Ron Rice

Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo, left, and Senate Majority Leader Steve Sweeney (D-West Deptford)

Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo plans to formally kick-off his bid for a third term on Dec. 11th.

Over the past few days in particular, sources say the county executive has made the rounds and confirmed considerable support toward his re-election.

Although no one has emerged as a serious challenger to the popular county exec, there are hold-outs, notably Senate President Richard Codey (D-Roseland), East Orange Mayor Robert Bowser, and state Sen. Ronald L. Rice (D-Newark), who all believed DiVincenzo helped engineer Codey's collapse from his power projection platform as head of the state senate.

In his defense, DiVincenzo maintained that Codey was clearly wounded following the caucus reorganization vote after the 2007 elections.

When Sen. Steve Sweeney (D-West Deptford) defeated the Codey-backed Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-Wood-Ridge) for senate majority leader, DiVincenzo said he read that as a sign that the Essex County -based Codey couldn't summon the votes to suppress Sweeney's upward mobility.

Newark West Ward Councilman Ronald C. Rice, left, with state Senate President/former Governor Richard Codey (D-Roseland)

NEWARK - Over 100 people packed the Spot on Tuesday night for a fundraiser in support of West Ward Councilman Ronald C. Rice, who's up for re-election next year as a member of the Booker Team.

So far, Rice has no challengers to the seat he has held since he landed in office three and a half years ago and there was considerable buzz in the room and all up and down the bar about his moving up politically in the not too distant future.

"This is the last time you'll be running for the West Ward council seat," Assemblyman Tom Giblin (D-Montclair) told the Essex County rising star.

But Rice proclaimed that whatever happens next year or beyond, he intends to protect his "little brother" on the council, South Ward Councilman Oscar James, Jr.

**** UPDATED: Sen. Ronald Rice's staff today told PolitickerNJ.com that Rice will not attend the Obama rally tomorrow because his mother is gravely ill.  

NEWARK - Two big charter buses idle outside of headquarters off South Orange Avenue and state Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Newark) is just about ready to give the signal for the two of them to get going.

"Our people always march at night," he says in the face of the darkening streetscape. "They hit the doors between 4 and 8 p.m."

Onboard are 109 canvassers for Gov. Jon Corzine, with instructions to blanket the West Ward with door hangers and campaign literature for the incumbent Democratic governor two days in front of President Barack Obama's 11th hour Corzine rally in Newark followed by the election itself next Tuesday.

No one seems to know at this point exactly who's going to win: Corzine or his Republican opponent, Chris Christie; but the campaign wants to squeeze 40,000 votes out of Newark, and Rice has a goal to help get the governor 8,000 votes in the West Ward, a long-shot, he admits.

Four years ago, then-candidate Doug Forrester's campaign tore through the streets with a lot of hoopla and once the operatives here had recovered after being doubled over with laughter, they hit back with a vengeance against the interloper from the GOP and delivered nearly 9,000 votes for the Democrat.

Essex County Corzine Campaign Coordinator Leroy Jones, left, and Assemblyman Albert Coutinho (D-Newark) Thursday in the East Ward.

NEWARK - After months of mostly unobservable underground movements and five days in front of President Barack Obama's appearance at the Rock, there is evidence of effort on behalf of Gov. Jon Corzine in a city the governor needs to win amply in order to land another four years in office.
 
Of course, Democrats are leaning heavily on Corzine-Obama linkage.

In 2005, Corzine defeated Republican challenger Doug Forrester in Newark, 39,573 to 3,336, while carrying Essex County overall, 131,312 to 45,789 on his way to statewide victory.
 
By comparison, Obama punished Republican Sen. John McCain in Newark by a vote of 77,112 to 5,957 last year, as he carried Essex County, 240,127 to 73,975, recording a larger number of votes here than in any other county on his way to winning New Jersey by a 15% margin. 

"Certainly for Obama, people had a clear and distinguishable reason for coming out," says Essex County Democratic Party chairman Phil Thigpen. "Now, it's not as visible when you talk about quality of education or property taxes and you're a renter, for example. So we've got to jazz it up."

NEWARK - With a deepening sense of alarm, state Sen. Ronald L. Rice (D-Newark) observes the leadership battle between his longtime ally state Senate President Richard Codey (D-Roseland) and Senate Majority Leader Stephen Sweeney (D-West Deptford).

But he still believes Codey will prevail and hold onto his leadership chair against the South Jersey lawmaker whose close ties to South Jersey Democratic Leader George Norcross III worry Rice.

"I'm with Codey," said the veteran senator. "We're together because, agree or disagree, we're about people. You read the papers and you see the headlines. You've got these networks pushing, pushing, pushing - people pushing behind the scenes who aren't elected to anything. Scary. Codey's always had an independence about him. If Sweeney's senate president, no one's going to be able to breathe. Anyone who's honest with themselves knows that. I've been there a long time, and it's starting to stink in Trenton."

Rice said other members of the Legislative Black Caucus who would have a vote in the Codey-Sweeney contest - namely state Sen. Nia Gill (D-Montclair) and state Sen. Sandra Cunningham (D-Jersey City) - personally told him in the past that they are with Codey.

"Codey has been good to our caucus members and in the end I don't see our members divorcing themselves from Codey," Rice said. "There's a big difference between Codey's world and relationships, and Sweeney's world." 

