After a half-century as a legislator, state Sen. Richard Codey announced Tuesday he will not run for reelection.
Codey (D-Essex) arrived at the State House as an assemblyman in 1974 and moved up to the Senate in 1982. He was Senate president in 2004 when former Gov. Jim McGreevey resigned, leading Codey to serve as governor for more than a year. The longest-serving legislator in state history, Codey was also acting governor when Gov. Christie Whitman resigned and again when Gov. Jon Corzine was injured in a car crash.
With Codey deciding not to run in this fall’s election, suburban Essex and Morris counties will have new representation. Democrats must put forward a new nominee for the race by the end of August. Codey beat his longtime colleague Sen. Nia Gill in the June primary election.
“It’s New Jersey politics at it’s most predictable. I do believe him when he says that he was weary, that he didn’t want to do another four or five years of coming down to Trenton in the back bench. But I also believe he did this in a way to increase the probability that the successor to his post would be John McKeon,” said Charles Stile, a columnist with The Record and NorthJersey.com.
