Lieutenant Governor of New Jersey: Difference between revisions

Lieutenant Governor of New Jersey
Seal of New Jersey
File:Kim Guadagno, Lieutenant Governor of New Jersey.png Incumbent Kim Guadagno since January 19, 2010
Style	The Honorable
Term length	Four years, no term limit
Inaugural holder	Kim Guadagno 2010
Formation	New Jersey State Constitution amendment
Succession	First

The Lieutenant Governor of New Jersey is a political position in the executive branch of the state government of New Jersey that has existed since January 2010. It is the second highest-ranking official in state government. The lieutenant governor is elected on a ticket with the governor for a four-year term. The position was created as the result of a constitutional amendment to the New Jersey State Constitution that was passed by a voter referendum on November 8, 2005. While the amendment itself took effect as of January 17, 2006, and made some interim changes to the succession to the governorship, the first lieutenant governor was not elected until the next gubernatorial election held on November 3, 2009. Republican Kim Guadagno is the first to serve in the post, as she was chosen by Governor Chris Christie to be his running-mate in 2009 election.

History

Colonial lieutenant governors

See also: List of colonial governors of New Jersey

Thomas Pownall (1722–1805) was one of two men to serve as Lieutenant Governor of New Jersey (1755–1757) during the colonial period.

Previously, only two individuals have held the post of Lieutenant Governor of New Jersey briefly—both during the colonial period. The first, Richard Ingoldesby (d. 1719) was appointed the Lieutenant Governor to Edward Hyde, Lord Cornbury and John Lovelace, 4th Baron Lovelace. Ingoldesby became acting governor briefly (1709–1710) after the sudden death of Lord Lovelace in 1709. The second Lieutenant Governor, Thomas Pownall (1722-1805), was appointed to the post in 1755 under Royal Governor Jonathan Belcher (1681/2–1757). When Belcher died in August 1757, Pownall did not assume the governorship as only a few weeks before Belcher's death he was appointed to the post of Royal Governor of Massachusetts. The colony was then administered by John Reading (1686–1767) as "acting governor"—continuing the previous convention of the president of the Governor's Council (the oldest member of the upper house of the colonial legislature) assuming the governorship in an acting capacity.

The two Lieutenant Governors served briefly, and the post did not exist for most of the colonial period. During the proprietary period (1664–1702), the colony was often administered in its first years by deputies who resided in North America and represented the province's governor who remained in London. However, in 1702, the proprietors of New Jersey's two provincial governments—East Jersey and West Jersey—surrendered their political authority to Queen Anne who transformed the a crown colony to be administered by a Royal Governor appointed by the monarch and sent from England to reside in the province. For most of the colonial period, in the event of the resignation, prolonged absence or death of the Royal Governor, the province would be administered by an "acting governor" who was the president of the Governor's Council—the upper house of the colonial legislature. The council presidency was an honorary ceremonial post given to the council's oldest member.

Controversy over succession (2001–2006)

New Jersey Senator Richard Codey, a former funeral director from Orange, New Jersey, served as the state's acting governor twice in a few years span in after the resignations of Governor Christine Todd Whitman who assumed a federal appointed post and Governor Jim McGreevey who resigned in the wake of a sex scandal.

Prior to creating a the position of the Lieutenant Governor, the Governor of New Jersey was the only state-wide, non-federal, elected office. New Jersey was one of a few states in the United States that did not have a Lieutenant Governor to succeed to the governorship in the event of a vacancy in that office. Further, the state does not have elections for state-wide cabinet-level positions (the state constitution directs the Governor appoints them). In the event of a vacancy in the governor's office, the state constitution specified that the President of the New Jersey State Senate, the upper chamber of the state legislature, would assume the role of "Acting Governor" while retaining their powerful role in the State Senate.

In recent years, New Jersey had two acting governors within a few years. In 2001, Governor Christine Todd Whitman resigned after assuming the position of administrator of the federal Environmental Protection Agency. Whitman assumed the post after being appointed by President George W. Bush and left the governship with one year remaining on her second term. Senate president Donald DiFrancesco became acting governor following Whitman's resignation on January 31, 2001 and remained in office until he retired from the State Senate January 8, 2002. In a fluke of political circumstance, the 2001 legislative elections returned a senate with equal numbers of Republican and Democrat members in the 40-member Senate. Both sides negotiated to chose two senators from their respective parties to serve as Co-Presidents for that body. Because of an 8-day gap between the seating of the new state legislature, and the inauguration of the next governor-elect, three men held the position of acting governor:

• New Jersey's Attorney General John J. Farmer, Jr. was acting governor for 90 minutes on January 8, 2002 while awaiting the swearing in of the next senate president
• Republican Senate co-President John Bennett served as acting governor from January 8 to January 12, 2002
• Democrat Senate co-President Richard Codey served as acting governor from January 12 to January 15, 2002. Governor Jim McGreevey was sworn in after noon on January 15, 2002.

