Richard Alan (“Dick”) Zimmer, a former three-term Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives for the state of New Jersey who twice ran unsuccessfully for the Senate, died on Dec. 31. He was 81 years old.
Zimmer, who was Jewish, served in the House from 1991 to 1997, giving up his seat to challenge Robert Torricelli, then a Democratic House member, for the Senate to succeed retiring Bill Bradley. He ran again for the House in 2000 and the Senate in 2008.
Christine Todd Whitman, a former New Jersey governor, said Zimmer “was a friend and a principled elected official.”
Like Whitman, Zimmer was a moderate Republican. Both endorsed Joe Biden for president over Donald Trump in 2020.
In Congress, Zimmer authored Megan’s Law, which required law enforcement officials to inform residents when a registered sex offender moved into their neighborhood. The law was named for Megan Kanka, a 7-year-old from Hamilton Township, N.J., who was raped and murdered by a neighbor, who was a convicted sex offender.
A former chair of New Jersey Common Cause, an advocacy group that supported stronger government ethics, Zimmer was elected to the New Jersey state Assembly in 1981 and the state Senate in 1987 before winning his seat in Congress.
He is survived by his wife of 60 years, Marfy Goodspeed; sons Carl Zimmer, a science writer, and Benjamin Zimmer, a linguist and lexicographer; three sisters; and three granddaughters.
