DAVID KOCIENIEWSKI

Former Gov. Jim Florio and former Acting Gov. John Bennett listen to Gov. Jon Corzine's State of the State address.

Just one of New Jersey's five living former Governors, Jim Florio, attended Jon Corzine's State of the State address today.  Richard Codey, who served as Acting Governor for 84 hours in 2002, and again from November 2004 to January 2006, was there in his capacity as Senate President, as was Donald DiFrancesco, who was Acting Governor from January 2001 to January 2002. 

Also there, as is his custom, was former Co-Senate President John Bennett, who was also Acting Governor for 84 hours in 2002.  The definitive historical analysis of Bennett's administration was written by the New York Times' David Kocieniewski a few days after his governorship ended and remains a must-read:

It should not go unnoticed that The New York Times’ Sunday “New Jersey and the Region” section included a story on the 2009 race for Governor of New Jersey.  It was written by freelancer Dunstan McNichol, the respected veteran Star-Ledger statehouse reporter who took a buyout last year.  This was the second story on the gubernatorial race this month; last week, David Kocieniewski, who in the days of Donald DiFrancesco and Bob Torricelli covered New Jersey almost daily, covered the entrance of Republican Christopher Christie, the former U.S. Attorney, into the field of potential Corzine challengers.

An observation on how the New York Times’ coverage of New Jersey has changed over the years: when Bergen County Republican Chairman Anthony Statile resigned in 1973, the New York Times wrote five separate stories on the special election to replace him – but did not cover the passage of the state budget in 2008. The promotion of David Chen from Trenton to New York City Hall ends a chain of highly influential New Jersey-based New York Times reporters (like Joseph Sullivan, Ronald Sullivan, David Halbfinger and David Kocieniewski) that influenced New Jersey politics as much as any in-state newspaper. As recently as 2001 and 2002, the NYT played a key role in ending the political careers of Gov. Donald DiFrancesco and U.S. Sen. Bob Torricelli.