The Star-Ledger is reporting that Lee Solomon, a Superior Court Judge and former Assemblyman, will be the new president of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities.  Gov. Christopher Christie is expected to name Solomon to the post tomorrow.

Solomon will be nominated to fill the seat of Democrat Frederick Butler, a former Executive Director of the Assembly Democratic office.  Butler is on holdover status; Gov. Jon Corzine named his energy advisor, Kenneth Esser, to replace Butler during the lame duck session, but the nomination was not included as part of Corzine’s accord with Christie last month.  The current BPU president, Democrat Jeanne Fox, will remain as a Commissioner.

Solomon, 54, served as a Camden County Freeholder before his election to the State Assembly in 1991.  He lost a race for Congress to Rob Andrews in 1994, and lost his seat in 1995 (by 1,618 votes) to Democrat Louis Greenwald.  He went on to serve as Camden County Prosecutor and then as an Assistant U.S. Attorney and head of the South Jersey office under Christie.

The appointments accord between Gov. Jon Corzine and his successor, Christopher Christie, means that Christie will have the option of naming a new Board of Public Utilities (BPU) Commissioner and making the new person the BPU President – a cabinet level position.  Had Corzine succeeded in moving his top energy advisor, Kenneth Esser, to the post during lame duck, Democrats would have secured a 3-2 majority on the board that regulates the natural gas, electricity, water and telecommunications and cable television industries, and would have had to pick between one of the two Republicans on the board -- Elizabeth Randall and Nicholas Asselta -- for the presidency.   Some Republicans still think Randall, a former Assemblywoman and state Banking and Insurance Commissioner, is the favorite, but her elevation to the top post is less likely this week than it was before Corzine and Christie cut a deal.

Frederick Butler, a former Executive Director of the Assembly Democratic office, will remain on holdover status until Christie can nominate a new BPU Commissioner, and until the Democratic-controlled State Senate confirms his pick.  The current president, Jeanne Fox, the wife of Corzine strategist Steve DeMicco, keeps her seat on the BPU, but will have to give up her leadership post if Christie tells her to.

Republicans have a chance to take control of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities in January, when Christopher Christie takes office as governor.  Right now, Democrats have a 3-2 majority on the board that regulates the natural gas, electricity, water and telecommunications and cable television industries.  But Commissioner Frederick Butler, a former Executive Director of the Assembly Democratic office, is on holdover status and Gov. Jon Corzine has not renominated him.

There was some talk earlier this year that Corzine would give the seat to Assemblywoman Linda Stender (D-Fanwood), but Senate Minority Leader Thomas Kean (R-Westfield) reportedly refused to sign off on her.  Butler, a Somerset County resident, is unlikely to return since State Sen. Christopher Bateman (R-Branchburg) is unlikely to sign off on his nomination.  To prevent Christie from an early takeover of the BPU, Corzine will need to nominate a candidate from a county where Republicans have no senatorial courtesy.

Traditionally, the new governor gets to designate a BPU President, who holds cabinet status.  There is no guarantee that the incumbent, Jeanne Fox, who faced a tough confirmation hearing last year, will step down.  If she does, and if the Christie doesn't get to fill Butler's seat, the new governor will have to choose between Republicans Elizabeth Randall and Nicholas Asselta for the presidency. 

Bergen County Freeholder Tomas Padilla, who has been interested in becoming the next U.S. Marshal, is expected to announce in the coming months that he will not seek re-election in 2010. The Hackensack police captain was first appointed Freeholder in 2002, when Jack Alter resigned to become a Board of Public Utilities Commissioner.  He lost his seat in 2003 to Republican Elizabeth Randall, but won Freeholder races in 2004 and 2007.

Speculation that Assemblywoman Linda Stender (D-Fanwood) could be headed to the Board of Public Utilities raises a question regarding political control of the BPU.  

