Robert Torricelli

New Providence Councilman Brooke Hern tells a great story about his experiences as an aide to then-Congressman Robert Torricelli:

"I had only recently graduated from the Political Science program at American University, and I had landed a job working for the Torch. It was my responsibility to keep the Congressman on schedule and fully briefed for each stop along the way. Typically, I would begin and end most days either at the Congressman's house or at our district office. But this not-so-typical day in politics would end dodging cars in the streets of Newark.

Moments before my unexpected stop, we were making our way past was was the site of the Torch's Senate office in the Gateway complex. The Congressman was talking on his cellular telephone. As we turned the corner and proceeded along McCarter Highway, he suddenly ended his call and issued an unexpected command: "Stop the car, right here!" Naturally, I checked the mirror and began to pull into the far right lane, when he commanded, "No! Right here!" That was quickly followed by a resounding "get out! Get out! GET OUT!" At first I thought perhaps the car was on fire, and that he was merely concerned for my safety. But as I stepped out of the car and watched him slide into the driver seat and speed away, it was quite clear that I had just been tossed aside like a dead armadillo.

As I watched the Congressman drive away, I realized that my keys were in the ignition of his car, and that he was approaching a red light at the corner. I quickly made my way to the car and tapped on the window, and told him that I needed to retrieve my keys. Otherwise, I would not be able to drive my car and get into my house. When the light turned green, he pulled through the intersection and over to the right side of the road. As he twisted himself into the back seat and aggressively wrestled with his suit jacket, he reprimanded me because he could not find his keys. I reached into the car and removed my keys from the ignition. He finally located his keys, closed the window, and drove away.

Then I walked to Penn Station and took a bus to our District Office in Hackensack, where I retrieved my car and drove home. I appeared at his house the next day to pick him up. Thereafter, we never spoke of the incident. We simply carried on as if it never happened."

Hern is now a Republican.

Despite all the hype about his fundraising prowess, Rotarian American congressional candidate Paul Stuart Aronsohn has just $92,342 in the bank as he seeks to oust two-term Republican Ernest Scott Garrett in the predominately Republican fifth district. Aronsohn has just slightly more than the $74,859 2004 warchest (as of 6/30/04) of the 2004 Democratic candidate, Dorothea Anne Wolfe, and substantially less than Garrett's '02 rival, Anne Ricks Sumers, who had $442,815 in the bank at the same point. Aronsohn, a former spokesman for Governor James E. McGreevey, was able to push Wolfe out of the race earlier this year because he assured Democrats he could raise enough money to wage a strong challenge to Garrett -- but he now has about six times less money than Democrat Linda Stender, who is running against Republican Congressman Michael Ferguson in the adjoining seventh district.

One of the legendary scams in Bergen County politics came in 1984, when Republicans were considering candidates to take on newly-elected Democratic Congressman Robert Torricelli. Torricelli had won the seat two years earlier, when he ousted three-term GOP incumbent Harold Hollenbeck by a 53%-46% margin. The political climate in 1982 (and congressional redistricting in the 9th) favored Democrats and Torricelli leveraged the national contacts he made working for Vice President Walter Mondale and running Jimmy Carter's 1980 re-election campaign in Illinois to help him raise $266,000 -- about $70,000 more than Hollenbeck had.

Ronald Reagan's popularity heading into the 1984 election, and a new congressional map (the '82 redistricting plan was tossed by federal judges), gave Republicans reason to believe Torricelli could be beaten. The 9th district went strongly for Reagan, giving him a 59%-41% win over Mondale -- a plurality of almost 47,000 votes.

Party leaders had several attractive candidates, including newly-elected Assemblyman William "Pat" Schuber and Bergen County Sheriff William McDowell, but decided to go with a unknown insider, Neil Romano, who had served as Executive Director of the New Jersey Republican State Committee in the late 1970's. Romano appeared before the Bergen GOP screening committee and sold them on his ability to raise money -- saying that wealthy family members and politically connected friends would provide him with a hefty campaign warchest -- the type of money a challenger would need to take on Torricelli.

