Richard Codey, Ex-governor Who Was New Jersey's Longest-serving Lawmaker, Dies At 79

Richard Codey, who served as acting governor of New Jersey and was the state's longest-serving lawmaker, died Sunday. He was 79.

His family announced his death, “after a brief illness,” on his Facebook page.

“He lived his life with humility, compassion and a deep sense of responsibility to others,” the post said. “He spoke the truth when others wouldn’t and fought tirelessly for the people of New Jersey during his record-setting 50 years in the Legislature. He made friends as easily with Presidents as he did with strangers in all-night diners.”

A colorful fixture of New Jersey politics who coached youth basketball in his free time and was a leading advocate for mental health awareness and funding, Codey largely withdrew from public life after retiring from the state Senate in January 2024 after half a century in the Legislature.

In that 50 years, Codey championed a statewide ban on indoor smoking, created the first inspector general position and led a policy of steroid testing in school sports. He could be a hands-on lawmaker who regularly went undercover to check on conditions at homeless shelters and psychiatric homes. He feuded intensely with Republican former Gov. Chris Christie and the unelected-but-extremely-influential Democrat George Norcross, who helped engineer Codey’s ouster as Senate president.

And in a state where politics is figuratively known as a type of hand-to-hand combat, Codey nearly made that literal when he threatened a radio disc jockey who mocked his wife as “crazy.”

“I wish I weren’t governor. I’d take you out,” Codey said.

Richard James Codey was born Nov. 27, 1946, into an Irish Catholic family that ran a funeral home in the Newark suburb of Orange. He graduated from Fairleigh Dickinson University with a bachelor’s degree in education and worked as a teacher before taking over the family funeral business, which grew to two homes. He also worked in insurance.

He jumped into politics early, getting elected to the state Assembly in 1974, at age 27. He became a state senator in 1982. In 2002, he became Senate president, which was then the state’s second-most powerful position.

It was in that role that he found himself in the history books of New Jersey politics. Following the departure of Republican Gov. Christie Whitman in 2001 to join the Bush administration, Codey filled in for three days as New Jersey’s acting governor. In 2004 he became acting governor again when Democratic Gov. Jim McGreevey resigned in a sex scandal.

Codey took advantage of his 14 months running New Jersey. He signed one of the more sweeping pieces of public health legislation of the last 25 years: the Smoke-Free Air Act banning smoking in indoor public areas like restaurants, theaters and malls. He banned junk food and soda from school lunches. He appointed the state's first inspector general, helped broker a deal for the NFL's Giants and Jets to play at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, and signed the nation’s first legislative moratorium on executions.

On his final day in office, Codey signed a bill that made a minor but distinct difference to his resume. For anyone who served a consecutive 180 days as acting governor, their proper title would simply be governor (he served again as acting governor for about a month in 2007). As anyone who would cold-call him after that knew, he would often answer the phone: “Governor Codey.”

He was also conferred the honor of having an official portrait that hangs in the Statehouse and wrote a memoir, “Me, Governor?: My Life in the Rough-and-Tumble World of New Jersey Politics.”

It was an apt title. Codey often fought with Christie and Norcross, who forged a strong alliance over Christie’s two terms despite being from different parties. When Christie blamed Codey for holding up judicial nominations, Codey charged the governor was bending the truth.

“If he were Pinocchio, his nose would extend to Asia,” Codey told a reporter at the time. After that, Christie cut off Codey’s security detail and fired one of Codey’s cousins and a friend from state government.

After Christie became embroiled in the political retribution scandal known as Bridgegate, Codey said there had “obviously” been a cover-up and “a lot of crimes committed here.” (Christie was not charged, but former aides were convicted even though they later had their sentences overturned in court.)

Codey’s feud with Norcross preceded Christie but reached a pivot point when Christie was running for governor in 2009. Norcross and his allies deposed Codey as Senate president and installed Steve Sweeney, a longtime friend of Norcross' who would later help shepherd key parts of Christie’s agenda through the Legislature. The former governor and longtime leader of the upper chamber soon found himself stripped of authority and shunted to the ranks of the state Senate.

But what is likely Codey’s most notorious conflict happened outside politics. On the conservative-leaning NJ 101.5-FM, then-host Craig Carton had called Codey’s wife, Mary Jo, “crazy” because she suffered from postpartum depression and, as a result, had no desire to hold her firstborn child and even had thoughts of killing him.

“What Governor Codey ought to do is approve the use of medical marijuana so women can have a joint and relax instead of putting their babies in a microwave,” Carton reportedly said on his show, “Jersey Guys.” “Women who claim they suffer from this postpartum depression … must be crazy in the first place.”

A day later, when Codey was at the station for his own call-in show, he confronted Carton with the threat to “take you out.” It did not get physical, but Codey said afterward he was “proud” of standing up for his wife. He did so in many other ways.

Codey was a strong advocate of mental health funding and awareness, particularly postpartum depression. In 2012, he and his wife started The Codey Fund for Mental Health, a nonprofit with the goal of increasing health care accessibility and resources for a broad range of conditions. As governor, Codey’s first official act established a task force to reform New Jersey’s mental health system, and he allocated $200 million for housing units for individuals with mental illness. He also established a Governor’s Council on Mental Health Stigma.

He spent 50 years and one day in public office and prided himself on doing it all that time without “the political bosses getting their hooks into me.” More than anything, he emphasized his regular-guy persona and commitment to public service. In honor of that, state lawmakers are pushed to rename the Statehouse visitor’s center after him, and Gov. Phil Murphy signed off.

Senate President Nick Scutari, one of Codey’s successors, said it would be fitting to rename the center because “Dick Codey gained legendary status as a consummate public servant with a down-to-earth personality who everyone could relate to.”

State Sen. Jon Bramnick, a Republican, recalled Codey as “a guy that was New Jersey” who had a devilish streak and defied conventions.

“I remember his famous line was, ‘We’re not bankrupt, but we’re close,'” Bramnick said in a brief interview Sunday. “What other governor says that?”

In a farewell essay in ROI-NJ, Codey said he drew early lessons from his father at the family funeral home.

“My dad always stressed a personal touch, and he taught me to listen to people,” he said. “Then, and only then, he’d tell me, would I know the right thing to do.”