Brendan Thomas Byrne (April 1, 1924 – January 4, 2018) was an American attorney and Democratic Party politician who served as the 47th Governor of New Jersey from 1974 to 1982.
Byrne began his career as a private attorney in Newark and East Orange. In 1959, Governor Robert B. Meyner appointed Byrne to serve as Essex County Prosecutor; he served in that role until 1968. In the late 1960s, an FBI wiretap recorded local mobsters calling Byrne "the man who couldn't be bought" in reference to his high ethical standards. The publication of the comment propelled Byrne to popularity in an era when corruption was a major concern in state and national politics.[2] He left his office as prosecutor to serve as President of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities from 1968 to 1970, then as a Superior Court judge.
In 1973, using "the man who couldn't be bought" as a campaign slogan,[3] Byrne ran for governor of New Jersey. He won the Democratic primary with support from the powerful Hudson Countypolitical machine and carried the general election. His landslide victory, until then the largest in the state's history, was seen as a reaction against a bribery scandal in state government and the Watergate scandal.
During his first term, Byrne signed the state's first income tax, which broke a campaign promise and was initially highly unpopular across party lines. In 1977, he faced several prominent challengers for the party nomination but won the Democratic primary with a small plurality of the vote. Despite expectations he would lose the general election to Raymond Bateman, Byrne came from behind to win a second term.
During his time as governor, Byrne oversaw the opening of the first gambling casinos in Atlantic City and established the New Jersey Department of the Public Advocate. He also preserved a large majority of woodlands and wildlife areas in the state by restricting development.[4][5]
Early life and education
Byrne was born and raised in West Orange, New Jersey.[6] He was the fourth child among five of Irish AmericanCatholic parents Francis A. Byrne (1886–1974), a local public safety commissioner,[7] and Genevieve Brennan Byrne (1888–1969).[8]
After the end of World War II, Byrne attended Princeton University for two years, where he studied at the university's School of Public and International Affairs.[4] Due to World War II, he spent only two years on campus, finishing his undergraduate thesis while enrolled at Harvard Law School.[4] He graduated from Princeton University's School of Public and International Affairs in 1949 after completing a 95-page long senior thesis titled, "Proportional Representation in Municipal Government". He then attended Harvard Law School, where he graduated with his LL.B. in 1951.[9][10]
Career
Private attorney
Byrne then worked as a private attorney, first for the Newark-based law firm of John W. McGeehan, Jr., and later for the East Orange firm of Teltser and Greenberg.[11]
New Jersey state government
In October 1955, Byrne was appointed an assistant counsel to Governor Robert B. Meyner.[12] The following year, he became the governor's acting executive secretary.[4] In 1958, Byrne was appointed the deputy attorney general responsible for the Essex County Prosecutor's Office.[12] The following year, Governor Meyner appointed him as the Essex County prosecutor.[12] Governor Hughes reappointed Byrne to this same office in 1964 following the end of his first five-year term.[9] From 1968 to 1970, Byrne served as the president of the Board of Public Utilities Commissioners.[13]
In April 1973, Byrne resigned from the Superior court to run for governor.[9]
Byrne defeated Ann Klein and Ralph DeRose in the 1973 Democratic primary to win the party's nomination for governor.[8] In the November general election, Byrne won by beating the Republican nominee Congressman Charles Sandman in a landslide.[9] Sandman had defeated the incumbent Governor Cahill in the primary.[9] Byrne's landslide margin of victory was so vast that it allowed Democrats to capture control both chambers of the state legislature with supermajorities.[14][15][16]
First term
On January 15, 1974, Byrne was sworn in as the 47th governor of New Jersey.[9]
Some of the policies enacted by the first Byrne administration include: the implementation of New Jersey's first state income tax, the establishment of spending limits on local governments, county governments, school districts, and the state, the establishment of both the Department of the Public Advocate and the Department of Energy, and the implementation of public financing for future gubernatorial general elections.[17] Although Byrne claimed during the 1973 campaign that a personal income tax would not be necessary for "the foreseeable future", he eventually "muscled through" the unpopular income tax, New Jersey's first, in 1976; it earned him the nickname "One-Term Byrne".[18]
Byrne faced ten opponents in the 1977 Democratic primary, including future governor James Florio.[9] However, Byrne obtained the party's nomination, and went on to defeat his Republican opponent, State Senator Raymond Bateman, in the general election on November 8, 1977.[4] This despite the fact that in early 1977, three-quarters of voters disapproved of his job performance and in polls taken in the summer, he trailed Bateman by 17 points.[19]
Byrne and Bateman debated nine times and Byrne used the governorship to his advantage, signing bills and appearing with cabinet members all over the state, benefiting from a visit by President Carter and turning what was his biggest weakness, the income tax, into a strength.[12] Shortly before the 1977 gubernatorial election, New Jersey homeowners began receiving rebate checks (funded by state income tax revenues) to offset their property taxes, while Bateman's plan—replacing the state income tax with an increased sales tax—was widely criticized.[20]
Until 2021, Byrne was the last Democrat to win re-election as Governor in New Jersey.
