Gov. Phil Murphy has appointed Somerset County Democratic Chair Peg Schaffer and former State Sen. Christopher Bateman (R-Branchville) to the State Parole Board.
Also nominated is Brian Woods, the chief of staff to State Sen. Latham Tiver (R-Southampton) and Assemblyman Michael Torrissi, Jr. (R-Hammonton).
Parole Board members earn about $126,000 annually for a full-time job.
Schaffer will replace Julio Marenco (D-North Bergen), who resigned to become an assemblyman in 2024. Bateman replaces Thomas Haaf, a former Salem County GOP chairman, and Woods will take the seat of Hammonton attorney Kerry Cody.
Murphy also renominated to the sitting Parole Board members: former Assemblywoman Annette Chaparro (D-Hoboken) and Frank Del Vecchio, a retired Fariview police chief.
Daniel Gumble, the business manager of IBEW Local 164 in Paramus, will replace Michael Gluck on the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority. Mark Longo of the Operating Engineers Local 825 will get a seat on the Sports and Exposition Authority; he replaces 95-year-old Joseph Buckalew, a former Ocean County GOP chairman and freeholder.
Murphy reappointed John Ballantyne, a controversial former Carpenters union leader, to his seat on the Sports Authority. He also renamed Gail Gordon, a Republican fundraiser and the wife of former Democratic State Sen. Bob Gordon (D-Fair Lawn), and former Bergen County Democratic Chairman Louis Stellato.
Bergen County Democratic Vice Chair Balpreet Grewal-Virk will keep her seat on the Gateway Development Commission. Ulises Diaz, a top Horizon official, will keep his seat on the New Jersey Turnpike Authority. The head of the carpenters union, William Sproule, keeps his seat on the Casinto Reinvestment Development Commission.
Other appointments made by Murphy:
* Atlantic County Commissioner Collins Days to the Stockton University Board of Trustees.
* Tracie DeSarno, a prominent government relations official, will get a seat on the board of directors of University Hospital.
* Derrick Green, a former Murphy administration official, will join the Rutgers University board of trustees. The governor also renamed Jeanne Fox, a former Board of Public Utilities President, to a seat on that board.
* Sean Kennedy will get a seat on the Rowan University Board of Trustees; he is a longtime advisor to ex-Senate President Steve Sweeney and a onetime Rowan staffer. Former Assemblyman Adam Taliaferro will also get Rowan board seat.
* Former Hunterdon County Democratic Chair Arlene Quinones Perez will join the Montclair State University board of trustees.
