If Rob Andrews runs for the United States Senate, there would be some competition for his safe Democratic congressional seat in the first district. Possible candidates would include Senate Majority Leader Stephen Sweeney and Assemblyman Louis Greenwald; both expressed interest in the seat in 2006, when Andrews was a candidate for appointment to the Senate seat that went to Robert Menendez.
A few if’s:
If Sweeney went to Congress (he could pass on a race for Congress now that he’s the Majority Leader – and in line to become Senate President in the future), it would cause the 23 Democrats in the State Senate to pick a new Majority Leader; if Barbara Buono succeeded him, it would mean a new Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman. And Assemblyman John Burzichelli would be Sweeney’s likely successor in the Senate, opening an Assembly seat for a Gloucester County Democrat.
If Greenwald won a seat in Congress, it would mean a new Assemblyman for his Camden County district. Greenwald would be a leading candidate for the State Senate, if John Adler wins the neighboring third district House seat. But if they were to both win (it would be the first time in state history that two legislators from the same district went to Congress at the same time), it could propel Assemblywoman Pamela Lampitt to the Senate – or someone else, like former Camden County Freeholder Jeffrey Nash.
One more: if Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts decided he wanted to go to Congress (it would be the second consecutive cycle that a sitting Speaker went to Congress), it would create a contest for a new Assembly Speaker; possible candidates would be Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman and Assemblyman Joseph Cryan, the Democratic State Chairman.
