53
	Democratic	Thomas C. McGrath Jr. (incumbent)	65494	46.86	2.35
	Socialist Labor	Albert Ronis	1,259	0.9
	Conservative	Linwood W. Erickson, Jr.	991	0.71
Total votes			139,758	100.0
	Republicangain fromDemocratic

• United States Congress."Charles W. Sandman Jr. (id: S000045)".Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Charles William Sandman Jr. atThe Political Graveyard
• Charles Sandman atFind a Grave

• 1921 births
• 1985 deaths
• 20th-century New Jersey state court judges
• Burials at Cold Spring Presbyterian Church
• Candidates in the 1973 United States elections
• Cape May High School alumni
• Military personnel from Cape May County, New Jersey
• Military personnel from Philadelphia
• New Jersey state court judges
• Republican Party New Jersey state senators
• People from Cape May, New Jersey
• People from Lower Township, New Jersey
• Politicians from Philadelphia
• Presidents of the New Jersey Senate
• Republican Party United States representatives from New Jersey
• Rutgers School of Law–Newark alumni
• Shot-down aviators
• Temple University alumni
• United States Army Air Forces pilots of World War II
• World War II prisoners of war held by Germany
• Stalag Luft III prisoners of World War II
• 20th-century members of the New Jersey Legislature
• 20th-century United States representatives
• Politicians from Cape May County, New Jersey
• Lawyers from Cape May County, New Jersey

• Pages with reference errors
• CS1 errors: periodical ignored
• Pages with broken reference names
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from June 2022