The death of retired Judge Sylvia Pressler opens up a seat on the state Joint Legislative Committee on Ethical Standards.  Pressler had been named to the panel by Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts (D-Camden), and now Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D-East Orange) must name a replacement to the panel, which was created in 2008 as part of the Legislature’s ethics reform package. Pressler was the only woman on the eight-member ethics panel, which includes Rutgers University Professor Alan Rosenthal, retired Judges Daniel Mecca, John Harper, and Neil Shuster, former State Sen. Peter Inverso (R-Hamilton), and Cherry Hill attorney Anargiros Rentezelas.

On January 27, 2010, the New Jersey Democratic State Committee elected John Wisniewski, an eight-term Assemblyman from Sayreville, as their new party chairman.  Wisniewski is the 27th chairman since 1910, the year Woodrow Wilson, the president of Princeton University, was elected governor. Wisniewski, 47, becomes the first Democratic State Chairman from Middlesex County since David Wilentz held the post more than 70 years ago.  Click here to read the stories of the New Jersey Democratic State Chairmen over the last 100 years.

The New Jersey Democratic State Committee will meet at 7PM tonight in Jamesburg to elect a state chairman for a two-year term.  Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Sayreville) is expected to win the post without opposition. The incumbent, Joseph Cryan (D-Union), is not seeking re-election in order to concentrate on his new post as Assembly Majority Leader. 

Camden Mayor Dana Redd is expected to be re-elected as Vice Chair, but Democrats are expected to replace Peter Nichols as their Treasurer.

Wisniewski would become the fourth consecutive legislator to serve as Democratic State Chairman, following Cryan (2006-10), Bonnie Watson Coleman (2002-06), and Joseph Roberts (2001-02).  Each of his predecessors went from the state chairmanship to the Assembly Majority Leader post.

ADDITIONAL MEASURES TO HELP N.J. COMBAT NATION'S HIGHEST AUTISM RATE SIGNED INTO LAW

(TRENTON) - Legislation championed by former Assembly Speaker Joseph J. Roberts Jr., and sponsored by Assembly members L. Grace Spencer, Dr. Joan M. Voss, Valerie Vainieri Huttle and John S. Wisniewski to further help New Jersey combat its highest-in-the-nation autism prevalence was signed into law Friday by Acting Governor Stephen M. Sweeney.

The retirements of Assemblymen John Rooney (R-Northvale) and Joseph Roberts (D-Camden) makes Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce (R-Parsippany) the senior member of the lower house.  DeCroce took office on January 26, 1989, after winning a special election convention.  The senior member of the Legislature is Richard Codey (D-Roseland), who was elected to the Assembly in 1973 and to the Senate in 1981; Codey and Gerald Cardinale (R-Demarest) went to the Senate on the same day.

At noon, Richard Codey will become the tenth living former Senate President, joining: Frank McDermott (1969), Raymond Bateman (1970-72), Frank Dodd (1974-76), Carmen Orechio (1982-86), John Russo (1986-90), John Lynch (1990-92), Donald DiFrancesco (1992-2002), John Bennett (2002-2004), and Bernard Kenny (2008).  Bennett was Co-President with Codey during the two years each party had twenty Senate seats, and Kenny was elected for one day, as a tribute just before his retirement. 

Joseph Roberts becomes the twelfth living former Assembly Speaker; he joins: William Hyland (1958), Elmer Matthews (1963), Peter Moraites (1969), Barry Parker (1971), Thomas Kean (1972-74), William Hamilton (1977), Chuck Hardwick (1986-90), Joseph Doria (1990-92), Garabed “Chuck” Haytaian (1992-96), Jack Collins (1996-2002), and Albio Sires (2002-2006).

TRENTON – There are three sitting legislators who have been indicted on corruption charges, but only one of them is here today.

“I have only one wish: to be exonerated and fully restored to all my capacities as an assemblyman,” said Assemblyman Anthony Chiappone (D-Bayonne). 

Chiappone, who was charged in August with allegedly funneling a legislative aide’s paychecks into his personal and campaign accounts, sat at his desk and cast votes – despite having been stripped by Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts (D-Camden) of his pay and committee assignments. 

The two other indicted assemblymen, L. Harvey Smith (D-Jersey City) and Joseph Vas (D-Perth Amboy), met with the same punishment.  But, unlike Chiappone, neither has shown up since their indictments, and neither is going to be sworn in for a new term tomorrow.  The conventional wisdom is that they have only remained in the Assembly so as not to give the appearance of an admission of guilt. 

Despite the sanctions, Chiappone, who has pleaded not guilty, said his fellow legislators have treated him respectfully.

Today is the last day in office for seven members of the State Assembly: Nilsa Cruz-Perez (D-Camden), Sandra Love (D-Laurel Springs), Richard Merkt (R-Mendham), Joseph Roberts (D-Camden), John Rooney (R-Northvale), L. Harvey Smith (D-Jersey City), and Joseph Vas (D-Perth Amboy).  Merkt have up his seat to seek the Republican gubernatorial nomination, and Smith ran unsuccessfully for Mayor of Jersey City; the others did not seek re-election.

Roberts, the Assembly Speaker, announced in September that he would not seek re-election to the seat he has held since replacing the late Francis Gorman (D-Gloucester City) in a 1987 special election.  Rooney is the most senior member of the Legislature; he won a 1983 special election after Joan Wright took a job in the Kean administration.  Vas dropped his re-election bid after federal and state corruption indictments, and Smith was arrested in July in connection to Operation Bid Rig.

Anthony Bucco, Jr. (R-Boonton), Craig Coughlin (D-Woodbridge), Domenick DiCicco (R-Franklin Twp.), Angel Fuentes (D-Camden), Charles Mainor (D-Jersey City), Donald Norcross (D-Camden) and Robert Schroeder (R-Washington) will take office tomorrow.  Bucco replaces Merkt, DiCicco won Love’s seat, Fuentes and Norcross will assume the seats left open by the retirements of Roberts and Cruz-Perez, Mainor replaces Smith, and Schroeder succeeds Rooney.

Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts (D-Camden) has been nominated for a seat on the Rutgers University Board of Governors.  Roberts did not seek re-election and will leave office on January 12.  If confirmed by the Senate before the new governor takes office, Roberts must wait until the expiration of his term before he can take the Rutgers post.

Assemblyman-elect Donald Norcross has not yet been sworn in to the lower legislative house, but he already appears to have a clear path to move up to the state senate. 

Close to 100 Democratic Party leaders, elected officials and labor leaders  from in and around the 5th Legislative District closed ranks around Norcross to take over the state senate seat vacated by Camden Mayor Dana Redd, and Camden Councilman Gilbert “Whip” Wilson to take over the assembly seat that Norcross was elected to fill.

Norcross is the South Jersey AFL-CIO president, co-chairman of the Camden County Democrats and brother of South Jersey power broker George Norcross. 

“Donald Norcross and Councilman Wilson will be outstanding representatives of the people of the 5th District,” said U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews (D-Haddon Heights).  “They will do what needs to be done to reduce government spending, hold the line on taxes and improve the quality of life for those who live and work here.”

Norcross will serve in the state assembly for four days before Democratic committee members from the district hold a special election on Jan. 16 that will almost certainly send him on to the state senate.