Senate. As a compromise, Meyner nominated Wood to the County Court, a lower judicial post. The Superior Court judgeship went to Crane's choice, Milton Feller, a County Court Judge and a former Republican Assemblyman and Elizabeth City Councilman. Wood was then nominated to Feller's seat. Potential candidate for Governor of New Jersey Before being diagnosed with cancer, Crane was considered a likely candidate for the 1961 Republican nomination for Governor of New Jersey. Health issues and death In November 1961, Crane announced that he would resign his Senate seat early in 1962 after spending a year battling cancer. As a special honor, he was made Senate President for a day. Governor Meyner drove across the Delaware River into Pennsylvania so that Crane could take the oath of office as the Acting Governor of New Jersey, completing the honor. He resigned from the Senate in March 1962. His resignation left the Senate evenly divided between 10 Republicans and 10 Democrats. Crane died at Elizabeth General Hospital on April 24, 1962, at the age of 41. After Crane's Senate seat remained vacant for nine months, creating an upper house evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, a new law was eventually passed that allowed State Senate and Assembly seats to be filled in a Special Election that was not necessarily held at the same time as a regularly scheduled General Election. That remained in effect until the late 1980s, when a new law allowed the party organization to fill the seat until the next General Election. In 2006, New Jersey Attorney General Zulima Farber issued an opinion stating that the gubernatorial line of succession did not become effective just because the Governor touched the soil of another state. This was done to benefit Governor Jon Corzine, who occasionally stayed overnight at the Manhattan apartment of his girlfriend. References External links Robert C. Crane at The Political Graveyard 1920 births 1962 deaths Politicians from Pittsburgh Politicians from Elizabeth, New Jersey Dartmouth College alumni United States Army personnel of World War II 20th-century American newspaper publishers (people) Republican Party New Jersey state senators Presidents of the New Jersey Senate Pingry School alumni 20th-century American politicians Businesspeople from Elizabeth, New Jersey Journalists from Pennsylvania United States Army soldiers Military personnel from New Jersey Military personnel from Pittsburgh 20th-century American journalists American male journalists