Kevin J. O’Toole again confounded early expectations today, unanimously winning a ninth term as chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey—a result that cements the former Republican senator from Essex County as a bipartisan power broker, spanning the entirety of Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy’s eight years in office and carrying into the first year of Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat who will assume the governorship next month.
O’Toole was expected to be a short-term chairman when Republican Gov. Chris Christie appointed him in late 2017. Now, there’s no end in sight.
After Murphy took office in 2018, there was speculation that O’Toole’s tenure as chairman would be short-lived. But he leveraged his relationship with Senate Democratic leaders, including Nicholas Scutari, Teresa Ruiz, and Brian P. Stack, 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.
Entirely based on Democrats, O’Toole had built a fortified wall around his chairmanship. Murphy’s initial pick for the Port Authority, Amy Rosen, never cleared senatorial courtesy in Essex County.
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.
On January 20, O’Toole will become the first New Jerseyan to chair the Port Authority board under three elected governors.
Executive Director Rick Cotton has announced plans to retire, and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has designated Kathryn Garcia as his replacement; traditionally, New York gets the executive director, and New Jersey gets the chair. The New Jersey Globe first listed Garcia as Cotton’s likely successor in February 2024.
Governors have just two statutory powers at the Port Authority: they can appoint commissioners, with the advice and consent of the State Senate, and can veto the minutes of any action by the commissioners.
Since a war between Governors Christine Todd Whitman and George Pataki in the late 1990s kept the Port Authority from taking any action for more than a year, agency bureaucrats have created an intricate, almost secret system that allows most business to continue without the governor’s monthly consent.
Murphy has not yet vetoed any of the authority’s actions during his eight years in office.
Michelle Richardson, the executive director of the Hudson County Economic Development Corporation, is likely to have attended her final meeting today as a Port Authority commissioner. Murphy nominated another commissioner, Joseph Kelley, to fill her seat, and the Senate is expected to confirm Hudson County Commissioner Fanny Cedeno to replace Kelley when they meet today.