Researching Bernard Kenny

Before moving up to the Senate, Kenny served in the lower house of the New Jersey Legislature, the General Assembly, from 1987 to 1993. Upon the resignation of Bob Menendez from the New Jersey Senate, due to his election to the United States House of Representatives, Kenny was selected to fill the vacancy.

A Navy veteran, Senator Kenny is a partner at the law firm of Florio Kenny Raval, LLP. When the Senate was tied 20-20 in 2002 to 2003, Kenny served as the Democratic Majority Leader, and when the Democrats regained majority control, he took over as full Majority Leader, a position he held for the remainder of his Senate term, except for his last day in office when he became President of the Senate.

Senator Kenny was the chairman of the Budget and Appropriation Committee in 2008, and also served on the Joint Budget Oversight Committee, the Joint Legislative Committee on Ethical Standards, the Intergovernmental Relations Commission and the Legislative Services Commission.

Kenny was Hoboken's Assistant Corporation Counsel from 1984 to 1985 and was an Assistant Prosecutor in Hudson County from 1976 to 1979. Kenny served in the United States Navy from 1968 to 1971 as a Lieutenant, junior grade.

In the Senate, two laws Kenny has sponsored, the Water Supply Public/Private Contracting Act and the County and Municipal Water Supply Act, make it possible for municipalities to enter into public/private water utility agreements. He sponsored the legislation which conforms the State's trademark law and application procedures with federal law. He also sponsored a law providing for interstate banking and a law giving gross income exclusions for certain savings in Roth IRAs.

Kenny was one of New Jersey's presidential electors casting the state's Electoral College votes after the 2004 presidential election. New Jersey's electors cast their ballots on December 13, 2004, in the State House Annex, in Trenton, where all 15 votes were cast for the Democratic Party candidate John Kerry.

The senator was a member of the New Jersey Sports History Commission and served on the New Jersey Council for the Humanities.

From 1983 to 1987, Mr. Kenny was counsel to the state division of the American Cancer Society. He served, at the appointment of the New Jersey Supreme Court, on the District VI Ethics Committee which reviewed complaints against lawyers, from 1985 to 1988.

Kenny received a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania (1968) in Economics and was awarded a J.D. (1976) from the Fordham University School of Law.