In 1982 he received the Democratic nomination for a US senate seat from New Jersey for that year's election. At the time the seat was occupied by Democrat Harrison Williams, but he resigned in 1982 after he was implicated in the Abscam scandal.
Lautenberg won the election. He was reelected in 1988 and again in the Republicanlandslide year of 1994. He announced his retirement in 2000, and his fellow Democrat and businessman, Jon Corzine, was elected to replace him. Lautenberg unexpectedly returned to politics in 2002, when the other New Jersey senator, Democrat Robert Torricelli, withdrew his candidacy for reelection because of corruption charges, and Lautenberg was drafted to take his place despite his advanced age. The New Jersey Republican Party challenged the replacement of Torricelli's name on the ballot with Lautenberg's, arguing that it came too late according to state election laws. The ballot name change was upheld by the New Jersey State Supreme Court, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up case. Lautenberg won the election, thus becoming one of very few people in recent times to return to the Senate after leaving it.
Senator Lautenberg was joined by Governor Corzine and Senator Menendez at the New Jersey Turnpike in front of the Pulaski Skyway to announce they have received an interim report from the state's Department of Transportation on the condition of New Jersey's bridges.
Senator Lautenberg is the chairman of the Transportation Safety, Infrastructure Security, and Water Quality subcommittee which oversees these issues in the Senate.
Senator Lautenberg's bill seeks to close the "terror gap" in federal gun law by giving the Attorney General the power to block gun sales to terror suspects.
The son of poor Jewish immigrants (from Poland and Russia), Lautenberg was born in Paterson, New Jersey and served overseas in the U.S. Army Signal Corps in World War II after graduating high school.
FrankLautenberg at a press conference in Washington, D.C. Lautenberg won the election, defeating popular Republican congresswoman Millicent Fenwick.
Lautenberg was a member of the President's Commission on Aviation Security and Terrorism (PCAST) which was set up in September 1989 to review and report on aviation security policy in the light of the sabotage of Pan Am Flight 103 on December 21, 1988.
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