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<FONT FACE="Century Schoolbook"><P><B>June-July: </B></FONT><FONT FACE="Century Schoolbook" SIZE=2>Want to start an office pool? How about one on how many more public disagreements U.S. Sens. <B>Frank Lautenberg</B> and <B>Robert Torricelli</B> can have before Lautenberg’s retirement in January 2001? Miraculously, the two Democrats actually agreed on <B>President Clinton</B>’s nomination of U.S. District Court Judge <B>Maryanne Trump Barry</B> to a longstanding vacancy on the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals and of U.S. Magistrate <B>Joel Pisano</B> to succeed her on the District Court. Trump, the sister of <B>Donald Trump</B>, has been serving on the federal bench since 1983. But the senators quickly fell into a more familiar posture when Torricelli opposed Lautenberg’s recommendation of First Assistant U.S. Attorney <B>Paul Fishman</B> to succeed his boss, Faith Hochberg, as U.S. attorney for New Jersey. Hochberg already has been nominated by Clinton for a U.S. District Court judgeship, but Torricelli could torpedo the whole scenario by blocking Hochberg in committee. Torricelli favors <B>Zulima Farber</B>, a former state public advocate and current partner in Lowenstein Sandler, for U.S. attorney. Without some cooperation from the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate, however, the battle is somewhat academic. Hochberg has been awaiting Senate confirmation since April, as has state Superior Court Judge <B>Julio Fuentes</B>, who, like Barry, has been nominated to a seat on the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals…In marked contrast to the long battle over <B>Peter Verniero</B>’s nomination to the Supreme Court, the state Senate swiftly confirmed <B>Governor Whitman</B>’s choice of Superior Court Judge <B>Virginia Long</B> to succeed Associate Justice <B>Alan B. Handler</B>, the high court’s most liberal justice. The Senate also swiftly confirmed <B>John Farmer</B>, the governor’s counsel, as attorney-general, to succeed Verniero, as well as <B>Christine Grant</B> to succeed <B>Len Fishman</B> as the second non-physician ever to serve as health commissioner …<B>Bishop</B> <B>Nicholas A. DiMarzio</B>, an outspoken advocate of social services for immigrants and the poor, has been installed as bishop of the Diocese of Camden. DiMarzio, a Newark native who has been serving as auxiliary bishop under Newark <B>Archbishop</B> <B>Theodore McCarrick</B>, will replace <B>Bishop James McHugh</B>, who has been named to head the Diocese of Rockville Centre in New York. DiMarzio’s diocese covers 423,000 Catholics in Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland, Salem, Gloucester and Camden counties. DiMarzio first developed a national reputation while serving as the Church’s principal spokesman on immigration issues in the late 1980’s. He visited Kosovar refugee camps in Macedonia earlier this year as chairman of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Migration Committee — a post he will continue to hold …While the guilty pleas of President Clinton’s friends <B>Charlie Trie</B> and <B>John Huang</B> got the national headlines, former Bergen County Republican chairman <B>Berek Paul Don</B> also found himself ensnared in the federal Campaign Financing Task Force’s investigatory net. Don pleaded guilty to violating election laws, committing mail fraud and tax evasion when he illegally funneled an $11,000 contribution from <B>David Chang</B> to U.S. Sen. <B>Robert Torricelli</B>’s 1996 reelection campaign. Torricelli’s staff said it was not aware that Don had violated election laws in any way … Trenton Mayor <B>Doug Palmer</B> won his high-profile showdown with Deputy Police Chief <B>Joe Constance</B> when city voters approved a referendum giving the mayor and council the power to appoint civilian directors to oversee the police and fire departments. Palmer had angered Constance, the current Mercer County Republican chairman, by offering him the police chief’s job, then taking back the offer. The referendum passed overwhelmingly in the predominantly black North and West wards, narrowly offsetting a strong negative vote in the city’s white ethnic neighborhoods… <B>Richard T. Carley</B>, the state official who resigned last summer after a jury found him guilty of sexually harassing former Deputy Attorney General <B>Barbara Davis</B>, died June 11, with lawyers still haggling over the $350,000 that he and the State had each been ordered to pay Davis. Carley was the deputy director of operations for the state Division of Criminal Justice when he was accused of harassing Davis from 1989 to 1993. He was transferred, demoted after an internal investigation, and finally resigned a month after the jury verdict. Davis also had resigned… <B>Larry Purpuro</B> has been named deputy chief of staff of the Republican National Committee. Purpuro had been serving as director of international sales for IDT, a New Jersey telecommunications and internet company headed by former Congressman <B>Jim Courter</B>, on whose staff Purpuro had served in the early 1980’s. Purpuro’s last political post was chief of staff to U.S. Sen. <B>Spence Abraham</B>, R-Michigan. Purpuro ran communications for <B>Christie</B> <B>Whitman</B>’s 1990 U.S. Senate race against <B>Bill Bradley</B> and served as campaign manager for <B>Chuck Haytaian</B>, now Republican state chairman, in his unsuccessful 1994 bid for the U.S. Senate against <B>Frank Lautenberg</B> … It’s quite a come-down for former Assembly Minority Leader <B>Willie Brown</B> of Newark. Three years ago, Brown bolted the Democratic fold to endorse former Assembly Speaker <B>Chuck Haytaian</B>’s bid for the U.S. Senate. Haytaian lost, but <B>Governor Whitman</B> rewarded Brown for his switch by nominating him to a $90,000-a-year post on the state Board of Public Utilities. Brown lost that lucrative post when it turned out that he had failed to pay water bills on properties he owned in Newark, and <B>Fred Butler</B> eventually got the BPU job. Now Brown is trying to make amends to the Democratic Party by serving as a Senate aide to new state Senator — and Newark Mayor <B>Sharpe James</B> … The Senate has approved life tenure for the judge who refused a request by the parents of 15-year-old <B>Sam Manzie</B> to commit their son to a locked psychiatric facility just three days before he raped and murdered an 11-year-old neighbor boy. Superior Court Judge <B>James N. Citta</B> has since been reassigned from Family Court to criminal court in Ocean County. <B>Edward Werner</B>, the father of the murdered boy, is now running for state Assembly in the 30th District… State Treasurer <B>James D’Eleuterio</B> — "Jimmy D" to the Statehouse crowd — replaced <B>Dennis Robinson </B>as executive director of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority. For D’Eleuterio, it means a hefty raise from his $115,000 Cabinet pay to a $182,500 salary. The real question, of course, is just how long that job will continue to exist. Running the Sports Authority won’t be the easiest job in the world with <B>Lewis Katz</B> and <B>Ray Chambers</B> looking to move the Nets to Newark, <B>John McMullen</B> trying to squeeze the Devils into Hoboken, and the Sports Authority left holding the bag on the Continental Airlines Arena… <B>Bill Bradley</B> isn’t the only one counting on former sports stars to attract money to his campaign. <B>Gerald Banmiller </B>and <B>Robert Seltzer</B>, the Republican Assembly candidates in Camden County’s Sixth District, have signed up former Philadelphia Eagles quarterback <B>Ron Jaworski</B> and ex-Philadelphia Flyers hockey players <B>Dave Schultz</B> and <B>Bob Kelly</B> to raise money for their campaign against Democratic incumbents <B>Lou Greenwald</B> and <B>Mary Previte</B>. If Schultz, the most famous of the "Broad Street Bullies," gets out of line, Election Law Enforcement Commission Chairman <B>Fred Herrmann</B> can give him two minutes in the penalty box. </P></DIR>
