Stephen Sweeney, a state senator with a low profile but broad shoulders, had picked one of the toughest political fights in Trenton.
Amid a nasty dispute over the state budget, the Gloucester County Democrat called on powerful state labor unions to roll back their pay and benefits. On his way to a news conference, Sweeney, a labor leader with the ironworkers, waded through a crowd of angry state employees. They called him a traitor and said he was making the biggest mistake of his career.
"Go ahead, keep it up," Sweeney told them on that summer day in 2006. "We're not backing down."
It took two more years, but Sweeney forced through some of the givebacks and elevated his stature in Trenton.
Now he is poised to become the Senate president, the second-most-powerful person in New Jersey's government. He has almost surely won the job by relying on the same qualities that put him on the political map: tenacity, the help of powerful backers, and a readiness to scrap.
"I'm not afraid of a fight," Sweeney said last week as he recounted that battle. "Nothing worthwhile is going to come easy."
Sweeney's allies say he works hard, is loyal and straightforward, and gets things done. His opponents describe him as a bulldozer, leveling anything in his way.
All of those traits were on display last week when he declared victory in a fierce battle to oust Senate President Richard J. Codey (D., Essex) with a shrewd deal that won backing from lawmakers in his rival's backyard. If his support holds up in formal Senate voting, Sweeney will become South Jersey's most powerful public official.
It would give even more influence to the man who since 1998 has led the Gloucester County freeholders, who is the business representative of the ironworkers' local in Westville, and who is a friend and ally of South Jersey political power broker George Norcross'.
Sweeney is one of only a handful of lawmakers who still hold two or more public offices after the practice was barred, with exceptions for those already holding multiple positions.
"I've got to deal with that in the near future. I can't do both forever - that's obvious," he said. He donates his $18,000 freeholder salary to charity.
When he was named Senate majority leader in 2007, Sweeney said he would leave the freeholder board, but reversed himself the next year and ran again.
Supporters said last week that Sweeney was unafraid of taking on big ideas - he has pushed to make Gloucester County a leader in consolidating local services - and making them happen.
"Times call for bold moves, and I think Sweeney is a bolder leader than Dick Codey, who was a measured leader," said Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D., Union), who backed Sweeney in the leadership fight.
Sweeney's ascent also had help from Norcross, who, according to several political insiders, helped broker the deal with Essex County Executive Joseph N. DiVincenzo Jr. to replace Codey with Sweeney and install Assemblywoman Sheila Y. Oliver, an Essex County Democrat who works for DiVincenzo, as Assembly speaker.
Codey, who did not return requests for comment, has accused Norcross, a longtime rival, of putting together the Senate coup as part of a power grab. He has apparently not given up his fight to retain the presidency.
Sweeney said he was close friends with Norcross and his brothers, particularly Donald, cochairman of the Camden County Democratic Party and a leader with the Southern New Jersey AFL-CIO.
The Sweeney and Norcross families were close. Each had four sons, all about the same age. Sweeney went to high school with Donald Norcross, who is poised to join the Assembly next year. But Sweeney bristles at the suggestion that he is anything but independent. "I take great pride in it, and I will prove it - I'm my own man," he said.
George Norcross said 14 of the 23 Democratic senators supported Sweeney, dismissing talk that they could be so easily manipulated. He said more Democrats were likely to back Sweeney this week.
Norcross described Sweeney as an "aggressive" leader who would have statewide responsibility but also champion South Jersey causes. He compared Sweeney to Assembly Speaker Joseph J. Roberts Jr. (D., Camden), who is leaving the Legislature. "Steve certainly will take on that responsibility," Norcross said.
Sweeney, 50, graduated from Pennsauken High School, where he played football. As an ironworker, he said, he overcame a fear of heights to work on bridges and buildings. In 1989 he became a union officer.
He talks with an everyman's plain language, dotting his sentences with "knowwhatImean," and doesn't hide his feelings or ambition. "Very much what you see is what you get," said Roberts, a friend.
Sweeney describes several paths to politics. He worked on U.S. Rep. Robert E. Andrews' freeholder campaigns. Later, when his daughter, Lauren, was born with Down syndrome, Sweeney wanted to get to a position where he could help people in need, he said.
Sweeney said Donald Norcross, a "dear friend" and fellow labor leader, had encouraged him to run for freeholder. He joined the board in 1997 and was in charge one year later.
Sweeney moved to the Senate as part of a nasty fight among Gloucester County Democrats, pushing out longtime incumbent Raymond Zane.
While there were many political machinations, Sweeney said Zane had been trying to oust him at the county level.
"You know how that works. Someone tries to take you out - I decided to run for the Senate," Sweeney said.
To his critics, Sweeney's aggressive tactics come across as bullying.
Two years ago, Sweeney's temper was on display when he battled Woodbury's Republican officials and members of the Friends meetinghouse who objected to the construction of a three-story courthouse parking garage in the city's historic district.
Sweeney threatened to move the courthouse out of Woodbury, the county seat - potentially crippling the city's economy - and said the Quakers had betrayed him.
"He's a very powerful person," said George Crispin, a Friends trustee. "And people can get pushed around." He denied any betrayal. Sweeney eventually got his way.
Despite his clashes with the local GOP, Sweeney has built a rapport with a number of Trenton Republicans, working with the GOP on changes in the pension system.
He battled state workers, Sweeney said, because while they enjoyed good benefits and steady pay raises, others, including other union members, were squeezed by a high cost of living. "People in my world aren't working because New Jersey is unaffordable," he said, echoing many Republican complaints.
Republicans who have worked with Sweeney say they trust his word. "Unlike others, when he tells you he wants to do something, he does it," said Sen. Kevin O'Toole (R., Essex).
Sweeney said he would encourage bipartisanship and more involvement from fellow Democratic senators.
Roberts said he had known Sweeney would not want to be only a rank-and-file senator.
"If you look at his style," Roberts said, "he's very much a take-charge kind of guy."
Contact staff writer Jonathan Tamari at 609-989-9016 or jtamari@phillynews.com.
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