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1-12-10 Change in Trenton
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 'New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine will highlight gains in children's programs during his term when he delivers his final State of the State address Tuesday.'.............'Assembly speaker leaves, and voices mixed feelings' Star Ledger.............'Richard Codey ends run as N.J. Senate president' Statehouse Bureau

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine will highlight gains in children's programs during his term when he delivers his final State of the State address Tuesday.

Corzine's speech is expected to highlight accomplishments in education, child welfare and health care.

Corzine's tenure saw gains in the number of children who have health insurance and in the number of poor children enrolled in preschool. There also was a top-to-bottom overhaul of the child welfare system.

The governor is also expected to remind the Legislature of the importance of funding children's programs even in dire economic times.

Corzine leaves office next Tuesday.

Assembly speaker leaves, and voices mixed feelings

Tuesday, January 12, 2010   Trish G. Graber  STAR-LEDGER STAFF

Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts Jr. presided over his last legislative session yesterday, capping a 22-year career in state politics. But as the moment came close, the Camden County Democrat, who announced his retirement last summer, conceded he had mixed feelings.

"There's a big part of me that thinks I'm making the biggest mistake of my life in leaving," Roberts, 57, said last week in an interview at his Brooklawn office. "But I think it's time. Why not leave while I'm on top? Why wait until I get booted out?"

He calls his time in the Assembly "extraordinary" -- recalling how his big first break in politics came in 1979, when then-U.S. Rep. Jim Florio walked into Rexy's, a bar in Mount Ephraim where Roberts bartended, and told him "if you ever want to do something different, let me know." Then a Bellmawr councilman, Roberts called and began working for him the next week.

"Even at a very young age, he's always been mature and stable -- he was always sort of an overachiever," Florio said. In the Assembly, Roberts fought for the state's needle-exchange program and reformed the affordable housing program. He advocated for abolishing the death penalty and sponsored the controversial bill that created same-sex civil unions. And his insistence that part of a sales tax hike be used for property tax relief in 2006 prompted a battle with Gov. Jon Corzine that helped produce the week-long shutdown of state government.

"I'm not there to tackle the easy problems, someone else can do that," he said. "I think I'm there, frankly, to be a voice for folks that don't have a seat at the table."

Roberts said his advocacy comes from 23 years of living in Camden, and from his late parents: his father, Joseph Roberts Sr., who ran the family funeral parlor, and his mother, Peg, a state committeewoman, who taught him "if you believe in something, you fight for it."

Roberts said he regrets he won't be around to finish the effort to revamp New Jersey's property tax system, among his top priorities. He still believes the state is making strides on consolidation and thinks that with a new administration and a more difficult economic climate, leaders may revisit his call for a constitutional convention on the issue.

Roberts' other priority was restoring civility to the Assembly, where he once witnessed two assemblymen suggest taking their disagreement to the street outside.

"There were lots of times when people were just going at each others' throats." Roberts said. "Citizens were saying "I've had enough of these guys,' and who can blame them?"

Lawmakers say he will leave the chamber a different place than when he arrived.

"Joe's strategy was to make sure there's a level of collegiality," said Assemblyman John Burzichelli (D-Gloucester). "There would still be debate, but it would be less harsh."

Roberts, nominated by Corzine last week for a spot on the Rutgers University Board of Governors, does not rule out running for higher office in the future, or working in Trenton to advance causes that are important to him, such as additional services for autism treatment.

The only concrete plan he's made is spending time at his home in Sea Isle City.

 

Richard Codey ends run as N.J. Senate president

By Claire Heininger/Statehouse Bureau  January 12, 2010, 5:05AM

TRENTON -- It was something Senate President Richard Codey had done countless times before — posing for a grip-and-grin photo in the ornate and empty Senate chamber, accepting a plaque in his honor.

The man posing with him, Conor Fennessy of the New Jersey Apartment Association, thanked Codey for his advocacy as Codey prepared to relinquish his leadership post.
"We’re going to miss you," Fennessy said.

"I’m not going anywhere," Codey said.

 

So it went Monday, Codey’s last at the center of New Jersey politics. Starting today, the Essex County Democrat and former governor will become just another face in the crowd when South Jersey Sen. Stephen Sweeney succeeds him as Senate President following a nasty internal fight.

But while he’s losing plenty — prestige, perks and extraordinary control over the legislative agenda — Codey has no intention of fading away.

"You’re a back-bencher if you let yourself be one," Codey said in an interview. "I don’t need the title of senate president to be an activist and have my voice heard."

 

In his next life, Codey, 63, said he will continue to champion mental health care issues. He hasn’t decided what to do after his term expires in two years, and in the meantime, doesn’t yet know which committees he’ll belong to or even where he will sit on the Senate floor.

An on-again, off-again supporter of Gov. Jon Corzine whose enemies are plentiful in both parties, Codey polls as the state’s most popular politician but never ran for statewide office. He led the Democrats’ Senate caucus for 12 years and became Senate president in 2004.

 

On Monday, his stripped-down office became a clearinghouse for last-minute pleas for bills at the end of the lame duck session. While staffers packed away supplies for the move down the hall — pens, paper clips, a stamp reading "Office of the Governor" — Codey swayed in his chair.

"You want me to get on top of the dome and jump off, too?" he joked after staffers explained one especially complex maneuver.

 

Codey fielded calls, gabbing with Seton Hall basketball coach Bobby Gonzalez about recruits, and surprised Republican Gov.-elect Chris Christie by popping into his news conference. He assured Christie that Democrats wouldn’t spend "too much" Monday — but also hinted he wouldn’t mind if this last session — and his time in the sun — lasted well into the night.

 

"I brought my toothbrush and electric shaver," Codey said