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<B><FONT FACE="Century Schoolbook"><P>MAY: </B></FONT><FONT FACE="Century Schoolbook" SIZE=2>With U.S. Sen. <B>Robert Torricelli</B> focusing his energies on the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, it was all but inevitable that his chief political operative, <B>Jamie Fox</B>, would wind up there too. Fox is giving up his post as Torricelli’s chief of staff to run the DSCC’s campaign to recapture the Senate. No word on whether Fox will be calling Congressman <B>Robert Menendez</B> for assistance. Menendez, the early front-runner for the Democratic nomination to succeed U.S. Sen. <B>Frank</B> <B>Lautenberg</B>, lashed out publicly at Fox and Torricelli the week after he withdrew from the race, saying that Fox undercut his candidacy with his comment that Congressman <B>Frank Pallone</B> of Monmouth County would be a stronger candidate. Since then, former Gov. <B>Jim Florio</B>, whom Fox served as the governor’s deputy chief of staff in the early 1990’s, has emerged as the new front-runner and Fox’s most likely New Jersey client for the DSCC’s services ... Speaking of Florio, <B>James Carville</B> is lending his talents to the Florio for Senate campaign, at least as the headline speaker for an upcoming fund-raiser. The Ragin’ Cajun recently advised Israeli Labor Party candidate <B>Ehud Barak</B> in his upset victory over Israeli Prime Minister <B>Benjamin Netanyahu</B>, working with fellow Americans <B>Bob Shrum</B> and <B>Stan Greenberg</B>, who is Florio’s pollster, to shape Barak’s message. What is Carville’s message to voters on Florio? "You don’t get the JFK Profile in Courage Award for running away, wavering or flip-flopping on the issues," Carville declared. Now all we need is <B>Ed Rollins</B> to roll back into the Garden State... Score the Hoboken council battle as three seats for Mayor <B>Anthony Russo</B>, two seats for state Sen. <B>Bernard Kenny’s</B> rival slate, and one seat to be decided in a runoff between <B>Phyllis Spinelli</B>, an independent, and <B>Richard DelBoccio</B> from the Russo slate. Spinelli has Kenny’s support for the June 15 runoff... Camden Mayor <B>Milton Milan’s</B> slate won three of four council seats in Camden’s nonpartisan election, squelching a challenge to his council majority by Councilman <B>Ali Sloan</B> El. However, <B>Sloan El</B> managed to hold onto his own seat, guaranteeing he will continue to be a thorn in Milan’s side... <B>David F. Moore</B>, one of the state’s leading open space advocates in his 30 years as executive director of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, is stepping down from his post. His successor, <B>Michele S. Byers</B>, the Conservation Foundation’s assistant director and the vice chair of the state Planning Commission, will also take over Moore’s long-running environmental column, "The State We’re In," which appears in more than 100 newspapers... Dr. <B>Robert E. Boose</B>, a fixture in Trenton for 13 years as deputy executive director and executive director of the New Jersey School Boards Association, is leaving New Jersey for a post as vice president of Endicott College in Beverly, Mass., July 1. Boose, who began his career as a teacher of the deaf, had served as county superintendent of schools in Mercer County, as acting superintendent in Essex County and as commissioner of the Maine Department of Educational and Cultural Services before taking the No. 2 post at NJSBA in 1986 ... <B>Rick Thigpen</B> is leaving his post as executive director of the Democratic State Committee to join The Strategy Group, a government relations firm whose marquee names are all Republicans: <B>Tom Wilson</B>, <B>Patrick Torpey</B> and <B>Bob Stiers</B>. Thigpen was recruited by Wilson, a former Republican State Committee executive director and Governor Whitman’s 1997 campaign manager. Torpey, who is the brother of <B>Michael Torpey</B>, chief of staff to Whitman, is the political consultant for the GOP campaign to retain control of the Assembly. Don’t look for Thigpen to give him any tips, though ... <B>Christy Davis</B>, former state director for U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, is going to be managing the campaign of one of the Democrats who wants to succeed him — <B>Jon Corzine,</B> whose $750 million in personal wealth makes him look as "good as gold," or at least as "good as Goldman" (Sachs, of course), to some Democratic leaders... It took an 18-day Superior Court trial, but Democrat <B>Paul H. Tomasko</B> was finally ruled the winner of last November’s mayoral election in wealthy Alpine by a 349-348 margin over Republican incumbent <B>Lawrence Manus</B>... The Nets and the Devils aren’t the only ones looking to leave the Meadowlands. <B>Dennis Robinson</B>, executive director of the Sports and Exposition Authority, resigned to take an executive position with the National Basketball Association. Robinson had succeeded longtime executive director <B>Robert Mulcahy,</B> who left the Meadowlands a year ago to become athletic director at Rutgers University... <B>Jim Challender</B>, the State Police whistle-blower who put his career on the line after uncovering a trail of corruption in the administration of Republican Gov. <B>William Cahill</B> 27 years ago, has received the backing of the Mercer County Republican Committee to run against incumbent Democratic Sheriff <B>Samuel Plumeri</B>. Challender’s allegations resulted in the convictions of state Treasurer <B>Joseph Crane</B> and Republican state chairman <B>Nelson Gross</B>, and contributed to Cahill’s defeat by <B>Charles Sandman </B>in the 1973 GOP gubernatorial primary. Challender retired from the State Police in 1991 and is currently is a supervisor in the state Department of Education unit that conducts background checks on public school employees ... Governor Whitman’s bandwagon for the GOP Senate nomination is missing at least two prominent Republicans. Rep.<B>Christopher Smith</B>, the Mercer County Republican who is the most outspoken anti-abortion advocate in Congress, has sharply criticized Whitman’s equally outspoken pro-choice position on abortion. Rep. <B>Frank LoBiondo</B>, the Vineland congressman whose district sprawls across all or part of six South Jersey counties, says he may run for the Senate seat himself.</P></FONT>
<FONT FACE="Century Schoolbook"><P><B>APRIL: S</B></FONT><FONT FACE="Century Schoolbook" SIZE=2>he’s ba-a-a-ack. U.S. Attorney <B>Faith Hochberg</B>, whose nomination for a U.S. District Court judgeship in 1994 died without a Senate hearing in the partisan political frenzy of 1996, has been nominated by President Clinton once again for the same post. Just what we need: Something else for U.S. Sens. <B>Frank Lautenberg</B> and <B>Robert Torricelli</B> to fight about. As senior senator, Lautenberg would traditionally make the recommendation on Hochberg’s replacement, but Torricelli, who is raising millions as Senate Democratic Campaign Committee chair this year, wants to be consulted. Given Clinton’s track record on New Jersey judicial appointments, Lautenberg and Torricelli shouldn’t get worked up just yet. Clinton nominated <B>Robert Raymar</B> for the Third Circuit Court of Appeals seat that has been vacant since Judge <B>H.