September 18, 2006 - 1:17pm
Assembly Speaker not usually a stepping stone to Congress
By Wally EdgeIf Albio Sires wins the 13th district congressional seat -- as he is widely expected to do -- he will become the first former Assembly Speaker to go to Congress in thirty years. The last was Joseph LeFante, a Bayonne Democrat, who won a House seat in 1976 when Congressman Dominick Daniels retired. LeFante lasted one term; he was replaced by the Hudson County Democratic Organization in 1978 by Frank Guarini, a former State Senator. Before LeFante, the last Speaker-turned-Congressman was Charles Wolverton, a Republican from Camden County who served in Congress from 1926 to 1958. The last Senate President to win a seat in Congress was Edwin Forsythe; the Burlington County Republican served in the House from 1971 until his death in 1984.
Meaningless trivia: The last state legislative speaker to serve as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives was Tip O'Neill. The Massachusetts Democrat was serving as Speaker of the State House of Representatives in 1952 when John F. Kennedy gave up his House seat to run for the U.S. Senate.
Contributors
Wally Edge
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Bob Torricelli
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Debbie Holtz
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Steve Lonegan
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Dr. Joseph Marbach
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Rob Tornoe
To view a larger version of this cartoon, click here. >
Michael P. Riccards
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Joey Novick
"Union ratifies new contract with Star-Ledger."
AP Newswire
"New Jersey cannot lose its' only paper!", cry readers. ... >
Juan Melli
While New Jersey suffered from a crippling structural deficit, politicians created a slush fund to dole out tax dollars for their own personal gain.
... >
Carla Katz
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Poll
Who will take the most heat from George LeBlanc's testimony in a federal corruption trial?
Wayne Bryant
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Dick Codey
69%
Joe Coniglio
4%
Bernie Kenny
0%
Someone Else
17%
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Quote of the Day
October 6, 2008
"I am not supporting him, because he is not supporting the BCRO," Yudin said. "I simply said to him, and I stand by this, if elected officials feel they cannot support the BCRO, I cannot guarantee my support. He is a sitting assemblyman for 25 years, he has taken the position that he cannot give to the BCRO and I find that wrong, and I have warned him that is a position of mine."........
"You can't get blood from a stone,'' Rooney said, adding, "For him to make these threats is not the sign of a good leader."
-Charles Stile, on BCRO Chairman Bob Yudin's request that Assemblyman John Rooney give a significant part of his $16,000 campaign account to support county-wide candidates
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Read the expanded Wake Up Call, our summary of today’s news media coverage.
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Syndicate
I'm just curious as to whether or not Albio will find any <a hre
I'm just curious as to whether or not Albio will find any Congressional Issues
to run on between now and November. I know he doesn't have to but, I'm just sayin'...
I'm curiuous, how many former Assembly speakers (from any state)
I'm curiuous, how many former Assembly speakers (from any state) currently serve in Congress.