Leonard Lance

From left: GOP nominee Chris Christie, Assemblyman John DiMaio (R-Hackettstown), Steve Lonegan.

FLEMINGTON - Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie this afternoon stood onstage with the man he conquered in the June Primary: former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan, leader of the conservative movement in New Jersey, who promptly bashed President Barack Obama.

"The people who crossed the Atlantic Ocean in ships didn't come here looking for security and a welfare check, they came here seeking freedom and liberty," Lonegan told an excited crowd packing the sidewalk in front of the Hunterdon County Courthouse. "Barack Obama doesn't understand that simple message.

"Those folks had learned a lesson that Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid do not understand," Lonegan said.

A day before Obama is scheduled to appear at rallies in Camden and Newark in support of Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine, the crowd cheered in the rain.

"Some of my friends said they were going to write Steve Lonegan in," added the former gubernatorial candidate. "But let me tell you, we have an opportunity to take back New Jersey, to make New Jersey the economic leader it once was. The best man did win. The best man will put an end to the advancement of the Corzine-Obama team."

Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch) has the biggest campaign war chest in New Jersey's thirteen member congressional delegation, with more than twice as much money in the bank as Steve Rothman (D-Fair Lawn).  Pallone has $4,012,918, while Rothman has $1,759,842.  Pallone raised $355,661 during the last quarter, while Rothman brought in just $25,212 - less than any other New Jersey Congressman from either party.

Christopher Smith (R-Hamilton) has the lowest cash on hand - just $120,480.  He is expected to face a Republican primary challenge, possibly from former Holmdel Deputy Mayor Alan Bateman.  Rob Andrews (D-Haddon Heights) has $195,210 in the bank, and still carries a debt from his challenge to Frank Lautenberg (D-Cliffside Park) in the 2008 Democratic U.S. Senate primary.

Freshman John Adler (D-Cherry Hill), who won a House seat last year with 52% in a district the Republicans had not lost since 1886, has $1,193,060 cash on hand.  He raised $404,405 during the last quarter - the  best in the New Jersey delegation.  Another freshman, Leonard Lance (R-Clinton), has $314,755.

Citing a string of broken promises from Gov. Jon Corzine, New Jersey's largest environmental group today backed former U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie for Governor - the first time the organization has endorsed a statewide Republican since its inception.

Members of the political arm of the New Jersey Environmental Federation - which endorsed Corzine in 2005 -- said they were "hugely disappointed" by Corzine's first term environmental record.  They specifically mentioned his lack of action in working to create more cooling towers for nuclear plants, a drop off in waterway protection, lack of a commitment to environmental justice and failing to takes sides on a proposed coal plant in Linden.

"We expect our political leaders to take on our environmental issues and problems and provide good solutions that are in the best interest of the environment," said Sharon Finlayson, who chairs the NJEF's five-member Vote Environment Committee.  "When that fails it is time for change.  We believe that the change we see will be found in Chris Christie."

The state's three major environmental groups have all snubbed Corzine this year.  The New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club went for independent Chris Daggett, a former Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) commissioner and regional EPA administrator.  The other major group, Environment New Jersey, opted not to endorse anyone.  

The NJEF's leaders said they were won over by Christie's opposition to deepening the Delaware River; his promise to restore the DEP's Division of Science and Research, which was eliminated under Corzine; his support for retrofitting diesel engines used under state contracts; stop the "fish slaughter" from cooling systems at Salem and Oyster Creek and his stated opposition to the Linden coal plant. 

"We've been hugely disappointed [in Corzine]" said Ben Forest, a member of the committee that voted to endorse Christie.  "A lot of environmental promises and he failed to effectively lead. On many levels, I am sorry I cannot support his re-election."

If you are a New Jersey State Senator, you are more likely to die in office than to win higher elective office. Under the current State Constitution, 49 sitting State Senators have asked voters to promote them to a new office, but only eleven have won.  

That might be bad news for Loretta Weinberg, the Democratic nominee for Lt. Governor, and the 50th State Senator to run for another office.

Nearly half of the State Senators seeking higher office have run for Governor and all 21 have lost: Malcolm Forbes (1957), Wayne Dumont (1965), Raymond Bateman (1977) and James E. McGreevey (1997) won major party nominations but lost the general election -- each time to an incumbent; William Schluter ran as an Independent in 2001; and Walter Jones (1961), Charles Sandman (1965), William Kelly (1969), Frank McDermott (1969), William Ozzard (1969), Harry Sears (1969), Ralph DeRose (1973), Raymond Garramone (1977), Frank Dodd (1981), William Hamilton (1981), Joseph Merlino (1981), James Wallwork (1981), Bill Gormley (1989) and Gerald Cardinale (1989).

