State Government Leadership

Richard Codey, a longtime New Jersey lawmaker who first entered the Assembly in 1974, moved to the Senate in 1982 and served as Senate president from 2002 to 2010, died Sunday morning at 79 at home “peacefully” after a brief illness, surrounded by family, a family Facebook post said. He served multiple stints as acting governor — including after Christine Todd Whitman’s 2002 resignation, for 14 months after Jim McGreevey’s 2004 resignation under the then‑existing succession law, and for nearly a month after Jon Corzine’s 2007 car crash — and with his wife Mary Jo was a public advocate on postpartum depression.