New Jersey political pundits universally stated Gov. Florio lost his re-election to Christie Todd Whitman because he raised taxes by $2.8 billion and banned assault weapons. While the tax increase and NRA opposition certainly was a factor, that’s a superficial analysis. Florio lost because Republican Assembly Speaker Chuck Haytaian didn’t post sports betting legislation that had twice passed the Senate.

By the time of the general election, Florio had climbed back from the dismal 18% approval rating he had earlier in the year. In November, Whitman squeaked by with 27,000 votes or 1%. Speaker Haytaian was an astute politician. The federal government had passed PASPA, the federal ban on sports betting, but thanks to U. S. Senator Bob Toricelli, it carved out a two year window for New Jersey to pass a referendum to allow legal sports betting. I emphasize legal sports betting because it was easy to place an illegal sports bet in any urban municipality. I often placed my dad’s sports bet at a local grocery store.

Haytaian saw that Atlantic City’s casinos would spend millions in the state’s urban areas to get out the vote for the referendum which would greatly enhance turnout in Democratic areas of the state. Haytaian’s astute political move cost more than Florio’s re-election. For twenty five years Atlantic City’s casinos were deprived of the revenue and customers from sports betting, as was the state’s treasury, until the U. S. Supreme Court upheld my legislation authorizing legal sports betting in New Jersey.

Florio overcame the massive tax increase, a non endorsement from the NJEA which officially was neutral, and opposition from the NRA, but he couldn’t overcome Haytaian’s political maneuvering.

And that’s the rest of the story.