page_title: Lieutenant Governor of New Jersey
section_title: Resignations and succession controversies (2001–2006)
hierarchical_section_title: Lieutenant Governor of New Jersey / Modern creation of the office (2001–present) / Resignations and succession controversies (2001–2006)
caption_attribution_description: English: Richard Codey speaking at The College of New Jersey Library Auditorium
context_page_description: The Lieutenant Governor of New Jersey is an elected constitutional officer in the executive branch of the state government of New Jersey in the United States. The lieutenant governor is the second highest-ranking official in the state government and is elected concurrently on a ticket with the governor for a four-year term. Because the position itself does not carry any powers or duties other than to be next in the order of succession, the state constitution requires that the lieutenant governor be appointed to serve as the head of a cabinet-level department or administrative agency within the governor's administration.
  Prior to 2010, New Jersey was one of a few states in the United States that did not have a lieutenant governor to succeed to the governorship in the event of a vacancy in that office. Only two individuals had previously held the title—both during brief periods in the colonial era under commission or letters patent from the British Crown. For most of the state's history, a vacancy in the position of governor was filled by the president of the State Senate, or during the colonial era by the president of the royal governor's Provincial Council.
context_section_description: New Jersey had two recent periods during which several politicians assumed the governorship within the span of a few years.  In 2001, Governor Christine Todd Whitman resigned with one year remaining in her second term after being appointed by George W. Bush to the position of administrator of the federal Environmental Protection Agency. Senate President Donald DiFrancesco became acting governor following Whitman's resignation on January 31, 2001, and remained in office until he retired from the state senate on January 8, 2002. 
  In an unusual political circumstance, the 2001 legislative elections returned a senate with equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats, with each party having 20 senators.  Both sides negotiated to choose two senators from their respective parties to serve as co-presidents.  Because of an 8-day gap between the seating of the new state legislature and the inauguration of Governor-elect Jim McGreevey, four men held the position of acting governor:
  Outgoing Senate President Donald DiFrancesco continued to serve until 12:00 noon on January 8, 2002, until the new senate session was convened.
  New Jersey's Attorney General John J. Farmer, Jr. was acting governor for 90 minutes on January 8, 2002, while awaiting the swearing in of the next senate president.
  Senate co-President John O. Bennett, a Republican, served as acting governor from January 8–12, 2002.
  Senate co-President Richard Codey, a Democrat, served as acting governor from January 12, 2002, until McGreevey was sworn in as governor at noon on January 15, 2002.
  After Governor Jim McGreevey resigned in the midst of a sex scandal in 2004,  Richard Codey served again as acting governor from November 15, 2004 to January 17, 2006. Codey was the only acting governor during this time, as the 2003 legislative elections had given the Democrats outright control of the state senate.  Codey's tenure ended with the inauguration of Governor Jon Corzine on January 17, 2006.
  Public attention was directed to the issue of succession in the wake of the resignations of Whitman and McGreevey during so brief a period. The response of the general public and the media was that the situation of acting governors and resignations made the situation untenable and that the state needed a permanent solution such as a lieutenant governor. There were three chief arguments in favor of establishing a lieutenant governor:
  That the senate president was chosen by the members of the state senate, not elected by voters—eligible to be acting governor solely by virtue of having been elected by the citizens in only one of the state's forty legislative districts.
  That an acting governor serving simultaneously in the executive branch and legislative branch would give the governor very broad powers and was a breach of the "separation of powers" between branches of the government.
  That there potentially would be a lack of continuity between political platforms from a governor of one party and a senate president of another who assumes the post as acting governor. As there was no guarantee the two individuals would be members of the same party, there was greater concern that the policies of the acting governor might be in direct conflict with those of the preceding governor.
caption: State Senator Richard Codey served as the New Jersey's Acting Governor twice—the first time for four days, the second for 14 months.
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