Bill Gormley

Two '09 State Assembly races are pivotal for Republicans as they seek to win back control of the State Senate in 2011.  The GOP needs to oust Democratic Assemblymen Nelson Albano and Matthew Milam in the first district, with the hope that one of the newly-elected Republican legislators, perhaps Michael Donohue or John McCann, will challenge freshman Democratic State Sen. Jefferson Van Drew.  Van Drew, who runs well in GOP-dominated Cape May County, unseated Republican State Sen. Nicholas Asselta in 2007.

Republicans still see Freeholder Leonard Desiderio, the Mayor of Sea Isle, as a strong contender for the Senate.  Desiderio declined to run for the Assembly this year.  Another possible candidate is U.S. Marshal James Plousis, who is a former Cape May County Sheriff.  Plousis is currently on holdover status while U.S. Senators Robert Menendez and Frank Lautenberg consider possible candidates.

The other seat the GOP wants back is in the second district, where Democrat James Whelan unseated incumbent James "Sonny" McCullough in 2007.  McCullough had won a special election convention earlier that year when Bill Gormley retired after 25 years in the Senate.  Republicans need to make sure their two freshmen Assemblymen, Vincent Polistina and John Amodeo, win re-election (they are favored), so that one of them is positioned to take on Whelan in two years.

A decade ago, there were ten Republicans who dominated politics in their counties: Bill Gormley in Atlantic, Pat Schuber in Bergen, Glenn Paulsen in Burlington, James Treffinger in Essex, Robert Prunetti in Mercer, Harry Larrison in Monmouth, George Gilmore in Ocean, Peter Murphy in Passaic, Dale Florio in Somerset, and Donald DiFrancesco in Union. Today, Democrats now govern six of those counties, and only Gilmore and Florio remain in power.

In 1999, Bergen Republicans controlled the County Executive post (Schuber won re-election in '98), had a majority on the Freeholder Board, and had GOP State Senators in districts 38, 39 and 40.  Democrats won the County Executive office when Schuber retired in 2002, and now hold all seven Freeholder seats; County Clerk Kathleen Donovan is the lone Republican elected countywide.  And Gerald Cardinale is the lone Republican Senator from Bergen County.

Bill Palatucci, Chris Christie's former law partner, managed campaigns for Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Tom Kean.

Democrats seem determined to tie former U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie to President Bush if he becomes the Republican nominee for Governor, but Christie’s allies say that it was the ex-Prosecutor’s friend and top strategist, William Palatucci, who avidly championed Bush when he began running for President in the late 1990’s.

Christie, who was Palatucci’s law partner, raised money for George W. Bush’s 2000 presidential campaign as part of a bigger effort coordinated by Palatucci, a veteran Republican operative who ran campaigns for Ronald Reagan, Thomas Kean and George H.W. Bush.

“It’s hard to imagine the Democrats not using every opportunity possible to highlight the fact that Chris Christie was part of an effort that raised significant money for George W. Bush, one of the most unpopular politicians in a generation” said Ben Dworkin, director of the David Rebovich Institute of New Jersey Politics at Rider University. “He’s had an outstanding career as U.S. Attorney. But the connection is different from the one the Democrats tried to use against U.S. Rep. Leonard Lance.”

Assemblywoman Linda Stender (D-Fanwood), the Democratic candidate for Congress against Lance, ran repeated TV ads of Lance’s face interposed with that of Bush.  Lance won by nine percentage points.

“But Christie’s different than Lance because Lance didn’t become an assemblyman and senator because George Bush picked him,” said Dworkin. “Christie became U.S. Attorney because George Bush did.”

The main strand of the Bush-Christie connection hinges on what for Palatucci was a fortuitous encounter with the younger Bush as the then-Texas governor geared up for his 2000 presidential campaign.

At that point, Palatucci’s relationship with the Bushes was already long and recurring, and it was in his role as the New Jersey chief of the presidential campaigns of Bush’s father that he developed a relationship with the younger Bush.

