Assembly Majority Leader Greenwald has taken aggressive stands in fighting Christie

His colleagues tease him about his fine suits and his perfectly coiffed dark brown hair.

But despite his smooth look, Assembly Majority Leader Louis D. Greenwald (D., Camden) played the role of bloody-knuckled street fighter in Democratic clashes with Republican Gov. Christie this year.

When Christie toured the state to push for an income tax cut, Greenwald accused him of coddling the rich. When Christie, a titan in the national Republican scene, quipped that he was too busy organizing his sock drawer to debate Greenwald, the Voorhees assemblyman offered to help him so he could return to more important work in Trenton. When Christie said he would bang on Democrats all summer until they approved immediate tax relief, Greenwald said: "Bring it."

"His style dictates a style back," Greenwald, 45, said in an interview last week. "When he's walking around saying, 'I'm going to go up and down the turnpike and kick your ass,' the response has to be: 'You don't have to hunt to find me. I'm nine miles off Exit 4.' "

Greenwald's aggressive and sometimes combative style has helped him to corral a fractured caucus and given teeth to an Assembly that's been criticized as too timid in its past interactions with Christie, said Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg (D., Bergen).

"I think I'm more in tune with Lou's style in terms of wanting to really give it back to the governor in the same way he gives it out," said Weinberg, who so angered Christie last year that he told reporters to "take the bat" to her.

But Greenwald's doggedness in pursuing a tax increase on those who make more than $1 million - a measure that Christie vetoed last week for the third time - left Democrats vulnerable to Christie's attack that they want to raise taxes while he's trying to lower them.

Christie even called a special session of the Legislature last Monday to ask lawmakers to pass a tax cut.

"The governor has done his best to distort this," Greenwald said. "Most families in New Jersey would have gotten $20 in an income tax cut. . . . When he stands up and says there's a single mom in Camden trying to make ends meet and she needs a tax cut now, you think $20 makes a difference to her? I mean, come on."

Christie spokesman Michael Drewniak dismissed Greenwald last week in much the same way the governor has done all year.

"He is an unabashed partisan, predictably reflexive in his opposition to just about everything we do," Drewniak said in an e-mailed statement. "I think that says a lot about him and that he is not as measured and thoughtful - or bipartisan - as one should expect from an effective political leader."

Drewniak also took a swipe at Greenwald's appearance.

"Lou Greenwald is always impeccably dressed, with not a hair out of place," he said. "A very fancy and ambitious fellow in that respect."

Liberal-conservative relations looked friendlier in the spring, when Senate Democrats came within inches of cutting a deal with Christie to reduce property taxes, which would have given larger benefits to lower- and middle-income wage earners than an income tax cut.

Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D., Gloucester) suggested giving income tax credits to people who make up to $250,000: the credit would be equivalent to 10 percent of their annual property tax bills, capped at $1,000. Sweeney intentionally left the millionaire's tax out of his tax-credit proposal, knowing it was a nonstarter with Christie.

Christie agreed to the Sweeney plan with the caveat that the income ceiling be raised to $400,000. The plan would have been rolled out over the next four years.

Assembly Democrats balked at the deal, and some Senate Democrats worried that the state's revenues were too weak to cover the more than $1.4 billion total cost of the plan.

In the end, both chambers passed a $31.7 billion budget bill that held $183 million in escrow for potential property tax relief, but only if state revenues shore up.

That wasn't good enough for Christie.

He called a special session last Monday and urged Democrats to cut taxes now, putting them in the unenviable position of explaining their more complex position.

Democrats called Christie's speech "political theater," but they also had engaged in political partisanship by passing the millionaire's tax.

"The Democrats knew the governor was going to veto the millionaire's tax, but they didn't care," said Ben Dworkin, director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University. "Sixty percent or more New Jersey voters like it; they think it's good policy."

The Senate wanted to do something more practical, Weinberg said.

"The Assembly was much more devoted to trying to do the millionaire's tax," Weinberg said. "If we'd like to get a property tax cut through, we have to do it in a way that we can get it passed."

Sweeney was unavailable for an interview for this article.

Assembly Minority Leader Jon M. Bramnick (R., Union) called Greenwald a gentleman but said his liberal ideas were out of date.

"The last thing you want to do is chase out your very, very wealthy people," he said. "People who make a lot of money are extremely concerned about . . . the tax rate."

Greenwald, who spent 10 years as the Assembly budget committee chairman, said the tax was the best policy.

"I would not back away from what is right to do in order to provide real relief just because the governor wouldn't sign it," he said. "There is a point when we need to distinguish ourselves, and I am not a believer in trickle-down economics."

Greenwald assumed his leadership position in the fall after former Majority Leader Joseph Cryan (D., Union) made a failed attempt to oust Assembly Speaker Sheila Y. Oliver (D., Essex). Cryan felt Democratic leaders were kowtowing to Christie.

"Lou has been a great friend and partner who has played a major role in making the first six months of this legislative session very successful for Assembly Democrats, especially when it comes to his expertise on the need for property tax reform," Oliver said in a statement.

Greenwald, a lawyer serving his ninth term in the Assembly, previously worked as corporate counsel for Remington & Vernick, an engineering firm that received lucrative work from the state.

Questions about Greenwald's public and private jobs arose in 2005 after state authorities released a recorded conversation with George E. Norcross III, a Democratic power broker and a key Greenwald ally. Norcross is now part owner of The Inquirer.

In the recorded conversation, Norcross implied that Greenwald was hired to bring more business to the firm, which had lost business in South Jersey and "needed to create some goodwill, so they made Lou an offer he couldn't turn down." Greenwald, Norcross said, would "do some legal work . . . but it's going to be a joke."

In a 2007 interview with The Inquirer, Greenwald said he has "never come close to a conflict of interest."

Greenwald was never investigated or accused of any wrongdoing.

For the last two years, Greenwald has worked for a health-care consulting company called Carlisle & Associates. He is a father of three: Lauren, 14, and twins Eric and Jenna, 11. His wife, Cynthia, is a speech pathologist.

His inspiration to enter politics in 1996 came from his mother, Maria Barnaby Greenwald, a former Cherry Hill mayor and Camden County freeholder director. She died in a car accident in 1995 at age 55.

"I wanted to keep that spirit alive," Greenwald said, adding that his mother was a beloved figure in South Jersey.

Although he has his mother's penchant for giving passionate speeches, Greenwald also has a bit of his father's love for numbers. Floyd Greenwald, an accountant, died in 2001 at age 67.

Greenwald enjoys digging into complex tax issues.

"Unless you get into the weeds, you're just putting wallpaper over a straw hut," he said.