Raymond Bateman

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.

State Sen. Christopher Bateman is leaning toward entering the U.S. Senate race and will make a final decision by Friday, according to sources close to the Somerset County legislator.  Bateman’s father, former Senate President (and 1977 GOP gubernatorial candidate) Raymond Bateman, returned from his vacation today and is working with Somerset County Republican Chairman Dale Florio to determine whether the campaign can raise enough money to compete in the June primary, and against Democratic incumbent Frank Lautenberg in the general election.

State Sen. Kip Bateman might enter the U.S. Senate race
State Sen. Christopher "Kip" Bateman (R-Somerset) began making calls late yesterday to express some interest in the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate, and has spoken with several GOP County Chairmen about entering the race to challenge incumbent Frank Lautenberg.

Bateman, 50, is the son of former Senate President Raymond Bateman, the 1977 GOP candidate for Governor, and is a law partner of former Gov. Donald DiFrancesco. He spent fourteen years representing Somerset County in the State Assembly before winning a State Senate seat last November.

Walter Kavanaugh died this evening, just one day after the expiration of his State Senate term.  He spent 32 years in the New Jersey Legislature -- a considerable career,   and among the longest tenures in state history.

The former Air Force helicopter pilot first ran for office in 1963, winning a seat on the Somerville Board of Education. When Republican Victor Rizzolo announced that he would not seek re-election to the State Assembly in 1975, the 32-year-old Kavanaugh became the Somerset GOP organization candidate for the Assembly. He won his first general election with ease, finishing ahead of four-term incumbent John Ewing in his race against Democrats Edward Brady and Peter Dowling. He never had a tough race; even when Democrat Timothy Carden ran an aggressive campaign that put him within 3,000 votes of winning, Kavanaugh still won by more than 10,000.

New Jersey doesn't necessarily hold Governors accountable: Brendan Byrne won re-election to a second term in 1977 despite his support for a controversial state income tax, and Jim Florio nearly won re-election in 1993 -- two years after he was arguably the most unpopular Governor in state history.

A real race is developing in the 16th district State Assembly GOP primary, where Freeholders Denise Coyle and Rick Fontana and former Freeholder Kenneth Scherer are seeking Kip Bateman's Assembly seat. Bateman is running for the Senate, where Walter Kavanaugh is retiring after 32 years in the Legislature. Local pundits say that Coyle and Fontana are the leading candidates in a contest that is expected to be decided at an open GOP convention.

A protege of former Governor (and Somerset County Freeholder Christine Todd Whitman), Coyle served as Mayor of Branchburg (Bateman's hometown) before winning election as Freeholder in 1995. She won a valuable endorsement this week from Assembly Republican Conference Leader Peter Biondi, who could help her add his hometown, Hillsborough.

The Biondi endorsement is especially damaging to Scherer, a former Mayor of Hillsborough. Insiders say that Hillsborough GOP Muncipal Chairman Michael Merdinger and former GOP leader Fred Quick, both close to Biondi, are unlikely to help Scherer win local county commitee votes. Other Somerset towns may be hesitant to give both Assembly seats to one town.

Fontana is a strong base in his hometown, Bridgewater, which has the largest block of votes at the convention. A former Bridgewater Councilman (he also served as a Councilman in North Plainfield) and a Freeholder since 1997, Fontana also served as a GOP Municipal Chairman and as the Republican State Committeeman from Somerset County.

Open seats don't come along often in this reliably Republican district. Raymond Bateman, then the 29-year-old Executive Director of the Republican State Committee, won Somerset County's single Assembly seat in a 1958 special election. Redistricting gave Somerset an extra Assembly seat in 1967, and with Bateman running for an open Senate seat, Freeholder John Ewing and Webster Todd, Jr., the son of the former Republican State Chairman (and brother of the future Governor) won the two seats. Todd did not seek re-election to a second term (he went to Washington to take a job in the Nixon administration) and was replaced by former Bernardsville Councilwoman Millicent Fenwick.

Fenwick resigned from the Assembly in late 1972 to become state Consumer Affairs Director. Former Somerset County Court Judge Victor Rizzolo won a January 1973 Special Election to fill the seat, and won a full two-year term in November 1973. Rizzolo declined to run again in 1975 and was replaced by Kavanaugh.

When Bateman ran for Governor in 1977, Ewing moved up to the Senate and was replaced by Elliott Smith, who served for six years before retiring. He was replaced by Jack Penn, who spent ten years in the Assembly. Penn retired in 1993 and was replaced by Kip Bateman.

