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Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean Jr. (R-Union) speaks on behalf of Gov. Chris Christie on primary night in June.

(Star-Ledger file photo)

It was Christmas season, a light snow covered the ground, and all across New Jersey children were mailing letters to Santa Claus swearing they had been good.

But in the state Senate, a political brawl was breaking out, one that guarantees the New Year in Trenton will start with a heavy dose of bipartisan bitterness.

In one corner is Senate President Stephen Sweeney, a Democrat, a former ironworker, and a guy who once loved picking bar fights and today runs the Senate under the same basic principles.

In the other corner is Sen. Tom Kean Jr., the Republican leader and prince­ling of the Kean clan, who is incensed over behavior he considers to be beneath the dignity of the institution.

“This is just toxic to democracy,” Kean says. “It’s unprecedented. It’s not only an abuse of power, it’s wrong.”

Why was Kean so hot and bothered? Because Sweeney had just cut about $50,000 from Kean’s personal office budget. Worse, Sweeney overruled Kean’s allotments to other Republican senators, intruding on a power that is traditionally left to each party leader.

“He’s trying to dictate the future of our caucus!” Kean says. “That’s a gross stepping over the boundaries. Our ability to stand up and question the potential tyranny of the majority is sacrosanct.”

Overheated stuff, for sure. Is cutting office funds really such a potent weapon that it could destroy democracy? One hopes our senators are made of sterner stuff.

But Kean’s bigger problem is that he started this knife fight and has no way to win it.

This all stems from the effort to overthrow Kean as leader of the Senate Republicans following his disastrous handling of the November elections. Most Republicans wanted him to concentrate the party’s money on two districts where Republicans had a real shot to win a Democratic seat. Kean insisted on spreading it across five districts, going for a bigger win — and he lost all five.

So despite Gov. Chris Christie winning by 22 points, Republicans did not gain a single seat. The governor was not amused.

After the election, it was time to settle scores. Sen. Kevin O'Toole (R-Essex) challenged Kean for the post of party leader, with the governor's support. But Kean held on in a close caucus vote, 10-6.

And that is when Kean fell off his high horse.

Instead of shrugging off this challenge, he went for revenge.

O’Toole’s office budget was cut, along with the budget of a key ally. And several senators loyal to Kean won unexplained increases.

In another move that caused bad blood, Kean fired a senior staffer in the Republican Senate office, a man who had previously served as O’Toole’s chief of staff.

“That was beyond the pale,” O’Toole says. “Everyone knows he’s a friend of mine, a close friend, and for him to be shown the door as collateral damage is, I think, disgusting.”

What Kean apparently didn’t realize is that Sweeney was watching all this, ready to jump into the fight at the right moment.

He was offended that Kean went after him in the November election, making Sweeney's district one of the GOP's five targets. And he was furious when Kean used a parliamentary tactic to delay a Sweeney bill on gun control earlier this year.

“I told him I’m the Senate president and I want you to grant me this courtesy,” Sweeney recalled. “He said, ‘No, sir, I will not.’”

With that backdrop, Sweeney decided to overrule Kean on the money. And for good measure, he saved his deepest cut for Kean personally after deriding him as a "trust fund baby."

“Relationships are everything in the world,” Sweeney says. “That’s how you get things done in politics.”

Here is the puzzling part of this story: What is Kean hoping to achieve by escalating this fight with overheated rhetoric?

Sweeney has more weapons, should he choose to use them. He makes committee assignments and office assignments, and can singlehandedly kill any Republican bill he chooses. The office funds only scratch the surface.

In theory, Sweeney could use his powers to tip the balance against Kean within the GOP caucus. He could deliver an ultimatum to a Republican senator that goes like this: “Drop your support of Kean, or I will bury you in a basement office, seat you on a terrible committee, and ensure that no bill of yours ever becomes law.”

Some Republicans want the governor to step in, and they say their lockstep obedience to him may be shaken if he sits out this fight.

“If the governor allows Sweeney to do this, could that turn three or four Republicans in our caucus against him?” asks one of Kean’s allies in the Senate.

Kean is widely regarded as a man of honor, like his father. But even his allies question his political savvy.

By escalating this unwinnable fight with Sweeney, he will only deepen those doubts.

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