Richard Hughes

Barack Obama is the fourth President to visit to New Jersey to campaign for the re-election of an incumbent Governor. This is his second visit; there is speculation that he will return again before Election Day.

Bill Clinton stumped for Jim Florio in 1993, Ronald Reagan for Thomas Kean in 1985, and Jimmy Carter for Brendan Byrne in 1977.  Lyndon Johnson did not visit New Jersey when Richard Hughes ran for re-election in 1965, although the First Lady did join Hughes for a tour of a Head Start center in Newark.  And Richard Nixon did not come to New Jersey in support of William Cahill, who lost the Republican primary to a White House ally, U.S. Rep. Charles Sandman.

Since 1961, the New York Times has endorsed the winner in nine of the last twelve campaigns for Governor of New Jersey.   They have also backed incumbents in each of the last six races where a sitting Governor sought re-election, including their support of Gov. Jon Corzine, and have backed Democrats nine times and Republicans three times.

In races where incumbents were seeking second terms, the New York Times endorsed Christine Todd Whitman in 1997, James Florio in 1993, Thomas Kean in 1985, Brendan Byrne in 1977,and Richard Hughes in 1965.  Florio, Byrne and Hughes were Democrats; Whitman and Kean were Republicans.  Only Florio was defeated; he lost to Whitman.

In contests for open seats, the New York Times backed Corzine in 2005, James E. McGreevey in 2001, Florio in 1989, Kean in 1981, Byrne in 1973, Robert Meyner in 1969, and James Mitchell in 1961.  Kean and Mitchell were Republicans.  Meyner, a former  two-term Governor seeking a comeback, and Mitchell, who was U.S. Secretary of Labor in the Eisenhower administration, were defeated.  Meyner lost to William Cahill and Hughes defeated Mitchell.

U.S. Senator Robert Menendez's new book, Growing American Roots : Why Our Nation Will Thrive as Our Largest Minority Flourishes, has been published by Penguin Group (USA).  Menendez did his first book signing on Sunday in his old home town of Union City, where he broke into politics as a young school board member, Mayor, Assemblyman and State Senator before winning a seat in Congress in 1992. He is now the lone Latino in the United States Senate.

Menendez's book is now at 145,057 on the Barnes & Noble sales rank.  As a matter of comparison, as of this morning: former Gov. James E. McGreevey's book is ranked 119,152, ex-U.S. Sen. Robert Torricelli's book on great political speeches is at 190,079, and former U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley's most recent book is at 101,309.  Menendez leads another Cuban American Senator, Mel Martinez (R-Fla.), whose book is at 404,504.  He is also in a tight contest with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), whose boom is at 116,354.

Another tight race: sales of Menendez's book are trailing pre-sales of John Wefing's biography of another prominent New Jersey Democrat. The Life and Times of Richard J. Hughes : The Politics of Civility, a biography of the former two-term Governor and Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court.  The Hughes book is at 114,697 and is due to be released on November 15.

Gov. Richard Hughes

The #1 process issue of the 1965 campaign for Governor of New Jersey was over a Rutgers University professor who was a self-professed Marxist.  The GOP nominee, State Sen. Wayne Dumont (R-Phillipsburg) sought to hold Democratic Gov. Richard Hughes accountable for refusing to call for the firing of Prof. Eugene Genovese.

During an April '65 teach-in on the Vietnam War, Genovese told students: "Those of you who know me know that I am a Marxist and a Socialist.  Therefore, unlike most of my distinguished colleagues here this morning, I do not fear or regret the impending Vietcong victory in Vietnam.  I welcome it."

Hughes called Genovese's comments offensive, but declined to get involved in the politics of calling for the termination of a state university professor.  Dumont demanded that Genovese be fired, and said that the Rutgers teach-ins were "part and parcel of an organized conspiracy to undermine our position in Vietnam."

Dumont spent the next three months seeking to link the governor to the Rutgers issue, even going as far as to suggest that Hughes did not understand the danger of communism.  But the Warren County Republican stopped short of saying that Hughes was soft on communism. 

Hughes accused Dumont of politicizing dead American soldiers in Vietnam, and said that his Republican rival was an extremist.  "By using for his own little political gain the individual tragedies of young men dead in Vietnam, in what can only be called a kind of ‘vampire politics,' my opponent has opened a Pandora's box for the extremists of this state and nation," Hughes said.

