Local

Former Hoboken chief financial officer Michael Lenz by a 4-3-1 vote last night assumed the oath of office to succeed Mayor Dawn Zimmer as the 4th Ward councilmember, according to Hoboken Now.

Lenz served as Zimmer's main political strategist and adviser during the several cycles in which Zimmer pursued public office, including her successful 2007 4th Ward council race and her 2009 mayoral runs.

Zimmer held onto her council seat while serving as acting mayor after the meltdown of Peter Cammarano and until the Nov. 3rd special election for mayor, which she won decisively.

Her allies, Councilman Ravi Bhalla, Councilwoman Carol Marsh, Councilman David Mello and Councilman Peter Cunningham voted in favor of Lenz last night. Councilman Nino Giacchi, Councilwoman Terry Castellano, and Councilman Michael Russo voted against him.

Ex-Eagles tackle John Runyan is meeting with Ocean County Republican Chairman George Gilmore at Gilmore's law office this morning to talk about a prospective run for office.

Runyan, a 35-year-old Mount Laurel resident who played with the Eagles from 2000 until 2008, is, in his own words, “seriously considering” challenging freshman U.S. Rep. John Adler (D-Cherry Hill) next November.  

Getting the go-ahead from Gilmore is crucial, since he presides over the dominant party in the county that produced the most Republican votes in the state in the gubernatorial race two weeks ago.  Gilmore and his fellow Republican county chairs from Burlington and Camden Counties – which make up Adler’s congressional district – have expressed a desire to avoid a costly primary like the one last year between then-Medford Mayor Chris Myers, Ocean County Freeholder Jack Kelly and former Tabernacle Committeeman Justin Murphy.

Reached by phone this morning, Gilmore said he would hold off on comment until after he has met with Runyan.

More New Jerseyans get their state news on political and public affairs from television than from any other source, though they think their in-state newspapers do a good job covering the state. 

A Monmouth University/Gannett poll released this morning shows that 41% of state residents get most of their information from television.  Another 28% get most of their information from newspapers, while 19% mainly use internet news sources and 6% most often listen to the radio.

But New Jerseyans read newspapers about as much as they watch television news broadcasts out of New York and Philadelphia.  While 43% watch television news nearly every day, 42% read a newspaper regularly, 32% visit Web sites about every day and 22% listen to talk radio.

Of New Jersey residents who read the paper, 42% open it mainly for local community news, while 30% read it for national news and just 15% for state news.

"Like most Americans, New Jerseyans have become accustomed to turning on the television for news updates.  However, the focus of TV coverage tends to be national or the city where those media outlets are located, while newspapers are favored for their local news coverage.  Since we lack a home-grown broadcast media market, this leaves a gap for state-level news exposure in New Jersey," said Monmouth pollster Patrick Murray.

Political problems for the state's largest teacher's union continue to mount.  After going all out for Gov. Jon Corzine in the recent election, the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) knows they have a potential problem with voucher-backing charter school enthusiast Gov.-elect Christopher Christie.  And in the Senate, it looks like Teresa Ruiz (D-Newark), a protégé of Newark political leader Stephen Adubato, might replace Shirley Turner (D-Lawrence) as chairman of the Education Committee.  A fair assumption is that Ruiz will share Adubato's fervent support for charter schools. 

Turner could wind up a casualty of the contest for Senate President; she backed incumbent Richard Codey (D-Roseland), while Ruiz supported the likely winner, Stephen Sweeney (D-West Deptford).

Christie's problem with the NJEA might be more than just politics - he appears to have different views on how to fix New Jersey's public school.  And he might have the upper hand, especially with a potential political ally running the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Sheila Oliver (D-East Orange), who is expected to become the next Assembly Speaker, has not yet indicated who she will pick as the new Assembly Education Committee Chairman.  The incumbent, Joseph Cryan (D-Union), a strong NJEA supporter, is expected to vacate the post to become Majority Leader.  Oliver also has strong ties to Adubato - she is the Assistant Essex County Administrator (and Ruiz is the Deputy Chief of Staff to the Essex County Executive) - but statehouse observers say that Oliver is likely to pick a new chairman who would be supportive of the teachers union, a key player in the state's Democratic base vote.

Reportedly not under consideration to head the Education Committee is Joan Voss (D-Fort Lee), who spent forty years as a public school teacher and is now vice chair of the panel.  Voss, Democratic leaders say, lacks intellectual heft to take on the post.  Instead, Democrats could turn to Patrick Diegnan (D-South Plainfield), a Cryan/Oliver ally and the current chairman of the Assembly Higher Education Committee.  If Diegnan turns it down - the Middlesex County Democrat might want to stay where he is, considering the importance of Rutgers University to his district, the leadership might go with the highly-regarded Mila Jasey (D-South Orange), a former school board member but an ally of outgoing Senate President Richard Codey (D-Roseland), or Paul Moriarty (D-Washington Twp.), a member of South Jersey Democratic leader George Norcross' political organization.