</B> <B>Lee Sarokin</B> retired two years ago, but Raymar’s nomination died without a hearing in the last Congress. Superior Court Judge <B>Julio Fuentes</B>, whom Clinton nominated for another Third Circuit opening, hopes the same thing doesn’t happen to him. Meanwhile, U.S. District Judge <B>Maryanne Trump Barry,</B> a/k/a "The Donald’s Sister," hopes Clinton picks her for the Sarokin seat … <B>Jack Rafferty</B>, who turned Hamilton Township into a Republican suburban stronghold, has called it quits after 24 years as mayor. A onetime Democrat, Rafferty turned Republican to run for – and win – a council seat in 1969 after Democratic leaders told him he would have to wait 10 years to run for office. Like Woodbridge Mayor <B>Jim McGreevey</B> 17 years later, Rafferty tried to vault all the way from municipal to statewide office in 1981, when he ran for the GOP nomination for governor. Rafferty had played a prominent role in <B>Ronald Reagan’s</B> campaign in New Jersey the year before, but he finished seventh in a crowded primary won by <B>Tom Kean</B>. Rafferty’s Republican Council colleagues, <B>Jack Lacy</B> and <B>Jack Zoller</B>, also won’t be running for reelection this year, adding to the Democratic optimism that has been fueled by the discovery of illegal gambling at an athletic club frequented by prominent township Republicans… <B>John McPhee</B>, the Princeton University professor, finally won a Pulitzer Prize for Annals of the Former World, the brilliant geologic studies of the North American continent on which he has worked for almost a quarter-century. McPhee, who was born in Princeton, wasn’t the only New Jersey native to win journalism’s top prize this year. <B>Blair Kamin</B>, the Chicago Tribune’s highly acclaimed architecture critic, is a Fair Haven native and the son of <B>Arthur Z. Kamin</B>, the editor and publisher of Monmouth County’s now defunct <I>Daily</I> and <I>Sunday Register</I> from the 1950s through the early 1980s…Governor Whitman may not have endorsed a presidential candidate yet, but some of her close associates already are moving firmly behind Texas Gov. <B>George W. Bush.</B> <B>Cliff Sobel</B>, a state GOP finance chair and one of Whitman’s primary fund-raisers, will head up Bush’s dialing-for-dollars efforts in the Garden State, while <B>Rocco Iossa</B>, former state GOP executive director under <B>Chuck Haytaian</B> and appointments counsel under Whitman, will handle Bush’s political operations here…State Troopers <B>John Hogan</B> and <B>James Kenna</B>, whose shootings of three minority men during a controversial traffic stop last April gave impetus to the current furor over racial profiling, were indicted April 19 for filing false reports on the racial identities of at least 25 motorists. The two troopers could face 20 years in prison for reporting that they were stopping white motorists when they were actually pulling over vehicles driven by minorities…Former Camden Mayor <B>Arnold Webster</B> pleaded guilty to defrauding the Camden city government. Webster, who had served as Camden’s school superintendent for a decade, cashed out $120,000 in unused sick leave and vacation pay after being elected mayor, but still had the temerity to defraud the city of another $20,000 in pay for his school post. Webster could face up to five years in prison, but now legally blind and 68 years old, he is likely to get less. Webster’s plea follows that of <B>Elaine Bey</B>, the former Camden school board president who pleaded guilty to embezzlement as a result of evidence turned up in the same ongoing federal probe…New Jersey Network reporter <B>Sara Lee Kessler</B> was awarded $7.3 million by a Bergen County jury that agreed with her contention that WWOR-TV 9 in Secaucus wrongfully demoted her and forced her to take a disability leave after she broke her tailbone while riding in a news van. More than $1 million of the award represents the difference between her $50,000 salary as an NJN reporter and the $300,000 she made as a WWOR anchorwoman until 1994. Nice work if you can get it…Call him the Stealth candidate. Nineteen-year-old <B>Jason Dudley</B> didn’t even let his father know until a week before the election that he was putting together a grass-roots write-in effort to win a seat on the Middlesex Borough School Board. Only two candidates had filed for three board vacancies, and Dudley won the third seat with 67 write-in votes. Dudley, who played percussion instruments in the school band, organized a successful effort to save the job of instrumental music teacher <B>Michael Fitzgerald</B> last year as a high school senior… Former Trump Castle casino president <B>Anthony J. Calandra</B> was stripped of his license as a casino representative by the state Casino Control Commission for sexually harassing two female subordinates in 1993 and 1996… Acquittal doesn’t always mean victory, as Florham Park teacher <B>David Ford</B> discovered after his acquittal on charges of sexually abusing a dozen female pupils. Satisfied that Ford did engage in the alleged sexual acts, DYFS has moved to bar him from teaching…</P></FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Century Schoolbook" SIZE=2><B><big>MARCH:</big> Governor Whitman</B> continues her practice of promoting the lawyers she knows to higher office. Supreme Court Associate Justice <B>Stewart Pollock</B>'s resignation at the end of February set off the latest legal chain reaction. Whitman swiftly nominated Attorney General <B>Peter</B> <B>Verniero </B>to fill Pollock's seat when he retires in September, then tapped Chief Counsel <B>John Farmer</B>, the son of the veteran Star-Ledger national political columnist of the same name, as her new Attorney General-designee. Farmer's replacement will be <B>Rick Mroz</B>, who started off as head of the governor's authorities unit before being named her special counsel after her 1997 reelection. All this is contingent on Verniero surviving what is shaping up as a lively confirmation debate over the State Police racial profiling scandal that already has claimed the career of State Police Col. <B>Carl Williams</B>... Whitman elevated Williams' executive officer, Lt. Col. <B>Michael Fedorko</B>, to fill in until a permanent successor is named. Fedorko, a familiar face around the Statehouse after spending more than a decade on the Governor's security detail watching over Govs. <B>Brendan Byrne</B> and <B>Thomas Kean</B>, is a candidate to become the 11th permanent State Police superintendent. But with the State Police under attack by much of New Jersey's black community, Whitman also is considering reaching outside the trooper ranks for the first time in the elite unit's 78-year history... <B>Fred Butler</B>, who had headed the Assembly Democratic staff since 1991, has been tapped by Whitman for the state Board of Public Utilities. The vacancy, which must be filled by a Democrat, had been left open since December 1996, when <B>Edward Salmon</B> resigned after the Executive Commission on Ethical Standards ruled that he had accepted free meals from utilities. Whitman originally tried to win Senate approval for former Assembly Minority Leader <B>Willie Brown</B> to fill the post. Brown earned Whitman's gratitude by breaking party ranks to back GOP party chairman Chuck Haytaian in his unsuccessful race against U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg in 1994, but his candidacy foundered when it turned out that Brown had failed to pay $23,000 in water bills on properties he owned in Newark... <B>Edward G. Werner Sr.</B>, whose 11-year-old son Eddie was abducted and slain by a 15-year-old neighbor while selling candy and gift wrap for a school fund-raiser door-to-door in Jackson Township, is planning to run for the state Assembly as a Democrat in the 30th District. Werner said he would stress victims' rights, neighborhood safety, crime and taxes in his race against GOP Assemblymen <B>Joseph R. Malone III</B> and <B>Melvin Cottrell</B>... <B>Christine Grant</B>, a deputy state health commissioner under Governor Kean, is Whitman's choice to succeed <B>Len Fishman</B> as state health commissioner. Grant, who had been serving as vice president of public policy and business at Pasteur Merieux Connaugh, a Pennsylvania drug company, will take office in April...