
This was a slow week for political news as the storm begins to gather for the fall Congressional elections and the legislature takes some time off. This week, the courts chose a number of our winners and losers for us, giving the list a shot in the arm with some new names.
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Senator Paul Sarlo (D-Wood-ridge), Chairman, Senate Budget Committee; Senator James Whelan (D-Atlantic City)

PATERSON - Mayor Jeff Jones walks through his second floor City Hall digs, which right now are barren as Paterson transitions from eight years of Joey Torres to the nascent stages of the Jones era.
Men in hospital scrubs paint the walls, and to hear Jones tell it as he heads for the street, this won't be the only house-cleaning.
State elected officials, lawyers, consultants, party Rolodex bigwigs who shop their high-priced wares from town to town: the mayor says he's putting all of them on notice.
"We've had community unemployment for far too long," says the mayor, who was sworn in to his first term earlier this month.

Identifying what he sees as Democratic State Chairman John Wisniewski's hamstrung role at the front of a party in turmoil, a committeeman from Somerset wants fellow members to consider a bylaw that would prevent an elected official from also serving as a member of the state party committee.
The suggestion by Joel L. Shain of Bernardsville came in the form of a letter to the party after a direct appeal to Wisniewski of Sayreville, who also serves as a 19th District assemblyman.
On July 14th, Shain sent a letter to Wisniewski.
"It is my view that to continue as both legislator and party chairman while the opposition controls the executive branch is neither in your personal interest nor that of the party," wrote Shain, a onetime primary opponent of state Sen. Richard Codey (D-Roseland) and law partner of Somerset County Democratic Committee Chair Peg Schaffer.
"I believe that you can raise your stature and become the most influential Democrat in New Jersey, provided you jettison the title of Assemblyman. Only then will you be free to fully focus on creating a uniform, well thought out response to those administration policies that are anathema to the party base and harmful to all New Jersey citizens."

With a pivotal election in New Jersey’s most populous county, has Gov. Chris Christie torpedoed a prime opportunity for the GOP?
The Bergen County Executive race approaches and Democrats are rallying behind incumbent Dennis McNerney, and why not? The governor has supplied every bullet point for a campaign mailer bonanza: meddling with the sacrosanct Blue Laws, pitting the Meadowlands against Atlantic City, imposing the Film Tax, and recalibrating post-Abbott school funding. None of these played well in Bergen, to say the least.
Assembly Democrats denounced the Film Tax yesterday for chasing off “Law and Order:Special Victims Unit” that shot mainly in neighboring North Bergen and brought, according to the officials, $55 million in annual revenue to the area.
"The governor had no problem [this week] announcing that he was looking for extra money to create jobs, yet just a month ago, the state was so strapped for cash that he had to put 200 people out of work," said Assemblyman Vincent Prieto (D-Hudson), who represents North Bergen.
Between now and November, the Dems will do their best to make the connection for the voters between Christie's proposals and Kathleen Donovan, a four-term Bergen County clerk, who is making her third run at the executive seat.

NEWARK - Onlookers convinced Mayor Cory Booker would get the city's most animated earful in the South Ward instead witnessed a relatively subdued slam of his proposed municipal utilities authority (MUA) tonight when Booker traveled to that fifth of the city where he has traditionally been weakest.

A task force examining an Essex-backed bill usurping county crime prosecution duties and throwing them to the state kicked off their study today.
Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo, a Democrat whose longtime friendship with Gov. Chris Christie has made him a cross-aisle favorite in Trenton, is a major proponent of the change and sits on the commission. The group is due to produce a comprehensive report to the governor by Dec. 15, DiVincenzo said.
Pushing for these transfer of duties for a decade, DiVincenzo told PolitickerNJ that he’s just glad someone finally listened.
Essex spends more than any other county on criminal prosecution, $49 million per year, he said.
Follow PolitickerNJ updates on Twitter and on Facebook Task force begins look at prosecutors A task force examining an Essex-backed bill usurping county crime prosecution duties and throwing them to the state kicked off their study today. Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo, a Democrat whose longtime friendship...
Check out the familiar face gracing the cover of the most recent copy of The National Review.
Read More >Sharing services between local communities is an obvious and pragmatic approach to stabilizing our taxes and maintaining a high level of municipal services our residents have come to expect. As a result of decreasing tax revenues, a new... Read More >
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“The court’s ruling has now cleared Mr. Ferriero of all charges in the indictment returned against him two years ago,” attorney Joseph A. Hayden Jr.
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