Max Pizarro's blog

VERONA - Already state Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean, Jr.'s (R-Westfield) appointee to the congressional redistricting commission and more than a forward observer in the legislative redistricting process, state Sen. Kevin O'Toole (R-Cedar Grove) catapulted into a place where he can now speak candidly in the ears of power, both of the incoming governor and the incoming senate president, with Gov.-elect Chris Christie's victory last week and Senate Majority Leader Steve Sweeney's (D-West Deptford) imminent ascendency on Nov. 23rd.

It has been a slow turn-about and rapid ascent for a politician who on more than one occasion clung to what appeared to be the last shreds of his political career.

"When (James) Treffinger went down, it looked bleak," admittted the former chief of staff to the fallen Essex County executive. "2001 redistricting was bleak."

Elected to local government office in Cedar Grove at 25, the pugnacious political animal spent a career toiling as the dedicated minority in the engine room of the Democratic Party behemoth here in Essex, learning for the sake of survival how to nurture close ties to the other side even as he proudly hanged framed portraits of Ronald Reagan and Sean Hannity in his law office. 

He'd show up at an event in the North Ward, the guest of North Ward Democratic leader Steve Adubato. He had his friends there. There were high fives, for example, from Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo. But those Democrats not among Adubato's inner circle looked on O'Toole as an interloper, a castaway from the other party treading into enemy territory.

Assemblywoman Sheila Oliver (D-East Orange)

Her early critics quietly grumble that she's a political neophyte - the preferred Essex County term of art for someone who rises too quickly in politics.

But Assemblywoman Sheila Oliver (D-East Orange), a veteran of East Orange local politics, said she is more than ready to assume the lead role in the lower house come Nov. 23rd, when both the Assemby and the senate are scheduled to vote on leadership. 

Her rapid ascent coincides with the fast dimming political career of lame duck Gov. Jon Corzine.

"He genuinely wanted to effectuate glaring social issues of interest to a broad cross section to advocay groups, but did not understand the complexity of navigating the shark and barracuda filled waters of New Jersey politics," said Oliver when asked to reflect on Corzine's legacy.  

Poised with a sufficient number of caucus votes to become the Assembly's first African American woman speaker as succesor to Speaker Joe Roberts (D-Camden), Oliver said she received a phone call yesterday from Gov.-elect Chris Christie but was unavailable. She said she intends to return his call today.

Senate President Richard Codey (D-Roseland)

Senate President Richard Codey (D-Roseland) will make his own appointment to a 2010 congressional redistricting commission and leave a second seat for his presumptive successor to fill with his own choice.

The former governor's game plan comes in the face of state Senate Majority Leader Steve Sweeney's (D-West Deptford) control of the lionshare of Democratic caucus votes and Codey's likely imminent defeat come Jan. 12th when the senate reorganizes.

"I intend to make one of those appointments and leave a second appointment for Steve," former Gov. Codey told PolitickerNJ.com.

The Inside Edge yesterday reported that Codey could appoint two congressional redistricting members to the six-member commission before the end of his current term, according to the law.

Assemblyman Declan O'Scanlon (front row, left), with Monmouth County Republican Committee Chairman Joe Oxley (front, center) and state Sen. Joe Kyrillos (head bowed, over Oxley's left shoulder)

He sits on the budget committee as a member of the minority party calling into that chasm between himself and Democrats running both the executive and legislative branches.

But while the opposition last Tuesday maintained its hegemony on the legislative side, the GOP now has a governor-elect in Chris Christie, from whom Assemblyman Declan O'Scanlon (R-Little Silver) trusts there will be an invitation of engagement.

"I'm hoping the Chris Christie administration will work hand in hand with the legislature and I'm hoping folks like me will have a seat at the table policywise," O'Scanlon said. "The cabinet needs to be about real reform, not re-election four years from now. I'm looking forward to a cabinet created that way. I hope it's going to be an open administration.

"As a member of the budget committee I hope to be included and I would like to believe one won't need a cabinet position in order to have input," added O'Scanlon.

State Sen. Diane Allen (R-Burlington) today acknowledged that she has been diagnosed with an aggressive cancer, and is exploring treatment options.

The veteran Republican senator expects to undergo surgery as early as this week.

