Wally Edge's blog

Gov. Jon Corzine's pick to succeed Gary Rose as his top economic advisor, Democratic lawyer Jerold Zaro, isn't likely to encounter much opposition from the Republicans: his law firm website lists four personal references for Zaro, including Corzine's possible 2009 opponent, GOP U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie.  Zaro's other references: Joseph Buckalew, a GOP fundraiser and Ocean County Republican powerhouse who served on the Board at Commerce Bank; Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman John Adler; and Sports Authority Chairman/developer Carl Goldberg.

The must-read story of the day is from Gannett's Tom Baldwin about a Republican candidate for West Deptford Township Committeeman who told the Governor's receptionist that he was George Norcross and quickly found himself speaking with Jon Corzine.  Click here to read.

New Jersey has seventeen living former Congressmen -- that number should go to nineteen next year with the retirements of Jim Saxton and Michael Ferguson.  The oldest is Peter Frelinghuysen, the 92-year-old father of Congressman Rodney Frelinghuysen, who won an open seat in 1952 and served until his retirement in 1973. He lives in Morristown.  The youngest is Michael Pappas, a Somerset County Freeholder who won a seat in 1996 and lost it in 1998; he is 47.

*Cornelius Gallagher, 85, who served as a Hudson County Freeholder from 1953 to 1956 and as a Congressman from 1959 until his defeat in the 1972 Democratic primary. He lives in Hunterdon County.

*Robert Roe, 84, who served as Mayor of Wayne, Passaic County Freeholder and state Commissioner of Convervation and Economic Development before winning a House seat in a 1969 Special Election. He served until his retirement in 1992 and now runs a lobbying firm that specializes in transportation issues.

Republicans have held the 7th district House seat since 1956, when Florence Dwyer, an Assemblywoman from Elizabeth, unseated two-term Democrat Harrison Williams.  Matthew Rinaldo, who passed away on Monday at age 77, occupied the seat for twenty years.  Now, with the retirement of Michael Ferguson, Democrats are slightly favored to win the seat in a contest between Assemblywoman Linda Stender and her GOP rival, State Sen. Leonard Lance.

Rinaldo began his political career in 1962 when he won a seat on the Union County Board of Freeholders.  When he ran for re-election to a second term in 1965, he lost narrowly (the initial tally, before the recount, said just one vote) to Arthur Fried, a Democratic Councilman from Westfield.  He came back two years later, defeating State Sen. Mildred Barry Hughes, the first woman to serve in the New Jersey State Senate, by 10,657 votes -- a 57%-43% margin.  When he ran for re-election in 1971, Rinaldo ran more than 16,000 votes ahead of his running mate, Frank McDermott, and more than 25,000 votes ahead of his nearest Democratic rival.

An ongoing political feud among Republicans in Passaic County escalated a bit today with former GOP County Chairman Michael Mecca sharply criticizing the current chairman, Scott Rumana, for not attending the wake or funeral of Elaine Murphy, whose son and late husband both served as Passaic County Republican Chairman.

The following is a text of Mecca's e-mail sent to party leaders today:

Frank Lautenberg, who has never amassed huge approval ratings in independent polls and has never won more than 55% of the vote in a general election, appears likely to become the first five-term United States Senator in New Jersey history.  The 84-year-old Democrat  is positioned to break Clifford Case's record of 24 years in statewide office in December.  He has already passed Harrison Williams for number two on that list.

Some analysts say that Lautenberg has been lucky -- the fortunate beneficiary of the Republicans nominating the wrong candidate in each of his elections.  His first campaign was against Millicent Fenwick, an iconic 72-year-old Congresswoman who was the model for Doonsbury's Lacey Davenport character.  But Fenwick refused to raise PAC money and couldn't compete with Lautenberg's vast self-financed warchest.  Old-time GOP'ers say that Jim Courter, then a two-term Congressman, would have been a stronger candidate for the open Senate seat. 

Marcellus Jackson, who resigned his seat as a Passaic City Councilman after admitting that he took $26,000 in bribes from an undercover FBI agent, remains involved in politics as a he awaits sentencing.  According to a report by PolitickerNJ.com's Max Pizarro, Passaic mayoral candidate Vincent Capuana has ackowledged that Jackson has been volunteering on his campaign.  Last night, he worked the door at a Capuana fundraiser collecting money from donors. “Twenty years of friendship are 20 years of friendship,” said Capuana campaign manager Jose Alex Ybarra told Pizarro.   “Loyalty is very big with many of us.” 

Among the people likely to lose their jobs if Barack Obama is elected President next month: Republican Joel Trella, who was hired by U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie as a Security Manager after losing his bid for re-election as Bergen County Sheriff in 2004; Alan Steinberg, a former Kean/Whitman administration official who served as Chief of Staff to Essex County Executive James Treffinger, will be replaced as the Regional Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; and U.S. Marshal James Plousis, a former Cape May County Sheriff. 

One name that probably won't receive much consideration for United States Attorney, if Barack Obama wins the presidency:  Walter Timpone, a politically connected ex-federal prosecutor who has coveted the job for years.  Timpone gave the maximum $4,600 to Rob Andrews' campaign for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination earlier this year, and his contributions in the presidential race went to Hillary Clinton and John Edwards, not Obama.  Timpone spent eleven years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, and was named by a panel of Judges to monitor elections in Passaic County.  He currently represents Laborers International Union of America (LIUNA), which backed Andrews against Lautenberg in the Senate primary.

More than one out of every two Star-Ledger employees has requested a buyout, according to a report in today's New York Post.  According to the report, 409 of the 756 people employed by the state's largest newspaper were willing to leave voluntarily.  Publisher George Arwady says he'll accept 230 buyout applicants.