Brendan Byrne

New Jersey doesn't necessarily hold Governors accountable: Brendan Byrne won re-election to a second term in 1977 despite his support for a controversial state income tax, and Jim Florio nearly won re-election in 1993 -- two years after he was arguably the most unpopular Governor in state history.

Joseph Doria becomes the first former Assembly Speaker to serve in the Governor's cabinet since Joseph LeFante, also a resident of Bayonne, became Brendan Byrne's Commissioner of Community Affairs in 1978.  LeFante became Speaker in 1976 and helped Byrne shepherd the state income tax through the Assembly.

Frank Lautenberg will be 84 when he seeks re-election to the U.S. Senate next year
While two recent independent polls show that a majority of New Jerseyans think Frank Lautenberg is too old to serve another full term in the U.S. Senate, so far there have been no Democrats willing to openly discuss a primary bid.

Add Tom Byrne to that list.

If Democrats are successful in bucking the trend of mid-term elections going against the party that controls the governorship, as they were four years ago, it might be a signal of just how blue a state New Jersey has become -- or evidence that Larry Bartals' 2001 redistricting map was, as the GOP claims, truly one-sided.

What makes this interesting is that Democrats bucked the tradition and picked up three Assembly seats in 2003 even though Democratic Governor James E. McGreevey was largely unpopular -- a September 24 Quinnipiac University poll showed McGreevey's approvals upside down, 35%-52%.  The only Republican challenger to win was Bill Baroni, who was the only candidate not to run a campaign that focused on McGreevey's record.

James Sheeran, a Republican who served as Mayor of West Orange from 1958 to 1966, spent eight years in Brendan Byrne's cabinetJames Sheeran, the former state Insurance Commissioner who passed away this week at the age of 84, had the kind of life story voters love in a candidate.

He was the quarterback of a state championship football team, a World War II hero who, after his capture by the Nazis, escaped from a train headed to a POW camp and fought with the French underground before rejoining his unit. He went to law school, worked as an FBI agent, and in 1958, at age 35, was elected Mayor of West Orange.

Sheeran was the top vote getter in that race -- he received 9,179 votes, while the incumbent Mayor, Walter Quinn, had just 6,162 votes.

Byron Baer, 1929-2007

by MAX PIZARRO and MATT FRIEDMAN
PoliticsNJ.com

Byron Baer was a rarity in New Jersey politics: he served time in jail before he took public office, not after.

"I tell people he was a politician who went to jail first instead of the other way around," said his widow, Judge Linda Pollitt Baer.

Pollitt Baer was referring to the 45-day stint that her husband did in a Mississippi jail in 1961, after being arrested as part of the Freedom Riders.

But his civil rights work didn’t end there.

Baer, who died this morning after a long illness, was a pioneering warrior for government transparency during his four decades of service in the Legislature. He passed bills on consumer pricing, toxic waste cleanup and tenant protection. While working on legislation protecting migrant workers, he demonstrated for workers’ rights, getting his arm broken by a south Jersey farmer who tried to hit his head with an iron pipe.

In the end, if he has to, Stuart Rabner can get around the senatorial courtesy thing.

Back in 1981, Governor Brendan Byrne appointed labor leader Joel Jacobson to the Casino Control Commission.  The nomination of the South Orange resident was blocked for months by James Wallwork, a Republican State Senator from Essex County.  Wallwork exercised senatorial courtesy because none of the five casino commissioners came from South Jersey. 

In a 2003 interview on New Jersey Network, legendary Hudson County insider Paul Byrne offered some free advice: "Politics 101 in New Jersey: don't tick off the U.S. Attorney." But a classic 1970's turf war shows that not everyone is afraid of the federal prosecutor.

In 1978, U.S. Attorney Robert Del Tufo accused Senate Judicary Committee Chairman Martin Greenberg, an Essex County Democrat, of using a Senate hearing to interfere with a federal investigation of his Hudson County colleague, William Vincent Musto. The Judiciary Committee, of which Musto was a member, was looking into allegations of ethical breaches by state law enforcement and investigative agencies. At the time, Musto was under federal indictment on charges of gambling and conspiracy. Del Tufo said that Greenberg had visited the U.S. Attorney's office as Musto's lawyer.

