IN CASE YOU MISSED IT… “KARCHER’S RIGHT: TIME TO END SENATORIAL COURTESY”

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT…  “KARCHER’S RIGHT: TIME TO END SENATORIAL COURTESY” 

EDITORIAL, HOME NEWS TRIBUNE, AUGUST 8, 2007  

Pity state Sen. Ellen Karcher, D-Monmouth. Karcher sometimes seems to be one of the few lawmakers truly interested in fundamental reform of New Jersey's political system. For that she suffers the wrath of politicians on all sides.

Last week, Karcher introduced a bill that would ban the unwritten practice of senatorial courtesy, the practice that allows a New Jersey senator to secretly block the governor's nomination of a judge, prosecutor or other state official if the nominee is a resident of the senator's home county or district. The practice, which is not found in any law, raised hackles most recently when state Sen. Nia Gill, D-Essex, held up Gov. Jon S. Corzine's nomination of Stuart Rabner to become chief justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court. Gill never publicly discussed why she disapproved of the nominee and eventually dropped her opposition after a meeting with the governor. No one knows if any assurances were given in return.

Karcher's proposal earned the ire of the Republican running to replace her in November. Assemblywoman Jennifer Beck, R-Monmouth, said Karcher's bill was an election-year gimmick.

Karcher's Democratic colleagues, meanwhile, simply ignored her. At the news conference to introduce the bill, Karcher was instead accompanied by William Schluter, the former Republican state senator who tried to accomplish many of the same reforms from the other side of the aisle; he, too, often seemed like Moses wondering in the desert.

There's no question Karcher's bill stands little chance of passage, since senators are loathe to surrender any power given to them, least of all power that allows them to act unilaterally.

Still, it would be illuminating if the Senate or one of its committees simply agreed to debate the bill. There are those who argue that courtesy serves a very important check on the power of the governor, especially one whose party also rules the Legislature. There may be some merit to that argument, but at the very least the practice ought not to be shrouded in mystery. Senators, after all, are not enforcers; they are representatives. And if they have reservations about a candidate, we all deserve to know what they are.

Any who watched as Gill, without explanation and without a deadline, held up the nomination of Rabner sensed immediately that the practice was not only unfair but also undemocratic.

Senators can do better. Karcher deserves some company.

http://www.thnt.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070808/OPINION01/708080316/1079

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