In 1961 the Berlin Wall went up. Some 1,400 Cuban refugees launched the ill-fated Bay of Pigs invasion. The Beatles debuted in a venue in Liverpool. The Pulitzer Prize was awarded to “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
1961 was also the last time one party won three straight times in the race for the governor’s office in New Jersey. In November 1961, Richard Joseph Hughes won the first of his two terms as governor, following the two terms of Robert Baumie Meyner who served from 1954 to 1962.
In the 60-plus years since Hughes did it, no party has pulled off three straight election victories for the state’s chief executive job.
Republican William Cahill came between Hughes and Brendan Byrne. Republican Thomas Kean interrupted the Democratic hold on the job, coming between Byrne and James Florio. Christine Todd Whitman followed Florio’s one term as governor, winning in 1994 and 1998.
Whitman left office in 2001 to become head of the federal Environmental Protection Agency. Her departure ushered in a period in which three different Senate presidents and even the state attorney general all filled in as acting governor for the brief period before the inauguration of James McGreevey in 2002.
McGreevey didn’t finish his one term, handing off the position to Senate President Richard Codey for his second time pinch-hitting for an elected governor. Codey had been one of the individuals to occupy the office following Whitman’s departure. It was under his second stint in the office that the position of lieutenant governor was established, to take effect with the 2009 election.
Democrat Jon Corzine won the top state job in 2006 but only served one term. So the combination of McGreevey’s aborted one term and Corzine’s tenure failed to add to three straight wins for one party’s candidates.
Chris Christie then served his two terms, and the Democrats won the office back in 2017 with Phil Murphy.
Now six Democrats are vying for the party nomination in a primary election that is just two weeks off. One of them hopes to be able to do what Hughes did more than 60 years ago, in that year that saw Roger Maris hit 61 home runs and Bob Hope still host the Oscars.
