Kip Bateman

Republicans knew that the new COAH rules were a huge unfunded mandate. Now they know just how big. The best estimate is that it will cost communities $2 billion a year to meet these requirements for "affordable" housing.

A Reminder of Past Obfuscation for Those New to the Debate

Senate Minority Leader Ton Kean, Jr. (R-Union), and Sen. Leonard Lance (R-Hunterdon).: Politicker photo

State Sen. Thomas Kean, Jr., (R-Union) became minority leader just as a new band of hungry Republican legislators came up from the General Assembly to assume their Senate seats.

Another under 40 senator with statewide aspirations might send out at least back channel messages of panic in the face of a baseball roster's worth of new GOP talent.

And indeed there have been some nose-to-nose moments in the last few months since Kean made caucus boss, notably between the patrician leader and the headstrong state Sen. Kevin O'Toole (R-Essex).

But according to his colleagues, the stoic Kean has generally met the onrush by embracing it; and has assumed a statesmanlike stance while tapping the scrappy skills honed by his freshmen senators in the lower house.

Senator Kip Bateman (R-16) issued the following statement following the approval of a pension reform measure (S-1962/1964/1965/1969Scs) by the Senate:

"I am truly pleased that the Legislature has finally acted to put the pension systems that public employees depend on back on firm ground. I am disappointed, however, that some of the most important measures were not acted upon at this time.

For Immediate Release: May 12, 2008

Contact: Amanda Woloshen, 908-267-1613

At the beginning of this campaign Kate Whitman promised to run a positive campaign saying Senator "Lance is a statesman … any primary with him in it will probably be the best-behaved primary anyone's ever seen." (12/3/08 Express-Times).  A promise she has already broken with negative ads that distort Leonard Lance’s record.

Republican state Sen. Christopher "Kip" Bateman knows that, if he really does want to enter the U.S. Senate race, he'll have to make a decision very soon.

"It all happened very quickly. My head's spinning," said Bateman, whose father, Raymond, was state Senate President in the early 1970s and was the Republican gubernatorial nominee in 1977. "It's a little late in the game and Joe (Pennacchio) has gotten county endorsements already. I'm kind of testing the waters, quickly."

Bateman has toyed with the idea of running for a Senate seat before, and yesterday afternoon began to receive phone calls from people encouraging him to make a run for it to fill in for Anne Evans Estabrook, who abruptly withdrew from the race yesterday.

State Sen. Kip Bateman might enter the U.S. Senate race
State Sen. Christopher "Kip" Bateman (R-Somerset) began making calls late yesterday to express some interest in the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate, and has spoken with several GOP County Chairmen about entering the race to challenge incumbent Frank Lautenberg.

Bateman, 50, is the son of former Senate President Raymond Bateman, the 1977 GOP candidate for Governor, and is a law partner of former Gov. Donald DiFrancesco. He spent fourteen years representing Somerset County in the State Assembly before winning a State Senate seat last November.

Senator Christopher "Kip" Bateman (R-16) is calling on Governor Jon Corzine, Senate President Richard Codey and Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts to put everything else aside and convene a special session of the legislature to address New Jersey’s bloated budget.

A move by lawyers for former Governor Donald DiFrancesco to move a sexual harassment suit against him from Essex County to Somerset County was denied.  The plaintiff, former prosecutor Michelle D'Onofio, claims DiFrancesco harassed her and ten fired him from his law firm after she filed an ethics complaint against Warren Township Municipal Court Judge Richard Sasso, a friend of the ex-Governor, for drinking on the job.  D’Onofio suggested that Judges in Somerset have too many ties to DiFrancesco and his law partner, State Senator Christopher Bateman.

Former Senate Presidents Bateman and McDermott Support Lance 

            Showing continued strength outside his home county of Hunterdon, Leonard Lance announced two significant endorsements for his campaign for the 7th Congressional district seat being vacated by Mike Ferguson, who is not running for re-election.