Elizabeth Randall

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.

Incumbent legislators who ran for Governor, left to right: Assemblyman Rick Merkt (R-Mendham), State Sen. Raymond Garramone (D-Haworth), and State Sen. Gerald Cardinale (R-Demarest)

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.

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.

CANDIDATES SAY DONOVAN IS TAXPAYERS BEST FRIEND

For immediate release: May 19, 2006
From: Bergen County Republicans, Inc.

The election of Kathleen Donovan to the post of County Executive will mean a leaner, more efficient Bergen County government, according to Republican Freeholder candidates Elizabeth Randall and Ed Trawinski and Surrogate candidate Jae Kim.

"Kathe Donovan has made the County Clerk's office the model for efficiency," the candidates said. "Just think how taxpayers will benefit when she expands those efficiencies to the entire county government."

Randall, Trawinski and Kim are running as a ticket with Donovan in the June 6 Republican Primary.

Noting that Donovan is the only countywide Republican elected official overseeing a constitutional office, the candidates said, "Although the Democrat controlled County Executive and Board of Freeholders have failed to fully fund her budgets, Kathe has made the County Clerk's office the most efficient and productive in the state. She generates millions of dollars of profits which are returned to the state and county treasuries each year. Kathe Donovan is clearly the taxpayer's best friend."

Randall, Trawinski and Kim concluded, "Kathe turned the County Clerk's office into a profit center. This coupled with her experience as the first and only woman to lead the $5 billion Port Authority of New York and New Jersey as it's chairperson make her the ideal candidate to serve as Bergen County Executive."

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Donovan Calls for Limits on Public Use of Eminent Domain

For Immediate Release: May, 15 2006

Contact Alan Marcus 201-902-9000

The taking of private property for so-called public purposes should be controlled by new state law designed to strictly limit the practice, according to Kathleen Donovan and her running mates in the June Republican primary.

Donovan, Randall and Trawinski will Use Regulatory Authority to Block Overdevelopment in Bergen

For Immediate release: 5/10/06 contact: Alan C. Marcus/201-902-9000

Kathleen Donovan said today that she would use her powers as County Executive to work with local officials to combat over development throughout Bergen County.

Decades have past since the classic civil wars of Bergen County Republican politics in the 1960's and 1970's, when bitter enemies like State Senators Walter Jones and Pearce Deamer, or Republican County Chairmen like Nelson Gross and Anthony Statile ran full slates in primary campaigns that forced Republicans -- from low-level county employees to candidates for statewide office -- to take sides in their almost yearly intra-party battles. In recent years, open conventions have allowed more than 1,200 elected GOP County Committee members to award the organization line, avoiding more expensive and divisive primary contests. Now, there are indications that two candidates will face off in a primary for County Executive that is seemingly intertwined with a challenge to the incumbent Republican County Chairman, Guy Talarico.

Talarico is backing former Freeholder and gubernatorial candidate Todd Caliguire, who was unopposed for the GOP nomination until last week, when the party's top vote-getter in recent years, County Clerk Kathleen Donovan, entered the race. Donovan has the backing of Alan Marcus, a Trenton lobbyist who ran the county GOP oganization in the days of the old-time wars, and may form her own line in the primary rather than deal with Talarico and Caliguire at a convention. The lone Republican Freeholder in Bergen, Elizabeth Randall, announced today that she would run with Donovan -- even if that means eschewing the organization line. Randall's would-be running mate, former Wyckoff Board of Education member Robert Yudin, has not said whether he will run on the organization line or seek to join Randall on the Donovan slate. Randall could potentially lose her primary, which would send the GOP ticket into the general election without their only incumbent.

Several Bergen Republicans are now wondering whether Caliguire, who finished last in Bergen County in his '05 run for Governor, will remain in the race against Donovan, a four-term County Clerk and ex-Assemblywoman. Caliguire didn't bargain for a primary, and a costly battle for his party nomination won't necessarily help him oust the Democrat, Dennis McNerney, who has the advantage of incumbency and of the Bergen Democratic warchest. If Caliguire does drop out, party insiders predict that another candidate would emerge -- perhaps Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan, the de facto leader of the state's conservative Republican wing. Lonegan is not likely to back Donovan.

Competing primary slates could force U.S. Senate candidate Thomas Kean and Congressman Scott Garrett will need to decide whether they want to run on the organization line, on the Donovan slate, or on no line at all. Bergen is a must-win county for Kean in a general, and a divided party reduces his chance of building the kind of plurality Kean needs to offset U.S. Senator Robert Menendez's likely margins in Hudson and Essex counties.

Indirectly, an anti-organization primary slate is responsible for Caliguire's own political career. In 1977, the Bergen County Republican Organization endorsed State Senator Raymond Bateman for Governor. Bateman's main opponent, Assembly Minority Leader Thomas Kean, ran a full line of Freeholder and legislative candidates in Bergen County. While Bateman won Bergen, Kean carried the towns in the old 40th district -- causing two incumbent Assemblymen running on the Bateman line two lose the primary to the two Kean-backed candidates, Oakland Councilman Cary Edwards and attorney Walter Kern. When Kean was elected Governor four years later, he picked Edwards to serve as Chief Counsel. In turn, Edwards hired Caliguire to work for him.