By Daniel Ovadia
Dec. 9, 2025, 8:04 p.m.
Marc Pfeiffer, a senior policy fellow and associate director of Bloustein Local — a unit of Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy’s Center for Urban Policy Development — was recently ranked on the Insider 100 Power List 2025 for political power in New Jersey.
Pfeiffer ranked 47th out of 100 leaders on the list that Insider created to highlight New Jersey’s “backbone of government and political power” next to elected officials, judges or those who formerly held office.
After graduating from Morristown High School, Pfeiffer continued his studies at Lehigh University, where he became interested in local government. There, he fell in love with an “Introduction to Urban Affairs” course and he decided he wanted to help solve urban challenges.
“I did not want to go into my family’s business, which was running car dealerships,” Pfeiffer said. “I wanted to do something that seemed like something that wasn’t focused on profit.”
While in college, Pfeiffer secured an internship that led to a full time job as administrative assistant to a municipality, leading to a career spanning 37 years within New Jersey local government administration.
Pfeiffer went on to work in various roles within New Jersey local government administration and retired after those 37 years – 26 of which were spent working in New Jersey’s local government oversight agency, the Division of Local Government Services. Now, while working with Bloustein Local, he conducts research, participates in advocacy work and educates students and scholars on local government.
In addition to his work with Bloustein Local, Pfeiffer supports and contributes to local journalism. In a recent study, published with the Bloustein School’s Center for Urban Policy Research, he discusses the evolution of New Jersey’s journalism landscape. He has also written opinion pieces about the different facets of New Jersey government.
Looking ahead, Pfeiffer finds it important to monitor the power and spread of artificial intelligence in relation to government administration as well as energy investments. Pfeiffer will also be teaching “New Jersey Politics and Government,” an undergraduate course in the Department of Political Science, next semester.
“At the end of the day, (the) government has to make decisions. Some people are going to like it. Some people aren’t. It’s the nature of the beast,” Pfeiffer said.