Farmer served as Acting Governor for 90 minutes on January 8, 2002. Following Governor Christine Todd Whitman's resignation the previous year to become head of the EPA, Farmer was one of four people to serve as acting governor for the one-year period between Whitman's resignation and Jim McGreevey's inauguration, along with three different senate presidents (Donald DiFrancesco, John O. Bennett, and Richard Codey). DiFrancesco served as acting governor for all but the last week of this period, when his term as senate president ended with the mandate of the outgoing senate on January 8, 2002, while newly elected governor Jim McGreevy would not be inaugurated before January 15, 2002.