A new task for Corzine: Finding a running mate

TRENTON - When Gov. Corzine formally announces his plans to seek reelection, a new question will soon surface: Who will be his running mate?

Beginning next year, candidates for lieutenant governor will appear on gubernatorial tickets in New Jersey. Sponsors of the 2005 measure that created the position hope it will lead to more women and minorities in statewide elected positions.

Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein (D., Middlesex) said the new position "will help shatter New Jersey's glass ceiling."

The state has elected one female governor, Christie Whitman in 1993 and 1997, and one minority candidate - current U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez - to statewide office. Backers hope the lieutenant governor post will offer more opportunity for diversity because the person will be chosen not by voters but by candidates.

New Jersey will join 42 states that have a lieutenant governor. Of those, 13 have female lieutenant governors. The state will be the 25th to elect a governor and lieutenant governor on one ticket, meaning the two won't represent different parties.

The position was created without any specific duties; the governor will decide the lieutenant's role. One thing is known: If something happened to the governor or the governor resigned, the lieutenant governor would step in.

Both scenarios have cropped up recently in New Jersey. In 2004, Senate President Richard J. Codey took over for 15 months when Gov. Jim McGreevey resigned after he announced he was gay and said he had an extramarital affair with a male staffer.

Codey took over as governor again for about a month last year when a car crash almost killed Corzine.

In other parts of the country, the position has been a stepping-stone.

Since 2000, 15 lieutenant governors and second-in-command officials have succeeded to governor, according to the National Lieutenant Governor's Association, and a 2006 study showed that occupants of the office have a greater success rate of becoming governor than any other local, state or federal official.

New Jersey gubernatorial candidates will chose their running mates after the June primary.

Corzine, who plans to announce his reelection bid after this November's election, said he had thought only "superficially at this point" about whom he might name as his running mate.

"You need to make sure the person has got the competency and capability to be a good governor. Then you start looking at other considerations," Corzine said.

He acknowledged that the office could enhance his efforts to bring more diversity to all levels of state government.

"I don't think anything should be off the table," Corzine said. "The first-order issue is to try to get the best person to do the job. That doesn't mean you aren't looking for diversity."

Peter Woolley, a Fairleigh Dickinson University political scientist and pollster, said the public would not vote for or against anyone because of the running mate.

"They will be voting for or against the candidates for governor," Woolley said. "It's the party insiders who will be most concerned about who gets this new plum."

He predicted the choice would involve satisfying inner-party rivalries, meaning race, gender, regions, factions, fund-raising ability, personal alliances, and ties to influential party bosses will come into play.

"The candidates will have to consider as much who they are not picking, and therefore whose support they may lose, as much as they consider who they are picking," Woolley said.

Brigid Harrison, a Montclair State University political scientist, said diversity would prove key.

"I would see a gubernatorial candidate wanting someone different from himself, perhaps a woman, an African American, Latino or Asian American," she said. "The Republican nominee, in particular, may attempt to make electoral inroads into various constituencies via a lieutenant governor nominee."