A bill that would have permitted horsemen to sit on the New Jersey Racing Commission was withdrawn after it fell one vote short of passage in the state Senate on Monday.

The bill, S1038, would have guaranteed that two Thoroughbred and two Standardbred horsemen would be part of the nine-member commission. A similar bill failed last spring, garnering just 17 of the necessary 21 votes.

"This is, unfortunately, the second time this bill has come before us in its present form," said Senator Richard Codey (D-Essex), the bill's most vociferous opponent.

Codey believes it is a conflict of interest for those who make the regulations to be regulated by them as well.

All 20 Republican senators in the state Senate voted for the bill with 10 Democrats against, while nine withheld their votes. One was absent.

"We're not giving up because we think it's vital to the industry," said Barbara DeMarco, the lobbyist for the New Jersey Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association. "We had 17 votes last time and 20 today. Only one more to go."

DeMarco had hoped that Democratic Governor James McGreevey would lend his support to the bill and swing the one vote needed, but he was unavailable during the day as the events surrounding the withdrawal of Senator Robert Torricelli from his current senatorial campaign over ethics concerns was a more pressing matter.—Howard Bass