Phillip Alampi was the New Jersey Secretary of Agriculture from 1956 to 1982 -- the longest serving cabinet member in state history. His tenure spanned three Democratic Governors and two Republicans.

New Jersey has one of the most powerful governorships in the nation, but on agricultural issues, the Governor has relatively little clout - the result of a deal with South Jerseyans to gain political support for the ratification of the 1947 State Constitution.  As a result, the Governor has limited say on the appointment of one member of his or her cabinet, the Secretary of Agriculture, and even takes direction from an agricultural trade association on the appointments of policy-makers.  This is a throwback to the old days when state boards exercised considerable power, especially in the areas of health, education, the environment, and alcoholic beverage control.

The eight members of the New Jersey Board of Agriculture are elected by members of the agriculture community at the State Agricultural Convention.  By tradition, the Governor then appoints the choices of the convention to four-year terms on the Board, with the consent of the State Senate.  The Board sets policies that direct the Secretary of Agriculture and the New Jersey Department of Agriculture.  By law, the top four commodity groups in the state - based on a "two year average of the gross value of production," according to the department website - are entitled to seats on the Board.

The Board also nominates the Secretary of Agriculture (SOA), who becomes a cabinet member with the Governor's approval.  Unlike other cabinet posts, where the Commissioner runs the department, the SOA is essentially the secretary to the Board.

South Jersey Democrats are actively courting two former Republican legislators to challenge freshmen GOP Assemblyman John Amodeo and Vincent Polistina in the Atlantic County-based second district next year: Paul D'Amato, a former Linwood Mayor who served in the Assembly from 2002 to 2003, and Frank Blee, who retired last year after seven terms in the Assembly. D'Amato left the Legislature after feuding with then-State Sen. Bill Gormley, and switched parties in 2006.  Blee broke with local Republicans in 2007 after losing a special election convention for State Senate to Sonny McCullough and backed Democrat James Whelan in the general election.

The New Jersey Legislature is often the breeding ground for gubernatorial candidates, but by 2009 it will have been 81 years since a sitting state legislator has been elected Governor -- the last time was in 1928, when Morgan Larson, a Republican State Senator from Middlesex County, won.

Over the last fifty years, only four incumbent legislators -- State Senators Malcom Forbes (1957), Wayne Dumont (1965), Raymond Bateman (1977) and James E. McGreevey (1997) -- have won gubernatorial primaries, and all four have lost their general elections.

Former state Sen. Bill Gormley just had a building named after him.

At a ceremony last night, members of United Here Local 54 and the non-profit heatlh organization AtlantiCare renamed an Atlantic City facility the William L. Gormley AtlantiCare HealthPlex.   

The groups cited Gormley’s support for AtlantiCare’s Special Care Center. 

The New Jersey Legislature is often the breeding ground for gubernatorial candidates, but by 2009 it will have been 81 years since a sitting state legislator has been elected Governor -- the last time was in 1928, when Morgan Larson, a Republican State Senator from Middlesex County, won.

Over the last fifty years, only four incumbent legislators -- State Senators Malcom Forbes (1957), Wayne Dumont (1965), Raymond Bateman (1977) and James E. McGreevey (1997) -- have won gubernatorial primaries, and all four have lost their general elections.

With Gary Rose set to leave his Corzine front office post by the end of the month, there are already a few names being mentioned as possible successors as Chief of the Office of Economic Growth: state Transportation Commissioner Kris Kolluri; Caren Franzini, the CEO of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority; New Jersey Utilities Association President/CEO Karen Alexander.  A dark horse candidate: former Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Bill Gormley.

The Star-Ledger reported today that Governor Jon Corzine is considering allow keno games in bars and restaurants as a way of increasing revenues, and James Whelan, who represents Atlantic County in the State Senate, has “registered his strong opposition to the plan,” the Ledger says. So here’s the question: what’s the difference between Whelan and predecessor Bill Gormley when it comes to strong opposition?