Brendan Byrne

Former Gov. Brendan Byrne: Politicker file photo 

DENVER - The crowd here at the Inverness jumped to its feet for former Gov. Brendan Byrne, who went to the podium to address the delegation - and promptly dropped them practically out of their chairs with laughter.

"When I heard Cory Booker here the other day, he was inspiring," said Byrne, of the Newark mayor’s Revolutionary War evocation at Monday’s breakfast.

Byrne said he tried to do the same thing once in the name of Jersey pride, and it backfired massively.

Former Gov. Brendan Byrne, right, and Chief Justice Stuart Rabner. Byrne may do what Tom Kean and Dick Hughes could not: elect their son Governor
DENVER – There are surely other father and son duos here in Denver, but perhaps none as recognizable as former Governor Brendan Byrne and his son Tom.

And Tom Byrne, the former Democratic State Chairman who currently works as a financial advisor, admits that having another Governor Byrne in the future is a possibility, though perhaps vague and distant.

Like U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo and State Sen. Stephen Sweeney, Byrne admits that he would weigh running for Governor in the unlikely event that Gov. Corzine was offered and accepted a position in an Obama administration.

Byrne said he’s interested, but warned not to read into it too much.

“I think probably every third person in here is [interested],” he said

Gov. Brendan T. Byne, right, earlier this week with Chief Justice Stuart Rabner.: Politicker file photo 

Ask former Gov. Brendan Bryne about his most memorable Democratic National Convention and he fires back the answer without hesitation: 1976.

"The first one with Jimmy Carter was a new experience for me, although he did not carry New Jersey," said Byrne, who served as governor from 1974-1982.

"It was a festive atmosphere, as I recall," he said. "People were throwing peanuts around the convention hall and everything had a newness for me, though now it’s a little bit stale."

Gov. Jon Corzine, former Gov. Brendan T. Byrne, Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo, and Senate President Richard Codey: Politicker photo

NEWARK - On a ridiculously hot day in which many other public speakers might have sent the brow-mopping audience on a premature beeline for the nearest watering hole, former Gov. Brendan T. Byrne regaled his willing audience with charm and one-liners.

"Everything else I asked for, but I didn’t ask for this," said Byrne, before officially accepting the honor bestowed by the Essex County Freeholders and Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo, and before he pulled the American flag off a stone fixture in a plaza named after him.

"When my kids used to visit me here, I used to put them in jail, and that taught them to stay on the straight and narrow," he cracked.

Gov. Jon Corzine, left, and former Gov. Brendan T. Byrne today in Newark.: Politicker photo

NEWARK - The presence of a beloved former anything in the world of politics invariably intensifies public scrutiny where it concerns that person’s successor, especially when that successor is currently in office.

So an Essex County favorite son, the 84-year old former Gov. Brendan Byrne standing beside Gov. Jon Corzine before a packed audience of county diehards today, created myriad opportunities for parallels.

On this day, Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo’s unveiled the Gov. Brendan T. Byrne Plaza, honoring the former county prosecutor and governor with his own local monument.

"Because of everything he stood for," DiVincenzo said of Byrne, who served as governor from 1974-1982. "Because he stood for doing the right thing. Whether it was with (raising) the income tax or the Meadowlands, he always did the right thing."

Then DiVincenzo introduced Corzine, who would introduce Byrne.

Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo will announce a proposal today to name the promenade between the Essex County Veterans Courthouse and the jurors parking lot as the Governor Brendan T. Byrne Plaza – a tribute to the 84-year-old former Governor, Essex County Prosecutor and Superior Court Judge.  Byrne also has a state forest named after him in the Pinelands, but no sports arena:  his name was taken off the arena in 1994, after the Republicans reclaimed control of state government.

Former State Sen. Ned J. Parsekian (1921-2008)Ned J. Parsekian, who passed away on Monday, only served two years as a state Senator.

But those who remember Parsekian recall an independent, vocal liberal whose political career was shortened by the circumstances of the times, and whose life-long designs on the governor’s office may have been thwarted by his outspoken stands against politics as usual.

Elected to the Senate in 1965, Parsekian lost just two years later, when an anti-Democratic wave related to voter disenchantment over their creation of a state sales tax and a general feeling of dismay over the Vietnam War knocked many Democrats out of office.

Is a lawsuit – settled out of court last month – against Donald DiFrancesco’s law firm alleging that the former Governor sexually harassed an attorney at this firm and then fired her the reason why against DiFrancesco Bateman Coley Yospin Kunzman Davis & Lehrer has a low percentage of women lawyers?  Of the nineteen partners at the firm, which includes State Senator Christopher Bateman, only one is a woman; the other eighteen are white men.  Of the eleven associates, eight are men; and three of the four Of Counsel are white men

Eighteen women have served in the New Jersey State Senate: Mildred Barry Hughes (D-Union) in 1966, Jerry English (D-Union) in 1971, Wynona Lipman (D-Essex) in 1972, Anne Martindell (D-Mercer) and Alene Ammond (D-Camden) in 1974, Leanna Brown (R-Morris) and Catherine Costa (D-Burlington) in 1984, and Martha Bark (R-Burlington) in 1997. Diane Allen and Shirley Turner (D-Mercer) took office in January 1998, Barbara Buono and Nia Gill in 2001, and Teresa Ruiz, Dana Redd, and Sandra Cunningham in 2007.

Ellen Karcher in January 2004, and Loretta Weinberg the following November. Jennifer Beck defeated Karcher last November – the first time one woman unseated another.

New Jersey Supreme Court Justice Virginia Long has four years left before she reaches the mandatory retirement age of seventy, but there is some speculation in higher echelon political circles that she will retire early – opening up another Supreme Court appointment for Gov. Jon Corzine before he seeks re-election in November 2009.  Long turns 70 in March 2012.