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 Agriculture
Secretary Arthur Brown has stepped down after a tenure
spanning nearly 20 years and four governors. "I've been working
flat out for 20 years. It's time to slow down a little bit,"
said Brown, who will be joining the faculty of Rutgers' Cook
College. Serving under Governors Tom Kean, Jim Florio,
Christie Whitman and, lastly, acting Gov. Donald DiFrancesco,
Brown said he got along well with all four leaders, whichever
side of the political aisle they were from. He considers his
major agricultural legacies to be farmland preservation and
soil and water conservation. Brown also cites the successful
"Jersey Fresh" ad campaign he helped dream up in 1983 as one
of his lasting legacies, helping as it did not only to promote
New Jersey agricultural products but also to forge a positive
image of the state "as a nice place to live ... a place with
farmland." But Brown acknowledged that 20 years of sprawl
and development had made his job of keeping agriculture viable
a difficult one...
After almost a year of talks, Harold Hodes and Roger
Bodman of Public Strategies/Impact and Hazel
Gluck and Judy Shaw of the GluckShaw Group
decided to merge the second- and third-largest lobbying firms
in New Jersey into one mega-firm. The merged firm had just
under $6 million in combined billings last year, well ahead
of Princeton Public Affairs Group, headed by Somerset
County Republican chair Dale Florio. Hodes served as
cheif of staff uncer Democratic Governot Brendan T. Byrne
and Shaw under GOP Governor Christie Whitman, While
both Bodman and Gluck served as transportation commissioner
and in other posts under Republican Governor Tom Kean.
Gluck sported an "I'm Not Retiring" pin around the Statehouse
on the day the merger was announced. Neither, clearly, is
Hodes, who was much in evidence at Democratic gubernatorial
front-runner Jim McGreevy's shoulder on the night of
the first debate...
Connie Hughes, Acting Governor DiFrancesco's Chief of
Management and Policy, was named acting president and
a commissioner of the state Board of Public Utilities. Hughes,
who emerged out of the Department of Labor to become an influential
policymaker in DiFrancesco's temporary administration, will
be one of two new BPU commissioners serving six year terms
following the expansion of the board from three commissioners
to five. She was replaced as Chief of Policy and Planning
by Ciro Scalera, the former exective director of the
Association for Children of New Jersey, who had been serving
on the governor's policy staff...
This summer also saw the departure of Health and Senior
Services Commissioner Christine Grant to become vice president
of public policy and government relations at pharmaceutical
and vaccine manufacturer Aventis Pasteur. Grant, who was appointed
DHSS commissioner in 1999, made it a priority in her tenure
to focus on health issues such as reducing tobacco use, racial
disparities in health care access, affordability and quality
of health care...
Federal Judge Alfred J. Lechner Jr. of U.S. District
Court in Newark has resigned to join the Princeton office
of international law firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius. Lechner,
who has served on the federal bench since 1986, Lechner will
focus on securities and intellectual property law.
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