Who is this guy?
John Froonjian has written about politics for The Press of Atlantic City since before Al Gore invented the Internet. When he started, Walter Cronkite still anchored the CBS Evening News. It took only a 15-cent stamp to write Congress. There was no such thing as CNN. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-NJ, was a mere lad of 56.

The Press hired Froonjian out of Glassboro State College in 1979 to chronicle township political feuds in Ocean County. He covered Atlantic County government during the 1980s and learned all he could about politics journalism from the late Frank Prendergast. The Press' respected political reporter knew local politics, was scrupulously fair, and usually paid for the beer.

The newspaper sent Froonjian to its Statehouse bureau full-time in 1987. For 10 years, he covered elections for state Legislature, governor, Congress, U.S. Senate and president. He covered the New Jersey delegations at the national party conventions in 1992 and 1996. Froonjian was president of the N.J. Legislative Correspondents Club. Statehouse hangers-on still ridicule his impersonation of the late Assemblywoman Dolores Cooper in one of the club's satiric revues.

Since 1997, Froonjian has written investigative articles and special reports for The Press, winning more than a dozen journalism awards. He looks forward to the challenge of informing and entertaining readers and interacting with them over the Internet in the legislative and presidential elections.