Stender is reportedly under consideration for the seat currently occupied by Frederick Butler, a BPU Commissioner since 1999.  Some Democrats, sources say, are not happy that Gov. Jon Corzine might dump Butler, who spent seventeen years on the Assembly Democratic staff, including seven as Executive Director. 

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.  The current BPU President, Jeanne Fox, would retain her seat, but the new Republican Governor would have the option of elevating one of the GOP Commissioners, former State Sen. Nicholas Asselta (R-Vineland) or former Assemblywoman Elizabeth Randall (R-Hillsdale), to the presidency.

BPU Commissioners serve six year terms, and traditionally the party that controls the governorship gets three of the five seats.  But if the Senate confirms a new BPU appointee, it would stop Republicans from holding a majority of seats until 2012, when Joseph Fiordaliso is up.

The only leverage the GOP has in the appointment process is senatorial courtesy.  Senate Minority Leader Thomas Kean, Jr. (R-Westfield) could block Stender, and State Sen. Christopher Bateman (R-Branchburg) could block Butler.  Union County Republicans would not be pleased if Kean signed off on Stender.

If Assemblyman Richard Merkt (R-Mendham) continues to poll in the one percent range, he could set the record for the worst showing by a sitting state legislator in a gubernatorial primary.  The record is currently held by Raymond Garramone (D-Haworth), a one-term State Senator from Bergen County who gave up his seat to challenge Brendan Byrne in the 1977 Democratic primary.  With 6,602 votes statewide, Garramone finished sixth in a field of eleven candidates, with 1.1% of the vote. 

Garramone was the 46-year-old Mayor of Haworth when he rode Byrne's 1973 coattails to an upset win in the heavily Republican 39th district over Harry Randall, a former Assemblyman and the father of BPU Commissioner Elizabeth Randall. 

When Garramone gave up his Senate seat to run for Governor, Republicans were confident of a pickup in District 39.  But Democrats held the seat when Frank Herbert, a Bergen County Freeholder and former Waldwick Mayor, beat Republican Assemblyman John Markert. 

Markert's running mate, Demarest Mayor Gerald Cardinale, lost his bid for an Assembly seat that year.  Cardinale came back to win in 1979, and moved up to the Senate when he defeated Herbert in 1981.  (When Cardinale sought the GOP nomination for Governor in 1989, he won 8.3% of the vote.)

The Senate Judiciary Committee, voting along party lines, voted 7-4 to approve the nomination of Jeanne Fox for another term on the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities.  The nomination will now head to the full Senate for a vote. The Senate is scheduled for a session next Monday.

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.

BPU Commissioner Christine Bator was dumped by Gov. Jon CorzineGov. Jon Corzine has appointed former Assemblywoman Elizabeth Randall to hold one of the Republican seats on the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, and has reappointed BPU President Jeanne Fox to another term.

Corzine opted for Randall, who held two cabinet posts in Gov. Christine Todd Whitman’s administration, rather than reappoint Christine Bator. Bator took her seat in 2006 to fill the unexpired term of Carol Murphy. Randall has been out of office since losing a GOP primary for re-election to the Bergen County Board of Freeholders in 2006.

Former State Treasurer John McCormac was unopposed in his bid for the Democratic nomination for Mayor of Woodbridge, and becomes the strong favorite to win a November Special Election to fill the remaining thirteen months of the late Frank Pelzman's term. If he is successful, he will become the eighth person (under the current State Constitution) to win an election after leaving the cabinet: Brendan Byrne and Christine Todd Whitman both served as President of the Board of Public Utilities before becoming Governor; former Public Advocate Wilfredo Caraballo was later elected to the State Assembly; Elizabeth Randall served as Commissioner of Banking and Insurance before her election to the Bergen County Board of Freeholders; Robert Roe, the Commissioner of Conservation and Economic Development in the 1960's who went on to spend 23 years in Congress; former Secretary of State Edward Patten, who served in the House from 1963 to 1981; and former State Treasurer Feather O'Connor went on to win a seat on the Cranbury Township Committee.