"My illness has shown me again just how much the good people of my district and the state of New Jersey care about others," Allen said in a statement. "It's impossible to express how grateful I am for their outpourings of caring, support and love."

The senator asked for prayers for her healthy return to the Senate as she, her family, and medical professionals come up with strategies to beat her disease.

"My plan is to return to the floor of the Senate at the first opportunity," Allen said. "No illness will prevent me or my experienced and dedicated staff from providing the people of my district with full representation. My district office is open and ready to help any constituent who contacts us."

Woodbridge Mayor John McCormac

Woodbridge Mayor John McCormac told PolitickerNJ.com he does not want to chair the Middlesex County Democratic Organization.

"No, that's just somebody starting trouble," said the mayor, whose town, Woodbridge, went for GOP candidate Chris Christie over Gov. Jon Corzine even as McCormac's local Democrats won in all but one of the wards where they contended.

"Not interested," said McCormac, who also denied he is interested in leading the state party organization.

Some Democrats quietly fumed and blamed the former State Treasurer for working against Corzine during the campaign, but the mayor all along said he was focused on electing local candidates and preserving a majority on the council.

Association with an unpopular incumbent governor was not in his best local interest.

Christie two days after the election surfaced on the streets of Woodbridge to hobnob with McCormac and local busness owners.

Assemblywoman Mary Pat Angelini (R-Ocean) with her daughter, Toni, a Matawan councilwoman-elect.

The Chris Christie cabinetmaking process has begun and among insiders talk inevitably turns to Republican candidates who are already out there in the public sphere with specific expertise - people like Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce (R-Parsippany), Assemblywoman Mary Pat Angelini (R-Ocean) and Assemblyman John Amodeo (R-Margate), among many others.

"If Chris Christie asked me, I would take it under serious consideration," said Angelini, the executive director of a youth nonprofit whose name has surfaced early as a possibile commissioner of human services in a Christie administration.

"I'm happy where I am," added the assemblywoman, who had several reasons to celebrate last Tuesday night.

Not only did the Monmouth County-based legislator's choice for governor win, but she and her running mate Assemblyman David Rible (R-Wall) won by larger margins than two years ago, and her daughter, Toni, was elected to the Matawan Borough Council.

Toiling in the minority for the past two years with a Democratic governor in charge, Angelini said she never knew a different Trenton terrain, and is thrilled now to be a forward observer to a change in her party's favor on the executive side of government.

South Jersey GOTV central on Election Day last Tuesday.

The North Jersey urban operative, under the radar as always, eyes bloodshot late in the game last Tuesday night, said he saw what Senate Majority Leader Steve Sweeney (D-West Deptford) saw among rank and filers in South Jersey, and it rattled him early on Election Day.

"For the first time in all my years doing GOTV, rank and file labor guys weren't telling me who they were voting for," said the operative. "These are guys I'm talking to as they're heading in and out of the polls and ordinarily you'll get a thumbs up sign for the Democrat or some fraternal sign for the Democratic candidate. Not this time. This time - silence."

Sweeney saw it a while ago - rank and file worry translating itself into anti-Corzine sentiment.

Poised to become the next state Senate President, Sweeney, an ironworker by trade and business agent for Ironworker's Local 399, said South Jersey Democrats did everything they could to get the vote out for Gov. Jon Corzine.

"We worked very hard," Sweeney told PolitickerNJ.com. "But it wasn't in the cards, you could feel it on the ground."

AFL-CIO Prez Charles Wowkanech on Election Day, 2007

Another strategy wouldn't have changed the outcome, he acknowledges, but Charles Wowkanech, president of the New Jersey AFL-CIO, admitted today that the 11th hour influx of big rallies inhibited the Central Labor Council's ability to lock in on GOTV in the closing days of the gubernatorial campaign.

"I don't want this to come off as negative or critical of the campaign, which did a great job, but you can't have rallies three times a week," said Wowkanech, whose coordinated labor effort registered wins at the legislative level but watched Gov. Jon Corzine get unseated by Republican challenger Chris Christie.

"Our people were working every weekend, doing labor walks," said the labor leader, reflecting on the last two weeks of the campaign wherein the Corzine camp spread out a constellation of Democratic Party luminaries including President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, former President Bill Clinton, the Kennedy family, etc.

"I'm not second guessing anyone, but trying to run our program and make all these events - two and three times a week - was tough."

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.