The problem for the Bergen GOP is that they were scammed. Romano had practically no capacity to raise money and the personal wealth he pledged just wasn't there. The lethargic Romano raised just $89,166 -- giving Torricelli an almost 6-1 edge in fundraising. Torricelli won a second term with 63% of the vote, with Romano running more than 60,000 votes behind the top of the ticket.

by David P. Rebovich

A few days before the constitutional deadline for the approval of a new state budget and a week after the big rally by government workers at the State House, I met with members of the executive board of AFSCME Council 73 at the union's conclave at the Princeton Hyatt. The meeting was at the request of a long-time friend, Gerard Meara, the veteran executive director of Council 73 and a well-known figure in political circles in Trenton and central Jersey generally. Meara explained that AFSCME's members, who work in state, county and municipal agencies and private firms (Rider University's administrative assistants and clerical personnel are represented by AFSCME), are angry that they are being stereotyped by some politicians and media outlets as part of what's wrong with government in New Jersey today and blamed for high government spending and taxes.

That misperception can influence the kinds of policies and politicians citizens support and can negatively affect not just AFSCME workers but program delivery and the quality of life in the Garden State. However, changing public opinion about government workers will not be easy these days for several reasons. These include the decline in private sector unionism, large dislocations in the economy that have made private sector employment unstable, slow growth in private sector wages and decreases in benefits, increases in public sector employment and hikes in taxes, widespread concern about government waste, fraud and inefficiency, and questions about the effectiveness and the very need for certain government programs.

In addition, there have long been questions about whether some civil service regulations have outlived their usefulness and protect workers who in the private sector would be seriously disciplined or dismissed. Then there is the matter of the political influence of government workers and the notion that politicians kowtow to them before thinking about the needs of the general public.

That may well have been the impression that New Jerseyans had when they watched or read news accounts of the June 19th rally by government workers in Trenton. AFSCME joined with the CWA and the state AFL-CIO to express support for Governor Corzine's proposal to increase the state sales tax by one cent and to contribute $1.3 billion to the government workers pension fund. The union workers were also there to protest a proposal by state Senator Steve Sweeney and Assemblymen Jerry Green and Paul Moriarty that state employees give back fifteen percent of their total compensation in order to help balance the budget.

Polls showed that most New Jerseyans do not support any state worker give-backs while their contracts are in effect and do agree that the pension fund should be shored up by state officials. That said, a strong majority of folks here believed that the state budget deficit should be closed by making more cuts in spending, not by raising taxes. Those cuts would presumably include some government jobs. Indeed, it must be surprising to citizens that despite the fact that New Jersey state government has faced recurring deficits of $4 billion to $5 billion in the last five years, there have not been any major layoffs of government employees. Even Corzine, the former CEO who knows about private sector downsizing, plans to reduce the 82,000 state government workforce by only 1,000 and that by attrition and retirement. Nonetheless, while the Governor claims to be ridding state government of waste and inefficiency, residents will have to pay some $2 billion more in taxes.

No wonder the new state budget has been called friendly to government workers and unfriendly to taxpayers. And why not many of the latter were sympathetic to those folks rallying for the sales tax hike. When government worker union leaders and the rank and file complained that the new budget should not be balanced on their backs, this could be interpreted to mean that the budget should be balanced on the backs of private citizens regardless of their financial situation or political interests.

And, these folks have also seen property taxes increases by 30 percent in the last five years due in part because of frozen levels of state aid to schools and municipalities. In this same period the state government workforce rose by 10,000, employees in all levels of government increased by 59,000, and the average salary of state employees went from $45,000 to $54,000. In the meantime, New Jersey's economy experienced problems, especially a decline in the number of good paying jobs.

While private sector companies continued their downsizing practices, remaining employees found themselves having to pay more for health care insurance - employer funded family coverage is largely a thing of the past - and for their own retirement plans. Nonetheless, government workers still have good health insurance (yes, with larger deductibles and co-pays), guaranteed pensions, paid vacations, as many as 17 paid holidays, a dozen or more sick days, and the ability to retire at age 55. With a compensation package like this, government workers should have been celebrating in Trenton last month, not protesting.

Unless, that is, you are a government worker who provides direct services to needy or demanding clients and don't make much money by public or private sector standards. That describes most of the folks represented by AFSCME, people who work in state institutions serving the sick and disabled, in corrections facilities, improvement and highway authorities, the judicial system and county and municipal governments. In my meeting with them, the AFSCME Council 73 board members made several points about the folks they represent that are rarely covered by the press.