<B>Beverly Hall</B>, superintendent of the state-run Newark school district for the past four years, will be leaving in June to become superintendent of schools in Atlanta... <B>Amy Mansue</B>, who had been appointed chief executive officer of HIP Health Plan of New Jersey just three months before the state announced plans to take over the ailing HMO, has been relieved of her duties. Mansue, a former deputy Human Services commissioner, had had her position downgraded to executive vice president in December, one month after the state formally took control of the HMO... <B>Anthony J. Sartor</B>, a commissioner on the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, and Port Authority Commissioner <B>Aubrey C. Lewis</B> are swapping board seats. No word on whether any Nets tickets or PATH tokens are being thrown in on the deal... The rematch is on, and we don't mean Whitman-Florio. For the second time in four years, Mercer County Executive <B>Robert Prunetti</B>, a Republican, will be facing a challenge from Democratic Freeholder <B>Jim McManimon</B>, who defeated fellow Freeholder <B>Anthony Carabelli</B> at the county Democratic convention for the right to take on Prunetti... After 53 years, the Rev. <B>S. Howard Woodson </B>retired on Palm Sunday as minister of the Shiloh Baptist Church in Trenton. The 82-year-old former state Assembly speaker, who had been hospitalized recently with pneumonia, was named senior pastor emeritus... <B>Jerrold Binney</B>, chief of staff to Bergen County Executive <B>William "Pat" Schuber</B> since 1991, is leaving to take a job with DeCotiis, Fitzpatrick &amp; Gluck. Noting that the firm earned $842,442 on legal work involved with the privatization of Bergen Pines County Hospital, one union official told The Record that Binney's hiring was "just one more example of the revolving door of government."</P>
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<P><big><B>FEBRUARY:</big></B> Looking for a job in <B>Governor Whitman's</B> Cabinet? Then you'd better get your resume in to Attorney General <B>Peter Verniero</B> quickly. Whitman's nomination of <B>David Hespe</B> to succeed <B>Leo Klagholz</B> as Education Commissioner marks the third Cabinet post in a year filled from the senior ranks of the Department of Law and Public Safety. Hespe had been serving as Verniero's First Assistant Attorney General, the same post that <B>Janice Mitchell</B> <B>Mintz</B> held before her nomination as Personnel Commissioner last January. Whitman also tapped <B>Jaynee LaVecchia</B>, director of the Division of Law, as Commissioner of Banking and Insurance last fall. Hespe spent nine years mastering the intricacies of the Abbott v. Burke school funding litigation as a legislative policy analyst, assistant counsel to Governor Whitman and assistant education commissioner under Klagholz. Klagholz, a maverick reformer who frequently warred with the state's school superintendents over education policy issues, will become a professor of education policy at Richard Stockton State College... Whitman has another Cabinet post to fill as the usual second term exodus continues, with Health Commissioner <B>Len Fishma</B>n, the first non-physician to serve in that post, also planning to leave soon... <B>Sister Jane Frances Brady</B> is stepping down as president and chief executive officer of St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Paterson after 26 years as one of New Jersey's most respected and outspoken advocates for the health care needs of the urban poor. Sister Brady already has handed over day-to-day operations to new hospital president <B>Patrick Wardell</B> and will give up her CEO duties in July to become executive vice president of Via Caritas Health System, a Catholic health care network formed in 1997 with St. Joseph's as its flagship hospital... The first New Jersey native to announce for president this year wasn't <B>Bill Bradley</B> or <B>Steve Forbes</B>, but <B>Bob Smith</B>. Who? That's right, Bob Smith, born and bred on a farm in Cream Ridge, N.J., the crewcut kid in the drama club at Steinert High School in Hamilton Township, graduate of what is now Mercer County Community College. Smith, a conservative Republican who has served 14 years in the House and Senate, is a real longshot for the GOP nomination, but he does have one advantage. When he left New Jersey, he settled in New Hampshire, site of the nation's first presidential primary, where he is running as the Granite State's - not the Garden State's - "favorite son"... Bradley's campaign team has a strong New Jersey flavor. <B>Doug Berman</B>, his 1984 Senate campaign manager, who is best known for his stint as state treasurer presiding over Governor <B>Jim Florio's</B> $2.8 billion tax increase, is the campaign chairman. <B>Gina Glantz, </B>Bradley's campaign manager, cut her political teeth as campaign manager for <B>Andrew Maguire</B> in his successful 1974 race for a Bergen County congressional seat and later served as chief of staff to Essex County Executive <B>Peter Shapiro</B> from 1978 to 1982; she had the good sense to skip Shapiro's ill-fated 1985 race for governor. Campaign finance chairman is lawyer <B>Ted Wells</B>, fresh off his successful defense of <B>President Clinton's</B> former agriculture secretary, <B>Mike Espy</B>. Assisting him will be Bradley's longtime fund-raiser, <B>Betty Sapo</B>. Bradley's former press secretary, <B>Eric Hauser</B>, is handling the press...Give <B>Alan Steinberg</B> the record for the most impressive-sounding job titles in the space of seven months. From June to January, Steinberg went from assistant commissioner of the Department of Commerce to vice president of the reconstituted New Jersey Commerce and Economic Growth Commission to executive director of the Hackensack Meadowlands Development Commission. An Orthodox Jew and author of "American Jewry and Conservative Politics: A New Direction," Steinberg served as an education aide under then-Assembly Speaker <B>Chuck Haytaian</B> before joining the Whitman administration. Even Steinberg had to laugh about The Record's embarrassingly laudatory profile, "HMDC gains peacemaker." Steinberg is a highly partisan Republican and not exactly the quiet type...Former Assembly Speaker <B>Alan Karcher</B> surprised Mercer County Democrats January 16 by resigning as county Democratic chairman. Karcher, whose quixotic 1989 race for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination against Florio was best-known for the "Florios" cereal boxes he distributed, returned to politics as Mercer Democratic leader at the invitation of the late Assemblyman <B>John S. Watson</B> after the anti-Florio taxpayer revolt knocked Democrats out of power in what had been a strong Democratic county. With Karcher at the helm, Democrats regained a 7-0 freeholder majority and recaptured the three 15th District legislative seats, including one now held by Watson's daughter, Assemblywoman <B>Bonnie Watson-Coleman. </B>Karcher, who has been battling cancer, said his decision was not health-related and that he is working on two books. Sen. <B>Shirley Turner</B>, the Mercer Democrats' vice-chair, will fill in for Karcher until a new chairman is picked at a party convention in March...Where do you go for barbecue? Texas, if Gov. <B>George Bush Jr.