Former Neptune Mayor Michael Beson was PoliticsNJ.com's Politician of the Year in 2003. Beson had become presidential candidate Howard Dean's state campaign manager in mid-2002, when Dean was polling in the single-digits and PoliticsNJ.com's Brian Murphy became the only political reporter in the state willing to meet with him during a June '02 visit to New Jersey. By the end of 2003, Dean was the front runner for the Democratic nomination, and most of the state Democratic establishment, including Governor James E. McGreevey, were backing Dean.
Dean lost that race to John Kerry, partly due to a now-famous Iowa meltdown. But he's now the Democratic National Chairman, and he was back in New Jersey last Friday to boost Democrats running in the mid-term legislative contests next month. At a fundraiser in Union County, Dean introduced his former campaign manager to the crowd, saying that if he had been President, Beson would have been an Ambassador.
But life for Beson goes on. He won a seat on the Ocean Township Board of Education, and is helping to organize John Edwards' presidential campaign in New Jersey.
