The Record (Bergen County, NJ)
November 5, 2003
Democrats grab control of; Senate GOP can't cash in on McGreevey's troubles
BYLINE: HERB JACKSON, TRENTON BUREAU
BODY:
Bolstered by a huge campaign war chest and a district map that favored their candidates, Democrats bucked history and seized control of the state Senate on Tuesday and expanded their hold on the Assembly.
Losses by Senate Co-President John O. Bennett of Monmouth County and legislative veteran Rose M. Heck of Hasbrouck Heights dashed GOP hopes to transform the political weakness of Governor McGreevey into Republican power in the Legislature.
In another targeted race in North Jersey, freshman Democratic Sen. Paul Sarlo of Wood-Ridge fended off a challenge from former Assemblyman John Kelly, a Republican from Nutley.
Going into the election, Democrats held a three-seat edge over Republicans in the Assembly, but they picked up four more seats with the defeat of Bennett's and Heck's running mates. And party leaders were hoping to expand that margin by winning back seats held by lawmakers who switched parties earlier this year.
"The Republicans lacked a message, a messenger, and money," said David Rebovich, a political scientist from Rider University. "And while everybody's mad at McGreevey and about property taxes and congestion and auto insurance, Republicans offered nothing other than a promise to focus on them.
"People realized that neither party had any compelling vision, and under those circumstances, the party with more registrants, better organization, and more money is going to pull it out," Rebovich said.
The GOP defeat, after Democrats had looked vulnerable earlier this year, left some Republicans asking what went wrong. Assemblyman Richard Merkt, R-Morris, has been urging his colleagues to postpone a vote scheduled for Thursday to choose the Assembly minority leader for the next term.
"I think it's time for the party to take some time, assess the results and learn from the voters' voice," Merkt said. "If we could not achieve a majority given the governor's unpopularity, which is second only to that of the late unlamented [California Gov.] Gray Davis, then clearly our strategy must have been wanted in some regard."
Party control will determine if McGreevey, a Democrat, faces friendly or hostile leaders in the Legislature in the final two years of his term, and could affect his chances for reelection.
Polls had showed that despite dissatisfaction with McGreevey's missteps since taking office, voters were not going to take it out on legislative candidates.
"Governor McGreevey is gratified the voters understand and respect the tough decisions he's made to clean up the fiscal mess he inherited, invest in education, create jobs, and protect New Jersey's environment," McGreevey spokeswoman Kathy Ellis said.
Results tallied by The Associated Press showed that at 10:30 p.m., Democrats had won or were leading races for 22 seats in the Senate to the Republicans' 18.
In the Assembly, the tally was 48-28, with four still being tallied.
Most legislation needs 21 votes in the Senate and 41 in the Assembly for passage.
In addition to Heck, voters also ousted 38th District Assemblyman Matt Ahearn of Fair Lawn, who was elected two years ago as a Democrat but broke with the party and was running as a member of the Green Party, fell short in his reelection bid.
In defeating Heck, Sen. Joseph Coniglio brought two running mates, Democrats Robert Gordon of Fair Lawn and Joan Voss of Fort Lee, into the Assembly.
In the 36th District, covering parts of southern Bergen, the city of Passaic, and Nutley in Essex County, Democrats were unable to oust Assemblyman Paul DiGaetano of Nutley, the Assembly's Republican leader. But Democratic Assemblyman Fred Scalera was able to capture the district's other seat.
Bennett, the state's highest-ranking elected Republican, had battled for his political life against Marlboro Council President Ellen Karcher, the daughter of former Assembly Speaker Alan Karcher.
In addition to redistricting, which made his 12th District more Democrat-friendly, Bennett was weakened by an aggressive newspaper investigation of his billing practices as a municipal attorney.
Bennett's defense cost about $1 million, one Republican official said, and it led to complaints from others in the party that the money might have been better spent on other races.
Historically, the party of the governor loses legislative seats in midterm elections. The last governor to pick up seats from his party was Democrat Robert Meyner in 1953, but the gain was hardly earthshaking: Democrats picked up three seats in the Senate, for a total of seven to the Republicans' 14.
Republicans had tried to capitalize on the governor's low standing in the polls by maligning Democratic incumbents for being part of the "McGreevey Yes Team." Ads and mailings highlighted Democrats' votes for tax increases and for McGreevey's budgets, which trimmed rebates for homeowners and senior citizens.
"From the beginning of the year, the strategy was to focus our very limited resources on a minimum number of targeted seats," said Bill Palatucci, finance chairman for the Republican State Committee.
"We did not want to spread ourselves too thin.
We also had a simple anti-tax, anti-spending message that was easy for voters to grasp."
It was a strategy that had worked before.
The last Democrat to step in after two terms of Republican control of the governor's office was Jim Florio in 1990.
His increases in income, sales, liquor, tobacco, and fuel taxes - coupled with a school funding law that infuriated the powerful teachers union - led to Republican landslides in the 1991 legislative elections.
Team McGreevey tried to avoid a replay of history by employing different strategies with taxes and public relations. McGreevey's tax increases were targeted at select groups - corporations, casinos, smokers, vacationers - rather than the general population. And where Florio had declined to blame his predecessors for the mess, McGreevey did so aggressively, practically from the moment he declared victory on Election Night in 2001.
"All that stuff they threw at us about the last two years paled in comparison to our response, which is what they did in the 10 years before that," said A.J. Sabath, a strategist for the Senate Democrats.
"People might not have liked what we did, but they didn't blame us for having to do it.
They blame the Republicans."
Democrats also had an overwhelming financial advantage to drown out the GOP message. Through Oct. 24, Democratic candidates and powerful committees had raised $37.2 million, compared with $19.6 million for the Republicans, according to reports filed with the Election Law Enforcement Commission.
