James E. McGreevey

Phillip Alampi was the New Jersey Secretary of Agriculture from 1956 to 1982 -- the longest serving cabinet member in state history. His tenure spanned three Democratic Governors and two Republicans.

New Jersey has one of the most powerful governorships in the nation, but on agricultural issues, the Governor has relatively little clout - the result of a deal with South Jerseyans to gain political support for the ratification of the 1947 State Constitution.  As a result, the Governor has limited say on the appointment of one member of his or her cabinet, the Secretary of Agriculture, and even takes direction from an agricultural trade association on the appointments of policy-makers.  This is a throwback to the old days when state boards exercised considerable power, especially in the areas of health, education, the environment, and alcoholic beverage control.

The eight members of the New Jersey Board of Agriculture are elected by members of the agriculture community at the State Agricultural Convention.  By tradition, the Governor then appoints the choices of the convention to four-year terms on the Board, with the consent of the State Senate.  The Board sets policies that direct the Secretary of Agriculture and the New Jersey Department of Agriculture.  By law, the top four commodity groups in the state - based on a "two year average of the gross value of production," according to the department website - are entitled to seats on the Board.

The Board also nominates the Secretary of Agriculture (SOA), who becomes a cabinet member with the Governor's approval.  Unlike other cabinet posts, where the Commissioner runs the department, the SOA is essentially the secretary to the Board.

Emerging as a formidable candidate for Regional Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is Bill Matsikoudis, the Jersey City Corporation Counsel and a former Assistant Counsel to Gov. James E. McGreevey.  Insiders report that Matsikoudis has at least two very influential backers: Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy, the Hudson County Democratic Chairman; and Newark Mayor Cory Booker.  Healy and Booker were early supporters of Barack Obama’s bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.  The two mayors have the ability to influence New Jersey’s two Democratic U.S. Senators, whose recommendation can, in turn, influence the Obama administration.

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Bob Franks had a 53%-3% favorble rating among Republicans after his 2000 U.S. Senate bid, and lost a primary for Governor six months later by fourteen percentage points

Outgoing U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie has a 42%-1% favorable rating among Republican voters, who by a 67%-4% margin want him to run for Governor in 2009.  In a head to head poll with Democrat Jon Corzine, Republicans back Christie 76%-10%.  Christie also leads Corzine among Independents, 38%-32%.

Rob Andrews will return for his eleventh term in Congress next year, and after losing two statewide races, it's unclear whether the last will be the final one.

Andrews ran a close second in the 1997 Democratic gubernatorial primary against James E. McGreevey, was passed over to succeed Gov. Corzine in the Senate, and mounted a primary challenge against incumbent U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg this year, only to lose by 25 percentage points. But despite those three dispiriting defeats, he still won't rule out the possibility of another statewide run some day, and prefers not to speculate on whether the last one hurt his prospects.

"That's really not for me to decide. That's for voters to decide and leaders of the party," said Andrews (D-Haddon Heights) in a phone interview yesterday.

Political insiders acknowledge that there are a thousand lives in politics, but see Andrews's defeat as being particularly hard to crawl back from - and not just because of the lopsided margin.

Could Steve Sweeney wind up as Govenor if Jon Corzine leaves office early?

If Governor Jon Corzine leaves office early to take a job in Barack Obama's new administration, his most likely successor is Richard Codey.  As Senate President, Codey is next in the gubernatorial line of succession -- as he was for 84 hours in 2001 when Donald DiFrancesco left office, and for fourteen months in 2004 and 2005 following James E. McGreevey's resignation.

Timothy Dacey, who served as Chief of Staff to James E. McGreevey when the future Governor was the Mayor of Woodbridge, lost his bid for re-election to the Metuchen Borough Council on Tuesday.  Republican Justin Manley defeated him by 25 votes, 3,642 to 3,617, to become the first successful GOP candidate in Metuchen in many years.  Dacey's running mate, Peter Cammarano, who served as Chief of Staff to Gov. Richard Codey, won his race for Metuchen Councilman.  He was the top vote-getter with 4,161 votes.  Cammarano was appointed to fill an unexpired term last January.

Three New Jerseyans played key roles in Barack Obama's 50.8%-48.4% win in Florida yesterday: Jamie Fox, a former Chief of Staff to Governor James E. McGreevey, was dispatched to Florida at the request of Obama campaign manager David Plouffe to help turn the state from Red to Blue; and U.S. Senator Robert Menendez spent several days campaigning in Florida for Obama -- especially in the Cuban-American community that makes up about 29% of the county's population. Fox also brought Tom Shea, a former Chief of Staff to Governor Jon Corzine, to Florida to help with the effort. Obama won Miami-Dade 58%-42%, a margin of nearly 140,000 votes. In 2004, the Democratic margin was about 48,000.

Veteran reporter Jeff Whelan, who was part of the Star-Ledger's team that won the Pulitzer Prize for their coverage of Gov. James E. McGreevey's resignation, will leave the newspaper this week as part of the newspaper's buyout program.  Whelan, along with Josh Margolin, was a statehouse reporter until moving to cover the U.S. Attorney's office last year.

Charles Kuperus is expected to resign his cabinet post as New Jersey Secretary of Agriculture.  A Republican, he was serving as a Sussex County Freeholder when Democrat James E. McGreevey appointed him after the 2001 gubernatorial election.  Kuperus is the lone Republican in Gov. Jon Corzine's cabinet, and since Corzine pledged during his 2005 campaign that he would make bi-partisan cabinet appointments, its possible that he'll pick a Republican for Secretary of Agricuture, or to replace Lisa Jackson at the Department of Environmental Protection.  

For the record, Corzine doesn't actually appoint the Secretary of Agriculture.  In New Jersey, Governors make recommendations to the State Board of Agriculture, who actually votes on the cabinet post.

The New Jersey Legislature is often the breeding ground for gubernatorial candidates, but by 2009 it will have been 81 years since a sitting state legislator has been elected Governor -- the last time was in 1928, when Morgan Larson, a Republican State Senator from Middlesex County, won.

Over the last fifty years, only four incumbent legislators -- State Senators Malcom Forbes (1957), Wayne Dumont (1965), Raymond Bateman (1977) and James E. McGreevey (1997) -- have won gubernatorial primaries, and all four have lost their general elections.