Former New Jersey Senate President Steve Sweeney filed a lawsuit against LeRoy Jones the state Democratic Party’s chairman, after being removed from the New Jersey Legislative Reapportionment Commission, the panel that will draw 40 new legislative districts that make up the state Legislature.
Sweeney said Jones removed him illegally in the complaint filed in state superior court in Mercer County.
The lawsuit reveals longstanding divisions within the Democratic Party between loyalists of South Jersey power broker George Norcross III, of which Sweeney is one, and members from the North.
South Jersey Democrats were instrumental in helping Republican Gov. Chris Christie implement anti-worker policies that also divided public-sector union members from private-sector labor organizations.
Norcross, Sweeney and Christie appear together in the photo above, with the power broker’s brother, Congressman Donald Norcross.
Attorney Jonathan Berkon asserted that Jones had the authority to remove Sweeney.
Berkon noted that Sweeney removed Orange Mayor Eldridge Hawkins Jr. from the state’s congressional redistricting commission in 2010, shortly after ousted Senate President Richard Codey, another Essex County lawmaker who served as acting governor in 2005 following the resignation of James McGreevey and had appointed Hawkins.
“Chairman Jones had the authority to remove Mr. Sweeney from the Commission, just as Mr. Sweeney had the authority to remove Mayor Hawkins from the congressional redistricting commission a decade ago,” said Berkon.
Jones, who is chairman of the Democratic State Committee, the Democratic delegation on the redistricting commission, and the Essex County Democratic Committee, said he made the decision to replace Sweeney after “careful consideration, with much deliberation, and in concert with a number of party leaders across the state.”
Jones said it’s his “responsibility and duty to select standard-bearers who will best represent the Democratic Party’s interests” and to “ensure a strong and representative party moving forward.”
“No person or organization’s goals and ambitions are above the interests of our party and the people of this state,” said Jones. “This decision was necessary to protect the future of the Democratic Party, and the integrity of the commission as a whole.”
Sweeney was one of five Democratic representatives on the 11-person, bipartisan panel.
Jones said that, in his capacity as the Democratic state party chairperson, he was removing Sweeney, according to a letter Jones sent to the secretary of state Wednesday.
Jones replaced Sweeney with Laura Matos, a lobbyist at the public affairs firm Kivvit who was recently appointed by Gov. Phil Murphy as the chairwoman of the Pinelands Commission.
Her appointment makes Matos the only Latina on the redistricting panel, in a state where about 22% of residents are Hispanic.
Jones said this was “a long overdue step to bring broader, more diverse voices and perspectives” to the panel and to “continue to build a party that reflects our great state.”
No explanation was given, but Jones said in a statement that the party wanted to include more diverse voices on the panel, known formally as the Apportionment Commission.
Sweeney left the Senate, after losing re-election in a stunning upset that ended his 12-year tenure as the chamber’s president, the longest in New Jersey history.
Sweeney’s loss, along with other Democratic losses in the southern part of the state, appear to have weakened Norcross’ influence but several governors have unsuccessfully tangled with the power broker and it is far too early to count him out.