For starters, government workers at all levels do not want extra credit for doing their jobs as much as they their just due! They resent being demonized by politicians and some members of the media. Yes, there are problems in government operations and legitimate concerns about spending, waste, and the quality of services. But government workers and their unions see themselves as part of the solution of making government operations and programs more effective.

Many AFSCME workers provide essential services at all levels of government that nearly every citizen and family benefits from at one time or another. Those serving in state institutions have positions that entail 24/7 coverage under challenging circumstances that require patience, discretion, compassion, and the capacity for emotionally and sometimes physically demanding work. Many AFSCME workers earn $25,000 to $30,000 a year, a fact that gets lost in the average salary figures cited above. And, members typically pay into their pension and have deductibles and co-pays for their health care plans. In addition, the workload of many individual employees has increased due to attrition and budget freezes in many agencies. Why then, one AFSCME leader rhetorically asked, can workers be demonized when "...their only concern is showing up for work every day because someone (i.e., elected officials) said that the work is necessary and needs to be done?"

That's a good point. So too is the common sense claim that government workers, like anyone else, want appropriate compensation and benefits for their efforts. This includes a recognition that employees be rewarded for their years of service and that New Jersey has a high cost of living. Said another AFSCME leader, "If you are going to scapegoat a large number of people in government service, you need to specifically identify a large number of positions that are not necessary." However, citizens elect politicians who promise to pass laws to create programs that the public supports in principle but then complain about when the realize that the programs have to be paid for by taxpayers.

On these terms, citizens may want to channel their frustration at their elected officials for promising a lot without explaining the costs involved. And, for supporting certain practices, like pension double dipping, and high levels of spending on patronage positions that do not contribute directly to service delivery. Unionized government workers are usually quick to recommend cutting patronage jobs when there is talk about reducing the workforce. The AFSCME officials with whom I spoke were no different but did admit that in a large workforce there are a "few bad apples," union members or not. These few provide fodder for politicians and talk-show hosts who take to blasting government workers generally, something that the AFSCME folks believe reached a peak this budget season.

But, the AFSCME leaders assert that the union and its members are absolutely for supporting rules, regulations and workload requirements in their contracts and for dealing with "goof-offs" who violate their contracts, fail the public, and give government workers a bad name. As such, AFSCME is committed to good public administration and doing what it takes to improve service delivery and make it cost effective.

Now that's a message that some politicians did not pay attention to this budget season, and one that union leaders should try to communicate to them and to the general public. It would not be a surprise if many New Jerseyans were sympathetic to AFSCME's position once they understood what their workers do and how much they are paid. However, the same sentiment may not hold for other government workers, appointed or unionized, who make $75,000 a year or more. There are about 13,000 such state workers who fall into the category, including 8,500 in unions.

Then there is the simple fact that private sector retirement, health care, paid holidays, sick days and vacation plans are no where near as good as what public sector employees enjoy. Besides costs, there is the the question of equity. Should taxpayers pay for government employee benefits that they themselves don't receive in their own jobs? Along with escalating costs to taxpayers, this is a reason why the legislature and the governor will look at the pension and benefits of state workers this summer with an eye toward reform. In that process, let's hope that lawmakers remember those who aren't paid a lot and the benefits that they literally cannot afford to lose.

David P. Rebovich, Ph.D., is Managing Director of the Rider University Institute for New Jersey Politics (www.rider.edu/institute). He also writes a regular column, "On Politics," for NEW JERSEY LAWYER and monthly reports on New Jersey for CAMAPIGNS AND ELECTIONS Magazine and is a member of CQPolitics.com's Board of Advisors that provides weekly commentary on national political developments.

Poor Doug Forrester -- if only he'd picked Texas instead of New Jersey as his adopted home state. Last week, a Federal Judge ruled that it is too late for Republicans to name a replacement candidate for embattled former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who has withdrawn as a candidate for re-election and has quit Congress. The ruling comes less than four years after the New Jersey Supreme Court allowed Democrats to nominate Frank Lautenberg to run against Forrester for the United States Senate when Bob Torricelli dropped out of the race five weeks before he election. At the time, the U.S. Supreme Court -- still under heavy criticism for their role in the 2000 presidential election -- refused to hear Forrester's appeal of a New Jerey Supreme Court decision that allowed the candidate switch.

