Jim Florio

Union County Republican Chairman Phil Morin has become a partner in the politically-connected law firm Florio, Perrucci, Steinhardt & Fader, the firm announced today.

The firm, which was founded by former Gov. Jim Florio, a Democrat, counts many insiders of both political parties as partners.  They include Warren County Republican Chairman Doug Steinhardt; Bergen County Democratic insider Paul Fader, who was chief counsel to Governor McGreevey and Codey and a two-term mayor of Englewood; and former Bergen County Republican Chairman Rob Ortiz, who is currently the Republican State Committee's finance chair. 

Morin most recently worked at Saul Ewing.  Before that he worked with  LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae LLP and as a sole practitioner.

Robert Ortiz, the New Jersey GOP State Finance Chairman and the former Bergen County GOP Chairman, is now a lawyer at Florio, Perrucci, Steinhardt and Fader. The firm is headed by former Democratic Gov. Jim Florio and partners include former Warren County Democratic Chairman Michael Perrucci, Warren County GOP Chairman Douglas Steinhardt, and Paul Fader, who was Chief Counsel to Gov. James E. McGreevey.

Former staffers will celebate the 20th anniversary of Jim Florio's election as Governor with an event at Drumthwacket on Bastille Day.

Bastille Day 2009 might offer a snapshot of New Jersey political history that Gov. Jon Corzine might prefer to be kept out of the spotlight in an election year.  Members of Jim Florio's administration and campaign staff will gather to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Florio's election as Governor with an event at Drumthwacket, the Governor's mansion, on July 14.  Republicans might enjoy the comparison of the two Governors in a celebration that comes two weeks after the deadline to pass a state budget.

Jim Florio served as Governor of New Jersey from 1990 to 1994.

Members of Jim Florio's staff, campaign and administration will gather in July to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his election as Governor of New Jersey.   The group will meet on July 14 from 6-8:30 PM at Drumthwacket to "reminisce, reconnect and relish" Florio's time as Governor.  The organizing committee is looking for names and contact information for anyone who was part of the administration and campaigns and can be reached at florio@evergreenpr.com. 

Jim Florio served as Governor of New Jersey from 1990 to 1994, and was a Congressman from 1974 to 1990.

During the 1960s, the late conservative polemicist, William F. Buckley once referred to his relationship with Harvard liberal economist John Kenneth Galbraith as one of his significant "transideological relationships". In the course of my tenure as Regional Administrator of Region 2 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) during the Bush administration from September, 2005 until January 20, 2009, I was fortunate to develop a similar transideological and transparty friendship with former New Jersey Governor Jim Florio. It was certainly never as intimate as the Buckley - Galbraith relationship, but a warm friendship nevertheless, one I am proud to have.

This relationship developed from an initial meeting in my office at Region 2 EPA in the summer of 2006. Throughout my tenure, I felt that it was essential for me to reach out to both leading Republican and Democrat players on environmental issues, together with stakeholders in the nongovernmental environmental organizations, business associations, and academic community as well. I viewed my meeting with Jim Florio as an opportunity to receive input on regional matters from the leading political player on environmental issues in the Region during the last three decades.

The meeting was scheduled for one hour, but it lasted, at my request, for nearly two hours. Talking with Florio was like having a conversation with an environmental and energy encyclopedia. I know of nobody on the current American political scene who has the breadth and depth of Jim Florio on these two clusters of issues.

Independent candidates for Governor, left to right: Christopher Daggett (2009), Murray Sabrin (1997), Bill Schluter (2001), and Secaucus pig farmer Henry Krajewski (1953, 1957, 1961)

Dr. Christopher Daggett, the former Kean cabinet member who said today that he will run for Governor as an independent, will need to raise $340,000 in contributions of $3,400 or less in order to qualify for public financing and participate in the debate.  In New Jersey, independent statewide candidates traditionally do not fare well.

The only independent candidate to qualify for matching funds was Murray Sabrin, a Ramapo College Professor who ran as the Libertarian candidate for Governor in 1997.  Sabrin won 5% of the vote in his race against incumbent Christine Todd Whitman and her Democratic challenger, then-State Sen. James E. McGreevey.  A conservative, Richard Pezzullo, won 1% in the same race.

In 2001, Bill Schluter, an incumbent Republican State Senator from Mercer County, mounted an independent bid for Governor.  He used the same campaign team that had elected Jesse Ventura in Minnesota three years earlier, but won just 1% of the vote against McGreevey and Republican Bret Schunder, the former Mayor of Jersey City. 

Lafayette College Special Collections & College Archives Photo

Robert Meyner was elected Governor in 1953, two years after he lost his State Senate seat to Wayne Dumont.

Of the seven Democrats and Republicans running for Governor, only two have never lost an election: Democrat Jon Corzine won a race for U.S. Senate in 2000 and was elected Governor in 2005; and Republican Brian Levine was elected to the Franklin Township Council in 1997 and 2001, and Mayor in 2003 and 2007.

On the Republican side, Christopher Christie was elected to the Morris County Board of Freeholders in 1994, and lost GOP primaries for State Assembly in 1995 and for Freeholder in 1997.  Steven Lonegan was elected Mayor of Bogota in 1995, 1999 and 2003, but lost races for State Senator (in 1997 to incumbent Byron Baer) Congress (in 1998 to incumbent Steve Rothman), Bergen County Executive (2002 convention) and Governor (2005 primary).  Rick Merkt lost a 1995 primary for State Assembly (he was Christie's running mate) before winning the first of six terms in 1997.  Jim Murray lost a 2006 primary for Morris County Freeholder and then won in 2007.

