O’Toole re-elected to 8th term as Port Authority chairman

In a unanimous vote, Kevin J. O’Toole was re-elected to an eighth one-year term as chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey today, leaving the influential former Republican state senator throughout the duration of Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy’s entire two terms in office.

He said it was “gratifying and humbling” to receive the unanimous backing of the bi-state panel.

“Over the last seven and a half years, we have been a unanimous board,” O’Toole said  “We have debated, we have gone back and forth, we have had some intense conversations, but at the end of the day — and I don’t think anybody would have predicted this seven and a half years ago — every vote that we have had has been unanimous – every single vote.”

O’Toole’s staying power has been based on his relationships with Democrats and his ability to assemble bipartisan coalitions.

O’Toole was initially nominated to the Port Authority by Gov. Chris Christie in 2017 and succeeded John Degnan as chairman a month after joining the board.

After Murphy took office in 2018, there was speculation that O’Toole’s tenure as chairman would be short-lived.  But he leveraged his relationships with Senate Democratic leaders who made it clear they would not consider the confirmation of a new commissioner without a commitment that O’Toole would remain at the helm.  At the same time, O’Toole built relationships with the Murphy administration as he worked on some of the governor’s key agenda items, including constructing a new Terminal A at Newark Liberty International Airport.

Richard Cotton, an ally of New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, will remain as executive director.

O’Toole is a weekly columnist for the New Jersey Globe.