Del Tufo charged that Greenberg and Musto were seeking to influence potential jurors by allowing Musto to defend himself in a public hearing of the Judiciary panel. Among the witnesses being called by the Senate was James Jelicks, a police informant who was to testify on Musto's behalf at his trial. Jelicks was reportedly prepared to accuse the State Police of authorizing him to break into the home of a horse breeder as part of a state probe of the racing industry, and that federal prosecutors forced him to lie during their probe of Musto. Greenberg and Del Tufo each denied their respective conflicts.

(The Acting Judiciary Chairman, John F. Russo and five other Judiciary Committee members backed up Greenberg and Musto, saying that the Musto case had never been mentioned to them.)

Musto was acquitted on these charges, although he went to prison four years later after his conviction on a separate indictment.

Greenberg first met Musto in 1957; he was a 25-year-old legal assistant to Governor Robert Meyner (while Brendan Byrne was Meyner's Chief of Staff) and Musto was an Assemblyman and the Mayor of Union City. He later became Byrne's law partner and ran for the State Senate in 1973, winning the seat Ralph DeRose gave up to run against Byrne in the Democratic gubernatorial primary. Greenberg resigned half way through his second term to become General Counsel to the New Jersey Turnpike Authority and counsel to the Golden Nugget Casino. He was a Superior Court Judge from 1992 to 2003, sitting in Hudson County.

Greenberg is now Of Counsel at Walder, Hayden & Brogan. Among his colleagues at the Roseland firm: James Plaisted, a former Assistant U.S. Attorney who prosecuted Musto in 1982 and defended U.S. Senator Robert Menendez's role in that trial during the 2006 U.S. Senate race, and prominent criminal defense attorney Joseph Hayden, who contacted federal prosecutors in 2006 on Menendez's behalf after subpoenas were issued as part of the alleged federal probe of the Senator's real estate deal.

Del Tufo resigned as U.S. Attorney in 1980, sought the Democratic nomination for Governor in 1985 (Greenberg supported Peter Shapiro), and became Jim Florio's Attorney General in 1990. He is now the Chairman of the University of Medicine and Dentistry Board of Trustees.

In early 1977, Republicans were optimistic about their chances of defeating Democratic Governor Brendan Byrne, but some party insiders weren't quite sure their field of candidates were especially strong. The front runner was Raymond Bateman, a gentlemanly State Senator from Somerset County who had served twenty years in the Legislature, including two as Senate President. Thomas Kean, the 42-year-old Assembly Minority Leader (and former Speaker) from Essex County, was also in the race.

Other prospective candidates remained in the wings, being heavily courted by party leaders, including Matthew Rinaldo, a three-term Congressman and former State Senator from Union County. With strong ties to labor and a genuine base in the City of Elizabeth (which he carried in each of the thirteen races he ran there), he seemed to be an attractive candidate. Rinaldo spent years teasing Republicans about his interest in statewide office, but never pulled the trigger.

Frederick Lacey, a respected U.S. District Court Judge and former U.S. Attorney, was serious, and some say he wanted to run. After a meeting at his home, at least one major county GOP organization was prepared to back him. That fell apart over a small, but important, detail: Lacey wanted the endorsement to come first, and the Republicans wanted him to resign from the bench and enter the race before they would announce their backing. That was based on the precedent set four years earlier when Byrne, then a Superior Court Judge, delivered his resignation to the Governor's Office and then went outside the statehouse to announce that he would run for Governor.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT ...

Former Democrat Governor Brendan Byrne Says
'Republicans Have Been Correct In Their Approach' To Tax Relief

THE KEAN-BYRNE DIALOGUE
The Star-Ledger
November 26, 2006

[Gov. Byrne on Democrat Property Tax Proposal]

"It's probably feasible, but it doesn't really hit at what people have been complaining about. The people leaving New Jersey are not in the lower 20 percent of property owners. The people leaving are those making $50,000 to $60,000 a year and are leaving because of the property tax. I think (the joint legislative committee) is missing the main point ... (The Democrat plan) doesn't address the problem of those in the middle who get little or no benefit and still have the burden of high property taxes. Frankly, I think the Republicans have been correct in their approach - which recognizes the exposure the modest - but not poor - wage earner faces."

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