30 Facts About Brendan Byrne

Brendan Thomas Byrne was an American attorney and Democratic Party politician who served as the 47th Governor of New Jersey from 1974 to 1982.

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

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

Brendan Byrne 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.

In 1973, using "the man who couldn't be bought" as a campaign slogan, Brendan Byrne ran for Governor.

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

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

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

Brendan Byrne was the fourth child among five of Irish American Catholic parents Francis A Byrne, a local public safety commissioner, and Genevieve Brennan Byrne.

In 1942, Brendan Byrne graduated from West Orange High School, where he had served as both the president of the debate club and senior class president.

Brendan Byrne graduated from Princeton in 1949 after completing a 95-page long senior thesis titled "Proportional Representation in Municipal Government", and went on to obtain his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1951.

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

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

From 1968 to 1970, Brendan 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.

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

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

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

Some policies enacted by the first Brendan 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.

Brendan Byrne faced ten opponents in the 1977 Democratic primary, including future governor James Florio.

However, Brendan Byrne obtained the party's nomination, and went on to defeat his Republican opponent, State Senator Raymond Bateman, in the general election on November 8,1977.

Until 2021, Brendan Byrne was the last Democrat to win re-election as Governor in New Jersey.

Brendan Byrne is one of only two Democrats, including incumbent Phil Murphy, to be elected governor twice in the past fifty years.

Brendan Byrne has taught courses at Princeton University and Rutgers University.

On February 16,2010, while vacationing in London with his wife, Brendan Byrne was punched in the face by a mentally ill man near Waterloo tube station.

Brendan Byrne's son, Tom Brendan Byrne, was the New Jersey Democratic State Committee chair in the 1990s and was a prospective candidate for the US Senate race in 2000, before withdrawing in favor of eventual winner Jon Corzine, who later became governor.

Jean and Brendan Byrne divorced in 1993; she died in 2015 of babesiosis, aged 88.

Brendan Byrne died on January 4,2018, in Livingston, New Jersey, of a lung infection at the age of 93.

Brendan Byrne's remains were cremated and his ashes were interred in Princeton Cemetery.

In 2011, Brendan Byrne was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame along with Queen Latifah, John Travolta, and ten others.