Lee B. Laskin, a Republican state senator from Camden County who cast the deciding vote to give tenure to Chief Justice Robert Wilentz in 1986 and then lost his seat in a GOP wave election when South Jersey Democratic powerhouse George E. Norcross III spent millions to oust him as settlement of a political grudge, died on April 18. He was 87.
Laskin served one term as an assemblyman and one as a Camden County freeholder. He served as a Superior Court Judge from 1994 until he reached the mandatory retirement age of 70 in 2006, and then for five years after that on recall.
Considered a renegade and loner by Trenton Republicans and a sometimes obstructionist by Democrats, Laskin was one of several lawmakers tagged with the moniker “Dr. No.”
During his fourteen years in the State Senate, Laskin advocated for lower taxes and cuts in government spending. He was a longtime opponent of funding for public television. He was a Second Amendment advocate who voted against a ban on assault weapons.
After graduating from Rutgers-Camden Law School, he worked as a law clerk in the office of Rep. William T. Cahill (R-Collingswood), a future governor. He became Assistant Camden City Solicitor in 1962 and was an Assistant U.S. Attorney from 19654 to 1966.
A former Democrat, Laskin had served as the attorney for a bi-partisan coalition opposed to Alfred R. Pierce.
Laskin initially sought Republican support to run against Pierce for State Senate in 1967, but the organization line instead went to Frank Italiano, a former Camden city commissioner and the municipal court judge in three Camden County municipalities.
Instead, Laskin became the Republican nominee for State Assembly in District 30D, a fishhook-looking district that included the City of Camden, Audubon, Audubon Park, and Haddon Township.
The district was newly drawn in a court-ordered redistricting that year.
As the mid-term election of two-term Gov. Richard J. Hughes, 1967 was a Republican year across the state.
The Democrats ran John Horn (D-Camden), a freshman assemblyman and regional director for the United Rubber Workers union, and Camden City Councilman Elijah Perry, Laskin ran with Gretchen Waples, a funeral director and local NAACP leader from Camden.
Even with Italiano defeating Pierce for the Senate seat by six percentage points, Horn was able to hold on to his Assembly seat; he ran 350 votes ahead of Laskin, who won the second seat by 1,807 votes over Perry. Laskin ran 2,172 votes ahead of his running mate.
As a freshman lawmaker, Laskin launched a probe into the finances of major independent authorities and played a role in creating the South Jersey Port Corporation. He sought to repeal a law that gave the Delaware River Port Authority control over the redevelopment of the Camden city waterfront.
Laskin’s political career took a hit in late 1969 when Assistant New Jersey Attorney General William J. Brennan 3d alleged that six New Jersey legislators, including Laskin, were “entirely too comfortable with members of organized crime.” Brennan was the son of a U.S. Supreme Court Justice.
Laskin vehemently denied the accusation, which led to a legislative probe, and none of Brennan’s claims were even validated.
Brennan’s accusations didn’t stick and Laskin, after briefly mulling a run for mayor of Camden, decided to trade his Assembly seat to run for Camden County freeholder in 1969 on a ticket headed by Cahill, who was the Republican nominee for governor.
Republicans had a 7-0 majority on the freeholder board. Freeholder Thomas Shusted (R-Haddonfield) decided to run for Assembly and another incumbent, Peter Del Grande, didn’t have party support for another term.
Laskin and his running mate, former Voorhees Mayor Barnaby McAuslan, defeated Democrats Harry Williams, a Runnemede councilman, and Thomas Murphy by more than 20,000 votes; Cahill carried Camden County by 47,503 votes against Democrat Robert Meyner, a former two-term governor.
(Horn ran was re-elected to his Assembly seat, and a young attorney and Navy veteran, James Florio, flipped Laskin’s Assembly seat for the Democrats.)
As a freeholder, Laskin eventually feuded with the Camden County Republican chairman, Henry Leiner, and did not seek re-election in 1972. Democrats picked up the two seats, with Oaklyn Mayor William Simon and Cherry Hill attorney Lewis Katz defeating Barnaby and Audubon Commissioner Donald McCauley by about 5,000 votes.
After leaving office, Laskin became the solicitor in several Camden County municipalities and, in 1973, tried to oust Leiner; his candidate, 27-year-old Dominick Spadea, came within 48 votes of winning. (Spadea is the father of NJ 101.5 radio personality Bill Spadea).
In 1976, Laskin was elected Camden County GOP chairman, ousting Richard C. Hardenburgh, who had won the post in 1975.
Return to Trenton
Laskin had not intended to run for office in 1977 but wound up winning a seat in the State Senate, representing the 6th district.
The incumbent was Alene Ammond (D-Cherry Hill), an upset winner in the 1973 Watergate Democratic landslide who was known as the Terror of Trenton. Her relationship with colleagues became so bad that Senate Democrats barred her from attending their caucus and stripped her of her senatorial courtesy. She was removed from the Judiciary Committee, and they launched an internal probe into her conduct as a senator.
Ammond was defeated in the Democratic primary by 333 votes against former Cherry Hill Councilman Victor Pachter.
Republicans had initially settled on William Cahill, Jr., a 30-year-old attorney and son of the former governor, but then switched gears and went with Addison Bradley, the president of the county parks commission. After the primary, Bradley got caught up in allegations that he used his county post to help a private land deal, so the GOP got him to drop out.
Former Assembly Speaker Wiliam Dickey (R-Collingswood) and Cherry Hill Mayor John Rocco sought party support for the Senate seat, but the nomination went to Laskin; he defeated Pachter by 2,374 votes, 52%-48%.