After the resignation of Governor McGreevey in the midst of a sex scandal in 2004, Richard Codey served again as acting governor from November 15, 2004 to January 17, 2006. Codey was the only acting governor during this time as the 2003 legislative elections had returned a Democrat party majority to the State Senate. His tenure ended with the inauguration of Governor Jon Corzine on January 17, 2006.

Considerable public attention and was directed to the issue of succession in the wake of the resignations of Governor Whitman and Governor McGreevey during so brief a period. The response of the general public and the media was that the situation of acting governors and resignations made the situation untenable and that the state needed a permanent solution such as a Lieutenant Governor. There were three chief arguments in favor of establishing a Lieutenant Governor:

• That the Senate President was chosen by the members of the Senate, not elected by voters state wide, and that as acting governor he or she would be an unelected governor—eligible for the office only by virtue of having been elected by the citizens in one of forty legislative districts statewide.
• That an acting governor serving simultaneously in the executive branch and legislative branch made the position of Governor incredibly powerful and was a breach of the "separation of powers" between branches of the government.
• That there potentially would be a lack of continuity between political platforms from a Governor of one party and a Senate President of another who assumes the post as acting governor. As there was no guarantee the two individuals would be members of the same party, there was greater concern that the policies of the Acting Governor might be in direct conflict with those of the preceding governor.

Referendum on a constitutional amendment

On election day November 8, 2005, New Jersey voters came out to elect their next governor and were charged with deciding a public question on the ballot whether to amend the state's constitution to create the position of Lieutenant Governor. The approval of this public question would amend the constitution and direct that the first Lieutenant Governor would be chosen in the gubernatorial election in 2009.

2009 Gubernatorial election

During the week before the July 27, 2009, deadline for the gubernatorial candidates to designate their running mates, Republican candidate Chris Christie selected Monmouth County Sheriff Kim Guadagno, while Democratic incumbent Governor Jon Corzine chose State Senator Loretta Weinberg. On July 27, independent gubernatorial candidate Chris Daggett selected as his running mate Frank J. Esposito, a Kean University history professor who once served as interim president of the university.

Lieutenant Governor amendment

With these concerns in mind, on Election Day, November 8, 2005, the voters passed an amendment to the New Jersey State Constitution that creates the position of Lieutenant Governor of New Jersey effective with the 2009 elections. The amendment also provides that in the event of a permanent vacancy in the office of Governor after January 17, 2006 and before the first Lieutenant Governor had taken office in 2010, the President of the Senate, followed by the Speaker of the New Jersey General Assembly, would become Governor but will then vacate his or her Senate (or Assembly) seat by the action of assuming the office.

The amendment provides a new order of succession:

In the event of a vacancy in the office of Governor resulting from the death, resignation or removal of a Governor in office, or the death of a Governor-elect, or from any other cause, the Lieutenant Governor shall become Governor, until a new Governor is elected and qualifies.

In the event of simultaneous vacancies in both the offices of Governor and Lieutenant Governor resulting from any cause, the President of the Senate shall become Governor until a new Governor or Lieutenant Governor is elected and qualifies. In the event that there is a vacancy in the office of Senate President, or the Senate President declines to become Governor, then the Speaker of the General Assembly shall become Governor until a new Governor or Lieutenant Governor is elected and qualifies. In the event that there is a vacancy in the office of Speaker of the General Assembly, or if the Speaker declines to become Governor, then the functions, powers, duties and emoluments of the office shall devolve for the time being upon such officers and in the order of succession as may be provided by law, until a new Governor or Lieutenant Governor is elected and qualifies. (Article V, Section I, paragraph 6)

The amendment also provides:

The Governor shall appoint the Lieutenant Governor to serve as the head of a principal department or other executive or administrative agency of State government, or delegate to the Lieutenant Governor duties of the office of Governor, or both. The Governor shall not appoint the Lieutenant Governor to serve as Attorney General. The Lieutenant Governor shall in addition perform such other duties as may be provided by law. (Article V, Section I, paragraph 10)

List of Lieutenant Governors

  Democratic (0)   Republican (1)

#	Lt. Governor		Term start	Term end	Party	Governor	Terms
1	bgcolor=Template:Republican Party (United States)/meta/color|	Kim Guadagno	January 19, 2010	present	Republican	Chris Christie

See also

• List of Governors of New Jersey
• List of colonial governors of New Jersey

External links

• New Jersey State Constitution
• FreedomNewsDigest.com and ThomasCaggiano.com - Are web sites filed in N.J. Superior and Federal District Courts, the Department of Justice, FBI and newspapers exposing massive official corruption in New Jersey and Federal Government
• Outline and Interpretive Statement of Public Question #1 To Establish Office of the Lieutenant Governor (Acrobat Reader Required)
• New Jersey Election Commission Official Election Results For Public Question #1 (Acrobat Reader Required)