Jim Hurley, Senate and Assembly Minority Leader, dies at 91

James R. Hurley, a warm and enormously popular South Jersey lawmaker who served as minority leader in both houses of the New Jersey legislature and as chairman of the Casino Control Commission, died this weekend.  He was 91.

Robert Friant, Jr., who had served as his legislative aide, announced Hurley’s passing.

A Republican and a staunch defender of South Jersey, he fought for reductions in ocean pollution, long-term funding of transportation and beach protection for the Jersey shore, and help for counties to deal with solid waste issues.  He had opposed the creation of the state income tax as an assemblyman and spent his career as a cautious budget watchdog.

Hurley began his political career in 1966 when he was elected to the Cumberland County Board of Freeholders at age 34.

Prior to that year, the Cumberland freeholder board had 26 members, elected regionally, and Republicans held a 14-12 majority, but a new charter created seven at-large seats.  Republicans won six seats; among the Democrats who lost was Paul Porreca, a Democrat from Hurley’s hometown of Millville.

Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s One Man, One Vote decision and a 1966 special New Jersey Constitutional Convention, legislative reapportionment created a Cumberland-Cape May legislative district in 1967.

Republicans ran former Assemblyman Robert Kay (R-Wildwood) for Senate, with Hurley and Assistant Cape May County Prosecutor James Cafiero (R-North Wildwood) seeking two Assembly seats.

Cumberland County GOP Chairman John Spoltore picked Hurley from a field that included Freeholders Pater Marcacci and Harry Freitag, Vineland Mayor Henry Garton, and Frank LoBiondo, the father of the future congressman who had come within 712 votes of winning an Assembly eat in 1963.

Cafiero was the top vote-getter in that race, and Hurley defeated one-term Democratic Assemblyman Marvin Perskie (D-Wildwood Crest) by 3,152 votes, 28,364 to 25,212.  (Perskie, the uncle of future Senate Majority Leader Steven Perskie and a member of one of Atlantic County’s most prominent political families, had been preparing to take on legendary Republican boss Frank Farley for the Senate if Atlantic and Cape May had remained in the same legislative district.)

Hurley and Cafiero were re-elected in 1969 by more than 16,000 votes.

In 1971, Republicans replaced Kay with Cafiero, with Joseph Chinnici, a coat manufacturer who had served as a Bridgeton councilman and Cumberland County freeholder, taking the second Assembly seat,.  Hurley and Chinnici defeated Democrats Charles Fisher and John Sjostrom; Hurley finished first, 2,758 votes ahead of Chinnici, who came in 3,526 votes in front of Fisher.

Hurley and Chinnici coasted to a landslide victory in the 1973 Watergate wave election, winning by over 12,000 votes.  The Republican candidate for governor was Rep. Charles Sandman (R-Erma) carried Cape May by 7,966 votes, with Democrat Brendan Byrne winning Cumberland by 3,369 – a 4,597 vote plurality for Sandman in the 1st district.

The two assemblymen won by wide margins in 1975, 1977, and 1979.

Hurley ran for Congress in New Jersey’s 2nd district in 1976.  Democrat William Hughes (D-Ocean City) had ousted Sandman in the 1974 Watergate Democratic landslide, and Republicans thought they could win back the district with Hurley, a proven vote-getter and their top recruit.

But Hughes turned out to be an incredibly strong incumbent and beat Hurley by 53,838 votes, 62%-38%. He won 67% in Atlantic and Salem, 64% in Cape May, 59% in Cumberland, and 51% in Ocean.  Democrat Jimmy Carter had won the 2nd district by a 51%-49% margin over President Gerald Ford.

After Tom Kean (R-Livingston) stepped down from his leadership post to run for governor in early 1977, Hurley became the Assembly Minority Leader.  Hurley had been the Assistant Minority Leader since 1974 and was Assistant Majority Leader in 1972 and 1973.

Cafiero retired in 1981, and Hurley ran for his Senate seat.  Democrats nominated their strongest possible candidate, Edward Salmon, a Cumberland County freeholder from Millville.

Hurley won by 4,581 votes, 54%-46%.  He carried Cape May by 5,519, and Salmon took Cumberland by 938 votes.  That year, Kean, the GOP gubernatorial candidate, won Cape May by 2,750, while South Jersey Democrat Jim Florio carried Cumberland by 2,351 votes.

The Joint Legislative Committee on Ethical Standards reprimanded Hurley, who owned a public relations firm, in 1983 for accepting a $10,000 fee for helping Wawa sell an environmentally compromised piece of property to the state under New Jersey’s Green Acres program.

The Wawa issue didn’t hurt Hurley, who won a second term with 60% of the vote against Christopher Riley, a 35-year-old Millville attorney and the husband of former Miss New Jersey Therese Hanley.

He became Senate Minority Leader in 1987 and held the post for three years under the old system of  rotating legislative leadership positions.

Hurley faced a tough race in 1987 when Bridgeton Mayor Donald Rainear challenged him and tried to incorporate the Wawa issue into the campaign.  But  Hurley won by 3,760 votes, 53%-47%.  Chinnici and Assemblyman Guy Muziani (R-Wildwood), who had replaced Hurley in 1981, retired in 1987; LoBiondo, then a Cumberland County Freeholder, and Salmon won the two Assembly seats.

The race between Hurley and Rainer became the most expensive in state history at the time, with the two candidates spending nearly $875,000 combined.

In 1990, Hurley resigned from the Senate to become a Casino Control Commissioner, an appointment made by Kean during his final days in office.  That triggered a November special election for the remaining year of his term in the Senate – a contest won by Cafiero, who returned to the Senate.

His colleagues confirmed him by a 28-1 vote, with only State Sen. Bill Gormley (R-Margate) voting against him.  Hurley had backed Rep. Jim Courter (R-Allamuchy) for governor against Gormley in the 1989 GOP primary.

Hurley became chairman of the casino regulatory agency in 1998 and remained on the commission until his retirement in 2002.

Gov. Christine Todd Whitman named him the commission’s representative to the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority (CRDA) in 1994.

Later, Hurley became chairman emeritus of the Affordable Homes for Millville Ecumenical, a non-profit set up to provide housing for low-income residents.

Hurley’s wife of nearly 70 years, Walda, died in December.

Funeral services are set for Wednesday.