Looking back at 1981: Kean versus Kramer

Pat Kramer, former mayor of Paterson, right, with state Sen. Joseph Kyrillos (R-Monmouth).: Politicker photo 

MINNEAPOLIS - Among those at the Republican National Convention stand two venerable members of the Grand Old Party who once slugged it out in a gubernatorial primary.

The title "former governor" in front of the name Thomas Kean provides the most obvious evidence for his 1981 statewide victory over Lawrence "Pat" Kramer, former mayor of Paterson.

But the man who unwittingly helped Kean beat Kramer isn’t a Republican, and was actually in attendance last week at the Democratic National Convention.

He’s former Gov. Brendan Byrne, whose hand-picked successor - then-attorney general, John Degnan - didn’t have the backing of the Democratic Party chairs.

"Brendan was brilliant, and he couldn’t get the chairmen to back his man, so he slipped through legislation to create an open primary, which passed by one vote," Kramer said.

That crushed Kramer’s candidacy.

"We had the support of 14 Republican county chairmen," he remembered. "We had been wooing them for some time. Kean had the name, because he had run for governor before - and, of course, he had honesty and integrity - but in that traditional New Jersey election in which having the line is critical, we had the lines - and in the key Republican counties."

In the open primary, Kean beat Kramer as expected, then beat, not Degnan, but U.S. Rep. Jim Florio in the general election.

"I went back to being mayor of Paterson," said Kramer.

The open primary was gone by the 1990s, the victim of another political move.