John Bennett

Among the ironies in the 12th district is that Robert Morgan and John Bennett may have lost re-election for the same reason: their refusal to give up additional personal income for the chance to serve in the New Jersey Legislature. For Bennett it was his no-bid legal work in several Monmouth County municipalities, highlighted by a $4,000 billing error in Marlboro. For Morgan, it was his part-time gigs at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and at the state Department of Health. Conflicts like this were among the reasons the ethics-conscious Asbury Park Press advocated the defeat of both incumbents.

Democrats have a 22-18 majority in the State Senate, and at this point Democrats really need to worry about just one seat in 2007: the 12th district, where Ellen Karcher ousted Co-Senate President John Bennett in 2003. The most logical GOP candidate is Assemblywoman-elect Jennifer Beck, who won a decisive victory last week over Democratic Assemblyman Robert Morgan. Senate Republicans have made no secret of their desire to see a Karcher-Beck race, but there is no guarantee that Beck will walk away from the Legislature after just two years to take on Karcher, whose defeat of Bennett and subsequent stories that she wore a wire in a federal corruption investigation have, according to Democratic and Republican polls, made her fairly popular. (Karcher's popularity comes largely from Marlboro and Manalapan.) If Republican Declan O'Scanlon holds his lead over Democratic Assemblyman Michael Panter, he could also emerge as a Senate candidate, but like Beck, he might not want to risk his career after just two years. One Republican who seems anxious to run against Karcher is Marlboro Mayor Robert Kleinberg.

Colts Neck: O'Scanlon and Bennett's Pay-to-Playland

O'Scanlon Caught Lying About Business Income and Dealings With John Bennett

PUBLIC DOCUMENTS PROVE O'SCANLON'S TIES TO BENNETT ON PUBLIC CONTRACTS

Second No-Bid Contract Revealed in Two Days

If you are an authentic political junkie, the type that can't get enough of politics -- real or fiction -- then you have done two things in the last fifteen hours: watched the premier of Commander-In-Chief on ABC and read Herb Jackson's column this morning in The Record.

The premise of the new White House drama (which was just okay, nothing special, if anyone really cares what this authentic junkie thought) is that a rather conservative President has a stroke and the people around him don't feel comfortable with the Vice President, a woman far to their left who got on the ticket to help them win a general election, moving into the Oval Office. When the President dies, some of his staff, cabinet and the next-in-the-line of succession Speaker of the House, push her to resign.

Jackson writes about the November 2005 referendum to create the Office of Lieutenant Governor, a legislative solution to New Jersey having two unelected Governors (maybe more, but John Bennett doesn't really count) over the past four years. Jackson: "The proposal's biggest departure from the federal model comes when a lieutenant governor steps up to fill a vacancy. Instead of serving the remainder of the governor's term, the lieutenant would serve only until the next November election, when voters would pick another ticket to serve for the remainder of the term. If the vacancy occurs within 60 days of a November election, the special election would not be until the following year, meaning the longest a lieutenant could serve as a replacement governor is 14 months.

"Some see this provision as the old-boy network being willing to support a woman or a minority on the ticket for show, as long as they could not be in power for too long. Architects of the proposal disagree angrily, saying special elections are common for many other public offices in the state," Jackson writes.

What Jackson is saying, likely with much accuracy, is that party leaders -- the guys who control the lines -- would not feel obliged to back the man or woman (the conventional wisdom is that the '09 gubernatorial nominees will want to balance their tickets with a woman or minority, or both) elected as Lieutenant Governor to be a heartbeat away from the nation's most powerful governorship. Unlike the United States Constitution, which provides for the Vice President to finish the term, the proposed amendment to the State Constitution -- arguably better than the current system -- still provides a loophole to the political elite.

And if you aren't a real junie, and don't care about Herb Jackson or Geena Davis, CLICK HERE.