Background
Panter, Michael J. was born on October 10, 1969.
Panter, Michael J. was born on October 10, 1969.
Syracuse University (Bachelor of Arts). Harvard University (Juris Doctor).
Resident of Shrewsbury, New Jersey. Panter served in the Assembly on the Financial Institutions and Insurance Committee (as Vice Chair), the Environment and Solid Waste Committee and the Transportation and Public Works Committee. Panter received a Bachelor of Arts from Syracuse University in History and was awarded a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School in 1995.
Previously, an investment banker with Salomon Smith Barney in New York City handling mergers and acquisitions, he also spent several years practicing as a corporate attorney in New Jersey and New New York
Panter and running mate Robert Lewis Morgan were elected in 2003, ousting incumbent Republicans Michael Arnone and Clare Farragher. In unofficial results from balloting on Election Day, November 8, 2005, in the 12th district, covering portions of Monmouth and Mercer counties, Republican challenger Jennifer Beck had an edge of over 1,000 votes for one of the two seats in the district.
Fewer than three hundred votes separated Republican challenger Declan O"Scanlon and the one-term incumbent Democrats Robert Lewis Morgan and Panter, leaving the race too close to call with O"Scanlon leading. Changes resulting from a malfunctioning voting machine in Marlboro and provisional ballots eventually gave Panter a 73-vote lead over O"Scanlon, and the second seat in the district.
Panter’s 2003 primary and general election victories, and his 2005 re-election, made him the only Democrat to be elected, and re-elected in any legislative district within (predominantly Republican) Monmouth County, New Jersey in several decades.
In the 2007 elections Democrats Panter and Amy Mallet were defeated on November 6 in a tight race against Republicans Declan O"Scanlon (Little Silver Council president) and attorney Caroline Casagrande. Each of the forty districts in the New Jersey Legislature has one representative in the New Jersey Senate and two members in the New Jersey General Assembly. The other representatives from the 12th Legislative District during the 2006-2008 legislative session were:
Assemblywoman Jennifer Beck, and
Senator Ellen Karcher.