Next N.J. Gov. From Insurance Ranks

The announcement came after the governor revealed he is gay and he engaged in an extra-marital affair with a man. The governor is married and has two children, one from a previous marriage.

But pressure could be placed on Gov. McGreevey to resign in early September, by Republicans, to allow for a successor to be elected this November, in which case Sen. Codey will have to step up to the plate even sooner, but for a shorter period of time.

For Mr. Codey, it would be his second stint as acting-governor. Because the Senate was split evenly between Democrats and Republicans at the time, he was one of a number of legislative leaders who took on the governorship following the resignation of Gov. Christine Todd Whitman to become head of the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, D.C.

Mr. Cody currently serves as president of the Olympic Insurance Agency in West Orange. According to a representative at Olympic, the agency deals in a combination of property-casualty and life insurance products.

Auto insurance reforms have been trumpeted as one of the major successes of the McGreevey administration through blanket public service ads featuring the governor himself. But Mr. Codey did not take a leading role as sponsor in that effort, although he certainly supported the measure that was passed unanimously in the Senate.

Magdalena Padilla, of the Insurance Council of New Jersey, an industry trade group based in Ewing, N.J., agreed that there is currently not that sizable a property-casualty agenda for Mr. Codey to face in the dual roles as acting-governor and Senate majority leader.

"From an insurance perspective, what we think he is going to be seeing is a clear road to stay the course, which is what McGreevey had been doing," she said. "Between the two administrations, we are hoping there will not be a change from the effort to stay the course on auto reform."

On the legislative docket this year are revisions to both the p-c and surplus lines guarantee funds, as well as approval of the Interstate Compact, dealing with life product review issues, she noted. Ms. Padilla said she was not aware of any effort to roll back the reforms, but added that any change of administration could bring surprises.

Just this week, Insurance Commissioner Holly Bakke joined officials from Mercury General in celebrating their first anniversary doing business in the state. As the first carrier to enter the state's auto insurance market in the past seven years, Mercury General, based in Los Angeles, has written more than 40,000 policies and has appointed more than 300 independent agents.

Mr. Codey's primary area of legislative interest seems to have been in the legalized gambling arena. He also made a name for himself for the undercover investigation of conditions at Marlboro State Hospital psychiatric facility.

Assemblyman Neil Cohen, D-Union, who chairs the Financial Services and Insurance Committee, said he did not think that Sen. Codey's role as an insurance agent would affect his legislative outlook.

"I don't think it will affect his perspective at all," he said. "Dick has always been pretty much balanced as a legislator in terms of insurance and consumer issues. In the health insurance area, he has been an advocate of making sure coverage exists for as many people as possible. It brings him experience and an intimate knowledge, which is always helpful."