Senator Dick Codey (D-27) today addressed Senator Joe Lagana’s removal from the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“What happened last week to Senator Lagana should never happen to any legislator,” said Codey. “Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen this play. We’ve seen it much too often over the past ten years.”

“I understand the hardball of politics, but this goes too far.”

“On that vote, I didn’t agree with Senator Lagana, but I would expect him to vote his conscious [conscience] and that is what he was doing. We have to show that we are better than that. We want people to vote their conscious [conscience].”

From InsiderNJ last week:

Mild pushing and shoving in the senate caucus resulted in state Senator Joe Lagana (D-38) getting tossed off the Senate Judiciary Committee and the loss of leadership money.

The Paramus-based attorney will have to settle for Labor and Veterans Affairs after he and Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-3) locked horns over the vaccination bill in the dwindling days of the last session.

Sweeney needed a vote.

Maybe it was miscommunication but Lagana apparently thought Sweeney had 21. He told people he didn’t back the bill.

Sweeney doubled back and said he actually would appreciate Lagana’s support.

The Bergen senator had already told people he was against it.

He wouldn’t be the 21st vote.

That irritated Sweeney.

This has been going on for the past three weeks or so and conversations got heated enough for Sweeney to throw Lagana off Judiciary but as recently as today a source told InsiderNJ that it might amount to a playful, big brother-little brother tussle.

A senate-proximity source denied it had anything to do with paying back Bergen County Democratic Committee Chairman Paul Juliano for backing Democratic State Party Chairman John Currie over Essex County Democratic Committee Chairman LeRoy Jones.

It was all the vaccine bill, the source said, and that was confirmed elsewhere.