Corzine's Democratic primary opponent, Carl Bergmanson, was elected three times to the Glen Ridge Council before losing a 1999 bid for Mayor.  He was elected Mayor four years later.

Of New Jersey's ten elected Governors under the current State Constitution, six had lost previous elections: James E. McGreevey ran unsuccessfully for Governor in 1997; Christine Todd Whitman lost a 1990 bid for U.S. Senate; Jim Florio lost a race for Congress in 1972, a gubernatorial primary in 1977, and a race for Governor in 1981; Thomas Kean, Sr. lost Republican primaries for Congress (1974) and Governor (1977); Richard Hughes lost a race for Congress in 1938; and Robert Meyner was defeated in a re-election bid for State Senator two years before he was elected Governor in 1953. 

In 1973, State Sen. James Turner was convicted on charges that he to plant drugs in the home of Assemblyman Kenneth Gewertz.

New Jersey's third legislative district, which has included parts of Gloucester and Salem counties since it was created in 1973, has had the lowest turnover of any legislative district in the state: only two State Senators and just seven Assemblymen over the last 35 years.  The likely resignation of Assemblyman Douglas Fisher to become New Jersey's Secretary of Agriculture will trigger a special election convention fill a rare opening in the Assembly.

Democrat Raymond Zane, a Gloucester County Freeholder, won the seat in 1973 after a classic political feud between two Gloucester County legislators resulted in the criminal conviction of the incumbent.  Republican State Sen. James Turner was so determined to destroy the career of Democratic Assemblyman Kenneth Gewertz that he conspired to plant drugs in Gewertz's car and garage. But the tactic went bad after the police detective sensed that the tip he received from Turner might not be completely altruistic. An investigation led to Turner's arrest on charges that he hired three known criminals to plant a large amount of amphetamines in the Gewertz home. A jury convicted the 44-year-old Turner in less than two hours and he was sentenced to five years in prison. Turner was removed from the Senate after his conviction, but refused to drop his bid for re-election to a second term in 1973. Gloucester County Republicans withdrew their endorsement and ran Sheriff Walter Fish as a write-in candidate after a Superior Court Judge rebuffed their bid to remove him from the ballot. Zane was an easy winner, and the big surprise was the more than 20% of the voters supported Turner's return to the Legislature.   Gewertz, perhaps one of the most colorful men to ever serve in the New Jersey Legislature, was able to keep his seat until Democrats finally dumped him in 1979.

Zane held the Senate seat for 28 years before losing re-election in 2001 after he lost the backing of the Gloucester County Democratic organization and became as a Republican.  A feud between Zane and longtime Democratic County Chairman Michael Angelini began in 1999 when top members of the local Democratic organization became angered over Zane's refusal to back Democrat John Burzichelli, the Mayor of Paulsboro, in his campaign against GOP Assemblyman Jack Collins, the Speaker, and Gary Stuhltrager.

Left to right: U.S. Sen. Clifford Case and his 1978 GOP primary opponent, Jeff Bell; 2001 Republican gubernatorial candidates Acting Gov. Donald DiFrancesco and Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler.

There is a temptation by the media, including this site, to designate former U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie as the front runner for the Republican gubernatorial nomination.  A Quinnipiac poll released yesterday with a 27-point lead, 44%-17%, over former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan. 

A February 2001 Quinnipiac poll had Acting Gov. Donald DiFrancesco leading Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler 45%-16% among Republican primary voters.  A Quinnipiac poll taken in May showed former U.S. Rep. Bob Franks with a 46%-24% lead over Schundler.  Schundler won the primary by fourteen points, 57%-43%. 

In 2000, former Gov. Jim Florio had a 57%-22% lead over first-time candidate Jon Corzine in a February Quinnipiac poll.  Corzine won the primary 58%-42%.

Conservative Jeff Bell, a former speechwriter for Ronald Reagan, beat four-term U.S. Senator Clifford Case in the 1978 GOP Primary by a 51%-49% margin.  But just a month earlier, an Eagleton-Rutgers poll had Case leading Bell 35%-7%.

Left to right: Brendan Byrne, Raymond Bateman, Jim Florio, Christine Todd Whitman and Jon Corzine

Quinnipiac University pollster Clay Richards says that incumbent Jon Corzine has suddenly become the underdog in his bid for re-election to a second term, and that the "big question is whether Corzine will come back like Democratic Gov. Brendan Byrne did in 1977 or go down to defeat like Jim Florio in 1993?"

A February 1977 Eagleton-Rutgers poll showed Byrne trailing an unnamed Republican challenger by 26 points, 45%-19%.  He had an upside-down approval rating of 22%-71%.  In a July poll taken after Byrne won the Democratic primary with 30% of the vote against ten challengers, GOP State Sen. Raymond Bateman led by seven points, 46%-39%.  Byrne was re-elected by a 56%-42% margin.

More than half of the state's voters (51%) felt Florio didn't deserve a second term in a February 1993 Eagleton-Rutgers poll.  Florio had upside-down approvals of 36%-60%.  A post-primary poll taken in June showed Republican Christine Todd Whitman and Florio in a statistical dead heat, 44%-43%.  Whitman beat Florio by 26,093 votes, 49%-48%.