It Was Twenty Years Ago Today …

… or at least sometime around today that the new Administration of Governor-elect James J. Florio was working with the outgoing Administration of Governor Tom Kean to effectuate a smooth transition of power. Two days following the November 6, 1989 election, Florio named the top members of his transition team:

• Douglas Berman, Florio's campaign manager, who would go on to become State Treasurer
• Steven P. Perskie, a former legislator who resigned as a Superior Court judge to join the campaign, who would go on to become Florio’s first Chief of Staff and later go back to the bench
• Brenda Bacon, a senior campaign adviser, who would go on to become Policy Chief
• Karen Kessler, the campaign’s finance director
• Angelo Genova, the campaign legal counsel
• And the Campaign’s director of communications, Jon Shure, who would go on to be director of communications

It was Shure’s main job, both during the campaign and in the Florio Administration, to keep the state’s five key political reporters happy:

• Michael Aron, NJN’s political correspondent
• David Wald, political columnist for the Star Ledger
• David Blomquist, political reporter for the Bergen Record
• Jim Goodman, political columnist for the Trenton Times
• Sal Paolantonio, political correspondent for the Philadelphia Inquirer

Now you can relive those glorious days of old as on Friday, November 27th at 7pm, New Jersey Network will broadcast a special 20th anniversary edition of Reporters Roundtable, hosted by Michael Aron, with the four original panelists from the first season of the show in 1989: Wald, Blomquist, Goodman and Paolantonio. The show will re-air on Sunday, November 29th at 10 on NJN.

I am told that among the topics to be discussed are:

• the transformation of politics and political journalism in New Jersey in the last 20 years
• the chances of the Christie Administration succeeding
• why Corzine lost
• the influence of Norcross and Adubato – the twin political titans in the state – on Trenton

So slap some turkey between two hunks of bread and cozy up to the television on Friday evening.