Former NJ Congresswoman Marge Roukema dies at 85

WYCKOFF, N.J. (AP) — Former Rep. Marge Roukema, a Republican who spent more than two decades in Congress sparring regularly with ideologues within her party, has died. She was 85.

Roukema died early Wednesday at Christian Health Care Center in Wyckoff, a center spokeswoman said, though a cause of death was not disclosed.

Roukema represented northern New Jersey's 5th congressional district from 1981 to 2003. She described herself through the years as a strong fiscal conservative but, on many social issues, espoused a liberal Republican philosophy long associated with the Northeast.

She regularly broke with her party to vote with Democrats. She supported abortion rights, opposed school vouchers, voted for a 1994 ban on assault weapons, opposed term limits and supported a ban on unrestricted "soft money."

U.S. Rep-elect Bonnie Watson Coleman, who will represent the 12th Congressional District come January 3, said:  “We have lost a tremendous leader and state treasure today.  Congresswoman Marge Roukema was a standard bearer for many in New Jersey and across the country, as a legislator and as a woman of honor and distinction.  A former teacher, Rep. Roukema blazed a trail of common sense in a political climate oftentimes more concerned with partisan outcomes than with real results."

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