Raymond Bateman Archives - New Jersey Globe

Dyke Pollitt, political consultant and onetime Senate candidate, dies at 87

November 19, 2019 12:20 pmNovember 19, 2019 12:20 pm

Van Dyke J. Pollitt, an insider’s insider who spend decades as a political operative– first as a Republican officeholder in Union County and then as a member of John Lynch’s political circle running the Middlesex County Democratic machine – died...

No district has gone longer without electing a Democrat than the 40th

September 7, 2019 5:21 pmSeptember 7, 2019 5:50 pm

No legislative district in the state has gone longer without electing a Democrat than the 40th, which includes parts of Bergen, Passaic, Morris and Essex counties. It’s been 54 years since a Democrat won an Assembly seat there, which makes...

Rice got it wrong: Union County elected their first black county chairman in 1977

April 18, 2019 9:35 amApril 18, 2019 11:00 am

State Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Newark) had his facts wrong yesterday when he told InsiderNJ that Jerry Green was the first black Union County Democratic chairman. That happened 42 years ago. Donald Lan was stepping down as county chairman in 1977...

The road to Parsippany Mayor Michael Soriano

April 1, 2019 12:15 amApril 1, 2019 1:14 pm

Decades of infighting among Parsippany Republicans led to Democratic mayors for 33 of the last 53 years in a solidly Republican town that once provided huge pluralities for GOP candidates running statewide and in Morris County. With intra-party quarrels on...

Trailblazer: Assemblywoman Madaline Williams

January 21, 2019 12:15 amJanuary 20, 2019 11:14 pm

Madaline Williams (1894-1968) was the first African American woman to serve in the New Jersey Legislature. She was elected to the State Assembly in 1957 and re-elected in 1959. An East Orange, Democrat, she was elected Essex County Register of...

Clifford Goldman dies

September 16, 2018 2:07 pmSeptember 18, 2018 2:02 pm

Former New Jersey State Treasurer Clifford A. Goldman, a respected public finance expert whose ability to identify weaknesses in the 1977 tax plan proposed by the Republican candidate for governor played a critical role in the re-election of Gov. Brendan...

The history of the New Jersey Senate Presidency

August 6, 2018 4:15 amAugust 5, 2018 11:40 pm

When New Jersey’s modern-day founding fathers created the most powerful governorship in the nation in 1947, it was based on an assumption that the old system of rotating legislative leaders would still be in effect. Today, the three separate but...