County Executive, State Senator to Address Kwon’s Failed Nomination

State Sen. Kevin O’Toole (R-40) and Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan will address the concerns of New Jersey’s Korean-American community at a joint press conference in Hackensack Thursday over the Senate Judiciary Committee’s recent rejection of New Jersey Supreme Court nominee Phillip Kwon.

O’Toole, who represents part of Bergen County, said in a statement announcing the event that he believes the “Democratic-dominated” committee “overlooked” Kwon’s qualifications for the state’s high court, and called the “grilling” Kwon took in confirmation hearings “an insult to the Korean-American community.”

O’Toole said Korean-Americans in New Jersey “are hard-pressed to understand how an accomplished member of their community was denied a history-making appointment because of Trenton partisan politics.”

The Judiciary Committee in March rejected New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s nominee—Kwon is a former assistant United States Attorney for New Jersey currently serving as first assistant in the state Attorney General’s office—by a vote of 7-6.

Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg (D-37), who represents Fort Lee and serves on the Judiciary Committee, was among those who voted against Kwon’s confirmation, according to PolitickerNJ.com, though she said she believed Kwon’s testimony before the committee.

"We know we were given a nominee who was a Republican for most of his voting life,” Weinberg said. “Why has the governor tried to present the nominee as an independent?”

She also said, “I don't think we got all the answers.”

At a , O’Toole said Kwon’s nomination was “groundbreaking” and called for “swift confirmation.”

But he also criticized the media for what he called “fiery rhetoric” and “hyperbole” in reference to articles raising concerns about Kwon and his family’s legal issues—issues that Christie characterized as part of a "smear campaign" and said had been resolved—and said he was “disheartened” that lawmakers were rushing to judge Kwon.

“They don’t know the man,” said O’Toole, who also serves on the Judiciary Committee, at the February rally in Hackensack. “They don’t know the candidate; they don’t know the nominee.”

Korean American Association of Fort Lee (KAAFL) president Gina Yoon, one of the main organizers of the February rally, said Kwon’s nomination was a source of pride for many in the Korean-American community.

“It’s a huge, huge expectation because this job is a very high level position,” Yoon said at the time.

Donovan said in a statement announcing Thursday’s joint press conference that for “such an exemplary and qualified person like Philip Kwon to be subjected to that kind of treatment is wrong.”

“I share the outrage that many of my constituents feel here in Bergen County over the way Phil was treated," Donovan said.

The press conference takes place at 2 p.m. Thursday at the Bergen County Administrations Building, 1 Bergen Plaza in Hackensack, at the Learning Center on the fourth floor.