Former Gov. Jim Florio was mourned Monday by colleagues, friends, and officials in New Jersey as a public servant who took on tough fights — from gun control to school funding to taxes — ultimately at the price of his own political career.
Florio, a Democrat who died Sunday at age 85, was “an American patriot who put principles first,” said fellow former Gov. Christie Whitman, the Republican who ousted Florio from the governor’s office in 1993.