Allen ran for and won the Senate seat. Democrats Herb Conaway and Jack Conners were the winners in the 1997 Assembly race. After eight months in office, the courts threw out the results of the 1997 election due to problems with a voting machine that affected the results for the second seat. Conners was ordered to leave office in September 1998 and have his seat declared vacant. As Republicans were the last winners of the Assembly seat, the Burlington County Republican Committee was entitled to choose a person to fill the vacant seat. Republican Ken Faulkner, the highest Republican vote-getter in the 1997 election was chosen and seated until a special election could be held. In a November 1998 special election, Conners defeated Faulkner and was sworn into office for a second time that year. Conaway and Connors would both be re-elected in 1999. In the 2001 reapportionment, Camden County's Merchantville and Burlington's Florence Township were added to the 7th District. Allen, Conaway, and Connors continued to win re-election through this decade's elections. As part of the 2011 reapportionment, municipalities that had been in the district since the 2001 apportionment were removed including Maple Shade, Merchantville, and Pennsauken (moved to District 6) and Mount Holly and Westampton townships (moved to District 8). Added to the district starting in 2011 were Fieldsboro and the city and township of Bordentown (added from District 30) and Moorestown and Mount Laurel (added from District 8). On March 29, 2011, Conners announced that due to redistricting, he would not seek another term to the Assembly in 2011. He announced his resignation on August 26, 2011, effective immediately to accept a position with Camden County as its director of veterans' affairs. Troy Singleton was selected by the Burlington and Camden County Democratic committees to fill the vacant seat in September 2011. Singleton won in the November general election and was sworn in on November 21, 2011, to finish the remainder of Conners' term, and was sworn into his first full term on January 10, 2012. Allen declined to run for another term in 2017 due to health concerns, ending twenty years of service in the Senate. Singleton and Conaway both contemplated runs for the open Senate seat, with Singleton declaring his candidacy and Conaway later deciding to run for re-election. In November, Singleton won in a landslide, turning the Senate seat Democratic, with Conaway getting re-elected