Douglas Fisher

Farmer Ellen Karcher, who lost her State Senate seat in 2007, is not a candidate for Secretary of Agriculture. But Assemblyman Doug Fisher (D-Cumberland) is.

New Jersey should have a new Secretary of Agriculture by the second week of February, according to a report in Today's Sunbeam, the Newhouse-owned daily newspaper in Salem County.  The cabinet post, which is chosen by the state Board of Agriculture with the approval of the Governor and State Senate, has been vacant since Charles Kuperus resigned at the end of last year.  Fourteen candidates were interviewed and five were selected as finalists, sources told PolitickerNJ.com.

According to sources, one of the candidates interviewed as Assemblyman Douglas Fisher, a four-term Cumberland County Democrat and Chairman of the Assembly Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee.

CAPUTO/VAINIERI HUTTLE/FISHER BILL TO INCREASE VOTING BY YOUNG PEOPLE CLOSER TO LAW

Measure Would Ensure Graduating High Schoolers Receive Voter Registration Forms

(TRENTON) – Legislation Assembly members Ralph R. Caputo, Valerie Vainieri Huttle and Douglas Fisher sponsored that would require all New Jersey schools to provide voter registration materials to graduating high school students continues to advance.

Caputo, a former educator, said the law would increase the likelihood that the voter registration materials are received by young people.

“With so many key issues society, whether it be global conflicts, environmental worries, economic fears or health care concerns, it’s more important than ever that young people have their voices heard,” said Caputo (D-Essex).

SMALL BUSINESS STIMULATION AND INVESTMENT MEASURE
SIGNED INTO LAW
'Main Street Business Investment Program' to Open Up $50 Million
To Help Small Businesses Survive, Expand

(TRENTON) - Legislation creating a new statewide small business investment program was signed into law today by Governor Jon S. Corzine.

The measure was sponsored by Assembly members Gary Schaer (D-Passaic), Douglas Fisher (D-Cumberland), Grace Spencer (D-Essex), Jack Conners (D-Camden/Burlington), Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Mercer) and Nellie Pou (D-Passaic).

Assemblyman Doug Fisher could be New Jersey's next Secretary of Agriculture.

Among Democrats, there is increased talk that four-term Assemblyman Douglas Fisher could be the next state Secretary of Agriculture.  Fisher seems to be more than a little interested in the job -- and it's fair to suggest that there is actually a campaign underway to make that happen.  If Fisher were to get the cabinet post, Democrats would hold a special election convention to fill his seat in the State Assembly.  One Democratic insider says that Salem County Freeholder Beth Timberman could emerge as a leading candidate for Fisher's seat.

BILL COMBATING EXCESSIVE POST-FATAL-CRASH FEES NOW LAW
Law Crafted in Response to $640 Bill Handed to Family of Teen Killed in I-295 Crash

(TRENTON) - Legislation Assemblymen John J. Burzichelli, Douglas Fisher, and Nelson Albano and Senator Stephen Sweeney sponsored to protect the surviving families of victims of fatal auto accidents from exorbitant wrecked-vehicle storage and handling fees was signed into law by Governor Jon S. Corzine.

New Jersey Secretary of Agriculture Charles Kuperus is stepping down at the end of the year. The State Board of Agriculture picks the new Secretary, and then Gov. Jon Corzine will need to sign off on the choice.

As it examines who will succeed state Secretary of Agriculture Charles Kuperus, the New Jersey Board of Agriculture finds itself in the awkward position of trying to negotiate with a governor who last year considered scrapping the department in its current form.

In an effort to save cash, Gov. Jon Corzine wanted to subordinate Agriculture to the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), a move universally condemned by stewards of New Jersey's 9,600 working farms, some of whom rumbled down West State Street in tractors of defiance.

The Secretary of Agriculture is the only cabinet appointment not made by the Governor.  The State Constitution gives the appointment power to the Board of Agriculture.  The Governor can that approve or veto their choice.

Having weathered the Highlands Act political war earlier in his career, and lately in a cliffhanger with his off-again, on-again department, Kuperus announced his resignation from overseeing the department's $9.3 million budget, effective at the end of this year.

He says he's not bitter at all, and points out in defense of Corzine that from the beginning he made the budgetary suggestion at the Statehouse, the governor was clear that he was only initiating a public conversation.

"Like anything with respect to public service, you have to be looking ahead," said Kuperus, a farmer, a former Sussex County freeholder and a Republican who was named to the post by Gov. James E. McGreevey after the 2001 election.   "The state has very significant issues. We happen to be a small agency, but one that touches every New Jerseyan's life. Even the Hudson County Board of Freeholders declared that they wanted the Department of Agriculture preserved, in part because we helped them when they had a longhorn beetle outbreak."

In the lead-up to his departure, the eight-member Board of Agriculture - made up of farmers and other agricultural industry reps - is set in the middle of this month to review between 12 and 20 applications from those who wish to be the new secretary, a job that pays $141,000 a year.

FISHER: FARMERS LOSING GREAT ADVOCATE
WITH KUPERUS RESIGNATION

(BRIDGETON) - Assemblyman Douglas Fisher today lamented the decision by state Agriculture Secretary Charles Kuperus to leave his post at year's end, calling the departure a tremendous loss to New Jersey's farming community.

BURZICHELLI/FISHER/ALBANO BILL COMBATING EXCESSIVE POST-FATAL-CRASH FEES ADVANCES

Measure Crafted in Response to $640 Bill Handed to Family of Teen Killed in I-295 Crash

(TRENTON) – The Senate today gave final legislative approval to legislation Assemblymen John J. Burzichelli, Douglas Fisher, and Nelson Albano sponsored to protect the surviving families of victims of fatal auto accidents from exorbitant wrecked-vehicle storage and handling fees.

SWEENEY/BURZICHELLI/FISHER DECLARE COUNCIL'S RULING ON RURAL STATE POLICE PATROLS 'A WIN'

Third District Legislators Say Council on Local Mandates' Decision Marking Municipal Funding of Patrols an Unfunded Mandate Protects Taxpayers

(TRENTON) - Third District legislators Senate Majority Leader Stephen M. Sweeney and Assemblymen John J. Burzichelli and Douglas H. Fisher (all D-Cumberland/Gloucester/Salem) called today's ruling by the state Council on Local Mandates that language in the fiscal year 2009 state budget constitutes an unfunded mandate "a win for the wallets of rural taxpayers."

The budget language in question would have required the 89 rural municipalities that rely on State Police patrols to pay for the $12.6 million service or risk losing the patrols.  The council, in a verbal statement, ruled that "line 8 on page 158 of the Annual Appropriations Act to line 17 on page 159, inclusive, constitutes an unfunded mandate and is null and void."

ASSEMBLY PASSES FISHER/BURZICHELLI BILL EXPANDING DUAL HEALTH COVERAGE BAN TO PUBLIC OFFICIALS

(TRENTON) - The General Assembly today passed legislation Assemblymen Douglas H. Fisher and John J. Burzichelli sponsored to extend dual health care coverage prohibitions to all state and local elected and appointed officials eligible for more than one taxpayer-subsidized health plan.

The lawmakers said the legislation would expand a previously enacted ban, which only applied to legislators.