Harriet Derman

Barbara Buono, on the cusp of history as the first Democratic nominee for Lt. Governor, won her first campaign for the Legislature after the Republican candidate turned out to be deeply flawed.

The Middlesex County-based 18th district went Republican in 1991 and 1993, when Jack Sinagra won a Senate seat and Jeff Warsh and Harriet Derman were elected to the State Assembly.  Derman resigned in February 1994 when the newly-elected GOP Governor, Christine Todd Whitman, named her Commissioner of Community Affairs.  Joanna Gregory-Scocchi won a special election convention later that month to replace Derman in the Assembly.

To run against Gregory-Scocchi in a November 1994 special election, Democrats picked Buono, then a 41-year-old Metuchen Councilwoman.  The political environment in the fall of 1994 was decisively Republican, and Gregory-Scocchi was favored to hold the seat.

The Gregory-Scocchi campaign fell apart that fall after amidst a controversy involving illegal immigration and a temporary employment company owned by the new Assemblywoman.  A van owned by Gregory-Scocchi's husband and used by her business to transport temp workers was stopped by local law enforcement, who found undocumented workers in the vehicle.  A few weeks before the election, U.S. Immigration and Naturalization (INS ) agents raided Gregory-Schocchi's place of business.

Superior Court Judge Patricia J. Costello removed Dana Rone from her seat on the Newark City Council earlier this month for abusing her office when she interceded in a 2006 traffic stop involving her nephew. PolitickerNJ.com editorial cartoonist Rob Tornoe has an interesting take on the matter: that New Jersey operates under a culture where the powerful and politically connected use their influence to get special treatment every day.

Whether its premium seats for concerts, special license plates and badges for judges and elected officials that send a not-too-subtle don’t-mess-with-me signal to state troopers and local police officers, or even the get out of jail free cards the PBA provides to legislators and political leaders in quantity to give away to friends (maybe even contributors), New Jersey politicos actively seek special treatment on a daily basis. So maybe Tornoe is right when he opines that there is some hypocrisy to the system, although his characterization is entirely generic – there is no confirmation that Costello or her family drives a car with judicial license plates.