Michael Angelini

Raymond Zane, left, spent 28 years in the State Senate before losing his seat to Stephen Sweeney, right, in 2001.

Stephen Sweeney (D-West Deptford), who announced yesterday that he has the votes to depose Richard Codey (D-Roseland) as Senate President, went to the Senate eight years ago after prevailing in an internal political war in South Jersey.

The Inside Edge first reported political unrest in a deeply divided Gloucester County Democratic organization in early 2000 amidst a feud between Democratic County Chairman Michael Angelini and eight-term State Sen. Raymond Zane (D-Woodbury).  Angelini was backing former Gov. Jim Florio in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senator, while Zane was supporting a political newcomer, a mega millionaire Wall Streeter named Jon Corzine.

The feud between Angelini and Zane began during the 1999 general election.  Democrats were angry with Zane's refusal to back Paulsboro Mayor John Burzichelli in his campaign to oust two Republican Assemblymen: Speaker Jack Collins (R-Elmer) and Gary Stuhltrager (R-East Greenwich).  Political observers had long believed that an informal arrangement existed between the three District 3 legislators; they have not become involved in campaigns against the other for several years.

In retaliation for Zane's actions, some Gloucester County municipalities stripped the Senator of more than $100,000 worth of legal work, and Zane's son, Gloucester County Freeholder Raymond Zane III lost his position as Freeholder Vice President.

The split between the two widened in 2000 when Zane attempted to switch local party organizations from Florio, a former South Jersey Congressman, to Corzine. Zane was heavily criticized when Salem County Democratic Chairman Thomas Pankok went public with allegations that Zane offered campaign contributions to Salem Democrats on behalf of Corzine in exchange for dropping their support of Florio.

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.

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U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie says that Wayne Bryant's conviction will wake up the state pension board

A story by the Gloucester County Times' Trish Graber must have been a real sphincter squeezing moment for more than a few politically active lawyers: "The conviction of former Sen. Wayne Bryant rang the alarm on public-sector attorneys who sent subordinates to perform their work, a practice the defense argued was common throughout New Jersey." Especially since outgoing U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie says that the Bryant trial "has woken up the pension board.... I think the pension board is going to be much more active in looking at these pension applications .. If you did it in a serial way like Wayne Bryant did, you should go to the pension board now and make good."

Graber suggests that among the first pension cases to be reviewed will be those of former State Sen. Raymond Zane and Gloucester County Democratic Chairman Michael Angelini, who "were key to the defense's argument that the practice of Bryant sending associates to perform his work at the Gloucester County Board of Social Services, and taking the pension credits, was common."   Zane, who served in the Senate from 1973 until his defeat in 2001, collects a pension based on nine part-time public jobs.