Brendan Byrne

He was the fourth child among five of Irish American Catholic parents Francis A. Byrne (1886–1974), a local public safety commissioner, and Genevieve Brennan Byrne (1888–1969).

Brendan Thomas Byrne (April 1, 1924 – January 4, 2018) was an American attorney and Democratic Party politician who served as the 47th Governor of New Jersey from 1974 to 1982.

Byrne began his career as a private attorney in Newark and East Orange.

In 1942, Byrne graduated from West Orange High School in West Orange, New Jersey, where he as president of the debate club and senior class president.

He briefly enrolled at Seton Hall University, but left the university in March of the following year to join the U.S. Army.

During World War II, Byrne served in the U.S. Army Air Forces as a navigator on a B-17, and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and four Air Medals.

By the time of his discharge from active service in 1945, he had achieved the rank of lieutenant.

After the end of World War II, Byrne attended Princeton University for two years, where he studied at the university's School of Public and International Affairs.

Due to World War II, he spent only two years on campus, finishing his undergraduate thesis while enrolled at Harvard Law School.

He graduated from Princeton University's School of Public and International Affairs in 1949 after completing a 95-page long senior thesis titled, "Proportional Representation in Municipal Government".

He then attended Harvard Law School, where he graduated with his LL.B. in 1951.

Byrne then worked as a private attorney, first for the Newark-based law firm of John W. McGeehan, Jr., and later for the East Orange firm of Teltser and Greenberg.

In October 1955, Byrne was appointed an assistant counsel to Governor Robert B. Meyner.

The following year, he became the governor's acting executive secretary.

In 1958, Byrne was appointed the deputy attorney general responsible for the Essex County Prosecutor's Office.

The following year, Governor Meyner appointed him as the Essex County prosecutor.

In 1959, Governor Robert B. Meyner appointed Byrne to serve as Essex County Prosecutor; he served in that role until 1968.

In the late 1960s, an FBI wiretap recorded local mobsters calling Byrne "the man who couldn't be bought" in reference to his high ethical standards.

The publication of the comment propelled Byrne to popularity in an era when corruption was a major concern in state and national politics.

Governor Hughes reappointed Byrne to this same office in 1964 following the end of his first five-year term.

He left his office as prosecutor to serve as President of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities from 1968 to 1970, then as a Superior Court judge.

From 1968 to 1970, Byrne served as the president of the Board of Public Utilities Commissioners.

In 1970, Byrne was appointed by Governor William T. Cahill to the Superior Court.

He served as the assignment judge for Morris, Sussex, and Warren Counties starting in 1972.

In 1973, using "the man who couldn't be bought" as a campaign slogan, Byrne ran for governor of New Jersey.

He won the Democratic primary with support from the powerful Hudson County political machine and carried the general election.

His landslide victory, until then the largest in the state's history, was seen as a reaction against a bribery scandal in state government and the Watergate scandal.

During his first term, Byrne signed the state's first income tax, which broke a campaign promise and was initially highly unpopular across party lines.

In April 1973, Byrne resigned from the Superior court to run for governor.

Byrne defeated Ann Klein and Ralph DeRose in the 1973 Democratic primary to win the party's nomination for governor.

In the November general election, Byrne won by beating the Republican nominee Congressman Charles Sandman in a landslide.

Sandman had defeated the incumbent Governor Cahill in the primary.

Byrne's landslide margin of victory was so vast that it allowed Democrats to capture control both chambers of the state legislature with supermajorities.

On January 15, 1974, Byrne was sworn in as the 47th governor of New Jersey.

Some of the policies enacted by the first Byrne administration include: the implementation of New Jersey's first state income tax, the establishment of spending limits on local governments, county governments, school districts, and the state, the establishment of both the Department of the Public Advocate and the Department of Energy, and the implementation of public financing for future gubernatorial general elections.

In 1977, he faced several prominent challengers for the party nomination but won the Democratic primary with a small plurality of the vote.

Despite expectations he would lose the general election to Raymond Bateman, Byrne came from behind to win a second term.

During his time as governor, Byrne oversaw the opening of the first gambling casinos in Atlantic City and established the New Jersey Department of the Public Advocate.

He also preserved a large majority of woodlands and wildlife areas in the state by restricting development.

Byrne was born and raised in West Orange, New Jersey.