Regarding the potential for Assemblywoman Sheila Oliver (D-East Orange) to play Essex County counterweight in a lower house leadership role to Sweeney in the event the South Jersey lawmaker dethrones Essex County's own Codey, Rice said, "That's a bunch of hogwash. I've been around too long to buy that. The only reason they're throwing her name out there is to mess with Bonnie (Assembly Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing), who's a short list candidate for speaker)."

Republican 28th District Assembly candidate Herbert Glenn outside of Christie headquarters in Newark.

NEWARK - Mayor Cory Booker jogged down the steps of the Quitman School this morning, flashing a broad grin at faces in the crowd, snapping a wink at one of them.

"There's the movie star," said a woman, chuckling at the sight of the mayor, three days after the completion of cable television's five-night debut reality TV series, "Brick City."

Behind Booker slogged Gov. Jon Corzine, here with five weeks remaining in his reeelection campaign to announce new crime prevention and community building initiatives to keep at-risk children in school. 

Not immune to the mayor's statewide star status as they war with Corzine, Chris Christie's gubernatorial campaign has hit the Booker button on several occasions, trying to gouge out a gulf between Booker and the governor, notably when Christie earlier this month said the high-profile mayor of New Jersey's most populous city would enjoy a "real partner" in the governor's office were Christie to unseat incumbent Democrat Gov. Jon Corzine.

"He's doing the best he can under the circumstances," Christie running mate Monmouth County Sheriff Kim Guadagno added of the mayor.

Today, at an unveiling of new urban school initiatives in the Central Ward, Booker, the man many believe to be a lock as the 2013 Democratic nominee for governor, made the case for Corzine and why, contrary to Christie's pronouncements, he believes the sitting governor is a good partner for Newark.

Newark Council President Mildred Crump

On the week the Chris Christie campaign opened its Newark headquarters and Republican lieutenant governor candidate Kim Guadagno told a crowd she knows what it's like to be afraid on the streets here, City Council members opened up on Christie's number two.

“I am stunned that the Monmouth County Sheriff would say she is afraid to walk our streets,” Newark Council President Mildred Crump, an ally of Gov. Jon Corzine, said in a release. “As someone running to be the next in line to lead this state, it is very disconcerting to hear that Sheriff Guadagno was apparently scared to set foot into the city when she was coming here to teach law.”

North Ward Councilman Anibal Ramos ratcheted up the critique.

“The Christie campaign came to Newark to open a campaign headquarters and managed to verbalize in one sentence all that is wrong with their campaign,” Ramos said.  “It is pure hypocrisy for them to say they care about Newark and its residents in one breath and, in the next, say they are afraid to walk our streets.”

NEWARK COUNCIL BLASTS CHRISTIE RUNNING MATE
FOR SAYING SHE IS
“AFRAID TO WALK ACROSS THE STREET” IN THE CITY

(NEWARK)—Members of the Newark Council today questioned Republican Lieutenant Gubernatorial candidate Kim Guadagno’s statement Tuesday that she is afraid to walk down the street in Newark.

Newark West Ward Councilman Ronald C. Rice campaigns for Barack Obama in 2007.

NEWARK - President Barack Obama lands on a stage today against the backdrop of a party frantically trying to figure out what to do about Gov. Jon Corzine's apparent number one choice for lieutenant governor, an African-American reality TV star with degrees from MIT, Oxford University and Rutgers University and CEO of a successful technology consulting firm in Newark who nonetheless has never held public office.

Corzine confidantes kept kicking other names around on Wednesday even as Pinkett's supporters argued in favor of his selection.

"The establishment is always wary of change and something new," said state Sen. Ray Lesniak (D-Elizabeth). "The establishment lined up behind Hillary, not Obama, even the black establishment. They also backed Dick Leone over another Rhodes scholar who did well, Bill Bradley."

By contrast, when state Sen. Ronald L. Rice (D-Newark) peeked at Pinkett's resume - heavy on corporate cred and thin on grassroots  - he received an early negative vibe.

His son, Newark West Ward Councilman Ronald C. Rice, a Joshua generation leader who was one of Obama's first impassioned  supporters among New Jersey elected officials, celebrates Pinkett's decision to open his firm in Newark where he participates in a business incubator program with the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT).

Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic) welcomes Gov. Jon Corzine to Passaic Wednesday evening

PASSAIC - The backroom wrangling on EnCap ain't over.

"We're studying it," Gov. Jon Corzine said of a reform bill on the subject that passed overwhelmingly in the legislature a week ago.

Senate President Richard Codey (D-Roseland) called a vote last Thursday evening on the reform bill authored by Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck), Sen. Bob Gordon (D-Paramus) and Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic), overriding Sen. Ray Lesniak's (D-Elizabeth) 11th-hour worries as Lesniak and Schaer sat in Corzine's office.

Lesniak fretted that some of the bill's sharper edges might undercut his economic stimulus bill, and he told Schaer he had the votes to kill a piece of legislation Schaer's worked for two and a half years.

Schaer called his bluff, and demanded a machine vote in the Assembly.

Codey, meanwhile, went ahead and opened the machines on the Senate side.

"This is a bill that demands accountability and transparency so that we avoid another Encap," said Weinberg, referring to the State of New Jersey's infamous attempt to resusitate a Bergen garbage dump into a golf course, which resulted in a more than $300 million killzone for taxpayers.