William T. Cahill

Cahill meets with President Richard Nixon, George H. W. Bush, Linwood Holton, and Kenneth Reese Cole Jr. in 1973

In 1969, Cahill ran for Governor of New Jersey, facing off against Democrat Robert B. Meyner, who had previously held the office from 1954 to 1962.[1] Cahill defeated Meyner and became New Jersey's first Republican governor in 16 years.

Cahill served as governor from January 20, 1970, to January 15, 1974, and assumed office with a Republican-controlled legislature to support him. Among his accomplishments as governor were new automobile emission standards, an increase in the sales tax from 3 to 5 percent, the introduction of the state lottery, and the passage of no-fault auto insurance. He also played a role in bringing the New York Giants from Yankee Stadium to a new field in the Hackensack Meadowlands.[1]

On Thanksgiving Day 1971, two months after the Attica State prison riots in upstate New York, a similar rebellion rose at Rahway State Prison. The revolt was quieted without violence, and Cahill's role in ending the conflict was widely commended.[1] Cahill also appointed a commission that recommended the creation of a state income tax, which proved to be controversial with voters. The proposal was defeated in July 1972, but a state income tax was finally instituted four years later, after Cahill left office.[1]

In spite of his many successes and accomplishments as governor, Cahill's term was derailed by scandal. In 1972, Secretary of State Paul J. Sherwin was convicted for fixing a $600,000 state highway contract with a contractor who returned the favor with $10,000 to Cahill's associates. Then, in April 1973, former New Jersey Republican State Committee chairman Nelson G. Gross and State Treasurer Joseph McCrane, who had been finance chairman for Cahill's 1969 campaign, were both charged with illegally making campaign donations to the governor as tax deductions. Both men were convicted the following year. Although investigators were unable to implicate Cahill in either affair, his reputation suffered as a result of these setbacks.[1]

Cahill ran for re-election in 1973. Damaged by the scandals in his administration, he was defeated in the Republican primary election by the more conservative Congressman Charles Sandman, who went on to lose the general election to Democrat Brendan Byrne.[1] During his final months as governor, Cahill named his predecessor, Democrat Richard J. Hughes, as chief justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court.[6]