Christopher Bateman

CARABALLO & BATEMAN: DEATH PENALTY REPEAL ON TRACK FOR FINAL PASSAGE THURSDAY

Measure Would Replace Never-Used Statute with Life Imprisonment without Parole

(TRENTON) - Assemblymen Wilfredo Caraballo and Christopher "Kip" Bateman today urged a key Assembly panel to heed the findings of the New Jersey Death Penalty Study Commission and abolish the state's capital punishment law and replace it with a sentence of life imprisonment without possibility of parole.

Warren Township Mayor Victor Sordillo is a possible candidate for Congress, says Somerset GOP Chairman Dale FlorioDale Florio, chairman of the Somerset County Republican Party, said he was still stunned by the news today that 7th district U.S. Rep. Mike Ferguson would not pursue re-relection in 2008.

Nonetheless, "I respect his decision to care for a growing family," said Florio, who credited Ferguson with being a good watchdog of taxpayers' dollars and a strong advocate for homeland security.

"He is a good friend and a good congressman," Florio added.

The Somerset County chairman said he's sure there will be some horseplay in the coming days as the party considers its stable of would-be successors.

The Republican Party on Thursday united behind state Sen. Thomas Kean, Jr., as its new Senate Minority Leader, while state Sen. Leonard Lance stepped aside in the face of a torrent of young blood.

Descendent of the state's first governor, son of a former two-term governor, and with a failed U.S. Senate run behind him and still only in his late 30s, Kean sees last Tuesday's election results as a rejection of Democratic leadership over the course of the last six years.

"Today there are more Republicans in the State Legislature, more Republican freeholders than before, more mayors than there were and more council seats," says Kean.

Somerset County hasn’t elected a Democratic Freeholder since 1979, but Democrats think that this year they just might be able to capitalize on Republican misfortune and pull it off.

This year, two women from the small town of Green Brook are battling it out to see whether the county’s five-member freeholder board will remain all Republican, or whether it will be joined by a lone Democratic voice for the first time since 1982, after Christie Whitman took the seat from Michael Ceponis. The Democrats have fielded Green Brook Committeewoman Melonie Marano, while Republican’s have tapped the town’s mayor, Patricia Walsh.

State Senator Walter Kavanaugh, in ailing health for the last few years, is not likely to seek re-election to the Senate in 2007, according to two Somerset County Republican leaders and a Senate GOP staffer. Publicly, the 73-year-old Kavanaugh has been saying he intends to run again, but GOP insiders still expect him to retire. Kavanaugh was first elected to the State Assembly in 1975 and moved up to the Senate in 1997 when John Ewing retired.

The leading candidate to replace him is Christopher Bateman, a seven-term Assemblyman and the son of former Senate President and 1977 GOP gubernatorial candidate Raymond Bateman. The other 16th district Assemblyman, Peter Biondi, had expressed interest in moving up to the Senate, but the new conventional wisdom is that Biondi will likely remain in the Assembly, where he is in line to become Minority Leader when Alex DeCroce retires. Some conservatives view Bridgewater Mayor Patricia Flannery as a possible Senate candidate. There will be not shortage of potential Assembly candidates to replace Bateman in this safe Republican district.

VITALE ON TODAY'S ASSEMBLY VOTE ON 'CHARITABLE IMMUNITY'

TRENTON - Senator Joseph F. Vitale, D-Middlesex, today made the following statement regarding today's scheduled Assembly vote on S-540, the which modifies the Charitable Immunity Act:

"For the past year and a half, the men and women standing here today, along with countless others, have worked tirelessly to create legislation that will finally give all victims of childhood sexual abuse the right to hold those responsible for those crimes accountable, no matter when the abuse occurred. Today that hard work comes to an end as the General Assembly votes to give the bill final approval.