By Lea Kahn
Former Gov. Brendan Byrne is the first to admit that he would have been satisfied to have spent his professional career as a state Superior Court judge but then politics intervened.
He spoke candidly, and sometimes humorously, about his two terms as governor last week at Rider University. He was invited to speak as part of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics’ “Governing New Jersey” series.
In a departure from the Rebovich Institute’s usual pattern of inviting a political figure to deliver prepared remarks, Gov. Byrne sat in a comfortable armchair opposite Ben Dworkin, the institute’s director, and answered questions posed to him by Mr. Dworkin last week.
The former Democratic governor, who served from 1974 to 1982, told Mr. Dworkin and the audience of about 60 people that he got his start as a lawyer by clerking for Judge Joseph Weintraub in Newark. After working for a couple of law firms, the young attorney was appointed assistant counsel to Gov. Robert Meyner. He soon became Gov. Meyner’s acting executive secretary.
During Gov. Meyner’s second term, he asked the future governor what he would like to do. Gov. Byrne replied that he would like to become the Essex County prosecutor. He was eventually appointed to that post, and earned a reputation for honesty and integrity.
Mr. Dworkin reminded Gov. Byrne of a leaked FBI wiretap comment, in which an organized crime figure described then-Prosecutor Byrne as a law enforcement official who could not be bought who could not be bribed.
He was later appointed to serve as a state Superior Court judge.
”Once you are in the position that I was in, someone will mention your name (as a candidate for governor). I was used to people saying, ‘He could be governor.’ (But) I was happy as a judge. I was perfectly willing to spend my professional career as a judge. I was feeling lucky to have a key appointment,” Gov. Byrne said.
But when 1973 rolled around, the state Democratic Party was having difficulty settling on a nominee for governor, he said. The Hudson County Democrats had not endorsed any of the candidates, so he thought he would try for their endorsement.
”I made some inquiries and I spent Easter week talking to the mayors (in Hudson County cities). I figured I might get the endorsement. I pursued it and I got it, and the rest is history. If you get Hudson County, you have one-third of the primary (votes),” he said.
Then-Judge Byrne received the Democratic Party nomination and defeated Republican Party candidate Charles Sandman in 1973. During his first term as governor, New Jersey approved a state income tax. It was intended, among other things, to increase the state’s share of public school costs and to provide property tax relief.
Gov. Byrne said he considered not seeking a second term in 1977, but he decided to run again this time, against former state Sen. Raymond Bateman. The Republican Party nominee was critical of the state income tax, so Gov. Byrne challenged him to come up with something that was better.
Mr. Bateman and one of his advisors, former U.S. Treasury Secretary William Simon, offered a “hodgepodge” of taxes that was not a “saleable” plan to replace the state income tax, Gov. Byrne said.
Although he was advised not to do it, Gov. Byrne recalled, he said the Republicans’ plan would be known by its initials the B-S plan.
”The newspapers picked it up,” Gov. Byrne said with a chuckle.
But looking back on the issue of money and education whether spending more money on education makes a difference Gov. Byrne expressed some doubts about the link between them.
”We had money for facilities and we had money for educational expertise. The problem is, there has to be motivation to be educated. It’s not that teachers can’t teach. Students can learn, (but) they don’t want to learn. It’s challenging to get a student to learn,” he said candidly.
Mr. Dworkin also asked Gov. Byrne whether he was always in favor of legalized gambling casinos.
The former governor replied that during his nine years as a county prosecutor, he observed that organized crime families were involved in illegal gambling.
As long as there is going to be gambling, it might as well be done legally, Gov. Byrne said. It was a big risk, he said, but he added that he thought casino gambling could be run honestly.
He admitted that the state could have done a better job in some respects, such as planning the casinos better and focusing on housing and jobs in Atlantic City.
”I was concentrating on the integrity of it,” Gov. Byrne said.
Mr. Dworkin also drew out Gov. Byrne on the issue of the preservation of the Pinelands area of New Jersey and the Pinelands Preservation Act, which was passed during his administration.
Gov. Byrne said he became interested in the Pinelands through writer John McPhee, who was a friend and tennis partner. Mr. McPhee wrote a book about the Pine Barrens and at the end of the book, the governor said, he had written that “no politician will be able to save the Pinelands.”
”I said, ‘I have to show McPhee that he is wrong,’” Gov. Byrne said.
The governor said he issued an executive order that virtually banned development in the Pinelands an executive order that he admitted was “allegedly the most sweeping executive order ever issued” by a New Jersey governor.
Regulations were prepared that would save the Pinelands from future development, despite opposition from some landowners, he said. Some of the opponents did not want to lose their development rights, because they mortgaged their land at the beginning of each growing season to get money to farm, he said.
And finally, Gov. Byrne acknowledged in response to a question from Mr. Dworkin that the New Jersey governor is one of the most powerful governors in the United States. He said he thought former Gov. Jon Corzine “was not particularly interested” in using that power.
But Gov. Chris Christie is using the governor’s power “very effectively,” he said.
A governor doesn’t have to use those powers, but sometimes it is necessary, he added. Gov. Christie is letting the state’s residents know that he is governor.
”Why take this job if you don’t want to make a difference or steal money,” Gov. Byrne said with a laugh and a nod to New Jersey politicians’ notoriety for corruption.