A swastika and the word “Jews” were reported spray-painted on a wall of the NJ Transit train station in Somerville last night.  “This is unusual, we’ve never had anything like this in Somerville before,” said Capt. George Fazio.

East Orange Mayor Robert Bowser (over Gov. Jon Corzine's left shoulder), and Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo, far right.

East Orange Mayor Robert Boswer today said he believes Chris Christie's victory over Jon Corzine in the governor's race earlier this month should spark Democratic Party senators to reconsider their abandonment of support for Senate President Richard Codey (D-Roseland).

"I don't know what to expect at all from Chris Christie, and probably won't get any kind of clues until the transition team changes the guard, but I do believe Christie's win changes the dynamic for the senate presidency and the same thing for the speaker of the assembly," said Bowser.

At last public count, Senate Majority Leader Steve Sweeney (D-West Deptford) has 15 caucus votes to Codey's eight heading into their Nov. 23rd Statehouse confab and presumptive legislative leadership change.

TRENTON -- Municipal and county contributions for primary campaigns can now be searched and sorted online by contributor, and the same information will be available for general election candidates early next year, the Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) announced today.

Jeffrey Brindle, the ELEC executive director, made the announcement with some fanfare at the agency’s headquarters in Trenton this morning.  Although the information has been available for statewide and legislative campaigns since 1999, those looking to search for a specific contributor to local candidates used to have to pour through each candidate’s report.  

“More than $5.5 million was contributed during this year’s primary to local candidates through the state.  These donations can now be sorted by contributor and analyzed electronically,” said Brindle. “If someone receives a public contract, any citizen can simply key in his or her name.”  

Brindle said the commission began the initiative partly in response to pay-to-play, and partly to increase ELEC’s profile with the general public.  People he encounters who aren’t involved in politics or government, Brindle said, often don’t understand what ELEC does.

State Sen. Nicholas Scutari (D-Linden) will become the new chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, a position that will take on increased clout for a Democratic-controlled Senate confirming appointments made by a Republican governor.  Scutari was no pushover for Gov. Jon Corzine’s appointees – he takes his advise and consent responsibilities seriously, and does not view Judiciary as a rubber stamp.  That’s something Gov.-elect Christopher Christie’s front office will need to take into consideration  And Scutari is intellectually superior to the current chairman, State Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-Wood-Ridge).

Sarlo is expected to become Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee when State Sen. Barbara Buono (D-Metuchen) becomes Majority Leader.

Former state Sen. Joseph Coniglio (D-Paramus) reports to federal prison today to begin serving out his 2 ½ year sentence, The Record and AP remind us.

The 66-year-old Bergen County Democrat, who served in the state Senate between 2002 and 2008, was convicted for steering state grants to Hackensack University Medical Center, which employed him as a consultant.  Coniglio will serve out his term in a satellite camp next to the federal prison in Lewisburg – in central Pennsylvania.  

The Record reports that former Paterson School Board President Chauncey Brown III – who ran for Assembly as a Republican in 2007 – is serving a sentence in the same facility for his own corruption conviction.

Since Coniglio’s conviction, two other top Bergen County Democrats have fallen: former Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joseph Ferriero – who was convicted on three corruption counts last month – and the party’s powerful former counsel, Dennis Oury, who was indicted with Ferriero and pleaded guilty just before his trial started.  

Wakeup Call will return on Tuesday, November 17.

• Christie's charisma already a force
• For Dems, a last shot to create mischief
• Ex-NJ Gov McGreevey training to become priest
• Stile: PACs, Ferriero will cloud Bergen executive's race
• N.J. Gov.-elect Chris Christie plans to talk about taxes
• Coniglio joining the prison crowd
• LoBiondo can expect visitors over vote against health care bill
• Moran replaces Farmer as editorial page editor
• Mayor threatens to withhold taxes
• N.J. advocate to head U.S. reserves board, raise issue of soldiers' physical and mental health
• Gov.-elect Chris Christie winged his Election Night speech; Maggie Moran and Mike DuHaime make friends; Where to send your resumes
• Zimmer plans a City Hall more up-to-date, online
• U.S. Marshals nab NJ shooting suspect hours after he's on "America's Most Wanted"
• Law allows N.J. to collect unclaimed slot winnings from Atlantic City casinos
• Jersey City official charged in kiddie sex chat sting