Second term
During his second term, Byrne focused on policies such as: the passage of the Pinelands Protection Act, expansion of major highways, including the Atlantic City Expressway and Interstate 287, upgrades to sewage systems, further development of the Meadowlands Sports Complex, and casino-hotel development in Atlantic City.[4] He is one of only two Democrats, also including incumbent Phil Murphy, to be elected governor twice in the past fifty years.[12] The other Governors elected to two terms (Thomas Kean, Christie Whitman, and Chris Christie) have all been Republicans.[18]
February 18, 1977 – January 19, 1982 (Acting: 1976 – 1977)
Law practice and columnist
Byrne accepting honors for a career in public service from The Citizens Campaign in 2011
After leaving office in 1982, Governor Byrne became a senior partner at Carella, Byrne, Bain, Gilfillan, Cecchi, Stewart & Olstein in Roseland, New Jersey (now Carella, Byrne, Cecchi, Brody and Agnello, P.C.).[22] Additionally, Byrne and his successor as governor, Thomas Kean, co-wrote a weekly column in The Star-Ledger, containing their "dialogue" on state and national public affairs and politics.[9] He has also taught courses at Princeton University and Rutgers University.[22]
Despite not supporting all of his policies, Byrne said that Governor Chris Christie should run for president in 2016, calling Christie "the best candidate that the Republicans have" and complimented his "charm".[18]
Personal life
On June 27, 1953, he married Jean Featherly,[9] with whom he had seven children.[23] Byrne's son, Tom Byrne, was the New Jersey Democratic State Committee chair in the 1990s and was a prospective candidate for the U.S. Senate race in 2000, before withdrawing in favor of eventual winner Jon Corzine, who later became governor.[4] Brendan's oldest granddaughter, Meaghan, who also saved Brendan's life with the Heimlich at Nero's Grille in April 2016, worked as a legislative staffer in the U.S. House of Representatives before moving into NGO foreign policy work.[24]
Jean and Brendan Byrne divorced in 1993 after 40 years of marriage. She died in 2015 of babesiosis, aged 88.[23]
Byrne married Ruth Zinn, who was also divorced, in 1994.[9][25]
2010 assault
On February 16, 2010, while vacationing in London with his wife, Byrne was punched in the face by a mentally ill man near Waterloo tube station.[26] The attacker was subsequently restrained by a London Underground station supervisor who came to Byrne's aid until the police arrived.[26] Byrne, who had taken part in a staged charity boxing match with Muhammad Ali in 1979, joked, "At least I didn't fall down at Waterloo, as when I fought Ali."[26][27]
Death
Byrne's grave in the Princeton Cemetery with orange flowers during Princeton Reunions in May 2022
In 2006, Rutgers University's Center on the American Governor of the Eagleton Institute of Politics established the Brendan T. Byrne Archive, an online database containing various resources from the Byrne administration, including original documents and video interviews with Brendan Byrne and members of his administration.[31]
In 2014, Byrne's former chief counsel Donald Linky published a biography of Byrne, New Jersey Governor Brendan Byrne: The Man Who Couldn't Be Bought.[18][33][34]
Brendan Byrne papers (The Monsignor Field Archives & Special Collection Center at Seton Hall University) – Contains materials related to Brendan Byrne's campaigns for governor of New Jersey and some personal materials documenting his time as governor and his activities with the Democratic party, primarily from 1973 to 1977
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