State Senator Arthur Lewis was just 44-years-old when he retired from his Burlington County seat in 1948, creating a hotly contested race for an open seat. The winner was James Mercer Davis, Jr, the 39-year-old Democratic Chairman; he defeated Assemblyman Albert McCay, 47, a prominent South Jersey attorney, by a 52%-48% margin. But McCay won a 1951 rematch, ousting Davis by a 57%-43% margin. McCay was re-elected to a second term in 1955 with 56% of the vote against Edward Hulse, the Mayor of Beverly.

McCay's political career came to an end in 1959, when Burlington County Freeholder Henry Haines defeated him by a 54%-46%. But Haines turned out to be a one-term Senator: his opposition to several key legislative initiatives backed by Governor Richard Hughes caused Democrats to dump Haines from the organization line when he ran for re-election in 1963. Grover Richman, the Burlington County Democratic Chairman (and the former New Jersey Attorney General) backed Hulse, who had won election to the Board of Freeholders in 1960 and was Hughes's brother-in-law. Hulse won 57% of the vote in the primary, but lost the general election to the Republican, former Moorestown Mayor Edwin Forsythe, by a 54%-46% margin. Forsythe went on to serve as Senate President and won election to Congress in 1970 after William Cahill became Governor.