Senator Christopher “Kip” Bateman has represented the 16th legislative district since January of 2008. Before being elected to the state Senate, Bateman served for fourteen years in the New Jersey General Assembly. He held the position of the Assembly’s Assistant Republican Leader from 2004 to 2005, Assistant Republican Whip from 2002 to 2003, Majority Whip in 1996, and Assistant Majority Whip from 1994 to 1995. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and History from Ithaca College and Juris Doctorate from the Seton Hall University School of Law. At the age of twenty-six, Bateman was on the Branchburg Township Committee and at the age of twenty-nine he was Mayor of Branchburg. Bateman was a member of the Board of Trustees for the New Brunswick Theological Seminary, 1997-1998, for the United Way, 1991-1995, the Midland Foundation, present, and the Somerset Medical Center, present. Bateman has served on the Somerset County Board of Chosen Freeholders, including as Director in 1992. Currently, Bateman is Deputy Conference Leader of the senate and serves on the Joint Committee on the Public Schools, the Education Committee, and the Environment Committee. He is an attorney and partner at DiFrancesco, Bateman, Coley, Yospin Kunzman, Davis and Lehrer, and lives in Branchburg. He and his wife have four children.