</B> thinks your endorsement might come in handy in New Jersey's Republican presidential primary. Gov. <B>Christine Todd Whitman</B> had dinner with the presumptive GOP front-runner at the governor's mansion the night before her speech to a "smart growth" conference in Austin in December. Bush's guests for a January lunch in Austin included Senate President <B>Donald DiFrancesco,</B> Assembly Speaker <B>Jack Collins</B>, Bergen County Executive <B>Pat Schuber,</B> Assembly leaders <B>Joseph Kyrillos</B> and <B>Richard Bagger,</B> and Sen. <B>Bill Gormley</B>. Gormley, the Atlantic County Republican leader who is planning to run for U.S. senator in 2000, must have decided that Bush's "care and feeding" strategy was a good one. He ordered hundreds of subs from the famed White Horse Sub Shop for the Chamber of Commerce train trip to Washington...DiFrancesco, who expects to run for governor in 2001, has hired <B>Rick Wright,</B> the architect of the 1995 Republican Assembly campaigns, as a Senate aide. Wright also served a stint on Governor Whitman's advance team... New Transportation Commissioner <B>James Weinstein</B> named 38-year DOT veteran <B>Albert Ari</B> as his deputy commissioner. <B>Stanley Rosenblum</B>, the former deputy commissioner, is serving as acting executive director of NJ Transit and is a top candidate to be named to that post permanently... <B>Carl Zeitz,</B> who lost his lobbying partner when Weinstein took the DOT post, has <B>added Tim Carden, </B>a former Human Services commissioner under Gov. <B>Brendan T. Byrne</B>, as his new partner... Whitman has chosen <B>John Peter Suarez</B>, one of her assistant counsels, as new director of the Division of Gaming Enforcement, replacing <B>Frank Catania,</B> a former state assemblyman from Passaic County who had his run-ins with Attorney General Verniero... Congressman <B>Bob Franks'</B> narrow victory over Fanwood Mayor <B>Maryanne Connolly</B> last November, coupled with his vote to impeach <B>President Clinton</B>, has potential Democratic challengers salivating over their chances to unseat him in 2000. Attorney <B>Jeffrey Golkin</B> already has declared his candidacy, Connolly undoubtedly wants a second shot, and now Assemblyman <B>Joseph Suliga</B> of Linden is seriously considering the race. With backing from his 20th District legislative colleagues, Sen. <B>Raymond Lesniak</B> and Assemblyman <B>Neil Cohen,</B> Suliga would be the clear favorite in a contested Democratic primary...<B>Jim McGreevey,</B> the would-be Democratic candidate for governor in 2001, has burnished his resume with a presidential appointment to the National Cancer Advisory Board. McGreevey was the only candidate to walk the Chamber of Commerce train to Washington from end to end on both the Thursday ride and the Friday return trip....It was a short trip from top to bottom for <B>Hannoch Weisman</B>, the 39-year-old Roseland law firm that merged with <B>Sterns, Herbert, Weinroth &amp; Petrino </B>in 1988 to form the state's largest law firm. The marriage was short-lived, ending after five years when Sterns &amp; Weinroth went back on their own. That was just the first blow. Since 1995, Hannoch Weisman has lost dozens of lawyers. Stunned by the loss of a half-dozen senior partners in just two weeks to Christmas raids by other firms, Hannoch Weisman dissolved itself January 29...Former Democratic Assemblyman <B>"Buddy" Fortunato</B> will spend 18 months in jail with no possibility of parole after pleading guilty to arranging for $70,000 to be paid to four friends of a Passaic County party leader in exchange for the official's help in obtaining county contracts. Fortunato, who served four terms in the Assembly representing Essex County from 1978 to 1986, was working as a consultant for the company, Central Medical Services, when he arranged the payments in 1994.</P></FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Century Schoolbook" SIZE=2><big><B>JANUARY:</B></big> <B>Governor Whitman</B>, who opened 1998 by announcing a $5 million Faith-Based Community Development Initiative, showed some faith-based initiative of her own when she tapped the <B>Rev. DeForest "Buster" Soaries </B>to serve as Secretary of State. Soaries will be the highest-ranking clergyman to serve in state government since the <B>Rev.</B> <B>S. Howard Woodson Jr.</B>, pastor of Trenton's Shiloh Baptist Church, served as Assembly speaker in 1974-75. Soaries served as associate pastor at Shiloh under Woodson before moving on to become pastor of the First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens in Franklin Township. As pastor, he headed the First Baptist Community Development Corporation, which rehabilitated the neighborhood around his church. Originally a Democrat, Soaries has been in the political forefront since the 1970's, when he served as New Jersey director of the <B>Rev. Jesse Jackson</B>'s<B> </B>Operation Push. Later, describing himself as an independent, Soaries led a coalition of black ministers in supporting the nomination of <B>Clarence Thomas</B> to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1991. He was one of Whitman's staunchest supporters in the controversy that ensued when Whitman strategist <B>Ed Rollins </B>claimed that black ministers had been paid to hold down black voter turnout in the 1993 election -- a claim he later recanted. As secretary of state, Soaries will direct Whitman's "Many Faces, One Family" initiative, which was started under Whitman's first secretary of state, <B>Lonna Hooks</B>, who resigned to take a position at Bloomfield College.<B> </B>The Soaries nomination<B> </B>was praised by the Black Ministers Council. But it was criticized by former Secretary of State <B>Jane Burgio </B>and other arts advocates, who would have preferred an appointee with stronger ties to the arts community, such as <B>Carol Cronheim</B>, who served as acting secretary before returning to the Governor's Office of Policy and Planning... <B>Krystal Odell </B>knows firsthand the problems of mainstreaming the developmentally disabled into community programs. Her sister, <B>Lauren</B>, born with Down's syndrome, was placed in an institution at age 2. She lived there for 30 years before moving into a home with a family to care for her a decade ago. Odell, who started her career as a social worker for the developmentally disabled almost 20 years ago, was picked by Human Services Commissioner <B>Michele Guhl </B>as director of the Division of Developmental Disabilities, a post that has been vacant since the highly regarded <B>Robert Nicholas</B> retired early last year. Odell's chief goal will be to reduce the long waiting list of developmentally disabled people awaiting community placements, which now tops 5,000.... Amtrak will head into the 21st Century still under New Jersey leadership. <B>George D. Warrington</B> of Voorhees, who had been serving as acting president of Amtrak for the past year, has been named officially to succeed fellow New Jerseyan <B>Thomas Downs</B>, who resigned in 1997. Warrington is a former NJ Transit and New Jersey Department of Transportation official; he served as DOT's deputy commissioner when Downs was commissioner under Democratic <B>Gov. Jim Florio</B>, then accompanied his boss to Washington. Warrington's primary goal is to make Amtrak self-sufficient by 2002, when federal subsidies totaling $609 million this year, are scheduled to end. Warrington almost had a fellow New Jerseyan looking over his shoulder, but <B>Governor Whitman </B>resigned from a blue-ribbon committee studying Amtrak's operations in a dispute over Congress's refusal to allow the panel to hire independent consultants... <B>Stanley Rosenblum</B>'s career is taking off like a bullet train. Rosenblum, who was named assistant commissioner of the DOT in 1994 and promoted to deputy DOT commissioner in 1997, was happy to be picked as deputy executive director of NJ Transit in November. He was even happier a month later when he was promoted to acting executive director of the mass transit agency while a nationwide search is conducted for a successor to <B>Shirley DeLibero</B>. That nationwide search may end up at Rosenblum's door, said new DOT Commissioner <B>James Weinstein</B>, who confirmed that Rosenblum will be one of the candidates interviewed for the job....