Twelve New Jersey legislators, all from districts that are not especially competitive in general election contests, face potential obstacles in their bid to win party support for another term.

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Twelve New Jersey legislators, all from districts that are not especially competitive in general election contests, face potential obstacles in their bid to win party support for another term. Click here to view the slideshow

John Rooney, the longest serving member of the New Jersey State Assembly, has not yet made a decision about seeking re-election to a fifteenth term in 2009.  The 69-year-old Bergen County Republican has been battling some health issues lately, and hinted last year that he might not run again.  Rooney also faces the threat of a contested GOP primary now that Republicans who have been at odds with him in recent years control the county organization.

Rooney was first elected to the Assembly in 1983, when he won a special election to replace Joan Wright.  Wright became Director of the state Division of Women under Governor Thomas Kean.

If Rooney retires, Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts would become the senior member of the State Assembly.  Roberts won an Assembly seat in a 1987 special election following the death of Francis Gorman.

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Four Democratic Assembly seats not expected to be in play in 2007 turned out to be especially close, including Linda Stender, who won re-election in 2007 about the same number of votes Mike Ferguson did in his congressional race against her 2006 bid.

Stender defeated Republican Robert Gatto, who spent about $100 and mounted no real campaign, by just 3,327 votes in the 22nd district.  Her running mate, Gerald Green, defeated Bryan Des Roschers by just 3,260 votes.  Gatto and Des Roschers have both lost bids for municipal office.

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As he stood with futility against a bill he believes would ravage his 39th GOP Assemblyman Vince PolistinaLegislative District, Assemblyman John Rooney took little joy in noting a personal milestone.

For while 2008 marks the Bergen County Republican’s 25th anniversary as an assemblyman, it is also the low point of his legislative career.

"My towns got destroyed last night," said Rooney, a day after the majority Democrats passed a $32.9 billion budget, which includes 25% cuts in aid to all of the 28 municipalities in Rooney’s district, and eliminations of property tax rebates for residents in the $150,000 to $250,000 income range.

Monday also brought the Democrats’ successful if ignominious - by Rooney’s reckoning - passage of a bill requiring the construction of affordable housing in affluent towns.

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Assemblyman John Rooney (R-Bergen) hasn't decided whether he'll seek re-election to the seat he's held since 1983Assemblyman John Rooney (R-Northvale) has still not made a decision on whether he will retire from the legislature after his current term is up.

But Rooney, who after 25 years in office has become longest serving current member of the Assembly, said that the speculation that he will face a primary challenge from Washington Township Council President Bob Schroeder, a wealthy defense contractor and former gubernatorial candidate, is wrong.

“He’s absolutely confirmed that he’s not going to run against us,” said Rooney, who had the conversation with Schroder at his own birthday party last month, which also commemorated his 25th year in the Assembly.

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Eight members of the New Jersey State Assembly are in danger of losing party support if they seek re-election in 2009:

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Assemblyman John Rooney says he may retireAfter serving in the Legislature since 1983, Republican Assemblyman John Rooney calls himself the Dean of the Assembly, having been there longer than any other current member.

But a combination of health issues and weariness of the way he says business is done in Trenton today has led Rooney to consider retirement, even after he won a solid victory in last month’s hotly contested election. Rooney, who at 68 is the youngest of the three 39th district legislators, will evaluate his political future after undergoing hip replacement surgery later this month. Depending on how his recovery goes, he may decide to retire early or not to seek another term in 2009.

Reflecting on his legislative record over the last 25 years, Rooney admitted that the current state of Trenton politics had him dispirited. And he had already been dealt a painful blow in 2006, after a well-funded Democrat tossed him out of the Northvale’s mayor’s office – a seat that he had held from 1979-1986, and again from 1991 until his defeat.

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Back from Portugal, Governor Jon Corzine has added four extra stops to his schedule today – all in the 39th district, where Democrats think they have a shot at ousting three longtime Republican legislators.

Corzine, who was in Bergen County earlier this morning for a Bergen County Democratic Organization breakfast and two labor rallies, will return at 4:15 PM for stops in Northvale, Old Tappan, Emerson and Demarest.

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CARDINALE, ROONEY & VANDERVALK WARN VOTERS WHAT THEY DON’T KNOW WILL HURT THEM AFTER THE ELECTION

State Sen. Gerald Cardinale, Assemblyman John Rooney and Assemblywoman Charlotte Vandervalk, the Republican legislative team representing District 39,  cautioned voters today that what they don’t know will hurt them financially after the election – and that’s the way the Democrats have planned it from the very beginning of the campaign.

“It’s no secret that Governor Corzine and the Democrats have kept two different plans to hike tolls under wraps until after the election,” said Cardinale. “It has been reported that top Democrats in the Legislature asked the governor to keep the details of his plan to raise tolls annually on the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway hidden so they couldn’t be used against their candidates during the campaign. Now this week we learned a separate plan to raise tolls at the Port Authority’s bridge and tunnel crossings was also held back until after the election at the request of Democrats.

“There’s an old saying that goes ‘what you don’t know can’t hurt you.’ Just the opposite is true in this case. What the voters haven’t been told during this campaign will definitely hurt them financially once the votes are counted.”

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