The first declared candidate for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination refused to rule out Bob Torricelli as a Vice Presidential candidate. Mike Gravel, a former U.S. Senator from Alaska, told PoliticsNH.com that he plans to campaign in New Jersey's February 26, 2008 primary, but could not identify any local supporters of his campaign. He declined several opportunities to say that he would not consider Torricelli as his running mate.

Gravel won public office in 1968, when he upset an incumbent U.S. Senator in the Democratic primary. Three years later, he made national headlines when he read 4,000 pages of the Pentagon Papers in to the Congressional Record and waged a filbuster in opposition to the draft. He lost his bid for re-election to a third term in 1980 (to the grandson of the Senator he had defeated).

Gravel's closest Garden State ties seem to be from his tenture as head of the Washington-based Alexis de Tocqueville Institution, which was founded by a group of aides to then-Congressman James Courter (Mac Carey and Dennis Teti) in Morristown in 1985; Ambassador Clifford Sobel served on the board with Gravel.

If about 900 people in Monmouth County had changed their minds and voted for Marie Muhler instead of Jim Howard, history could have been different. One political pundit suggests that had Muhler won the central New Jersey House seat in 1980, she could have emerged as the Republican candidate for United States Senator in 1988. No one will ever know whether Muhler would have unseated the incumbent, Frank Lautenberg, who was then seeking re-election to his second term -- although the argument that a moderate woman from Monmouth County would have been a stronger statewide contender than General Peter Dawkins (who lost 54%-46%) is entirely plausible. George H.W. Bush carried New Jersey that year by 422,840 votes.

Had Muhler ousted Lautenberg in 1988, she would likely have been a favorite to win re-election to a second term in the very Republican year of 1994 -- although that may have been a race to watch: would the ambitious Bob Torricelli, anxious to run statewide and unaware of Bill Bradley's pending retirement, have been the Democratic candidate. Muhler may have been much more vulnerable in 2000, although its possible that Wall Street megamillionaire Jon Corzine might not have been as interested in running against a two-term incumbent. That may have put set up a race between Muhler and Robert Menendez.

And as long as it's a Friday afternoon, what might the 1988 contest for Muhler's open House seat have looked like? The same pundit who had Muhler running statewide says it would have been the same as it was -- with Democratic State Senator Frank Pallone and former GOP Assemblyman Joseph Azzolina facing off. Pallone won 52%-48%, beating Azzolina by 9,548 votes out of more than 124,000 cast. But Azzolina outspent Pallone by $303,243 -- perhaps the benefit of a hometown Congresswoman running for U.S. Senate would have changed the results of this race?

For extreme political junkies, the ones who have actually read this far along: When Muhler ran a second time for Congress in 1982, her campaign Political Director was 22-year-old Joseph Kyrillos. She fell from 49% to 36%.

Former McGreevey press secretary Paul Aronsohn says he has raised about $200,000 (with about $130,000 cash-on-hand) for his campaign against Republican Congressman Scott Garrett -- which puts him a long way off of his goal to spend $2 million. Aronsohn has spent most of the last year raising money (he has had several high profile fundaisers headlined by Demcorats like former Clinton Press Secretary Mike McCurry, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and former Ambassador Richard Holbrooke) and is still not on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's target list; the DCCC Chairman, Rahm Emanual, came to New Jersey last week to help Linda Stender, who is running in the seventh district against Michael Ferguson, not for Aronsohn.

One of the legendary scams in Bergen County politics came in 1984, when Republicans were considering candidates to take on newly-elected Democratic Congressman Robert Torricelli. Torricelli had won the seat two years earlier, when he ousted three-term GOP incumbent Harold Hollenbeck by a 53%-46% margin. The political climate in 1982 (and congressional redistricting in the 9th) favored Democrats and Torricelli leveraged the national contacts he made working for Vice President Walter Mondale and running Jimmy Carter's 1980 re-election campaign in Illinois to help him raise $266,000 -- about $70,000 more than Hollenbeck had.

