Bennett served as Acting Governor for three and a half days in January 2002. Following Republican Governor Christine Todd Whitman's resignation on January 31, 2001 to become head of the EPA, Bennett was one of three different senate presidents to serve as acting governor for the one-year period between Whitman's resignation and the inauguration of the Democratic governor-elect Jim McGreevey on January 15, 2002. Fellow Republican DiFrancesco served as acting governor for almost a year, but his term as senate president ended a few days before the rest of the gubernatorial term was finished when a new senate came into office. While Attorney General Farmer acted as governor for 90 minutes until a new senate president was elected, Republican Bennett and Democrat Codey agreed that they would both be elected Co-Presidents of the Senate for the next two years because the majority in the senate was split between the two major parties. They also decided to divide the last week of the gubernatorial term among them, with Bennett first serving for three full days, from January 8, 2002, to January 12, 2002, before Codey would serve another three days, leading to a situation in which the state had five different people serving as governor during a period of eight days. During his service as acting governor, Bennett signed legislation into law, appointed judges, granted a pardon to Hugh G. Gallagher, created a nursing advisory council, and hosted several parties at Drumthwacket. The nursing advisory council was a tribute to his wife, Peg, a nurse. Peg Bennett was active during her tenure as First Lady of New Jersey.
Controversies
In June 2002, Bennett was involved in a shoving match with South Jersey Democratic Party boss and Commerce National Insurance CEO George Norcross after Norcross threatened to publicize a pardon Bennett gave during his three-day executive tenure if Bennett could not convince his fellow Republican senators to vote for a tax increase and stadium construction bill in committee. Bennett fell out of favor as a result of allegations that he overbilled the municipality of Marlboro Township for legal services. In a statement to the press, Bennett blamed party bosses and a biased press for attempting to destroy him. Bennett was a leading opponent of using state funds to construct a convention center/stadium in Pennsauken Township, New Jersey that would have been used by a minor league ice hockey team that Norcross had bought an interest in.
In the 2005 primary election he was elected Republican State Committeeman for Monmouth County. John O. Bennett is also a professor at Montclair State University. In June 2012 he was elected the chairman of the Monmouth County Republican Party Committee during its annual reorganization meeting.