Laskin was re-elected in 1981, defeating Cherry Hill Municipal Court Judge James Greenberg by 8,544 votes, 57%-43%. He won a landslide 12,548-vote re-election, 63%-27%, in 1983 against Audubon Mayor Francis Ward, the clerk of the Camden County Board of Freeholders.
He won by a narrower margin in 1987 against a major challenger, Cherry Hill Mayor Maria Barnaby Greenwald. Laskin outpolled Greenwald by 3,718 votes, 53%-47% (Greenwald is the mother of Assembly Majority Leader Louis Greenwald.)
Laskin and Rocco, who won a State Assembly seat in 1979, feuded for much of their time together as Republican legislators from Camden County.
Wilentz Confirmation
Kean’s most significant hurdle came in 1986 when Wilentz came up for reappointment after seven years as Chief Justice.
Some Republican leaders strongly opposed Wilentz, whom they considered a judicial activist who had thrust the unpopular Mount Laurel decision on them, and pushed Kean — fresh off a 70% landslide re-election — to not reappoint him. State Sen. Gerald Cardinale (R-Demarest) led the opposition to Wilentz.
Kean ultimately came down on the side of judicial independence, affirming his belief that justices who committed to no major blunders ought to be renominated even if they didn’t share the governor’s ideology at that time.
Wilentz also faced a residency issue: he was living in Manhattan and wanted to make it easier for his wife to receive cancer treatments. He acknowledged spending enough time in New York to pay income tax there. Several senators felt New Jersey’s Chief Justice should live in New Jersey.
He claimed his official residence as Deal, rather than Perth Amboy, to stop a fierce critic, State Sen. Peter Garibaldi (R-Monroe), from using senatorial courtesy to block him.
The entire confirmation battle in a 23-17 Democratic Senate was touch-and-go.
Five Democratic senators – Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch), Paul Contillo (D-Paramus), Catherine Costa (D-Willingboro), Zane, and Dalton – were voting against Wilentz’s confirmation.
That left it up to a Republican governor to sway three Republican senators to vote for a Democratic Chief Justice after Democratic Senate President John F. Russo (D-Toms River) couldn’t produce the votes for confirmation.
Kean lobbied hard, even threatening some Republican senators with a primary if they didn’t vote for Wilentz. He also horse-traded, which the onetime Assembly Speaker knew how to do as well as any governor in state history.
Bill Gormley (R-Margate) and Wayne Dumont (R-Phillipsburg), a former senate president, were the only two Republican senators on board for confirmation.
(In the Senate chamber for the vote was former Gov. Richard Hughes, who served as Chief Justice before Wilentz. Dumont was the 1965 Republican candidate for governor, and Hughes had slaughtered him.)
When the machines opened up for an up-or-down vote on Wilentz, the tally was stuck at 20-19.
Only Laskin had not yet voted. Laskin had served in the Assembly with Wilentz but was facing extreme pressure from Republicans to stick with the majority of the caucus.
To get Laskin, Kean made a deal with Wilentz: he would agree to move back to New Jersey as soon as his wife’s health improved, and Kean signed legislation to mandate judges to live in the state – a law Wilentz said he would obey.
Laskin voted yes, with the Senate voting 21-19 to give Wilentz tenure as Chief Justice.
The Norcross Fight
Norcross’ decision to take out Laskin was personal. In 1988, Gov. Thomas Kean nominated Norcross’ father, labor leader George Norcross, to a seat on the New Jersey State Racing Commission. Laskin used senatorial courtesy to block his confirmation by the Senate. With no deal to be made, Norcross wound up withdrawing.
Three years later, after George Norcross became the Camden County Democratic Chairman, the family was positioned to seek revenge against Laskin.
Voter anger towards Governor Florio’s $2.8 billion tax increase in 1991 helped Republicans pick up ten Senate and 21 seats in the State Assembly, winning in some unlikely places. The GOP flipped solidly Democratic seats, including the Trenton-based Mercer district, six Middlesex seats, a Paterson Assembly seat, and twelve seats in Bergen. There was a Republican majority on the Middlesex County Board of Freeholders.
Camden became the outlier.
Democrats spent nearly $2 million on the race – a record-setting amount for a State Senate race in those days. Norcross, then 36, personally guaranteed a $250,000 loan for the effort.
Laskin was savaged by a Philadelphia network TV blitz that attacked his mercilessly attacked his ethics and attendance. The ads ran during an Eagles game on Monday Night Football and, during Game 7 of the World Series, and by a stealth campaign that deliberately began late and caught him off guard.
A mailer on Laskin’s vote against banning assault weapons showed the outlines of a dead body with a caption: “You could be next.”
Democrat John Adler, a 32-year-old lawyer who had served as an interim Cherry Hill councilman, beat Laskin by 6,098 votes, 55%-45%.
Rocco and Shusted, the Republican assemblymen from the 6th district, were re-elected.
There were allegations in early 1993 that the new Republican majority in the State Senate was trying to force Florio to nominate Laskin to the bench by not posting some Camden County Democratic nominees for confirmation. But Laskin’s ascension to a judgeship was delayed when he had a heart attack in May.
After Florio was defeated, Republican Gov. Christine Todd Whitman nominated Laskin to serve as a Superior Court Judge. Adler supported his nomination.
Laskin is survived by his wife, Andy, a daughter, three grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. He was predeceased by his son, who died at age three, and a grandson.
A funeral service will be held at noon on Sunday at Platt Memorial Chapels in Cherry Hill.