Edward Crabiel gave up his Senate seat to run in 1973 but withdrew when some party leaders decided to back Brendan Byrne. In 2001, Donald DiFrancesco dropped his bid for the Republican gubernatorial nomination.

All seven State Senators who have run for the United States Senate have lost: Frank Guarini, in 1970 Democratic primary against Harrison Williams; Richard LaRossa (1996), Bill Gormley (2000), Diane Allen (2002), John Matheussen (2002), Thomas Kean, Jr. (2006) and Joseph Pennacchio (2008).  Only Kean won a primary.  (The last time a sitting State Senator went to the U.S. Senate was in 1934, when William Smathers beat Kean's great-grandfather.)

Eleven of the fourteen sitting State Senators who have run for Congress have won: John Hunt (1966), Edwin Forsythe (1970), Joseph Maraziti (1972), Matthew Rinaldo (1992), Bernard Dwyer (1980), James Saxton (1984), Frank Pallone (1988), Richard Zimmer (1990), Robert Menendez (1992), John Adler (2008) and Leonard Lance (2008).  Five have lost House bids: Richard Stout (1968), Joseph Kyrillos (1992), Gormley (1994), John Bennett (1996), and Cardinale (2002).

New Jersey's congressional delegation voted 8-5 along party lines in support of a House resolution voicing disapproval of U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), who shouted "You lie!" during President Barack Obama's address to a joint session of Congress last week.  Democrats John Adler, Rob Andrews, Rush Holt, Frank Pallone, Bill Pascrell, Donald Payne, Steven Rothman, and Albio Sires voted yes.  Republicans Rodney Frelinghuysen, Scott Garrett, Leonard Lance, Frank LoBiondo and Christopher Smith voted no.  The resolution passed 240-17.  Seven Republicans voted yes and twelve Democrats voted no.

Woodbridge Mayor John McCormac

Woodbridge Mayor John McCormac confirmed that he had two summertime meetings with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) about the possibility of challenging freshman U.S. Rep. Leonard Lance (R-Clinton) in 2010, but told the DCCC late last month he won't run.

"I was flattered to be considered but i have the job I've always loved and I'm only halfway through my first term," said McCormac. "I made a commitment to the people of Woodbridge."

A former state treasurer, McCormac said he had one meeting with the DCCC in Woodbridge in early June. Later the same month he went to Washington, D.C. for more talks.

"I told them sometime in the last month I wouldn't be a candidate for consideration," McCormac said.

Gov. Jon Corzine, right, with Somerset County Democratic Party Chair Peg Schaffer and Assemblyman Upendra Chivukula (D-Franklin Township), left.

SOMERVILLE - When President Barack Obama choppered into Holmdel and stood at a podium with Gov. Jon Corzine as flashbulbs popped, the event went down as a high profile rescue effort by the president of a governor for whom much of the Democratic Party was hitting the panic button.

Today, in a seeming effort to shake off the candidate in distress designation and himself come to the oratorical aid of a president whose own favorables have dipped since his appearance at the PNC Arts Center earlier this summer, Corzine sounded a note of defiant allegiance to Obama.

"Our president is under attack," Corzine told a crowd of 75-100 rain-spattered troops at the opening of the Somerset County Democratic Party headquarters on Division Street. "We need to send him a signal that we're with him. We're not going backwards, we're going forward."

While the governor is running nine points behind GOP gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie, according to the latest Quinnipiac University poll, the Christie campaign had a week and a half of negative headlines, which may have tightened the race.

"Everything is moving in the right direction," Corzine roared. "Let's keep it going. Things are moving in the right direction, right?"

Staffers working for a legislator who resigns or dies in office keep their jobs until a successor is elected and seated.  While there are no formal rules dictating how legislative offices should operate in the event of a vacancy, in recent years the Senate President and Assembly Speaker have authorized district offices to remain open and staff to continue to be paid.  Those staffs are supervised by the Senate Secretary or the Assembly Clerk, although there is relatively little oversight in those situations.

The staff of former Assemblyman Daniel Van Pelt (R-Ocean) remains intact, even though Van Pelt resigned last week after being arrested on federal corruption charges.  And while Speaker Joseph Roberts has effectively suspended two legislators facing criminal charges without pay, Joseph Vas (D-Perth Amboy) and L. Harvey Smith (D-Jersey City) continue to have district offices and staffs who report to them.