Christopher Bateman

The Senate Judiciary Committee will consider the nomination of Jeanne Fox for another term as President of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities.  There is no longer much drama with this nomination: Republican Judiciary Committee members are likely to vote against her, but Fox has the votes from the Democratic majority for Senate confirmation.

If Democrats lose the 2009 gubernatorial election, the new Republican Governor would be able to designate one of the Republican Commissioners to serve as President.  BPU Commissioners serve six year terms, and traditionally the party that controls the governorship gets three of the five seats. 

One of the three Democratic Commissioners, Frederick Butler, a former Executive Director of the Assembly Democratic Office, is up for reappointment in June 2009.  For Republicans to take control of the BPU next January, Republican State Sen. Christopher Bateman would need to block the nomination of Butler, a Belle Mead resident, for the remainder of the legislative session.  Short of a resignation, that would give a Republican Governor a chance to make his own appointment.

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If Hunterdon County Freeholder Matthew Holt wins his bid for State Assembly, he'll follow a 23rd district tradition of sending the scion of prominent Republican families to the Legislature.  He is the grandson of Clifford Case, who represented New Jersey in the United States Senate from 1955 to 1979, and Union County in the State Assembly from 1943 to 1944.

Leonard Lance, who represented the 23rd district from 1991 until taking his seat in Congress earlier this month, is the son of Wesley Lance, a former Senate President who served from 1942 to 1943, and again from 1954 to 1962.  Walter "Moose" Foran, who served in the Assembly from 1970 to 1977, and in the Senate from 1977 until his death in 1986, was the son of former Senate President Arthur Foran, who served from 1936 to 1941.

Seven legislators had fathers who served in Trenton: State Senators Christopher Bateman and Christopher Connors, Assemblyman Thomas Giblin and Assemblywoman Alison Littell McHose had fathers who were in the State Senate; and State Sen. Thomas Kean, Jr., Assemblyman Peter Barnes and Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle had fathers who served in the State Assembly. Read More >

Ethics complaints he filed against seven Republican legislators in 2007 – all subsequently dismissed – came back to haunt former Somerset County Democratic Chairman Elia Pelios today, but with the help of a home county Republican it didn’t matter and the State Senate today confirmed his nomination as a state Administrative Law Judge.   Despite strong opposition from several key Republicans, including Joseph Kyrillos and Kevin O’Toole, Christopher Bateman, a Republican Senator from Somerset County, signed off on Pelios’ nomination and voted for his confirmation.

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Housing Projections are Repudiated by Rutgers Report

Senator Christopher "Kip" Bateman (R-Somerset) called on the Corzine Administration and legislative Democrats to publicly admit that the proposed numbers of housing units to be mandated under their new subsidized housing law are based upon erroneous job projections.

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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

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The buzz among Republican insiders over the last two days is that party leaders seem genuinely excited by the prospects of millionaire businessman Andy Unanue entering the race for United States Senator.  The former Chief Operating Officer of Goya Foods, one of the largest Hispanic-owned businesses in the United States, makes an interesting candidate: a self-funder who his 44 years younger than the incumbent and can compete for Latino votes.

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With just twenty days to go before the April 7 filing deadline, a group of New Jersey Republican leaders are actively searching for another United States Senate candidate to challenge State Sen. Joseph Pennacchio and Ramapo College Professor Murray Sabrin in the June GOP primary.  The race changed considerably two weeks ago when millionaire Anne Evans Estabrook abruptly quit the Senate race after suffering a minor stroke, and with the public disclosure yesterday of Pennacchio’s 1991 nationalist manifesto that has some party leaders in a panic.

Sources say that several GOP leaders approached State Sen. Diane Allen to run; Allen has been recovering from pneumonia and has reportedly declined. 

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U.S. Marshal James Plousis has decided against seeking the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate, becoming the third candidate promoted by party leaders to decline since Anne Evans Estabrook left the race last week.  Plousis, a former Cape May County Sheriff, told County Chairmen yesterday that he wants to continue as the federal marshal.

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State Senate Christopher Bateman will not seek the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate.

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State Sen. Christopher Bateman is leaning toward entering the U.S. Senate race and will make a final decision by Friday, according to sources close to the Somerset County legislator.  Bateman’s father, former Senate President (and 1977 GOP gubernatorial candidate) Raymond Bateman, returned from his vacation today and is working with Somerset County Republican Chairman Dale Florio to determine whether the campaign can raise enough money to compete in the June primary, and against Democratic incumbent Frank Lautenberg in the general election.

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