No Date Announced for Confirmation Hearing

Chatham Borough Mayor Bruce Harris will have to wait a while until his appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The state legislature has adjourned until May 14, and the committee has not scheduled a date to meet for Harris' confirmation hearing.

Harris was nominated to the days after he was sworn in as the mayor of Chatham Borough. If confirmed, he will resign the role of mayor and will be the first openly gay man to sit on the state's highest court.

at the same time. He appeared for , and failed to garner enough votes from the committee for approval.

Harris was raised in Iowa, the oldest of 12 siblings. He moved to the borough from Boston in 1981, into an Elmwood Avenue home he still lives in with his partner, Marc Boisclair.

Stephen Goldstein, the chairman of Garden State Equality, gave Harris his endorsement because of his "superb credentials ... [and] important government experience."

Both Harris and Kwan have been criticized by some, including State Director Steve Lonegan of the Americans for Prosperity and State Sen. Richard Codey, for their lack of judicial experience.

After Christie announced his nominees, confidential information submitted to the Judiciary Committee by Harris and Kwon was leaked to The Star-Ledger. The information included career backgrounds and details, property owned and debts.

State senators Thomas Kean Jr. and Gerald Cardinale, who represents Closter, and "damaged the integrity of the confirmation process."

Harris, 61, earned his bachelor's degree in 1973 from Amherst College, where he graduated magna cum laude. He also holds an MBA in finance and economics from Boston University, earned in 1979, and a law degree from Yale Law School, which he earned in 1992. He has been admitted to the bar in New Jersey, New York and Washington.

Harris has been a resident in the borough for 30 years and a volunteer for about 15 years. While serving on the Environmental Commission, Dick Plambeck asked Harris to serve out his term as council member while he served as mayor. Harris stood for election to the council twice since then, once in 2005 and once in 2008.

When he was in November, Vice President Denis Dison of The Victory Fund said he believed Harris was the to be elected mayor in the country.

Harris has declined comment on the proceedings.