<B> </B>And then there was one. After sharing leadership of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee with U.S. Sen. <B>Bob Kerry </B>of Nebraska for two years, Sen. <B>Robert Torricelli</B>, D-N.J., will serve as sole chairman of the committee going into the year 2000 Senate races. As chair, Torricelli will be responsible for recruiting strong candidates to run for Senate seats now held by Republicans or retiring Democrats -- and raising the $60 million to $70 million that they and incumbents like Sen. <B>Frank Lautenberg</B>, D-N.J.,<B> </B>will need. Torricelli also won a seat on the coveted Senate Foreign Relations Committee, although he would have preferred the Senate Finance Committee instead....<B> </B>The hottest race in New Jersey in 1999 may very well be the battle for county executive in Mercer County, where Republican incumbent <B>Bob Prunetti </B>will await the winner of a primary fight between Democratic freeholders <B>Jim McManimon </B>and <B>Anthony Carabelli</B>. Prunetti narrowly defeated McManimon in 1995 to win a second term.....<B> Frank Catania </B>is stepping down as director of the state Division of Gaming Enforcement effective Jan. 31, but he doesn't know where he's going. Catania, a former Passaic County assemblyman, found himself embroiled in controversy in 1997 when Attorney General <B>Peter Verniero</B> ordered a state trooper to stand guard over his files in the midst of an interoffice dispute over a report Catania had prepared on <B>Donald Trump</B>'s activities in opposition to an Atlantic City tunnel project that the Whitman administration. Catania, who can't take a job in the casino industry in New Jersey for at least two years, would love to succeed <B>Ronald Fava</B> as Passaic county prosecutor if Fava is nominated for a judgeship.... Deputy Insurance Commissioner <B>Cynthia Codella</B>, who spent 24 years with the Travelers Insurance Company before joining the Whitman administration, knows where she's going. Codella returned to the insurance industry effective Jan. 1 as director of government affairs for the Proformance Insurance Company in Monmouth County... What do New Jersey Senate Majority Leader <B>John O. Bennett III</B>, R-Monmouth, and U.S. House Minority Leader <B>Dick Gephardt, </B>D-Mo., have in common? You can probably count on both to stay right where they are. With Democrats only six seats from control of the House, Gephardt is not going to give up a good shot at the speakership for a long shot at the presidency. And with Senate President <B>Donald T. DiFrancesco</B>,<B> </B>R-Union, gearing up for a 2001 gubernatorial bid that will take him out of the Senate, Bennett says he is going to wait for his shot at the Senate presidency to run in what is likely to be a hotly contested GOP primary for the right to take on new 12th District Democratic Congressman <B>Rush Holt</B> in 2000.... Holt made a series of staff appointments prior to his Jan. 6 swearing in. Holt named <B>John Weingart</B> of Stockton, a former commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection, as his district office manager. Weingart spent the latter months of 1998 as a senior fellow at the Center for Analysis of Public Issues writing a book about his unsuccessful four-year effort to locate a low-level radioactive waste disposal site in New Jersey. Holt named New Jersey native <B>Steven Maviglio</B>, who has been serving as assistant director of <B>President Clinton</B>'s community policing program,<B> </B>as his administrative assistant in Washington. Holt hired former Assemblywoman <B>Greta Kiernan</B> as his district representative, and is opening a permanent political office staffed by his former campaign manager, <B>Mark Matzen</B>. Holt plans to raise $1 million this year.</P></FONT>
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<P><FONT FACE="Century Schoolbook" SIZE=2><big><B>DECEMBER: </big></B>New Jersey picked up some political clout on the Democratic side of the congressional aisle, when Rep. <B>Robert Menendez</B> was elected vice chairman of the House Democratic caucus, the fourth-highest post behind Minority Leader <B>Richard Gephardt</B> of Missouri, Minority Whip <B>David Bonior</B> of Michigan and Caucus Chairman <B>Martin Frost</B> of Texas. Menendez, a four-term congressman from Union City and the son of Cuban immigrants, won a three-way race to become the first Hispanic elected to such a high post in the House Democratic caucus; he had previously served as chief deputy whip under Bonior.... Frost's decision to step down as finance chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee to run for caucus chair opened up a leadership opportunity for Rep. <B>Frank A. Pallone </B>of Long Branch. Recognizing the importance of fund-raising, Democratic leaders decided to replace Frost's position with a chair and three co-chairs, with Pallone tabbed to fill one of the co-chair posts. Pallone, who was the target of a $2 million smear campaign by a Washington-based insurance industry front this year, holds the dubious distinction of being one of the few incumbent members of Congress ever to win reelection handily after being outspent 3-1. Maybe this new post will help him find an extra couple million for his own race in 2000.... U.S. Sen. <B>Frank R. Lautenberg</B>, D-N.J., has his eye on a Senate chairmanship if Democrats recapture the upper house in 2000, so he's decided to run for reelection. Lautenberg is already the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee and the pending retirement of Sen. <B>Daniel Patrick Moynihan </B>of New York could set off a chain reaction that would make him the senior Democrat on the Senate Public Works Committee as well. The only bad thing about all that seniority is that your own words can come back to haunt you: Lautenberg would be 76 in the year 2000 -- or four years older than the late Rep. <B>Millicent Fenwick</B> was when he made her age an issue in his 1982 upset victory. Elephants -- especially Republicans -- never forget.... <B>Marge Roukema </B> was one member of Congress who thought House Speaker Newt Gingrich's exile back to Georgia was just peachy. Roukema, the moderate Republican from Bergen County who was one of the earliest supporters of Louisiana Congressman <B>Bob Livingston</B>'s quest for the House speakership, was appointed by Livingston to co-chair his transition team along with Rep. <B>Robert Packard</B> of California. Rep. <B>Rodney Frelinghuysen</B>, the Morris County Republican who served on the House Appropriations Committee that Livingstone chaired, also was looking forward to Livingston's elevation to the top House leadership post. Roukema's and Frelinghuysen's hopes were dashed when Livingston decided to resign in the wake of allegations regarding his extra-marital affairs. The Frelinghuysens and the Livingstons go back together more than 225 years as descendants of prominent political families. The almost-speaker is a direct descendant of Philip Livingston, brother of William Livingston, the first governor of New Jersey... Political observers widely agreed that former GOP Congressman <B>William J. Martini </B>of Clifton had the best chance of any Republican to win back the 8th District seat he lost to Rep. <B>William J. Pascrell Jr. </B>in 1996. But Martini declined to take on the challenge, enabling Pascrell to coast to a 63.5 percent to 36.5 percent reelection victory over Verona Mayor <B>Matthew Kirnan </B>on Nov. 3. Less than two weeks after the election, <B>Governor Whitman</B> appointed Martini to a highly prized vacancy on the board of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. What a way to punish a guy!... UMDNJ's search committee interviewed 32 candidates to replace Dr. <B>Stanley S. Bergen Jr.