Ronald Reagan's popularity heading into the 1984 election, and a new congressional map (the '82 redistricting plan was tossed by federal judges), gave Republicans reason to believe Torricelli could be beaten. The 9th district went strongly for Reagan, giving him a 59%-41% win over Mondale -- a plurality of almost 47,000 votes.

Party leaders had several attractive candidates, including newly-elected Assemblyman William "Pat" Schuber and Bergen County Sheriff William McDowell, but decided to go with a unknown insider, Neil Romano, who had served as Executive Director of the New Jersey Republican State Committee in the late 1970's. Romano appeared before the Bergen GOP screening committee and sold them on his ability to raise money -- saying that wealthy family members and politically connected friends would provide him with a hefty campaign warchest -- the type of money a challenger would need to take on Torricelli.

The problem for the Bergen GOP is that they were scammed. Romano had practically no capacity to raise money and the personal wealth he pledged just wasn't there. The lethargic Romano raised just $89,166 -- giving Torricelli an almost 6-1 edge in fundraising. Torricelli won a second term with 63% of the vote, with Romano running more than 60,000 votes behind the top of the ticket.

New Jersey has ninteen living former Congressmen:

*Peter Frelinghuysen, the 90-year-old father of Congressman Rodney Frelinghuysen, who won an open seat in 1952 and served until his retirement in 1973. He lives in Morristown.

*Joseph Minish, 89, an Essex County labor leader who was elected to Congress in 1962 and served until his loss in 1984 to Republican Dean Gallo.

*Cornelius Gallagher, 84, who served as a Hudson County Freeholder from 1953 to 1956 and as a Congressman from 1959 until his defeat in the 1972 Democratic primary. He lives in Hunterdon County.

*Robert Roe, 81, who served as Mayor of Wayne, Passaic County Freeholder and state Commissioner of Convervation and Economic Development before winning a House seat in a 1969 Special Election. He served until his retirement in 1992 and now runs a lobbying firm that specializes in transportation issues.

*Frank Guarini, 81, was a Democratic State Senator from Hudson County from 1966 to 1972, ran against U.S. Senator Harrison Williams in the 1970 Democratic primary, and won a House seat in 1978 when Joseph LeFante declined to seek a second term. Guarini retired in 1992 and lives in Jersey City.

*Marge Roukema, 76, a former Ridgewood Board of Education President, defeated Andy Maguire on her second try in 1980. She retired from Congress in 2002.

*Herbert Klein, 75, was an Assemblyman from 1972 to 1976 and won Bob Roe's seat in Congress in 1992. He lost re-election in 1994, and now practices law in Hackensack.

*Matthew Rinaldo, 74, a Union County Freeholder and State Senator before winning an open congressional seat in 1992. He retired in 1992 and now lives in Florida.

*William Hughes, 73, served as an Assistant Cape May County Prosecutor before upsetting a Republican incumbent in the 1974 congressional race. He retired in 1994, served as U.S. Ambassador to Panama, and now practices law.

*Harold Hollenbeck, 68, was an East Rutherford Councilman, Assemblyman and State Senator before he defeated a Democratic Congressman in 1976. He lost re-election in 1982 to Robert Torricelli, and since 1987 he has served as a Superior Court Judge in Bergen County. He lives in Ridgewood.

*James Florio, 67, was an Assemblyman when he defeated an incumbent GOP Congressman in 1974. He left Congress after his election as Governor in 1989. He lost re-election in 1993 and was defeated in his bid for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination in 2000. Florio practices law, runs a business and teaches at Rutgers.

*Andrew Maguire, 65, defeated a veteran Republican Congressman in 1974 and lost his seat in 1980 to Marge Roukema. He ran for U.S. Senate in 1982, finishing second in the Democratic primary behind Frank Lautenberg. He ran several trade groups and a think tank before retiring in 2002, and now lives in Hunterdon County.

*James Courter, 64, was an Assistant Warren County Prosecutor before defeating a Democratic Congresswoman in 1978. He lost a 1989 race for Governor to Jim Florio and did not seek re-election to the House in 1990. He served as Chairman of the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission and now runs a law firm and a Newark-based communications company.

