ORGANIZATION AND LEADERSHIP

New Jersey's constitution places relatively few restrictions on the operation, organization, and internal procedures of the legislature. It provides that each house choose its own officers and determine the rules of its proceedings, and that each "shall meet and organize separately at noon on the second Tuesday of January each year, at which time the legislative year shall commence." Beginning in January 1970, under an amendment adopted in 1968, the length of a legislative session was extended from one year to two years. Thus, each house need organize only every two years, and bills introduced during the fist year of a session will not be reintroduced the following year. To "organize" means to elect officers and adopt rules, which are usually only slightly changed from one legislature to the next. The Speaker of the General Assembly and the Senate President and President Pro Tem are elected by a majority vote. In addition, each political party elects its own legislative leaders--a majority and assistant majority leader, and a minority and assistant minority leader in each house.

Each Legislature beginning with that of 1776 has been known by a number; the 1969 Legislature was the 193rd Legislature. Beginning with the 1970 Legislature, each Legislature is constituted for 2 years with 2 annual sessions. The 1990 session was, therefore, known as the First Session of the 204th Legislature and the 1991 session is known as the Second Session of the 204th Legislature.

The process of choosing the leadership begins long before its formal election at the first meeting of a new legislature in January. Within a few weeks after the election of a new legislature, each party's state and county leaders traditionally meet and make recommendations to the legislative leadership of its party. The newly elected and reelected legislators of each party then meet in conference and informally elect their leadership, with the majority party also choosing the presiding officers in each house. The legislators generally follow the recommendations of the earlier meeting of party leaders. Both parties follow a tradition of rotating the leadership each year, following a line of succession from chairman of the Appropriations Committee to assistant majority or minority leader, to majority or minority leader to presiding officer in each house. An attempt is made to alternate these leadership positions between representatives from small counties and representatives from larger urban counties. Members of the same party from the same county in each house usually choose a chairman of their delegation to represent them at party leadership conferences.