Legislative spending two years ago was less than $40 million
Philadelphia Inquirer
November 5, 2003
N.J. Democrats secure control of legislature; The party won the state Senate and handily solidified its majority in the Assembly.
BYLINE: By Tom Turcol; Inquirer Staff Writer
Democrats solidified their dominance of New Jersey politics in yesterday's legislative elections, capturing control of the state Senate and increasing their majority in the state Assembly.
The victory was as unexpected as it was complete, with the Democrats winning despite carrying the political anchor of a highly unpopular governor.
At the same time, the legislative elections were a major setback for the state Republican Party, which failed to capitalize on Democratic Gov. McGreevey 's dismal voter-approval ratings.
Depending on the outcome of one race - the Fourth District battle between Republican Sen. George Geist and Democratic challenger Fred Madden - the Democrats will command either a 22-to-18 or 21-to-19 majority in the Senate.
The Geist-Madden race went down to the wire. Unofficial returns showed Madden, a political newcomer, edging Geist by 90 votes out of more than 40,000 cast.
Madden, a political newcomer put up by the powerful Camden County Democratic organization, declared victory. But Geist refused to concede, asserting it was "too close to call" and strongly indicating he would request a recount.
In the Assembly races, the Democrats had won or led in contests for 48 of the 80 seats. The Democrats went into yesterday's elections with a slim majority of 41 to 38, with the Green Party holding one seat.
The Democrats prevailed largely by outspending the Republicans statewide by a four-to-one ratio and unleashing a superior voter-turnout operation in key districts on Election Day.
When the new legislature convenes in January, it will mark the first time the Democrats have controlled the governor's office and both houses of the legislature since 1991.
Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon S. Corzine of New Jersey said his party had "defied conventional wisdom in holding control of the Assembly and winning the Senate."
The party holding the governor's office traditionally loses legislative seats in mid-term elections.
The first sign of the GOP debacle came early when the state's highest-ranking Republican - Senate Copresident John O. Bennett - conceded defeat to Democratic challenger Ellen Karcher.
Bennett, who had been dogged by ethics controversies, took his two Assembly running mates down with him, giving the Democrats control in the predominantly Republican, Monmouth County-based 12th District.
Bennett's defeat, coupled with the GOP's failure to oust the Democratic incumbents in either of two hotly contested Bergen County districts, sealed the Republicans' fate in the Senate, which had been deadlocked at 20-to-20 for the last two years.
In the Fourth, which covers parts of Gloucester and Camden Counties, Geist was fighting to keep the seat he inherited earlier this year from John Matheussen and was considered the favorite entering yesterday's voting.
But the Camden County Democratic organization, led by South Jersey power-broker George E. Norcross 3d, overcame Geist's advantages as an incumbent with a record-setting barrage of television and radio advertising, as well as with its reliably potent voter-turnout operation.
The Democrats, who already controlled one Assembly seat in the district, captured the other yesterday with newcomer David Mayer getting elected along with incumbent Robert Smith.
In South Jersey's Third District, which covers parts of Gloucester and Salem Counties, Democratic Sen. Steve Sweeney was reelected to a second term along with his Assembly running mates Douglas Fisher and John Burzichelli.
Although unprecedented amounts of money were spent on the legislative campaigns across the state, the Fourth District was one of only a handful of Senate races that was seriously contested.
In the others, Bennett lost to Karcher in the 12th; Democratic Sen. Paul Sarlo turned back a challenge from former Republican Assemblyman John Kelly in the 36th; and Democratic Sen. Paul Coniglio defeated Republican Assemblywoman Rose Heck, who was trying to move up to the Senate, in the 38th.
In conceding defeat, Bennett said that McGreevey and the state Democratic Party had made him their "number one target" from the beginning of the year, but that he decided to seek reelection anyway.
In a reference to the hard-hitting campaign against him, which included investigations by Gannett-owned newspapers, he condemned "the politics of personal destruction and intimidation."
The outcome could not have been more devastating for the Republicans, who also lost two Assembly seats in the 12th, those of Assemblyman Michael Arnone and Assemblywoman Clare Farragher, who were ousted by Democrats Michael Panter and Robert Morgan.
Elsewhere in South Jersey, all the races went according to form: Democratic Sens. Wayne Bryant and John Adler coasted to victory in the Fifth and Sixth Districts, respectively.
Republican Sen. William Gormley was easily reelected in the Second District while Diane Allen was easily reelected in the Seventh. In the First District, Republican Assemblyman Nicholas Asselta, running without Democratic opposition, was elected to the Senate seat being vacated by veteran Republican James Cafiero.
Despite the Democratic successes, Republican Sen. Peter Inverso held onto his seat in the 14th District in Mercer County, defeating Democrat Anthony Cimino.
In a closely watched Assembly contest in Middlesex County, Perth Amboy Mayor Joseph Vas, a Democrat, defeated Arlene Friscia, who switched to the Republicans after the Democrats dumped her from the ticket this spring.
While McGreevey was not on the ballot, the election results were being watched as a potential indicator of his political strength as he looks toward his 2005 reelection bid.
The Republicans did their best to make yesterday's elections a referendum on the governor, whose voter-approval ratings have plummeted steadily since his first weeks in office.
The GOP based this fall's campaigns in all 40 districts on McGreevey's first-term agenda, asserting that a vote for a Democratic legislative candidate was a vote for McGreevey. But their strategy failed.
The Democrats, in reaction to McGreevey's dismal approval ratings, used the governor to raise money but were careful not to associate themselves with him publicly during the campaign.
Democratic campaign officials worried that the McGreevey tie would damage their candidates' chances in close races and turn seemingly secure contests into potential upsets.