Max Pizarro's blog

MORRISTOWN - The happiest Democrat in Morris County.

That would be Tim Dougherty, who on Tuesday night won the Morristown mayor's race with 64.62% of the vote on a night when every municipality went for home county gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie by large margins with the exception of Dover, Victory Gardens and Morristown.

Doherty took pride in the fact that he won without going negative on his opponent, local businessman Jimmy Gervasio. 

"I told (campaign strategist Barrett) Tommy I'm not putting out one piece of negative literature," said the mayor-elect. "Why? I figured somebdy's gotta start doing it that way. Voters want to hear about what you're going to do."

In the primary, Dougherty built a coalition among African Americans, progressives, Latinos and downtown business people to crush veteran Morristown political animal Mayor Donald Cresitello.

One of the more aggressive critics of Gov.-elect Chris Christie early in the campaign, U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) today said he plans to reach out to Christie and establish working relations with him for the sake of New Jersey.

"I wish Chris Christie well," said Pascrell. "It's going to be a tough four years overcoming the last eight years of national inaction."

The former mayor of Paterson and veteran 8th District congressman last year mused on a potential bid for the governship in the event that Corzine did not seek re-election. 

Asked if he intends to run for governor in 2013, Pascrell said, "No, it's too early to talk about that now."

Pascrell said he has not talked to defeated Gov. Jon Corzine since the governor's loss to Christie on Tuesday.

"The governor was unable to overcome some unfavorable perceptions many voters had of him," said the congressman. "Most of the Democrats running for (the legislature) didn't run with the governor, and I think it's clear he was also unable to overcome that. He was not able to articulate what he accomplished. This governor accomplished a lot of things. The state budget is the same as it was four years ago. He was trying to do his part with the caps." 

The Assembly Republican caucus this morning reelected Assembly Mniority Leader Alex DeCroce (R-Parsippany) to a fourth consecutive term. 

Support was unanimous.

After threatening, Assembly Conference Leader Pete Biondi (R-Hillsborough) ended up not challenging DeCroce, who is rumored to be a short list candidate for the cabinet of Gov.-elect Chris Christie.

Assemblyman Jon Bramnick (R-Westfield) this morning received his caucus's backing to be conference leader and Assemblyman Dave Rible (R-Wall) moved up to become whip.

Assemblyman Reed Gusciora (D-Princeton)

Assemblyman Reed Gusciora (D-Princeton) today blamed party bosses for deal-making when they should have been focused on re-electing Gov. Jon Corzine.

"Party leaders undermined the governor by having a party leadership fight," said Gusciora. "They reinforced the message that if Corzine won, the reins of power would be handed over to special interests."

Asked on Election Day morning about the intra-party deal cultivated by South Jersey Democratic Party leader George Norcross III and Newark North Ward Democratic Party boss Steve Adubato, Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts (D-Camden) dismissed its larger-scale impact on voter production.

"It's inside baseball and affected very few people beyond Trenton," said Roberts of a North-South deal that would oust Senate President Richard Codey (D-Roseland) in exchange for Senate Majority Leader Steve Sweeney (D-West Deptford), and launch Assemblywoman Sheila Oliver (D-East Orange) into the lower house leadership chair being vacated by Roberts.

Gov.-elect Chris Christie (at podium) with, from left: Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce, State GOP Chairman Jay Webber, and Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean.

Leaders of a once fractured minority party - over the last years seemingly constantly at the verge of splitting farther apart - see unity in Gov.-elect Chris Christie.

During the campaign, Christie regularly invoked the example of former Gov. Tom Kean, a moderate, then publicly embraced movement conservative Steve Lonegan in the closing days of the general election campaign to solidify his Republican base.

Kean's son, state Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean, Jr. (R-Westfield) said he believes Christie's leadership abilities are expansive enough to include both the conservative wing and moderate wing of the GOP, in addition to independents and Democrats.

Not unlike his own father's skills in that regard.

Councilman Julio Tavarez

Paterson - New Jersey's third largest city and now on the brink of a mayoral election next year - delivered the same voter turnout for Gov. Jon Corzine that he received four years ago in his first bid for governor.

These results are unofficial and don't include provisionals: Corzine received 16,038 votes in the Silk City, to Republican candidate (now Gov.-elect) Chris Christie's 2,040.

Those numbers almost mirror Corzine's 2005 performance against Mercer buisnessman Doug Forrester: 17,000 to 1,600 votes.

The stunner of the night in North Jersey for Democrats was the loss of their county ticket, the Kazmark-Way-Gomez-Stampone team that suffered the downside of a squeaker to the Corrado-Marratoa-O'Connell-Ciambrone team.

Democratic Party Chairman John Currie takes solace in the fact that incumbent Gov. Jon Corzine defeated Chris Christie here by a vote of 51 to 44% - solace that was shattered by evening's end when Corzine lost statewide.

But of most pressing concern to veteran county man Currie was the win by Republican clerk candidate Kristin Corrado over Democrat Keith Kazmark, 51.91% to 48.09% and the fall of three freeholder candidates, including incumbent rising star (and potential LG candidate) Freeholder Director Tahesha Way.

With provisionals not yet in, Way is losing to Ciambrone by 1400 votes.

In trouncing Chris Christie in Newark last night by 32,400 votes while losing statewide, Gov. Jon Corzine received a total of 35,669 Newark votes, compared to the 39,573 he received four years ago in his first bid for governor.

During the weeks leading up to Election Day, operatives fretted about the Central Ward, Mayor Cory Booker's old ward where the death of a local leader this past summer threw the political structure into doubt.

While the Central Ward did not perform as well for Corzine as it did in 2005, it's fall-off approximated the drop in numbers for the Democrat in other wards. In the Central, Corzine received 7,755 votes this year, compared to 8,700 in 2005.

In the North Ward, home to Steve Adubato's vaunted North Ward Democratic Organization, the governor received 6,302 votes, compared to 7,202 in 2005.

Gov. Corzine accepting the endorsement earlier this year of the Middlesex County Democratic Committee.

Gov. Jon Corzine lost Middlesex County last night unofficially by 6,924 votes, a county he won four years ago by 32,155.

But Middlesex County Democratic Committee Chairman Joe Spicuzzo believes there was little Corzine could have done, given the temper of the times, to salvage a win in this sprawling county of 400,300 registered voters - and little Middlesex County Democrats could have done to help him get there.

"I think it's all about the economy and people hurting in their pocket books," Spicuzzo said. "They wanted a change. I think Jon Corzine was better equipped to deal with the economic crisis, but that's not the way voters saw it."

The party chairman conceded that Corzine's toll roads leasing plan didn't help him in the big counties most impacted: Ocean, Monmouth and his own Middlesex.

NEWARK - Gov-elect Chris Christie and Lt. Gov.-elect Kim Guadagno will appear at The Robert Treat Academy this afternoon to tour the facility and to talk about charter school education, according to the Christie campaign.

The operation was founded by North Ward Democratic leader Steve Adubato.

New Jersey Network (NJN) will be airing Christie's press conference live at 1:30 PM, and will rebroadcast it in entirety at 11:30 PM.