Surprisingly, Republicans and Democrats agree the 51-year-old state senator from Clinton in Hunterdon County is probably the best man for the job.

Lance made his debut as Senate minority leader on Jan. 13 and lost little time in declaring his intentions. He will, he asserted, fight as hard as possible to bring reform to the Legislature and an end "to the corrupt influence of `pay to play' " politics - the deeply ingrained system in which special interest groups finance both political parties in return for promises that their interests will not be ignored in the Legislature.

Democrats have complained bitterly that Lance and other Republicans ignored ethical problems for most of the 10 years when they controlled the Legislature and had Republican Christie Whitman sitting in the governor's office.