Former NJ Gov. Jim Florio remembered as 'the greatest statesman' at service in South Jersey

An earlier version of this story misidentified Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin.

GLOUCESTER TWP. — New Jersey governors, legislators and members of the state’s political elite came to the Dennis Flyer Theater in Blackwood to pay tribute Monday to Jim Florio.

Florio, a fixture in New Jersey and especially South Jersey politics for decades, died Sept. 25 at the age of 85. A memorial service to the former governor and congressman drew hundreds to the Blackwood Campus of Camden County College.

Governors Phil Murphy, Tom Kean, Christie Todd Whitman, Jon Corzine, Jim McGreevey and Chris Christie, Don DeFrancesco and Richard Codey were all in attendance, as were U.S. Rep. Donald Norcross, state Senate President Nick Scutari and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin. Florio’s seven grandchildren led the Pledge of Allegiance.

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A quartet from Symphony in C, the Haddonfield-based ensemble, and a choir from Creative Arts High School in Camden provided the music for the Florio’s remembrance, which also included a musical tribute by his son, Chris.

Camden County Commissioner Lou Cappelli, a partner in Florio’s law firm, thanked members of the Florio family “for sharing Gov. Florio with us all these years.”

“It was his leadership and vision that inspired me and many others in this room to get involved,” he said, his voice catching with emotion.

“Each time I see a clean lake or river, each time I go to the Jersey shore free of medical debris and trash, each time I drive through the Pinelands, each time I see a contaminated piece of land being remediated, and every time that I am reminded that New Jersey is a safer place because of our gun laws, I will think of Gov. Florio."

Michael Perrucci, another of Florio’s law partners, recalled how “I always thought he wasn’t the greatest politician; he was the greatest statesman,” acknowledging “the political damage that was done” when Florio raised New Jersey’s income tax, something that cost him reelection, and how Florio cared more about doing right than the political consequences.

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"I was elected to do the right thing," Perrucci said Florio told his advisors who warned against raising taxes.

A high school dropout-turned-Rutgers Law School graduate who worked as a night watchman in Camden to help pay for college, Florio became an assistant attorney for the City of Camden, and later a state legislator and U.S. Representative. He was elected New Jersey’s 49th governor in 1990, the first Italian-American to hold that office.

“You all remember ABSCAM,” Perrucci recalled. “He was the only one who ran all the FBI sheiks out of the room.”

Beloved by his fellow Democrats, Florio served in Congress for 15 years, earning a reputation as an environmentalist after he wrote the Superfund legislation to clean hazardous waste sites and hold polluters financially responsible.

Murphy “felt a special kinship with him through our shared experience,” he said, noting that the service was the first time all of the state's living former governors were together at once: “That's a statement most importantly for Jim Florio.”

“As Jim famously noted (on receiving a Profile in Courage award), ‘The first thing I learned is you can’t please everybody. The second thing I learned, you can’t please anybody.'”

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Florio, a former amateur boxer and Murphy, a self-described "amateur song and dance man," were both "refugees in a foreign land" — Brooklyn and Boston, respectively — and "both came prepared for life in New Jersey politics," the governor said.

“Meeting goals might not have always made him popular,” said Murphy, “but for Jim, governing wasn't about doing what was popular; it was about doing what was right for the entire state and for future generations of New Jerseyans to come.

"Fiscal reform, environmental action, auto insurance reform, property tax reform, and perhaps most famously, standing up to the ferocious opposition of the gun lobby in enacting and preserving a ban on assault weapons ... In just four years, two of which were with a Legislature stacked strongly against him, veto-proof majorities, Jim accumulated a list of accomplishments that, I think I can say, any governor of any state would be jealous to have."

Florio would call with advice for Murphy, a fellow Democrat, and would take calls as well, Murphy said.

“His words were never tailored to what I wanted to hear, but tailored to what I needed to hear.”

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New Jersey, Murphy added, "this beautiful, diverse and oftentimes raucous family of 9.3 million, has lost a mentor, a leader and a dear friend to many. New Jersey has lost a man of principle, who proved in both politics and life that we can disagree passionately on issues while remaining true friends with those with whom we disagree.

"We’ve lost an exemplary public servant, we have lost a statesman, but we have in no way lost Jim's spirit, and it will inspire us to do more with the time that we have to set in place a better future for those who come long after we're gone.”

Donald Norcross, whose father, a labor leader, was one of the first to back Florio for governor, now represents the First Congressional District that Florio once did.

“He was an inspiration to me,” Norcross said, who recalled meeting Florio at a Labor Day ceremony with his father and brothers.

“He came from very humble, blue-collar roots,” said Norcross, the only electrician in Congress; Florio grew up in Brooklyn and joining the Navy before going to college on the GI Bill.

Norcross described Florio as “a fighter, a doer, a true public servant."

His love of the state's poorest and most vulnerable didn’t always serve him well personally or politically, Norcross said.

As he raised taxes and dealt with the political fallout, Norcross said, children in Camden, Newark and other underfunded districts "knew what it was like to get equal funding so they could get equal opportunities and for that, he will be missed dearly."

Amy Mansue, president and CEO of Inspira Health and a former senior health advisor to Gov. Florio, called him “my first real boss and mentor,” someone who "hired young people who were hungry to work.

"He taught us. He molded us. He believed in our democracy and in having an educated and informed electorate, we could improve the state and the nation."

She remembered memos with "TTM emblazoned with blue ink, circled with exclamation points."

“‘Talk to me’ meant you have the pleasure of having your stomach clench as you went to see him to further discuss that memo,” she said. "Florio's passion and work ethic were beyond compare and he expected the same from his staff."

Florio, she said "was the embodiment of ethical public service; his moral compass always pointed North."

"Jim’s oratory was not what you’d call flowing,” recalled Steve Weinstein, a friend and fellow lawyer, who remembered friends urging Florio to be “not so professorial,” unsuccessfully, it seemed.

"We all know his major accomplishments: Superfund, Pinelands, assault gun ban, his principled stand on the state's fiscal crisis," Weinstein said.

"But I would submit to you an equally important accomplishment was the inspiration provided to so many to devote your lives to public service. Hundreds, many still filling public policy roles in our state who today are still guided by principles they learned from Jim Florio."

Phaedra Trethan has been a reporter and editor in South Jersey since 2007 and has covered Camden and surrounding areas since 2015, concentrating on issues relating to quality of life and social justice for the Courier-Post, Burlington County Times and The Daily Journal. She's called South Jersey home since 1971. Contact her with feedback, news tips or questions at ptrethan@gannettnj.com, on Twitter @By_Phaedra, or by phone at 856.486-2417.

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This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: NJ Gov. Jim Florio remembered at service in South Jersey