David Wildstein has been the editor of the New Jersey Globe since its launch on January 4, 2018.He had previously served as editor of PoliticsNJ.com, later PolitickerNJ.com from 2000 to 2010, thestate’s first online news organization dedicated to politics and government. He built political andgovernmental news operations in New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and New York. AfterPoliticsNJ was sold to the New York Observer, Wildstein became the executive vice president ofthe Observer Media Group, which launched political news sites in seventeen states with morethan fifty reporters; many of the journalists he trained have become prominent political reportersacross the U.S. He was a sports correspondent for the Star-Ledger and Daily Record in the1970s, and delivered the Star-Ledger with a paper route before that.
Wildstein served as mayor of Livingston from 1987 to 1988 and as a councilman from 1985 to1987 and again from 1988 to 1989. He served on the Essex County Vocational and TechnicalBoard of Education from 1987 to 1991, including two years as vice president, and was a memberof the Essex County Board of School Estimate. His first job was in 1973 when he earned $100-a-year as a 12-year-old aide to a State Senator. He was the deputy clerk of the New Jersey StateAssembly from 1987 to 1989, serving briefly as acting clerk, and had been chief of staff to the Assembly Minority Leader. He also served on the staff of several other New Jersey legislators.He also served as a legislative assistant in the U.S. House of Representatives while a student atGeorge Washington University in the 1980s; he majored in political science and domestic public policy. In 1980, he ran the presidential campaign of former Minnesota Governor Harold E.Stassen out of his GWU dorm room.
He spent twenty years in the private sector at his family’s textile manufacturing company. From2010 to 2013, he held a position at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. While inLivingston, he served on the board of directors of Livingston Community Hospital, the EssexCounty Association for Retarded Citizens (ARC), and the Livingston Babe Ruth League. Hewas the recipient of the George Steele Award for Media from the New Jersey State FirefightersMutual Benevolent Association in 2025.As the New Jersey Globe editor, Wildstein has run roughly thirty debates for candidates runningfor Governor, U.S. Senate, Congress, and the New Jersey Legislature, establishing a reputationfor fair and unbiased debates based on New Jersey issues.
Wildstein has three adult children and lives with his wife in Sarasota, Florida. Before launchingthe Globe, he spent several years as a bad playwright.