The Green Party of New Jersey is one of the more active Green state affiliates having run over 150 candidates for office. The party experienced its first electoral victory in 1999 when (1997-1998 Party Chair) Gary Novosielski was elected by voters in Rutherford to the Board of Education of the Rutherford School District. In January 2003, Matt Ahearn a New Jersey state legislator who had been elected to the New Jersey General Assembly as a Democrat in 2002, switched his registration to the Green Party, becoming the party's first state-level representative. Ahearn ran for re-election as a Green Party candidate in 2003 but lost to Robert M. Gordon, the Democratic candidate for office. At the National level, the party is represented on the Green National Committee by state party treasurer Eliz