Joseph J. Roberts Jr., the soft-spoken intellectual and deeply serious Assembly speaker who announced his retirement yesterday, has been reaching higher most of his life.
A Bellmawr-born blue-collar guy, he worked his way up from being a waiter at Rexy's, a Mount Ephraim bar frequented by the Philadelphia Flyers, to once owning two restaurants and the popular Ocean Drive bar in Sea Isle City.
While in college, Roberts, the son of a funeral director and a feisty Democratic committeewoman, started a community newspaper and hired a young Rob Andrews, now a U.S. representative, as his sports editor.
He is such a hard-core Jimmy Buffett fan that the parties he and Camden County power broker George Norcross host when Buffett appears at Camden's Susquehanna Bank Center attract more than 1,300 Parrotheads.
And he secretly has paid bills for people down on their luck.
Now, however, it's time for the beach.
"The summers have always been a blur," Roberts, 57, said, citing a state budget process that usually runs through June, followed by preparations for fall elections. "I'd love in the summer next year to spend more time at the beach. I miss concerts occasionally because of this job."
When he told fellow Camden County Democrats yesterday morning that he would not seek reelection, some brimmed with emotion, even though they knew the announcement was coming.
"I was happy for him in the sense that this was something he really wanted to do and sad that he wasn't going to be there," said State Sen. James Beach (D., Camden), also cochairman of the county party.
"He was someone you could pick up the phone and call and ask, 'What do you think?' He was always on target, calm, insightful," Beach said.
As Assembly speaker, while Roberts played on a statewide canvas, his district office diligently worked on constituent services. He was known to pick up the phone to talk to a member of the public dismayed by trying to navigate state bureaucracy.
Unlike many legislators, Roberts didn't issue a news release every time he brought money into his district, but he brought in millions. Roberts directed money toward the struggling city of Camden, where he lives near the Rutgers University campus.
The cancer center and medical school at Cooper University Hospital had Roberts' support, as did South Jersey transportation projects - from work on Route 295 to plans to run a light-rail system into Gloucester County.
Andrews called Roberts "the kind of person who tends to be around when people most need him."
Roberts is a blend of his parents, Andrews said. From his father, Joseph, the funeral director, he learned how to calm people when they're upset, and like his late mother, Peg, the committeewoman, he likes a good political fight.
Roberts graduated from Rutgers and earned a master's degree in government at the Fels School of Government at the University of Pennsylvania. He was long considered a man on the go in Democratic circles.
He served as county freeholder from 1980 to 1987. When Jim Florio first ran for governor in 1981, Roberts was set up to be his heir in Congress. Florio lost that race, however, and Roberts found his home in the Assembly, first elected in 1987.
On the side, he was a bar owner and restaurateur. He sold his businesses in 2003, as well as a 17 percent share in U.S. Vision. His investment in the eyeglass and contact lens company drew criticism because he had sponsored a bill to let optometrists perform laser surgery. That could have helped the company because its doctors would have been able to perform the lucrative surgery. Roberts, however, said the company would not perform the surgeries as long as he was involved in it.
Though collegial, Roberts could muster a good political fight. In 2006, he got into a budget standoff with Gov. Corzine over his wish to increase property-tax rebates and Corzine's desire to raise the sales tax to balance the budget. The argument resulted in a weeklong government shutdown.
In 1999, Roberts walked out of a Democratic Assembly caucus, declaring that South Jersey wasn't getting the respect it deserved. He later became state party chairman, Assembly majority leader, and, finally, speaker.
He and Norcross rolled the Camden County political machine through the southern end of the state starting in the 1990s.
"His political legacy is taking South Jersey from two [Democratic] assemblymen and one senator in the Fifth District [parts of Camden and Gloucester Counties] to 18 members strong and creating a bipartisan broad-based South Jersey coalition, which brought political justice to southern New Jersey," said Norcross, whose brother Donald is heir apparent to Roberts' seat.
Reflecting on Roberts' legacy as a political leader, Norcross said, "He's one of the last honorable statesmen whose word is his bond. Although he didn't give his word often, when he did, it could be counted on."
Contact staff writer Cynthia Burton at 856-779-3858 or cburton@phillynews.com.
Inquirer staff writer Jonathan Tamari contributed to this article.
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