James Courter

Members of Jim Florio's staff, campaign and administration will gather at Drumthwacket tomorrow to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his election as Governor of New Jersey.  Gov. Jon Corzine will not be in attendance, and no taxpayer funds are being used for the event.

New Jersey Republicans are likely to nominate a pro-life candidate for Governor today - only the sixth abortion opponent to win a statewide GOP primary since the U.S. Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision in 1973.  Pro-Choice Republicans have won fourteen statewide Republican primaries.

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Former Gov. Tom Kean, endorsing John McCain for President before the New Hampshire GOP primary last year. Kean also endorsed State Sen. Bob Martin in a 2003 primary against Jay Webber.

As he endorsed Christopher Christie for the 2009 GOP gubernatorial nomination on Wednesday, former Governor Thomas Kean, Sr. reminded reporters that the only other time he involved himself in a Republican Primary was when his son ran for the U.S. Senate three years ago.   That's not completely accurate.  During his second term as Governor, Kean went to Hudson County to endorse Albio Sires, a Republican activist from West New York who had been recruited by state Republicans to challenge U.S. Rep. Frank Guarini (D-Jersey City) in 1986.  Sires was facing a primary challenge from one of two Republicans on the Hudson County Board of Freeholders.

At the time, Republicans believed they were looking at a possible political realignment in Hudson County.  They had won two Freeholder seats in 1984 and four Assembly seats in 1985.  Ronald Reagan carried Hudson in 1984, and Kean won every town in the county when he ran for re-election in 1985.  The GOP was playing heavily in non-partisan municipal races that year, and was counting on electing a Republican Mayor of Union City, where Assemblyman Ronald Dario (R-Union City) was heading a local ticket - financed by the GOP - that included a young lawyer named Robert Menendez.

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U.S. Rep. Jim Saxton (R-Mt. Holly) will retire tomorrow after 24 years in the U.S. House of Representatives.

When Jim Saxton and Mike Ferguson leave Congress tomorrow, New Jersey will have nineteen living former Congressmen.  The oldest is Peter H.B. Frelinghuysen, the 93-year-old father of U.S. Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen.  He first won an open seat in 1952 and served until his retirement in 1974.  The youngest is the soon-to-be-unemployed Michael Pappas, 48, a Republican who won an open seat in 1996 and lost his bid for re-election to a second term two years later.  Pappas works for the Small Business Administration and will likely lose his job when the new administration takes office this month.

Republican Jim Courter was re-elected to a fifth term in 1986 when he defeated Democrat David Crabiel by a 63%-37% margin.

David Crabiel, the longtime Middlesex County Freeholder who died today at age 78, ran for Congress twice, both times without success.  His first campaign was in 1974 -- the year his brother, the New Jersey Secretary of State, was indicted on bid rigging charges -- when the then-Mayor of Milltown challenged ten-term incumbent Frank Thompson in the Democratic primary.  Thompson won 65%-35%.  The second time came in 1986, during his eighth year as a Freeholder.  He won the Democratic nomination, but lost 63%-37% to James Courter, a four-term Republican.

New Jersey Republicans have nine non-incumbent candidates for Congress in 2008, the most since 1976 when the state's House delegation had a 12-3 Democratic majority.  For the last decade, New Jersey Democrats have held a 7-6 majority in the House.

Here's a brief history of the party turnover of New Jersey House seats: