Raymond Zane

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 the old days, State Senators either moved up (often to a judgeship) or out.  Of the Senators who have served since 1845, when a new State Constitution began elected one Senator from every county, only eleven men have spent more than twenty years in the Senate.  Of those eleven, four are there now, and another two left within the last decade.

New Jersey's longest-serving State Senators, since 1845:

Gloucester County Republicans are facing a contested race for the leadership of a party that has not won a countywide election in twelve years, just as gubernatorial and legislative races present a possible opportunity for victory.  In last week's GOP primary, Freeholder and State Committee candidates running with gubernatorial candidate Steven Lonegan beat slates supported by Republican County Chair Loran Oglesby and her opponent in tomorrow's County Chair election, Bill Fey.  Oglesby finished sixth in a field of six Freeholder candidates.

If Republicans are to win the race for Governor, they'll need to compete in places like Gloucester, which have voted consistently for Democratic statewide candidates in recent years.  But while Democrats win Gloucester, their margins of victory may not be insurmountable.

Democrats have an edge in voter registration, but 42% of the voters are not affiliated with either party.  Those are similar numbers to Atlantic (45%) and Burlington (41%) counties, where Republicans control the Freeholder boards.   The last Republicans to win a Freeholder races in Gloucester County were Mary Virginia Weber in 1995, and Daniel Mangini and Stephen Atkinson in 1994.

The last Republican victories in Gloucester were in 1997, when Chuck Gill was re-elected Sheriff and James Hogan was elected County Clerk.  Gill did not seek re-election in 2000, and Hogan switched parties before running for re-election in 2002.

Paul Reed, the Salem County Republican Chairman, would like to see his own county - the least populous in New Jersey - get some representation in the state legislature.  But even with Democratic Assemblyman Doug Fisher (D-Bridgeton) set to be nominated as Secretary of Agriculture, no local Republicans have stepped forward yet.

"We haven't had representation in Salem County for a long time, and we need representation up there," said Reed.  "I've asked around and don't have any.  It doesn't mean there won't be anybody who wants to step up between now and April.  I've been looking through the bushes, but I don't have any prospects at this time."

Salem County, with a population of about 65,000, is the only county in the state without a representative in the legislature, and has been since former Assembly Speaker Jack Collins, a Republican, retired in after the 2001 election.  It is located completely in the 3rd Legislative District along with parts of Gloucester and Cumberland Counties.  It makes up about 31 percent of the district's population to Gloucester's 48 percent and Cumberland's 21 percent.

"In my 28 years in the Senate, there was always a representative from Salem.  That's not to say that a representative wouldn't be acceptable from Cumberland - it certainly would have. It just worked out that's the way it was," said former state Sen. Raymond J. Zane, who lost reelection to Senate Majority Leader Stephen Sweeney (D-West Deptford) after switching parties in 2001.  "I don't think it would be a good idea for all three to be from Gloucester County."

Donald Wagner, who spent 38 years in public office as an official in Gloucester County, passed away on January 10.  He was 91.  After serving four terms on the West Deptford Board of Education, he was elected to the Board of Freeholders in 1971, running on the Democratic ticket with Raymond Zane.  He was re-elected in 1974, 1977 and 1980.  Wagner spent seven years as Freeholder Director.

When Donald Stewart decided not to seek re-election to the sixth term in the State Assembly in 1981, Wagner mulled an Assembly bid.  Democrats instead backed Thomas Pankok, a Salem County Freeholder.   He was elected Gloucester County Surrogate in 1982, and was re-elected in 1987 and 1992.  

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.

Take a look at PolitickerNJ.com's first Winners & Losers of the Year, published in December 2000.  CLICK HERE

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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.

Anne Martindell (1914-2008) served in the New Jersey State Senate from 1974 to 1977.State Sen. Anne Martindell of Princeton, who died yesterday at 93, championed the underdog throughout a life marked by public service and a thirst for knowledge and self-improvement. In the words of her son, Princeton Councilman Roger Martindell, "she fought for what she believed in, and she was gracious in the fight."

Elected to the state Senate as a Democrat in 1973 as part of the Watergate backlash that landed a number of Democrats in the Statehouse to form a 28-12 Democratic majority, Martindell served one term before becoming President Jimmy Carter’s Ambassador to New Zealand.

In her eighties, she doubled back on the college career she never completed. Sixty-years after leaving Smith College following her freshman year, Martindell obtained her Bachelor’s degree from Smith and an honorary doctorate of law in 2002.

On Thursday, news of her death brought forth an outpouring of goodwill from those who knew her and those with whom she served in Trenton, including former Gov. Brendan T. Byrne.

Jan Pine, known in state political circles as the Chief of Staff to veteran State Sen. Raymond Zane, has accused Logan Mayor Frank Minor of “unwanted physical touching, offensive sexual language and other behaviors designed to prey upon her emotions,” according to a report in the Gloucester County Times.  Pine has filed a lawsuit against Minor and Logan Township, where she served as Township Administrator before being fired in 2006.