Anne Milgram
TRENTON — Anne Milgram and Stuart Rabner are now all-but-installed in their new offices as New Jersey’s attorney general and Supreme Court Chief Justice.
The two face Senate Judiciary Committe hearings scheduled for today after Rabner broke a political stalemate over his nomination by Gov. Jon Corzine. Those hearings are expected to confirm Milgram to replace Rabner as attorney general.
Rabner’s appointment by Corzine as Chief Justice was initially blocked by fellow-Democrat State Senator Nia Gill over racial-appointment issues, LegalNewsLine reported earlier this week.
Gill and her ally, State Sen. Ronald L. Rice, used the delay to protest what they claim is Gov. Corzine’s unwillingness to consult on minority appointments to the judiciary. Rabner’s subsequent meeting with Gill ended the stand-off.
Milgram’s nomination was largely overshadowed by Gill’s stalling tactics over Rabner’s elevation. But the New York native who graduated from New York University School of Law and previously served as New Jersey’s first assistant attorney general still has her Garden State critics.
“We’re bringing too many outsiders in,” Rice told the New York Times. “You can’t do government right if you’ve got everybody coming in from New York.”
The dispute highlighted a quirk in the New Jersey political system that allows local representatives to block appointees from their own district. Some GOP members of the state legislature have now threatened to officially scrap it.
“You just cannot have a blackball system in place in a democratic society,” former Republican state Sen. Bill Schluter told the AP.