Largest number of new members since 1992 sworn in to Assembly

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Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts today called on his fellow lawmakers to be bold and to focus on the big issues: ethics, affordable housing, healthcare and property tax reform.

"Our obligation is not to be a rubber stamp," Roberts told a group of legislators that included 25 new assembly people, or the largest number of freshmen since the Florio tax backlash in 1992.

Speaking in the War Memorial shortly after helping to swear-in the other 79 assembly people and then being sworn into office himself, 20-year veteran Roberts urged the Assembly to work hard and bring honor to the State of New Jersey.

Although he and Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce complimented each other and committed themselves to bipartisanship, the latter didn’t clap when Roberts boasted about providing the largest property relief tax package in state history in 2007.

Republicans said their rivals’ tax relief plan was an election season gimmick designed to keep the Democratic junket afloat another year even as the state continues its nosedive into a deficit, and the minority leader didn’t appear to have changed his mind on that assessment.

Still, DeCroce pledged not to outright sabotage the efforts of the other side. "We have to prove to a cynical public that Democrats and Republicans can work together," said DeCroce. "No one political party has a monopoly on good ideas."

Sworn in for a third straight year as majority leader, Assemblywoman Bonnie Watson Coleman noted that there had been 20 women in the entire Legislature when she first arrived in the Legislature in 1998.

Today there are 25 women in the Assembly and 34 women in both bodies Assembly and Senate combined. There are 10 African Americans, seven Hispanics, the Assembly’s first South Asian American and the Assembly’s first Portugese American.

"We need to get the state’s finances on the right track and draw the line against irresponsible spending," said Coleman.

With members of the Newark delegation in the audience, including Mayor Cory Booker, Council President Mildred Crump and councilmen Ron Rice, Jr., and Augusto Amador, Coleman also urged her colleagues to remember the three young people murdered in the city this summer, and to improve law enforcement and educational opportunities for young people.

"Governance requires the very best of every one of us," said the majority leader. "Let’s tackle the problems of all our citizens in a way that’s collective and edifying."

In his invocation, Monsignor Michael Doyle of the Camden Diocese, urged the legislators to think globally and act locally for the good of the people.

He also offered up a hope that the War in Iraq would soon end.

The dignitaries in the room included former Gov. James Florio, U.S. Rep. (and former Assembly speaker) Albio Sires, U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews, and former Assembly speakers Joseph Doria and Jack Collins.

The New Jersey State Police Color Guard led the two wings of legislators up the aisles and onto the stage for the ceremony, which started at noon.

Largest number of new members since 1992 sworn in to Assembly