While the Guv's away, the Speaker plays

Thanks to New Jersey's absurd gubernatorial succession rules, when the governor is out of state the Senate president becomes acting governor. And when both the governor and Senate president are out of state, the Assembly Speaker fills in.
Well, Speaker Joseph Roberts Jr. finally got his chance to play governor this week, with Gov. Corzine in Asia and Senate President Richard Codey in Pennsylvania for two days. Roberts, sworn in as acting governor at 4 p.m. yesterday, turns into a pumpkin at 7 tonight. He's making the most of it while Corzine and Codey are out of town -- he's throwing a private party today at Drumthwacket, the official residence of the governor.
That's not to say Roberts isn't taking his duties as governor seriously. He's signing two bills, one of which allows lower minimum bets at horse tracks. And he had a flack churn out a statement to the media today about the power outage on the Amtrak line, assuring citizens he was receiving regular updates and that the situation was well in hand. I sure hope the episode doesn't put a damper on his party.