The Curse of the Golden Dome

As Steve Sweeney prepares to launch his campaign for governor today, he must battle the Curse of the Golden Dome.

The last former Senate President to win the governorship was Morgan Larson in 1928.

Since then, nine sitting and former Senate Presidents have run for governor – all without success.

Just three former Senate Presidents – Wayne Dumont in 1965, Charles Sandman in 1973, and Raymond Bateman in 1977 – won their party’s nomination.

The last sitting Senate President to win the governorship, but Fielder had the benefit of serving as acting governor for nearly a year following Woodrow Wilson’s election to the White House.

A sitting Assembly Speaker has never been elected governor; Tom Kean was Speaker from 1972 to 1974 but wasn’t elected governor until 1981, four years after he left the legislature.

The current Assembly Speaker, Craig Coughlin, and the Senate President, Nicholas Scutari, are both considered potential gubernatorial candidates in 2025.

Steve Fulop is seeking to become the first mayor of Jersey City to be elected governor, breaking his own city’s curse.

Otto Wittpenn, the mayor from 1907 until he lost re-election to Frank Hague in 1912, was the Democratic gubernatorial nominee in 1916; he won 40% of the vote against Republican Walter Edge.  Wittpenn had run in 1913 against Fielder, but dropped out of the race.

Reformer Paul Jordan was elected mayor in 1971 after Thomas Whelan’s criminal conviction necessitated his resignation.  He was one of ten Democrats who challenged incumbent Gov. Brendan Byrne in the 1977 primary, but his campaign collapsed after his hand-picked successor lost the May election for mayor.

Bret Schundler, the mayor from 1992 to 2001, won the Republican nomination for governor but lost to Democrat James E. McGreevey.  He ran again in 2005 but lost the GOP primary.

McGreevey, who already served as governor, is running for mayor of Jersey City in 2025.

If he wins, Sweeney will follow the model of Democrat Robert B. Meyner, who lost re-election to his Warren County State Senate seat in 1951 and was elected governor in 1953.  He would be the first South Jerseyan to win a statewide primary since Jim Florio became governor in 1989 and the first labor leader to win a gubernatorial primary since Vincent J. Murphy, a former mayor of Newark and the New Jersey AFL-CIO president, won in 1943.