Ted Kennedy's first political trip to New Jersey was on September 18, 1961, when he traveled to Camden County to stump for the Democratic candidate for Governor, Richard Hughes. Kennedy was serving as the Assistant Suffolk County District Attorney in the days when New Jersey Democrats didn't fervently object to prosecutors talking politics. 

His appearance at a press conference and fundraising dinner that attracted a reported 1,500 people at the Latin Casino, once a top night club in Cherry Hill. It came one year before he sought a U.S. Senate seat in Massachusetts.  Hughes won that race against Republican James Mitchell, who had been U.S. Secretary of Labor in the Eisenhower administration.

The brother of the popular president was, according to an old-time South Jersey politician who was at the event, was overshadowed by another guest, U.S. Sen. Hubert Humphrey (D-Minnesota).  Humphrey said the Hughes vs. Mitchell contest was to be a referendum on John F. Kennedy.  "The Republicans want to make this election a national issue - a laboratory experiment of national elections.  Let's not disappoint them.  Let's put on our armor.  The only thing they understand is defeat."

There is some precedent to law enforcement officials mulling political futures from non-political posts.  Brendan Byrne (in 1973)  resigned their his post as Superior Court Judges after the demonstration of some significant support for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. 

In 1977, Frederick Lacey, a respected U.S. District Court Judge and former U.S. Attorney, was serious about entering the race for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, and some say he wanted to run. After a meeting at his home, at least one major county GOP organization was prepared to back him. That fell apart over a small, but important, detail: Lacey wanted the endorsement to come first, and the Republicans wanted him to resign from the bench and enter the race before they would announce their backing. That was based on the precedent set four years earlier when Byrne delivered his resignation to the Governor's Office and then went outside the statehouse to announce that he would run for Governor.

Barack Obama's visit to New Jersey marks the fourth time a President has come to campaign for the re-election of an incumbent Governor. 

Bill Clinton stumped for Jim Florio in 1993, Ronald Reagan for Thomas Kean in 1985, and Jimmy Carter for Brendan Byrne in 1977.  Lyndon Johnson did not visit New Jersey when Richard Hughes ran for re-election in 1965, although the First Lady did join Hughes for a tour of a Head Start center in Newark.  And Richard Nixon did not come to New Jersey in support of William Cahill, who lost the Republican primary to a White House ally, U.S. Rep. Charles Sandman.

More than thirty years before New Jersey's Robert Torricelli floated the idea of Hillary Rodham Clinton running for the United States Senate from New York, the Ocean County Democratic organization voted to endorse Jacqueline Kennedy for the U.S. Senate against Republican incumbent Clifford Case in 1966.

Gov. Richard Hughes, a Democrat, was forced to apologize after Cape May County Democratic Chairman Joseph Tennenbaum said he would not back the former First lady for the Senate.  Tennenbaum, according to the New York Times, said, "Perhaps Jackie is a little too far out for us.  She belongs to the jet set.  Besides I think we have had enough of the Kennedys for a while."  Hughes called Tennebbaum's comments "embarrassing, outrageous and deplorable."

Left to right: Robert F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy III

A campaign appearance by Robert F. Kennedy III on behalf of Hoboken mayoral candidate Peter Cammarano comes 34 years after his father, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., visited New Jersey to stump for a young State Assembly candidate. 

In 1975, 23-year-old Peter Shapiro ran for State Assembly in the old 28th district, which included South Orange, Irvington and Newark's West Ward.  Shapiro took on the powerful Essex County Democratic machine that year and won a rare off the line 181-vote primary victory over incumbent Rocco Neri.  He received an enormous amount of coverage when his famous Harvard classmate rang doorbells on his behalf.

One of the best bargains in New Jersey politics came in 1977, when the Byrne administration sold a mailing list of 60,000 state employees to Democratic State Chairman Richard Coffee for $114.  Coffee used the list to boost Brendan Byrne's re-election campaign, and for Town Finance, a private loan business that he owned.  After Republicans found out about it in 1978, a state ethics panel looked into the matter and found that State Treasurer Clifford Goldman sold the list after the Attorney General's office approved the transaction.  Coffee, who had served as a State Senator from Mercer County and was briefly a candidate for the 1973 Democratic gubernatorial nomination, had purchased the same list during the Richard Hughes and William Cahill governorships.