Gordon A. MacInnes (born December 4, 1941) is an American Democratic Party politician from New Jersey who has served in both houses of the New Jersey Legislature.[1] MacInnes was elected to the New Jersey General Assembly in 1973 in a heavily Republican Morris County district, as part of the Watergate-driven Democratic landslide of that year. He was defeated in his re-election bid in 1975.[2] In 1993, he won election to the New Jersey Senate in a major upset over incumbent Senate Majority Leader John H. Dorsey, again in a heavily Republican district.[3] He again failed to win re-election in 1997, losing to Republican Anthony Bucco,[2] who continued to hold that Senate seat until his death in 2019.
MacInnes also served as Assistant Commissioner in the New Jersey Department of Education from 2002 to 2007. A resident of Morristown, New Jersey, he was confirmed in 2010 as a member of the Board of Governors of Rutgers University.[4] He also is a former executive director of the New Jersey Network.[5]
MacInnes is the president of New Jersey Policy Perspective, a left-leaning, nonprofit organization that researches and analyzes economic issues. MacInnes is a fellow at the Century Foundation in New York and was a lecturer at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University.[6][7]
During the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson, MacInnes was deputy director of the White House Task Force on the Cities.[8]
He is married to Blair MacInnes, a philanthropist and former teacher who lives in Morris Township and has served on boards for many civic and charitable organizations.[9] They have three sons and nine grandchildren.[10]