John Orus Bennett III (born August 6, 1948) is an American former politician from

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

. A member of the Republican Party, he served as a state senator, and between 2002 and 2004, as president of the state senate. Bennett served as acting

governor of New Jersey The governor of New Jersey is the head of government of New Jersey. The office of governor is an elected position with a four-year term. There is a two consecutive term term limit, with no limitation on non-consecutive terms. The official r ...

for four days in January 2002.

Education

Bennett attended Dickinson College from 1966–68, graduated from

West Virginia University West Virginia University (WVU) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Morgantown, West Virginia. Its other campuses are those of the West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Beckley, Potomac State Coll ...

with a

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

in 1970, and earned a J.D. from

Seton Hall University School of Law Seton Hall University School of Law is the law school of Seton Hall University, and is located in downtown Newark, New Jersey. Seton Hall Law is the only private law school in New Jersey, and, according to the ''U.S. News & World Report'' rankin ...

in 1974.

Acting governor

Bennett acted as governor for three and a half days in January 2002. Following Republican Governor Christine Todd Whitman's resignation on January 31, 2001 to become head of the EPA, Bennett was one of three different senate presidents (along with

Donald DiFrancesco Donald Thomas DiFrancesco (born November 20, 1944) is a retired American politician who served as the 51st governor of New Jersey from 2001 to 2002. He succeeded Christine Todd Whitman after her resignation to become Administrator of the Enviro ...

and Richard Codey, and furthermore Attorney General

John Farmer Jr. John J. Farmer Jr. (born June 24, 1957) is an American author, lawyer, politician, and jurist. He is the director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics, where he also leads the Miller Center for Community Protection and Resilience (CPR).

) to serve as acting governor for the one-year period between Whitman's resignation and the inauguration of the Democratic governor-elect

Jim McGreevey James Edward McGreevey (born August 6, 1957) is an American politician and member of the Democratic Party who served as the 52nd governor of New Jersey from 2002 until his resignation in 2004 following the revelation of his extramarital affair ...

on January 15, 2002. Fellow Republican DiFrancesco served as acting governor for almost a year in his capacity as president of the senate, but his term as president ended a few days before the rest of the gubernatorial term was finished, as a new senate had been sworn in. The new senate was evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, leading Attorney General Farmer to serve as acting governor for about ninety minutes while Republican leader Bennett and Democratic leader Codey agreed to serve as co-presidents of the senate. They also decided to divide the last week of the gubernatorial term among them, with Bennett first serving for three and a half days, from January 8, 2002 to January 12, 2002, before Codey would serve the remaining three and a half days. By the time McGreevey took office on January 15, he was the fifth person to serve as governor in the preceding eight days. During his service as acting governor, Bennett signed legislation into law, appointed judges, granted a pardon to Hugh G. Gallagher, created a nursing advisory council, and hosted several parties at

Drumthwacket Drumthwacket ( ) is the official residence of the governor of New Jersey. The mansion sits at 354 Stockton Street in Princeton, near the state capital of Trenton. It is one of only four official governor's residences in the country not locat ...

. The nursing advisory council was a tribute to his wife, Peg, a nurse.

Controversies

In June 2002, Bennett was involved in a shoving match with South Jersey

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

boss and Commerce National Insurance CEO

George Norcross George E. Norcross III (born March 16, 1956) is an American businessman and a Democratic Party organizer and power broker in southern New Jersey. Norcross is executive chairman of Conner Strong & Buckelew, an insurance brokerage firm. He is c ...

after Norcross threatened to publicize a pardon Bennett gave during his three-day executive tenure if Bennett could not convince his fellow Republican senators to vote for a tax increase and stadium construction bill in committee. Bennett fell out of favor as a result of allegations that he overbilled the

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

of Marlboro Township for legal services. In a statement to the press, Bennett blamed party bosses and a biased press for attempting to destroy him. Bennett was a leading opponent of using state funds to construct a convention center/stadium in

Pennsauken Township, New Jersey Pennsauken Township is a township in Camden County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is a suburb of Philadelphia. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the township's population was 37,074, reflecting an increase of 1,189 (+3.3%) from the 35,885 count ...

that would have been used by a minor league

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

team in which Norcross had bought an interest.

2003 Election

John Bennett failed in his 2003 bid for re-election to the State Senate, falling to Ellen Karcher, 52%-43%, with the

Green Party of New Jersey The Green Party of New Jersey is the state party organization for New Jersey of the Green Party of the United States. It was founded in January 1997 by Nick Mellis (chair from 2008 to 2009) and Steve Welzer. Activity The Green Party of New Jer ...

candidate winning 5% of the vote.

Current activities

In the 2005 primary election he was elected

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

State Committeeman for Monmouth County. John O. Bennett is also a professor at Montclair State University. In June 2012 he was elected the chairman of the Monmouth County Republican Party Committee during its annual reorganization meeting. After being ousted from the chairmanship by county sheriff Shaun Golden, Bennett served as an administrator for Oceanport, Lavallette, and Woodbridge. In September 2020, he was appointed as the Interim Administrator in

Dover, New Jersey Dover is a town in Morris County, New Jersey, United States. Located on the Rockaway River, Dover is about west of New York City and about west of Newark, New Jersey. As of the 2010 United States Census, the town's population was 18,157,

. His appointment was made permanent in April 2021.

Personal life

Bennett was hospitalized in January 2022 after a traffic accident with a school bus. The crash may have been caused by a medical incident.

References

Sources

*Murphy, Brian P. (July 1, 2002)
Senatorial suspense on the CBT and arena
web.archive.org; accessed July 8, 2021.

National Governors Association The National Governors Association (NGA) is an American political organization founded in 1908. The association's members are the governors of the 55 states, territories and commonwealths. Members come to the association from across the politica ...

Dilworth Paxson biography
, - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Bennett, John O. 1948 births Living people Republican Party governors of New Jersey Republican Party New Jersey state senators Dickinson College alumni Seton Hall University School of Law alumni West Virginia University alumni People from Little Silver, New Jersey Presidents of the New Jersey Senate Place of birth missing (living people)