With 27 new Assembly members taking office and the departure of twelve committee chairs, Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin has revamped several committees for the new legislative session, putting some new faces in charge of some of the most influential panels in the lower house.
For the first time in state history, a majority of the 28 Assembly committees will be led by non-white chairs. All five assemblymembers from Bergen County will chair substantive committees, perhaps indicating the continued alliance between Democrats in Middlesex, Coughlin’s home county, and Bergen.
Eliana Pintor Marin (D-Newark) will begin her seventh year as the powerful Budget Committee chair, with Benjie Wimberly (D-Paterson) as the vice chair. Lisa Swain (D-Fair Lawn) continues as chair of the Appropriations Committee, with Verlina Reynolds-Jackson (D-Trenton) serving as vice chair. Majority Leader Louis Greenwald (D-Voorhees), Majority Whip Carol Murphy (D-Mount Laurel), and Majority Conference Leader Annette Quijano (D-Elizabeth) will continue in their posts.
Gary Schaer (D-Passaic) will take on an expanded leadership role as policy chairman. Reynolds-Jackson will be the constituent outreach chair.
Among the changes is the combination of the Aging and Senior Services Committee and the Human Services Committee, with Shanique Speight (D-Newark) leading the new Aging and Human Services Committee. Shavonda Sumter (D-Paterson) will take on an expanded role as chair of the new Community Development and Women’s Affairs Committee; the Women & Children Committee has been eliminated.
A new panel important to Coughlin’s legislative agenda, the Children, Families, and Food Security Committee, will be led by Shama Haider (D-Tenafly). The Assembly Agriculture and Food Security Committee has been eliminated.
William Spearman (D-Camden) will lead the Commerce, Economic Development, and Agriculture Committee, offering the South Jersey lawmaker a promotion and platform to advocate for South Jersey farmers. He replaces Britnee Timberlake (D-East Orange), who chaired Commerce and Economic Development before her election to the Senate.
Roy Freiman (D-Hillsborough) will assume the chairmanship of the hugely influential Financial Institutions and Insurance Committee. He’ll replace John McKeon (D-West Orange), who was elected to the State Senate. Schaer will serve as vice chairman.
The Regulated Professions Committee will now be led by Sterley Stanley (D-East Brunswick). He replaces Thomas P. Giblin (D-Montclair), who retired after eighteen years as an assemblyman.
Clinton Calabrese (D-Cliffside Park), a four-term lawmaker who has had an uneasy relationship with some key labor unions, is now chairing the powerful Assembly Transportation and Independent Authorities Committee.
The new Judiciary Committee chair will be Ellen Park (D-Englewood Cliffs). She replaces Raj Mukherji (D-Jersey City), now a state senator.
For the first time in eighteen years, the Labor Committee will get a new chairman: Anthony Verrelli (D-Hopewell), a former Carpenter’s Union official, replacing the now-retired Joseph Egan (D-New Brunswick).
Verrelli had previously led the quietly powerful State and Local Government Committee; that panel will now be run by Robert Karabinchak (D-Edison).
Joseph Danielson (D-Franklin) will trade his Oversight, Reform, and Federal Relations Committee chairmanship to head up a new committee, Public Safety and Preparedness. The new panel combines two previous committees: Law and Public Safety, and Homeland Security. Reginald Atkins (D-Roselle) will replace Danielson at Oversight, where he may need to shepherd a cleanup bill on alcoholic beverage laws.
Linda Carter (D-Plainfield) will succeed now-retired Mila Jasey (D-South Orange) as chair of the Higher Education Committee. The Tourism, Gaming, and the Arts Committee will be chaired by Bill Moen (D-Bellmawr). This returns the panel to South Jersey after a long absence.
Coughlin has eliminated the Special Committee on Infrastructure and Natural Resources; some of those responsibilities will now fall under the rebranded Environment, Natural Resources, and Solid Waste Committee chaired by James Kennedy (D-Rahway).
The Consumer Affairs Committee, run by former TV consumer reporter Paul Moriarty (D-Washington Township) for many years, will now be chaired by William Sampson IV (D-Bayonne), the only non-freshman Hudson assemblymember. Moriarty was sworn into the Senate today.
Several committee chairs are returning: Pam Lampitt (D-Cherry Hill), Education; Herbert Conaway, Jr. (D-Delanco), Health; Yvonne Lopez (D-Perth Amboy), Housing; Cleopatra Tucker (D-Newark), Veterans and Military Affairs; Wayne DeAngelo (D-Hamilton), Telecommunications and Utilities; and Chris Tully (D-Bergenfield), Science, Innovation and Technology. Tully will helm his panel as the Assembly considers legislation dealing with artificial intelligence (AI).
Wimberly remains as Speaker Pro-Tempore, which puts him in the line of gubernatorial succession. At least for now, the number of Deputy Speakers will drop from ten to six: Carter, Conaway, DeAngelo, Speight, Lampitt, and Lopez. The number of Deputy Majority Leaders was cut from seven to four: Freiman, Moen, Tully, and Haider.