Ewing retired from the Senate in 1997, when Kavanaugh moved to the upper house. He was succeeded by Biondi, who had challenged him in a GOP primary two years earlier.

Assemblyman Christopher Bateman is expected to get a clear shot at Walter Kavanaugh's State Senate seat, creating an open Assembly seat in the reliably-Republican sixteenth district. Possible candidates include Somerset County Freeholders Denise Coyle and Rick Fontana, Bridgewater Mayor Patricia Flannery, and former Freeholder Kenneth Scherer. Scherer is less likely, since the 16th district's other legislator, Assemblyman Peter Biondi, also comes from Hillsborough.

For extreme junkies: Somerset County has produced New Jersey's first woman Governor (Christine Todd Whitman, a former Freeholder), the state's second Congresswoman (Millicent Fenwick, who served from 1975 to 1983), and the first Republican woman to win a major party nomination for statewide office (Fenwick, for U.S. Senator in 1982). But only one woman has represented Somerset County in the New Jersey Legislature: Fenwick, who served in the State Assembly from 1970 until her resignation in late 1972 to become the state Consumer Affairs Director.

If Bateman wins the seat, he will be fifty when he enters the Senate -- one year older than his father, Raymond H. Bateman, was when he left the Legislature after twenty years to run for Governor in 1977. Bateman could become the fourth member of the Senate to have been preceeded by their father, joining Leonard Lance, Robert Littell and Christopher Connors, who is running for the open seat created by the retirement of Leonard Connors. The fathers of Ellen Karcher and Thomas Kean, Jr. served in the Assembly.

In early 1977, Republicans were optimistic about their chances of defeating Democratic Governor Brendan Byrne, but some party insiders weren't quite sure their field of candidates were especially strong. The front runner was Raymond Bateman, a gentlemanly State Senator from Somerset County who had served twenty years in the Legislature, including two as Senate President. Thomas Kean, the 42-year-old Assembly Minority Leader (and former Speaker) from Essex County, was also in the race.

Other prospective candidates remained in the wings, being heavily courted by party leaders, including Matthew Rinaldo, a three-term Congressman and former State Senator from Union County. With strong ties to labor and a genuine base in the City of Elizabeth (which he carried in each of the thirteen races he ran there), he seemed to be an attractive candidate. Rinaldo spent years teasing Republicans about his interest in statewide office, but never pulled the trigger.

Frederick Lacey, a respected U.S. District Court Judge and former U.S. Attorney, was serious, and some say he wanted to run. After a meeting at his home, at least one major county GOP organization was prepared to back him. That fell apart over a small, but important, detail: Lacey wanted the endorsement to come first, and the Republicans wanted him to resign from the bench and enter the race before they would announce their backing. That was based on the precedent set four years earlier when Byrne, then a Superior Court Judge, delivered his resignation to the Governor's Office and then went outside the statehouse to announce that he would run for Governor.

Cumberland County Democrats now have a 5-2 majority on the Board of Freeholders, with Dr. Joseph Riley unseating Republican Freeholder James Rocco by a 1,616 vote margin. Democratic incumbent Louis Magazzu ran nearly 4,000 votes ahead of Republican challenger Michael Schenk. Control has been at stake in nearly every Freeholder race over the last decade, but Democrats will now keep their majority at least through 2008; next year, one Democrat and one Republican are up for election.

Assemblyman Christopher Bateman is prepared to challenge incumbent Walter Kavanaugh in the 16th district State Senate primary next year, if Kavanaugh does not retire. Several sources close to Bateman say that the decision to run for Senate in 2007 is final.

The 73-year-old Kavanaugh, who has had serious health issues in recent years, has served in the Legislature since his election to the State Assembly in 1975. He moved up to the Senate in 1997 when John Ewing retired. Bateman, 49, is the son of former Senate President (and 1977 GOP gubernatorial candidate) Raymond Bateman; he was elected to the Assembly in 1993 after serving as a Somerset County Freeholder and Township Committeeman and Mayor in Branchburg. Kip Bateman is a partner in former Governor Donald DiFrancesco's law firm.

Some insiders say Somerset County GOP Chairman Dale Florio, who has been anxious to avoid a divisive primary, will likely lean on Kavanaugh to retire gracefully.

A move by Bateman would open up an Assembly seat in this solidly Republican district for the first time in ten years. Possible candidates include Freeholder Denise Coyle, Bridgewater Mayor Patricia Flannery, and outgoing Freeholder Kenneth Scherer.

The Star-Ledger reported this weekend that Senate Minority Leader Leonard Lance faces a possible GOP primary challenge from Assemblyman Michael Doherty.