Alan Karcher

The New Jersey Legislature is often the breeding ground for gubernatorial candidates, but by 2009 it will have been 81 years since a sitting state legislator has been elected Governor -- the last time was in 1928, when Morgan Larson, a Republican State Senator from Middlesex County, won.

Over the last fifty years, only four incumbent legislators -- State Senators Malcom Forbes (1957), Wayne Dumont (1965), Raymond Bateman (1977) and James E. McGreevey (1997) -- have won gubernatorial primaries, and all four have lost their general elections.

The New Jersey Legislature is often the breeding ground for gubernatorial candidates, but by 2009 it will have been 81 years since a sitting state legislator has been elected Governor -- the last time was in 1928, when Morgan Larson, a Republican State Senator from Middlesex County, won.

Over the last fifty years, only four incumbent legislators -- State Senators Malcom Forbes (1957), Wayne Dumont (1965), Raymond Bateman (1977) and James E. McGreevey (1997) -- have won gubernatorial primaries, and all four have lost their general elections.

When New Jersey picked up a fifteenth congressional seat after the 1960 census, the new district included nearly all of Middlesex County.  That was at the insistence of David Wilentz, a former state Attorney General who dominated Middlesex County politics as the Democratic boss from the 1930’s into the 1970’s.  One rare rebel who dared to challenge Wilentz’s wishes was George Otlowski, a Middlesex County Freeholder from Perth Amboy – the center of the Wilentz power base. 

The Princeton Borough Council will need to appoint a new Mayor to replace Joseph O'Neill, who passed away today after a brief illness. O'Neill, 74, won the post in 2003, following the retirement of Mayor Marvin Reed; he defeated Assemblyman Reed Gusciora in the Democratic primary by a vote of 411-328. Possible candidates include Gusciora, Councilwoman Peggy Karcher (the mother of State Senator Ellen Karcher and wife of the late Assembly Speaker Alan Karcher), Councilwoman Wendy Benchley (the wife of author Peter Benchley), and Councilman Andrew Koontz, the Democratic Municipal Chairman.