Senate passes dual office holding ban

Already through the assembly, a bill banning dual office holding passed in the state senate on Thursday, 33-2.

Upset that the bill grandfathers legislators who currently hold two or more offices, the GOP was circling in the senate chamber, taking bites at the bill when an infuriated Sen. Ron Rice let them have it.

"I’ve been here 21 years and I’m tired of hearing that dual office holding is conflicting," said Rice.

The Newark lawmaker who won re-election earlier this month, said the worse transgression involves public officials greasing their own private interests. "Stop the conflict stuff," Rice railed at the Republicans, "because you know it’s not real."

When she rose to defend the bill she sponsored with Sen. Sharpe James, Sen. Ellen Karcher gently told Rice the public’s perception is that a conflict exists when an elected official holds two offices simultaneously.

And she corrected the record for Sen. Gerald Cardinale. "This bill targets municipal and county seats as well," Karcher said. "It is the beginning of the end of dual office holding."

But the Republicans weren’t satisfied and next it was Sen. Thomas Kean, Jr., who went after Karcher, demanding to know why the bill didn’t just drop the guillotine on dual office holding instead of letting hydra-headed politicians now in office endure with the grandfather clause.

"There were people who went to the polls knowing they (the politicians for whom they voted) were holding two offices," said Karcher. "Why disenfranchise them by fiat?"

If they were recalled, who would pick up the cost of a special election?, Karcher wanted to know.

James backed her up, quoting John F. Kennedy: "The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step."

Only Sen. Robert Martin and Sen. Nicholas Sacco voted against the bill. Retiring at the end of this term, Martin, a moderate Republican, doesn’t have to worry about a shifty opponent twisting that “no” vote into a mailing that says the senator failed to vote for a bill banning dual office holding. As for Sacco, he just buried the opposition by over 80% to essentially win re-election in the 32nd district where the general’s a walkover for Democrats. The mayor of North Bergen in addition to serving as senator, Sacco never intended to vote for the bill, his colleagues said.