Жерси штатының Сенатының төрағасы Николас Скутари

Member of the New Jersey Senate

Nicholas Paul Scutari (born November 18, 1968) is an American politician and attorney who has served as the 115th president of the New Jersey Senate since 2022. A member of the Democratic Party, he has held a Senate seat since 2004, representing the 22nd legislative district. Scutari has served as Acting Governor of New Jersey on multiple occasions, the first time being in June 2022.

Scutari attended Union County College, received a B. A. from Kean University in Psychology, an Ed. M. from Rutgers University in Education and a J. D. from the Western Michigan University Cooley Law School. He is an attorney with the Law Offices of Nicholas P. Scutari. Scutari has served on the State Government Committee (as the chair), the Joint State Leasing and Space Utilization Committee, the Commerce Committee and the Judiciary Committee. After a bill he introduced failed in 2014, Scutari introduced a bill in May 2017 to legalize, regulate and tax recreational marijuana use; while then Governor of New Jersey Chris Christie was vigorously opposed to the measure, incoming governor Phil Murphy had announced that he would support legalization.

On June 4, 2022, Scutari, in his capacity as the Senate president, became acting governor of New Jersey as both Governor Phil Murphy and Lieutenant Governor Sheila Oliver were out of state on personal trips. He became acting governor for 15 days on July 31, 2023, when Murphy was out of state and Oliver was hospitalized for an illness, from which she died the following day. With Governor Murphy attending a meeting of the Democratic Governors Association in Colorado in late August 2023, Scutari served in his absence as acting governor for the third time.

Prior to his senatorship, Scutari was Municipal Prosecutor for the city of Linden, New Jersey, until he was ousted from the position in January 2019 for absence at court hearings. He contested the report which cited that he did not appear more than 50% of the time and sued the city, the case was settled.

In Italy, his cousin Donato Scutari, a member of the Italian Communist Party, was elected Deputy and Senator of the Italian Republic. His uncle, Anthony Scutari, was chair of the Union County Improvement Authority.