Ha! One of the very, very good things to come out of the McGreevey resignation is the resurgence and return to dominance of North Jersey! Middlesex, Camden, Mercer, Monmouth: Fuck you. The grownups in Essex and Hudson are back in charge.
Okay, now to explain that. McGreevey was the Mayor of Woodbridge before he became Governor, and Middlesex was always his power base. That manifested itself in a few things (including the corruption scandals), but most prominently in his cynical, politically-motivated ploy to amalgamate the state university system and give dominance to the New Brunswick faction. That was bad for Rutgers Newark, but even worse for UMDNJ, the only medical school in NJ. It would have been under the thumb of New Brunswick.
Now McGreevey and his Middlesex faction are out of power, including the local boss (whose name is Lynch). But even more than that, McGreevey was always indebted to two of the worst factions in NJ politics: South Jersey and the mayor of Newark, Sharpe James. The reason is that in the summer of 2000, when McGreevey was the establishment candidate for the 2001 election, Bob Torricelli stuck his finger in the race for a few weeks. That caused brief turmoil, but the South Jersey bosses (most prominently, Norcross) and James rallied around McGreevey and pressured Torricelli to leave the race. They consequently got a lot of the appointments McGreevey has to dispense (and there are many in executive-heavy NJ). I think that their basic corruption was the root of the problem with the McGreevey administration; he basically had to sell a good soul to bad actors.
North Jersey, on the other hand, stands to gain. The obvious instance is that Dick Codey of West Orange will be the governor and the incumbent if there's a primary. He's both liberal and experienced, and he gets the credit for the Dems' takeover of the state legislature these last two elections.
But in addition to Codey, the person who benefits is Menendez (IMHO), who basically has consolidated control over Hudson county since his rival dropped dead a few months ago. He will essentially have the pick of statewide office (and the chance to see if the Dems retake the House in November), especially if Corzine stays put (or takes Secretary of the Treasury under Kerry, as I've suggested many times). Keep in mind that we definitely have an open Senate seat in 2008 (*not 2006*). Menendez is both very intelligent and a very effective politician; a rare breed in NJ, and he should be given deference.
All of this power shift to the North needs to be understood in context. In the 1920s-1940s, the mayor of Jersey City, Frank Hague, controlled state politics in the mold of Huey Long. His state hospital in Jersey City is a monument to an earlier day when politicians looked after their people. At that time, South Jersey was comparatively clean, and the Hague dynasty was eventually destroyed by a de facto alliance of South Jersey Democrats and the Republican Party. Furthermore, the rewriting of the state constitution in 1947 didn't help, despite the fact that Hague was a power at the convention.
After that, North Jersey lost its iron grip on the state, and Monmouth, Middlesex, and Mercer counties have held the balance in statewide elections for decades. That's still true, but the bosses that sprung up there are highly corrupt and a negative influence on our politics. They'll still be around, but if the big names from now on are Corzine, Codey, and Menendez, I'm very happy to be from Essex County right now.
