Cryan says he's focused on elections
By Matt Friedman | September 2nd, 2009 - 10:56amAssemblyman Joseph Cryan (D-Union) does not want to address the prospect of running for Speaker just yet.
“I’ve got a job that I’m going to focus on as chairman of the party, working to get Democrats elected,” he said. “I’m as accountable as anyone for making sure we retain the Assembly majority, so I’m just going to keep my focus there and see where things go.”
The Star-Ledger reported last night that Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts (D-Camden) will not seek reelection after over a year of speculation about whether he would remain. Cryan’s name has frequently surfaced as a potential replacement.
Cryan has led the Democratic State Committee since 2006 and has been in the assembly since 2002, where he currently serves as Deputy Majority Leader. He is also an undersheriff in Union County.
Others said to be in the running for the top post: Assemblywoman Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Trenton) and Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Sayerville).
Democrats will have to keep a majority in the Assembly if the next speaker is to be a member of their party. Republicans are not expected to wrest control of the body in this year’s elections, although internal polls show promise for them in several Democratically-held legislative districts.
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Wisniewski??????
Seriously?
He would be lucky to get 2 votes and that analysis includes him voting for himself. The other Middlesex Assembly members will not even vote for him.
The Demcorats are dead in the water.
Never in the history of NJ politics has a sitting speaker announced he would be stepping down in the middle of the campaign.
This has 1994 written all over it and Joe Roberts looks like NJ's version of Thomas Foley who not only lost control of the House to Newt Gingrich, but was defeated for re-election.
Obviously Roberts has polling showing Democrats losing in key, swing legislative districts and Roberts doesn't want to hang around for the carnage.
How else do you explain the state's #3 Democrat jumping ship some eight weeks before election day?
Roberts could have sought re-election and simply resigned after the election.
Why now?
It's over and he knows it.
That polling must be beyond awful.
Look for Democrats to lose 10-12 seats just based on Robert's decision to drop out and watch the money start to flow to the other side very rapidly.
DeCroce can thank Roberts for this gift.
Vote Column "A" - All the way!
The bench for the dems ...
is lame. As liberal as Roberts was, he was a thousand times better than what is jumping up and down in the Democratic party to fill his shoes. Coleman - lightweight... Cryan... his multiple government jobs speaks for itself... and Wisniewski? He's the best of all as a beneficiary of the Codey slush fund... allocated $500,000 and he went and gave it to a law client that wasn't even in his legislative district... biggest advocate for jacking up more gas taxes... father of the law that allowed tolls to be raised forever to pay for things unrelated to the toll roads even though his constituents are the biggest users of the toll roads. Vote republican or this State is gonna look even more like a banana republic (if that's even possible) in no time flat.