If New Jersey Democrats have their way, Frank Lautenberg's retirement from the U.S. Senate will be a far shorter affair than Michael Jordan's brief retreat from basketball.

A self-made millionaire who used his vast financial resources to win and then hold onto his seat in the U.S. Senate, Lautenberg left the chamber in 2001, saying he wanted more time with his family.

Now, if the New Jersey Supreme Court allows his name to replace first-term senator Robert Torricelli's on the Nov. 5th ballot and he is able to fend off relative unknown Republican Doug Forrester, Frank Lautenberg may be headed back to the body he was first elected to 20 years ago.

Frank Lautenberg is a product of the post-World War Two boon in America. He grew up poor, the son of a European Jewish immigrant silk worker in Paterson, N.J. During the war, Lautenberg served in the Army Signal Corps and afterwards used the GI Bill to attend Columbia University, where he earned a Bachelors of Science degree in 1949. Three years later he started Automatic Data Processing, a venture that went on to become one of the premier business services companies, processing payroll for 450,000 employers and 30 million employees in 2002.

Lautenberg steered the company for thirty years, garnering a sizeable personal fortune from his company's explosive growth. He became a Democratic activist and financial supporter. In 1978, his support helped him secure a spot on the NY & NJ Port Authority Commission.

Four years later he took the leap from activist to candidate, running for the state's open Senate seat. Few voters knew him when he entered the 1982 Senate race, but he was willing to spend $5 million of his own money to build a base of support. He went on to upset Republican Congresswoman Millicent Fenwick 51 to 48 percent.

Six years later, Republicans targeted Lautenberg for defeat. Republican Peter Dawkins, a 50-year-old retired Army general, Heisman Trophy winner and Rhodes Scholar, ran against Lautenberg. The campaigns spent nearly $15 million, mostly on negative campaign ads. Despite the fact that President George H.W. Bush won the state, Lautenberg scored re-election by eight percentage points.

Lautenberg faced another stiff electoral challenge again in 1994 when New Jersey Assembly Speaker Chuck Haytaian mounted a major Senate campaign. Haytaian had just helped popular Gov. Christine Todd Whitman pass a major tax cut, and campaigned on his accomplishments in the state capital. Lautenberg outspent Haytaian $8 million to $5 million as the two slugged it out over taxes, gun control and environmental issues. In the end, the Democrat beat back the challenge, winning 50 to 47 percent.

During his years in the Senate, Lautenberg quietly built a long list of major legislation he either penned or contributed to heavily. His legislative accomplishments include a 1986 law requiring companies to disclose chemicals they release into the environment, a 1987 law banning smoking on domestic airplane flights, a 1996 law barring those convicted of domestic violence from owning guns and a 2000 law pressuring 31 states to tighten their definition of drunken driving.

"This has been -- and I think you'll find if you talk to people -- a serious legislative office," Lautenberg told the Associated Press just before he left the Senate in 2001 "We've written lots and lots of law."

In 1997, Democratic Sen. Robert Torricelli joined Lautenberg in the Senate. Lautenberg balked at Torricelli's brash partisan style and the two conducted a surprisingly public feud for the next 4 years.

"He [Sen. Torricelli] has never missed an opportunity to say something critical or nasty," Lautenberg said in 2001. "All I know is, if you look at the [my] record, you will see someone who worked hard, who accomplished a legislative agenda. Torricelli is very good at fund raising."

--By Lee Banville, Online NewsHour