Those of us who frequent PolitickerNJ do so because the site is generally the first to carry  insiders' news with an insider's perspective.  However, we don't normally expect the site to have an exclusive on a former legislator's death...particularly when that legislator served 24 years in the State Assembly and carried the mantel on issues that affect everyday lives so deeply.  And...no one could imagine that even four days after a well-known public servant's death...that only PolitickerNJ would have acknowledged his lifelong accomplishments and his passing.
 
But...that did happen and the legislator is former Assemblyman Willie Brown who will be laid to rest on Monday following a funeral service at the Metropolitan Baptist Church in Newark that will begin at 10 a.m.  Thank you, PolitickerNJ for reporting his passing and recognizing his life.
 
Sure...we have heard about Assemblyman Brown's push for the landmark South African divestiture bill signed into law by Governor Thomas H. Kean.  Being an NJEA lobbyist at the time, I was not at the top of Willie's party invitation list because we opposed his bill with a vengeance...and he was determined to beat us.  And...thankfully he did.
 
Governor Kean recalls, "Willie was a man who would fight for a cause with social implications. He did what was right and would not let put politics before those issues."
 
In 1986, former Congressman Bill Gray successfully pushed for comparable sanctions to be done at the Federal level.

In September 2007, the Assembly Democratic Office celebrated its 35th anniversary. Former Assembly Minority Leader Willie B. Brown, who died on Monday at age 68, was invited to attend as a former Minority Leader, however illness prevented him from attending.

The following is a letter he wrote to be read that evening:

Willie B. Brown, the former Assembly Minority Leader who passed away on Monday at age 68, will be remembered for sticking to his principles and standing up for his beliefs, “even if that wasn’t the most expedient and popular choice,” Speaker Joseph Roberts said in a statement today.

“His fight in the 1980s to halt the investment of state pension funds in companies doing businesses with South Africa was not only righteous, but courageous and groundbreaking,” Roberts said.  “His willingness to get arrested outside the South African consulate in New York served as example to us all of standing up for what is right.”

Brown's wake is scheduled for Sunday from 4PM to 7PM at the Metropolitan Baptist Church in Newark.  A funeral service will be held at 10AM Monday.

Former Assembly Minority Leader Willie Brown passed away on Monday.    He was 68.  Brown spent 24 years representing Newark in the State Assembly.

First elected in 1973, at age 33, he was a member of a freshman Essex Assembly delegation that included Richard Codey.  He was re-elected eleven times.  He was the Assembly Minority Leader in 1988 and 1989.  When Democrats took control of the Assembly in 1989, the caucus picked Joseph Doria for Speaker and Wayne Bryant for Majority Leader; Brown became the Speaker Pro Tempore.

The first act of the prolonged political drama over Sharpe James' intentions finally ended on Monday with an announcement that he would not seek re-election to a sixth term as Mayor. But the second act -- about James' plan to seek re-election to his 29th district State Senate seat in 2007 -- could extend until after the April '07 filling deadline. James's re-election to the Senate is hardly automatic, especially if Cory Booker wins the mayoral election. James won 56% of the vote in the '03 Democratic Senate primary against City Councilman Luis Quinana, a Booker ally with continued interest in the Senate seat.

Ronald Rice, who has been the State Senator from the 28th district since 1986, is running against Booker for Mayor. If he loses, many Democrats believe that the Booker faction will attempt to take Rice out of the Senate next year. Rice won a 2001 primary against former Assembly Minority Leader Willie Brown with 54% of the vote, and prevailed in his 1997 primary against Larry Brown with 53%.