Barbara A. Buono (born July 28, 1953) is an American politician who served in the New Jersey Senate from 2002 to 2014, where she represented the 18th Legislative District. She served from 2010 to 2012 as the Majority Leader in the Senate, succeeding Stephen Sweeney, and was succeeded by Loretta Weinberg. She is a member of the Democratic Party and was the Democratic nominee for Governor of New Jersey in the 2013 general election, which she lost to Republican incumbent Chris Christie. Before entering the Senate, Buono served in the lower house of the New Jersey Legislature, the General Assembly, from 1994 to 2002, where she served as the Minority Parliamentarian from 1996 to 1998. In the Assembly, Buono became the ranking Democrat on the Assembly Budget Committee. She was Democratic Conference Chair from 2004 to 2007. Biography Buono was born in Newark, grew up in Nutley, New Jersey and attended Nutley Public Schools, graduating from Nutley High School in 1971. Buono received a B.A. in 1975 from Montclair State College in Political Science and earned a J.D. in 1979 from the Rutgers School of Law–Camden. Before joining the Metuchen borough council, she was a member of the Middlesex County Democratic Committee. While serving on the borough council, she served on the Metuchen Planning Board for one year in 1994. Buono is married to Dr. Martin Gizzi and has four children with her first husband and two step-children with Dr. Gizzi. In 2015, Buono sold her home in Metuchen and moved to Portland, Oregon. Political career She began her career as a criminal trial attorney for the New Jersey Department of the Public Advocate and later entered private practice. Buono first ran for local office on November 3, 1992, serving on the Metuchen, New Jersey Borough Council from January 1, 1993 to December 1, 1994. Buono ran against and beat incumbent Republican State Assemblywoman Joanna Gregory-Scocchi in 1994, who had been chosen by a Republican special convention in February 1994 to fill the vacant seat of Republican Assemblywoman Harriet Derman (who was chosen by Governor Christine Whitman to head the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs). In the November 8, 1994, special election, early favorite Gregory-Scocchi was defeated by Buono, after disclosures that a temporary employment firm owned by Gregory-Scocchi had hired illegal immigrants, with Buono having received 27,229 votes (53.74%) and Gregory-Scocchi 23,436 votes (46.26%). Buono was sworn into