List of governors of New Jersey

Based on Wikipedia: List of governors of New Jersey

In January 2002, New Jersey experienced something unprecedented in American governance: the state had two governors in a single week. Not because of an election or a scandal, but because the State Senate was so perfectly divided between Democrats and Republicans that they had elected two co-presidents, each of whom became acting governor for three days at a time. One of them, John O. Bennett, managed to squeeze a State of the State Address, several bill signings, and parties at the governor's mansion into his three-and-a-half-day tenure.

This absurdist interlude reveals something fascinating about New Jersey: for most of its history, the Garden State operated without a lieutenant governor, making it an outlier among American states and creating a constitutional game of musical chairs whenever the governorship became vacant.

A Constitution Born in Revolution

New Jersey's first state constitution was drafted in 1776, making it one of the original documents of American self-governance. The founders made a choice that seems almost quaint by modern standards: the governor would be elected annually, not by the people directly, but by the state legislature.

Even stranger to contemporary eyes, the governor served as president of the upper house of the legislature, called the Legislative Council. This meant the executive branch was embedded within the legislative branch, a far cry from the strict separation of powers we now take for granted.

William Livingston became New Jersey's first governor under this system. He would hold the office for nearly fourteen years, from 1776 until his death in 1790, making him not only the first but the longest-serving governor in New Jersey history. This record stands because the rules that would later limit gubernatorial terms did not yet exist.

The March Toward Popular Democracy

In 1844, New Jersey rewrote its constitution and fundamentally changed how governors came to power. For the first time, voters would elect the governor directly through popular vote. The governor would no longer preside over the upper house, which was renamed the Senate. The term was extended to three years, beginning on the third Tuesday in January after an election.

But the 1844 constitution included a curious restriction: governors could not succeed themselves. You could serve as governor, but then you had to step aside. This created an unusual pattern in New Jersey politics, where ambitious politicians would serve their term, return to private life, and then run again years later for another stint in the governor's mansion.

Joseph Bloomfield did it. Peter Dumont Vroom did it. Daniel Haines, Joel Parker, Leon Abbett, and Walter Evans Edge each served two non-consecutive terms. A. Harry Moore went even further, serving three separate stints as governor, making him the longest-serving popularly elected governor in state history.

The Modern Era Begins

New Jersey's current constitution dates to 1947. It extended gubernatorial terms to four years and finally allowed governors to seek re-election, though with a limit: no one can serve more than two consecutive terms. After sitting out a term, however, they can run again. This compromise honored the tradition of preventing governors from accumulating too much power while acknowledging that voters might want to keep effective leaders in office.

The 1947 constitution kept one significant gap: New Jersey still had no lieutenant governor. If the governor's office became vacant, the president of the State Senate would step in as acting governor while continuing to serve in the legislature. This meant one person simultaneously held executive and legislative power, a concentration of authority that the Founding Fathers had deliberately sought to prevent at the federal level.

The Chaos of Succession

For decades, this arrangement functioned adequately. But then came 2001.

Christine Todd Whitman, a Republican who had won two terms as governor, resigned to become Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency under President George W. Bush. Donald DiFrancesco, the Senate President, became acting governor.

What followed exposed the system's fragility. After DiFrancesco's departure, John O. Bennett became acting governor for a few days. Then Richard Codey took over briefly because of the co-president arrangement in a divided Senate. Power bounced between officials like a pinball.

In November 2004, Governor Jim McGreevey resigned after announcing he had engaged in an extramarital affair with a man. Richard Codey, then Senate President, became acting governor and served for fourteen months, until January 2006.

New Jersey's voters had seen enough. In 2005, they approved a constitutional amendment creating the office of lieutenant governor, effective with the 2009 elections. The lieutenant governor would be elected on the same ticket as the governor and would assume the governorship if it became vacant, much like the Vice President does at the federal level.

Who Gets Counted?

The parade of acting governors created an accounting problem. How should New Jersey number its governors? Traditionally, only elected governors received numbers in the official count. But this seemed unfair to acting governors who had served for significant periods and exercised all the powers of the office.

In January 2006, Governor Codey signed legislation addressing this question. Acting governors who served at least 180 days would now be considered full governors. The law was made retroactive to January 1, 2001, which meant Donald DiFrancesco and Richard Codey could both claim the title of governor, not merely acting governor.

This retroactive reclassification affected the numbering system. Jim McGreevey, who had been the 51st governor, found his position in the count shifted. The current governor, Phil Murphy, is officially the 56th governor of New Jersey, a Democrat who took office on January 16, 2018, and won re-election in 2021.

The Powers of the Governor

What exactly does New Jersey's governor do? The office carries significant authority. The governor serves as head of government and commander-in-chief of the state's military forces, which include the New Jersey National Guard. The governor enforces state laws and possesses the power to approve or veto legislation passed by the New Jersey Legislature.

The governor can convene special sessions of the legislature, a power that allows the executive to force lawmakers to address urgent issues. The governor also holds the power of pardon, able to commute sentences and grant clemency, with two exceptions: treason and impeachment remain beyond the reach of gubernatorial mercy.

These powers make New Jersey's governorship one of the stronger executive positions among American states. Unlike some states where power is dispersed among multiple independently elected officials, New Jersey concentrates executive authority in the governor's office.

A State of Firsts and Anomalies

New Jersey was the third state to ratify the United States Constitution, doing so on December 18, 1787. Before independence, it had been a colony of Great Britain, briefly divided into East Jersey and West Jersey before being reunited under royal authority in 1702.

In the centuries since, the state has elected fifty-six governors, all but one of them men. The exception came recently enough to surprise those who might assume New Jersey, as a reliably Democratic state in presidential elections, would have elected a female governor earlier.

The state's gubernatorial history reflects broader patterns in American politics: the gradual expansion of democratic participation, from legislative selection to popular vote; the tension between enabling effective governance and preventing the accumulation of excessive power; and the recurring need to patch constitutional gaps that only become apparent when circumstances expose them.

From Crisis to Reform

The lieutenant governor's office, first filled in 2010, represents the resolution of a problem that had festered for over two centuries. For 234 years, New Jersey had operated under the assumption that Senate presidents could adequately fill gubernatorial vacancies. The chaotic transitions of the early 2000s proved otherwise.

Kim Guadagno became the first lieutenant governor in state history, serving under Chris Christie from 2010 to 2018. The office now provides clear succession, ending the possibility of power ping-ponging between Senate leaders during gubernatorial vacancies.

New Jersey's constitutional evolution offers a case study in how democratic systems adapt to their own failures. The state's founders in 1776 could not have anticipated the specific circumstances that would expose the weaknesses in their succession plan. But their constitutional descendants, confronted with those weaknesses, found the will to fix them.

The three-day governors of January 2002 have become a historical curiosity, a story that captures something essential about American federalism: each state serves as its own laboratory of democracy, learning from its mistakes, often the hard way.