Rolando Torres

The former Executive Director of the Puerto Rican Action Board, Guillermo “Guillo” Beytagh-Maldonado, is building a grass-roots operation to stop Governor Jon Corzine from appointing state Personnel Commissioner Rolando Torres as a Superior Court Judge.

From an e-mail to Latino activists sent by Maldonado:

The latest scuttlebutt is that Rolando Torres has asked the Governor to appoint him to the bench. The Governor would make a grave mistake to do so.

Rolando has historically proven to not be worthy of a position where judicial temperament is required.

The last time a new Governor came from the same party as his predecessor was in 1961, when Democrat Richard Hughes followed eight years of Democrat Robert Meyner. Hughes kept ten of the fourteen members of Meyner's cabinet, replacing only the Attorney General, the Secretary of State, the President of the Board of Public Utilities, and the Commissioner of Conservation and Economic Development. Democrats say that Jon Corzine is not likely to come close to the 71% retention mark set by Hughes, although there may be some holdovers -- one likely prospect is Personnel Commissioner Rolando Torres.

KEAN: ALLOW STATE EMPLOYEES TO DONATE SICK & VACATION TIME TO GUARD FAMILIES
Senator Thomas Kean has written a letter to Rolando Torres Jr., Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Personnel, asking him to expand the state employees leave donation program to help military families. The current program allows state employees to donate a percentage of their unused sick or vacation time to other state employees suffering from a catastrophic health condition or to care for a family member who suffers from such a condition.