Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin has picked Roy Freiman (D-Hillsborough) to serve as chairman of the reimagined Agriculture and Food Security Committee that cam address Coughlin’s personal interest in hunger issues.
As a result of retirements and electoral defeats, Coughlin needed to fill eight committee chair vacancies.
Freiman will succeed Eric Houghtaling (D-Neptune), who lost his bid for re-election last November.
Britnee Timberlake (D-East Orange) will chair the Commerce and Economic Development Committee, a panel led by Gordon Johnson (D-Englewood) before his election to the Senate.
The new chairman of the State and Local Government Committee will be Anthony Verrelli (D-Hopewell). He’ll replace Vince Mazzeo (D-Northfield), who gave up his seat to run unsuccessfully for the State Senate.
Angelica Jimenez (D-West New York) will chair the Human Services Committee, a post that opened up after Joann Downey (D-Freehold) was defeated for a fourth term.
Angela McKnight (D-Jersey City) is replacing Valerie Vainieri Huttle (D-Englewood) as chair of the Aging and Senior Services Committee. Shanique Speight will replaced McKnight at the helm of the Homeland Security and State Preparedness Committee.
Now chairing the Law and Public Safety Committee is William Spearman (D-Camden). He replaces Adam Taliaferro (D-Woolwich), who lost his seat in the same district that ousted Senate President Steve Sweeney.
The New Jersey Globe previously reported that Lisa Swain (D-Fair Lawn) will be the new Assembly Appropriations Committee chair. She’ll replace John Burzichelli (D-Paulsboro), a ten-term incumbent who ran with Sweeney and Taliaferro. The Globe also reported that Swain’s running mate, Christopher Tully (D-Bergenfield) will get the Science, Innovation and Technology chairmanship held by now-State Sen. Andrew Zwicker (D-South Brunswick).
Coughlin’s new picks means that two-thirds of the new committee chairs are women and lawmakers of color.
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