</B>, who had been the only president in the university's 28-year history, but decided that the best candidate had been one of its own members. Dr. <B>Stuart Cook</B>, the 62-year-old head of UMDNJ's neuroscience department, had stepped down from the search committee to take over as acting president in July when Bergen retired, then decided to apply for the job on a fulltime basis. Cook had the enthusiastic support of Bergen, under whom he founded UMDNJ's neuroscience department in 1972 and served as acting dean of the medical school from 1987 to 1989. Modest and unassuming, Cook's management style is described as the antithesis of Bergen's. The post pays $400,000, the highest public salary in New Jersey... <B>Elizabeth Volz, </B>a 30-year-old teacher from Glassboro whose truck driver husband works at night and takes care of their children during the day, has replaced <B>Bear Atwood</B> of Fair Haven as president of the state chapter of the National Organization of Women. Atwood decided to step down after three years in which she has been one of <B>Governor Whitman</B>'s most vocal critics on welfare reform and political issues. Volz, a NOW vice-president, ran uncontested for the position... On the Friends of Bill and Hillary front, <B>Robert Raymar</B>, a Newark lawyer who went to Yale Law School with the First Couple, is expected to be nominated again for a seat on the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Raymar's nomination never reached a Senate Judiciary Committee vote. Also up for a seat on the 3</FONT><FONT FACE="Century Schoolbook" SIZE=1>rd</FONT><FONT FACE="Century Schoolbook" SIZE=2> Circuit will be Superior Court Judge <B>Julio Fuentes</B>. At the same time, New Jersey's feuding senators, <B>Frank Lautenberg</B> and <B>Robert Torricelli</B>, have agreed to nominate U.S. Attorney <B>Faith Hochberg </B>to a U.S. District Court judgeship. <B>Zulima Farber</B>, the former state public advocate, is the leading candidate for Lautenberg's and Torricelli's blessing to replace Hochberg... <B>Rafael Perez</B>, who moved from Riker, Danzig, to become director of the Educational Facilities Authority under Governor Whitman in 1993, is moving back to Riker, Danzig. Assemblywoman <B>Barbara Buono</B>, D-Middlesex, sharply criticized Perez's move, noting that the EFA awarded more than $300,000 in bond counsel fees to Riker, Danzig under Perez's leadership. Whitman administration officials, however, noted that bond counsel work is awarded on a competitive basis.</P>
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<P><FONT FACE="Century Schoolbook" SIZE=2><B><big>NOVEMBER:</big></B> New Jersey's transportation world just wasn't big enough for longtime NJ Transit executive director <B>Shirley A. DeLibero</B> and Transportation Commissioner <B>John J. Haley Jr</B>. But in a twist on the usual scenario, it looks like both are leaving town. DeLibero, 61, who earlier this year became the first African-American woman elected head of the American Public Transit Association, will oversee bus service in sprawling Houston starting in January. The tough-talking DeLibero, who earned $150,000 as head of NJ Transit, will receive a $210,000 salary as general manager of the Harris County (Texas) Metropolitan Transit Authority and a $52,000 pension from NJ Transit that is swelled by 15 years in extra pension credit under an earlier deal that <B>Governor Whitman</B> allowed to stay in place. Deputy Transportation Commissioner <B>Stanley J. Rosenblum</B>, 46, a quiet career employee, will fill in as NJ Transit's deputy executive director while NJ Transit searches for a permanent replacement. Meanwhile, Whitman is already considering a replacement for Haley, who also is expected to leave by the end of the year. <B>James Weinstei</B>n, a partner with <B>Carl Zeitz</B> in the lobbying firm of Riverfront Associates, has emerged as the leading candidates to replace <B>Haley. Weinstein,</B> who headed the Governor's Authorities Unit under Governor Tom Kean, worked closely with <B>John Sheridan</B> and <B>Hazel Gluck</B> on the selection of Whitman's Cabinet during the 1993 transition... Speaking of Hazel Gluck: Leave it to Gluck, the first woman to serve as Transportation Commissioner, Insurance Commissioner and Lottery Director, and <B>Judy Shaw</B>, Governor Whitman's first chief of staff, to come up with another first - New Jersey's first "virtual merger." The GluckShaw Group, one of Trenton's top lobbying firms, and Princeton Partners Inc., a marketing communications firm headed by Catherine Mathis and Tom Sullivan whose clients include the Port Authority and Prosperity New Jersey, will remain legally and financially independent. But the firms will share clients, electronic networks, office space, signs and the slogan "Minds Over Matters." Shaw describes the new arrangement thus: "Our virtual company is not a traditional organization; it is a confederation of entrepreneurs." It is unclear if the firm's 52 professional "entrepreneurs" will be paid in "virtual checks.".... <B>Henry J. Raimondo</B> has been named associate director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics, where he has been a faculty member since 1981. An expert in state and local public finance, Raimondo is a Democratic appointee to the New Jersey Council of Economic Advisers and served as chief economist for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in 1995-96 while on a leave of absence from Rutgers....One month before the November elections, <B>Richard McGrath</B> left his job as spokesman for Sen. <B>Frank Lautenberg</B> to join the Democratic Governors Association in Washington, D.C., as spokesman for the nation's 17 Democratic governors. That number may not be many, but McGrath, who served as campaign spokesman for <B>Jim McGreevey</B> in his 1997 gubernatorial bid, isn't worried. He plans to do his part to increase the Democratic numbers by leaving his Washington post to serve as campaign spokesman for McGreevey's gubernatorial run in 2001....The College of New Jersey reached halfway across the country to tap <B>Barbara Gitenstein</B> as the 143-year-old college's first woman president. Gitenstein, who had been serving as executive vice president and provost of Drake University in Iowa, is the author of Apocalyptic Messianism and Contemporary Jewish-American Poetry. Apocalyptic messianism? Isn't that what TCNJ's faculty accused <B>Harold Eickhoff</B> of before running him off to a women's college in the United Arab Emirates?</P>
<P><FONT FACE="Century Schoolbook" size="2"><big><B>OCTOBER:</B></big> Give Senate Minority Leader <B>Richard Codey </B>credit. Signing on early as the point man in New Jersey for <B>Bill Bradley</B>'s fledgling presidential bid (or, should we say, yet another exploratory effort) is a shrewd political move. Short of impeachment or resignation, <B>Bill Clinton</B>'s troubles will do nothing but hurt Vice President <B>Albert Gore </B>in 2000, and if the Democratic Party is looking for a reformist Anti-Clinton to top the ticket, Bradley stands as good a chance as anyone. Notwithstanding Codey's sincere admiration for Bradley, the fact remains that if Codey wants to keep his options open for a gubernatorial run in 2001, a Bradley in the White House may be his only real shot. Sen. <B>Raymond Lesniak</B>, D-Union, is one of Clinton's biggest boosters and is so tight with Gore that he traveled to Tennessee as Gore's guest last year for the Rutgers-Tennessee NCAA tournament women's basketball game. Lesniak, Sen. <B>John Lynch</B>, D-Middlesex, and Camden County Democratic leader <B>George Norcross </B>were the political power brokers behind <B>Jim McGreevey</B>'s unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign last year and are expected to back him for another run in 2001. McGreevey, New Jersey's Energizer Bunny, hasn't stopped running; in fact, he's still running radio ads. Furthermore, McGreevey can once again expect to have strong labor support in his corner. But if a Democrat like Bradley wins the White House without McGreevey's support and takes an active interest in New Jersey political affairs, all bets are off... <B>Elizabeth Randall </B>didn't take a pay cut in moving from Commissioner of Banking and Insurance to the newly created $115,000-a-year post of vice