Albio Sires

SIRES STATEMENT ON BENEFITS REVIEW TASK FORCE REPORT

(TRENTON) -- Assembly Speaker Albio Sires today issued the following statement on the Benefit Review Task Force's final report and its recommendations for controlling the costs of New Jersey's public employee benefit system:

In August, Governor-elect Jon Corzine contributed $2,600 to Albio Sires' campaign for Congress -- a campaign that only takes place if Corzine appoints Bob Menendez to the United States Senate. Corzine gave Sires $500 on August 7th and then another $2,100 eleven days later.

Democratic Unity Expressed in Leadership Votes by Acclamation

Unless something goes drastically wrong today, Democrats will retain their control of the State Assembly for another two years. With Albio Sires retiring, this will be the first time a Democratic Speaker has turned over the reigns to another Democratic Speaker since 1982, when Christopher Jackman was replaced by Alan Karcher. Sires and Jackman both came from West New York; by the early 1980's, Jackman had moved up to the Senate (following the criminal conviction of William Vincent Musto -- Bob Menendez testified against Musto in that trial) and Sires, then a Republican, was a Jackman rival.

SIRES: NEW POLL SHOWS SUSTAINED SUPPORT
FOR LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR BALLOT QUESTION

(TRENTON) -- Assembly Speaker Albio Sires today welcomed the results of a new Monmouth University/Gannett New Jersey Poll that found 75 percent of voters support a ballot question to create the position of lieutenant governor in New Jersey.

Assuming the Democrats, as expected, retain control of the State Assembly next month, look for some major reshuffling of committee chairmanships. Health Committee Chairwoman Loretta Weinberg will move up to the Senate as soon as they go back into session (she won a Special Election Convention to replace Byron Baer), and Commerce and Economic Development Committee Chairman Donald Tucker passed away last week. Three other Chairmen, Robert Smith of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Mary Previte of Family, Women and Children's Services, and Peter Eagler of Regulated Professions and Independent Authorities, are not candidates for re-election, and three other committee chairs, Bonnie Watson Coleman of Appropriations, Wilfredo Caraballo of Telecommunications and Utilities, and Neil Cohen of Financial Institutions and Insurance, are possible candidates for Majority Leader.

Assembly Speaker Albio Sires could replace Weinberg and Tucker for the final two months of the current legislative session, although the next Speaker may not feel constricted by Sires' picks. One Democratic staffer says he expects Sires and Joseph Roberts, the leading candidate for Speaker, to reach a mutual agreement on Health and Commerce. Similarly, the new Speaker could add or delete committees next year, and remove incumbent chairs from their current posts.

The Vice Chairman of the Health Committee is Herbert Conaway, Jr., a practicing physician and as a South Jersey ally of Roberts, perhaps the front runner for the powerful committee post. Another possible candidate is Joan Quigley, a hospital executive who currently chairs the Homeland Security and State Preparedness Committee. If Quigley were to get the Health chair, her current post would likely go to John Burzichelli. Should Conaway get passed over for Health, he would likely replace Smith at Agriculture instead of the most likely contender, Douglas Fisher.

Conaway, elected in 1997, is the senior member of the Assembly without a committee chairmanship or top leadership post.

Fisher is also a possible choice to replace Eagler at Regulated Professions, although Assembly Democratic insiders suggest that Brian Stack wants the job. Previte's committee, Family, Women and Children's Services, has two other Democrats -- Weinberg and Joseph Egan, the Labor Chairman; her chair will almost certainly be filled by someone not currently on the committee.

The Vice Chairman of the Commerce Committee is Upendra Chivukula, who has not always been viewed as a team player within the Democratic Caucus. Leadership could go with another committee member, like David Mayer, who is very close to Roberts.

Caraballo is viewed as the front runner for Majority Leader; two of the other three Democrats on the Telecommunications panel are not returning (Eagler and Anthony Chiappone), leaving Chivukula as the only Democrat with committee experience -- hardly a critical factor in picking chairmen. Statehouse insiders say that Telecommunications, should it become available, would go to someone in need of a chairmanship. If Caraballo loses the leadership contest, he could go shopping for another committee.

If Watson Coleman becomes Majority Leader, she would give up one of the Legislature's important chairmanships: Appropriations. While leadership would have the option of merging the Budget Committee into Appropriations under the control of Louis Greenwald, one Assembly Democratic staffer suggested that will not happen. Look for Joseph Cryan, who has been paying his partisan dues as Vice Chairman of the Democratic State Committee, to emerge as a strong candidate to replace Watson Coleman.

Should Cohen be the new Majority Leader, chances are strong that Jack Conners, a Camden County Democrat, will succeed him as head of the banking and insurance panel. That would open up Conners' chairmanship of the Military and Veterans Affairs Committee.

With Weinberg's departure, none of the six Democrats expected to represent Bergen County in the Assembly next year have committee chairmanships.

Sires, the outgoing Speaker, could also be looking for a chairmanship next year, especially if his campaign for Congress does not work out.

Albio Sires, the 1986 Republican candidate for Congress, became Jim McGreevey's choice for Assembly Speaker just four years after backing Governor Christie Whitman against McGreevey. Sires' would-be successor, Joseph Roberts, became Democratic State Chairman the year after he led a walk-out of seven South Jersey legislators from the Assembly Democratic Caucus that caused other Democrats to protest his election to the Democratic National Committee.