*Richard Zimmer, 61, served in both houses of the Legislature before winning Jim Courter's House seat in 1990. He lost a 1996 U.S. Senate race to Bob Torricelli and a 2000 House race to Rush Holt. He now practiced law in Washington.

*William Martini, 59, served as a Clifton Councilman and Passaic County Freeholder before he defeated Herb Klein for Congress in 1994. He lost re-election to Bill Pascrell in 1996; he has served as a U.S. Federal Court Judge since 2002.

*Robert Torricelli, 54, unseated Cap Hollenbeck in 1982 after working for Governor Brendan Byrne and Vice President Walter Mondale. He won a U.S. Senate seat in 1996 and dropped his re-election bid five weeks before Election Day in 2002. He now operates a consulting firm and lives in Hunterdon County.

*Robert Franks, 54, spent fourteen years in the State Assembly and two years as Republican State Chairman before winning an open House seat in 1992. He ran for U.S. Senate in 2000 and Governor in 2001 and now serves as President of the HealthCare Institute of New Jersey.

*Robert Menendez, 52, won election to Congress in 1992 after serving as an Assemblyman, State Senator and Mayor of Union City. He was appointed to the United States Senate in January 2006.

*Michael Pappas, 45, won Dick Zimmer's open House seat in 1996 after serving as the Mayor of Franklin Township and as a Somerset County Freeholder. He was defeated for re-election in 1998 by Rush Holt and lost a chance for a rematch in 2000 after losing the Republican primary to Zimmer. Pappas now lives in Maryland and serves as the Associate Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration.

The Star-Ledger reported yesterday that the Governor Jon Corzine's administration is considering a proposal from jailed developer/McGreevey fundraiser/video producer Charles Kushner and embattled ex-U.S. Senator Robert Torricelli to operate a for-profit medical school in New Jersey; today the same newspaper broke the story that Kushner is being moved from a federal prison in Alabama to a halfway house in New Jersey after serving just half of his sentence. One might think that a story that involves Kushner and Torricelli gives New Jersey Republicans a great opportunity to take a shot at their rivals -- yet by 5 PM today there has been no Republican comment.

Corzine is in a bad spot. One of his aides complained that the medical school plan began when James E. McGreevey was Governor and progressed under Richard Codey's tenure in office; Codey declined to make a final decision, leaving it up to Corzine -- who was criticized by Republicans last year for his interest in purchasing the New Jersey Nets with Kushner in a deal brokered by the sometimes toxic Torricelli. If Corzine approves plan, which may not necessarily be bad public policy, the headlines of his doing favors for Kushner and Torricelli may be unavoidable.

One of the legendary scams in Bergen County politics came in 1984, when Republicans were considering candidates to newly-elected Democratic Congressman Robert Torricelli. Torricelli had won the seat two years earlier, when he ousted three-term GOP incumbent Harold Hollenbeck by a 53%-46% margin. The political climate in 1982 (and congressional redistricting in the 9th) favored Democrats and Torricelli leveraged the national contacts he made working for Vice President Walter Mondale and running Jimmy Carter's 1980 re-election campaign in Illinois to help him raise $266,000 -- about $70,000 more than Hollenbeck had.

Ronald Reagan's popularity heading into the 1984 election, and a new congressional map (the '82 redistricting plan was tossed by federal judges), gave Republicans reason to believe Torricelli could be beaten. The 9th district went strongly for Reagan, giving him a 59%-41% win over Mondale -- a plurality of almost 47,000 votes.

Party leaders had several attractive candidates, including newly-elected Assemblyman William "Pat" Schuber and Bergen County Sheriff William McDowell, but decided to go with a unknown insider, Neil Romano, who had served as Executive Director of the New Jersey Republican State Committee in the late 1970's. Romano appeared before the Bergen GOP screening committee and sold them on his ability to raise money -- saying that wealthy family members and politically connected friends would provide him with a hefty campaign warchest -- the type of money a challenger would need to take on Torricelli.

The problem for the Bergen GOP is that they were scammed. Romano had practically no capacity to raise money and the personal wealth he pledged just wasn't there. The lethargic Romano raised just $89,166 -- giving Torricelli an almost 6-1 edge in fundraising. Torricelli won a second term with 63% of the vote, with Romano running more than 60,000 votes behind the top of the ticket.