president of project development and community relations for the Sports and Exposition Authority. Randall, who reportedly resigned under pressure, was replaced by <B>Jaynee LaVecchia</B>. LaVecchia, who had been serving as director of the Division of Law, is the second new Cabinet officer this year to be selected by Whitman from Attorney General <B>Peter</B> <B>Verniero</B>'s senior cadre of lawyers. <B>Janice Mitchell Mintz</B>, who was sworn in as Personnel Commissioner in August after a lengthy confirmation holdup, was first assistant attorney general under Verniero...Governors come and go, but the Department of Human Services hierarchy has managed to maintain remarkable continuity over the years - until this summer. In the last three months, DHS has brought in a new commissioner, lost a deputy commissioner, and reshuffled the directors of four divisions whose budget are larger than those of most Cabinet agencies. In July, <B>Michelle Guhl</B>, a former deputy chief of staff to Governor Whitman who had steered the Division of Youth and Family Services through its latest crisis, replaced <B>William Waldman</B>. Waldman, who had served as Commissioner or Acting Commissioner under three governors, moved to Washington to head the newly renamed American Human Services Association. Deputy Commissioner <B>Velvet Miller </B>left in August to join the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. In September, <B>Karen Highsmith</B> resigned as Welfare Director to set up a consulting business for states undertaking welfare reform projects; <B>David Heins</B>, a key architect of New Jersey's WorkFirst welfare reform, is filling in as acting director. That same month, <B>Margaret Murray</B>, a senior program analyst at the federal Office of Management and Budget, was brought in to oversee New Jersey's $5 billion Medicaid Division, and <B>Charles Venti </B>became the first DYFS caseworker picked to head the $433 million child protection agency. Meanwhile, a search continues for a new director of the Division of Developmental Disabilities to replace DHS veteran <B>Robert Nicholas</B>. Nicholas's longtime troubleshooter, <B>Doug McGrother</B>, has been filling in as acting DDD director since Nicholas retired to Tennessee in May...<B>Fred Butler </B>is leaving his post as executive director of the Assembly Democratic Office after 16 years on the Assembly staff. Butler took over the top job in September 1991, just two months before the GOP swept to two-thirds majorities in both houses in the backlash against the Florio tax increases. He had been in the minority ever since.<B> Frank Robinson</B>, a close ally of Assembly Minority Leader <B>Joseph V. Doria</B>, moves up from deputy executive director to take Robinson's spot...Few people noticed when <B>John Loos </B>decided to pack it in after four stormy years as legislative director for the Communications Workers of America in Trenton and return to the relative calm of bargaining contracts at the local government level. Loos was the CWA official who had the best working relationship with the Whitman administration - a position he most recently translated into a Displaced Worker Pool for Commerce Department employees facing layoff by the new Commerce and Economic Development Authority. Loos saw the handwriting on the wall when <B>Rae Raeder, Jim Marchetti</B> and <B>Suzanne Dyer </B>won CWA local union presidencies on hard-line platforms in June 1997. Loos and his legislative partner, Elaine<B> Waller</B>, were replaced by the implacable <B>Alan Kaufman </B>and <B>Don Rice. </B>Look for exceptionally bitter state employee contract negotiations next summer, particularly if hired gun <B>Jerold Glassman </B>continues as the Whitman administration's chief negotiator... The exit of <B>Scott McVay </B>after 22 years from his powerful post as executive director of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Morristown, sparked a flurry of speculation over his likely successor. Dodge's trustees didn't wait long to fill the post with <B>David Grant</B>, a 1972 Princeton University graduate who taught English for 20 years at two Massachusetts prep schools, Cushing Academy and Milton Academy. Grant was best-known for his one-man performances as Mark Twain and for creating the Mountain School, an innovative semester-long environmental program for students from public and private schools. For the last four years, he has run his own educational consulting firm... <B>Brian Scantlebury </B>was fired from his $89,500-a-year post as assistant commissioner of finance and administration for the Department of Transportation in September, two weeks after being charged with drunken driving and running a red light in connection with a 1:40 a.m. accident in North Brunswick. A Montclair councilman, Scantlebury had entered state government as a deputy chief of staff to Governor Whitman in January 1994...Scantlebury's job loss was former state Sen. <B>Joseph Bubba</B>'s gain, as the former Passaic County Republican legislator was named assistant commissioner for customer advocacy and administration at the DOT; Bubba will take home Scantlebury's $89,500. With Bubba's appointment, Whitman has found state jobs for all three Republican senators who lost in 1997 after voting for the governor's controversial $2.8 billion pension refinancing plan. Whitman previously had nominated Bubba to the state Parole Board, but that appointment had been held up by Sen. <B>Norman Robertson</B>, R-Passaic, who had beaten Bubba in the 1997 GOP Senate primary...<B> Richard Carley</B>, the former deputy director of the Division of Criminal Justice, was fired in September, but not until after a jury awarded $350,000 in damages to <B>Barbara Davis</B>, the former deputy attorney general who charged that he had sexually harassed her. The total cost of the case, including legal bills for both sides, is expected to be well over $1 million, and state taxpayers will be footing the bill...With former Treasurer <B>Brian Clymer</B> safely ensconsced at Prudential in Newark, it looks like his top aides just couldn't bear to be too far away. In August,<B> Lou Goetting</B>,<B> </B>a career municipal government manager who headed Clymer's high-profile Local Government Budget Review teams before moving up to deputy treasurer, became the third senior Treasury official to move to the University of Medicine and Dentistry, each at a nice raise. Goetting is UMDNJ's director of materials management. Former Associate Deputy Treasurer <B>John Ekarius</B>, who earned his Whitman administration stripes by directing about 20 departmental transition teams with about 450 members during the 1993-94 Whitman interregnum, joined UMDNJ in April as acting vice president for government and public affairs. The trailblazer in the Treasury exodus from Trenton to Newark was former Deputy Treasurer <B>Jim Archibald</B>, who moved to UMDNJ in June 1997 as senior vice president for administration and finance for the $890 million institution. Archibald, a CPA, was the behind-the-scenes fiscal wizard who played "Mr. Inside" to Clymer's "Mr. Outside" at a succession of jobs from SEPTA to the Federal Transit Administration to Treasury. Goetting now makes $99,000, Ekarius $110,000 and Archibald $200,000. Who said Clymer's team couldn't count?.... The New Jersey State College Governing Boards Association moved to bolster its power play by signing <B>Michael W. Klein</B> as its associate director for legislative, regulatory and labor affairs. Klein served as an assistant counsel to Whitman, as a legislative liaison for Treasurer <B>Brian Clymer </B>and most recently as special assistant to Community Affairs Commissioner <B>Jane Kenny</B>. But his real love is the New York Rangers ice hockey team, which he indulges by serving as assistant editor of the monthly <I>Blueshirt Bulletin.</P>
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