Democrats Take Control of NJ Legislature

Democrats took power in the state Legislature for the first time in 10 years Tuesday as the 210th Legislature was sworn in at a noontime ceremony. Democrats became a majority in the Assembly, which was held by Republicans for a decade. The Senate is now split evenly between the two parties.

Democrat James E. McGreevey will be the next governor, ending eight years of Republican control of that office.

Because Christie Whitman left the governor's office early to take a post with the Bush administration, the state has been led by Senate President Donald T. DiFrancesco as acting governor.

DiFrancesco's term ran out at noon with the rest of the 209th Legislature. Because the Senate is split, the two presidents, Republican John O. Bennett and Democrat Richard J. Codey, will take turns this week as acting governor until McGreevey is inaugurated on Jan. 15.

The new Assembly has a 44-36 Democratic majority, led by Albio Sires of Hudson County, the new speaker. It is the first time since 1991 Democrats have controlled either house of the Legislature.

Of the 80 members of the Assembly, 62 are veterans coming back, plus a former member, Kevin O'Toole, R-Essex, who is returning to its ranks after serving one year in the Senate to complete the term of Louis Bassano, R-Union. O'Toole could not run for Bassano's seat because of the realignment of legislative districts.

Although the Democrats picked up nine seats in the Assembly, only two Republican incumbents who ran for re-election were defeated, Gerald Zecker in Passaic County and Nicholas Felice in Bergen County. In the other cases, Democrats picked up seats where Republicans were not seeking re-election or had been pushed out of their districts by realignment.

In the Senate, 31 of the incumbents are returning and three who sought re-election were defeated. The others retired.

Of the nine freshman senators, seven were veteran Assembly members who moved up.

Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

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Author: 6 - ABC, Action News