Menza addressses the crowd.

HILLSIDE - This little, oft-dispected town practically buried under a criss-cross of highways in the muscled-up arms of Newark on one side and Elizabeth on the other today showed little sign of breaking a four-year standoff between mayor and council as Joe Menza assumed the oath of office several hours before the council's reorganization meeting this evening.

Real estate developer Menza beat the local Democratic Party machine on May 12th when he defeated At-Large Councilman Jerome Jewell, a staunch ally of local party chair Charlotte DeFilippo, who also runs the county party.

DeFillipo allies still controls five seats on the seven-member governing body, but Menza kicked off his mayoralty by letting the crowd of 150 people here know that under the Faulkner Act, it is his responsibility to prepare and submit an annual operating budget and to sign all contracts, and he doesn't intend to abdicate those powers.

On the contrary, "The buck stops right here, you can expect that from me," announced the new mayor, moments after taking the oath at the prompting of substitute Township Judge Geoffrey Gechtman.

State Sen. Sandra Cunningham (D-Jersey City), vice chair of the Senate Labor Committee.

TRENTON - State Sen. Sandra Cunningham (D-Jersey City) admitted today that she was irritated with Gov. Jon Corzine for not calling her personally to discuss Corzine's nomination of County Executive Tom DeGise to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

"Let's just say I wasn't asked," Cunningham told PolitickerNJ.com moments after state Sen. Fred Madden (D-Gloucester) gaveled out today's Senate Labor Committee hearing.

Sources say DeGise discussed his nomination with Cunningham, but Cunningham allies say the senator wanted the governor to confer with her personally, which she says never happened.

Asked who she favors as a candidate for lieutenant governor on a ticket topped by the governor in his re-election bid, Cunningham said she has not considered the issue.

Asked who she could sell in Jersey City as a candidate, Cunningham said, "I haven't thought about LG. I will have a hard enough time selling the governor."

RICE - STATE POLICE MONITORING SHOULD CONTINUE UNTIL ALL RACIAL PROFILING QUESTIONS ARE ANSWERED

TRENTON – Senator Ronald L. Rice, D-Essex, and Chairman of the New Jersey Legislative Black Caucus, issued the following statement today regarding the possibility that the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office might move to dissolve a federal consent decree early next year which resulted in nearly a decade of federal oversight of the New Jersey State Police following revelations of the institutional practice of racial profiling among State Troopers:

“While I believe that the New Jersey State Police have come a long way in addressing and eliminating the inherent racism and prejudice enshrined in their racial profiling policies, I would ask Governor Corzine and Attorney General Milgram today to hold off on efforts to lift the consent decree until all questions are answered.

She's called a special meeting, but will Council President Mildred Crump and the council take substantive action tomorrow?: Politicker photo 

NEWARK - They could end up coming out of their offices tomorrow and standing unified behind their fallen colleague with a statement of support, but a prospective City Council vote on whether or not to replace embattled former Councilwoman Dana Rone summons an inevitable question.

Who would vote to replace Rone, and who would replace her?

The fact that Council President Mildred Crump called a special meeting tomorrow at a time when East Ward Councilman Augusto Amador is on vacation may indicate that Mayor Cory Booker - an ally of Crump’s - wants the council to move on the vote as quickly as possible.

Some Newark sources say Crump - not Booker - has more of a stake in would-be replacement Nikea White; and that is was Crump acting alone, not the mayor, who pushed for tomorrow’s vote.

Mayor Cory Booker last night in the Central Ward. 

NEWARK - After his loss on Monday night, the last one of this cycle to draw his record to 0-3 in ward fights, Mayor Cory Booker walked outside in the Central Ward and was swarmed instantly by children.

"Mayor Booker!" they shouted. "Mayor Booker!"

They wanted to play in the middle of the heat wave that caused several power outages in the city on Monday, and Booker indulged them, even as his detractors seethed.

"He just got his butt kicked and he’s outside playing Simon Says," said a Newark operative.

NEWARK - State Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Newark) leaves Democratic Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Newark) operates on Election Day.Party headquarters at the Robert Treat Hotel to head back to the streets.

"I want to be out there," he says.

His son, West Ward Councilman Ron Rice, meanwhile, already is - driving from polling place to polling place in his ward and finding turnout sluggish at best.

First elected to the Newark City Council the same year Frank Lautenberg became a U.S. senator - 1982 - the elder Rice, and his son both back the re-election of U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) over U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews.

South Ward Councilman Oscar James II in headquarters.

NEWARK- Oscar James II doesn’t know if he can win this primary fight down here in Newark’s South Ward, but if he can hold Lautenberg to a stand-off, and other ground-level Andrews allies in northern New Jersey can do the same, maybe South Jersey can deliver big for the underdog.

That’s the plan anyway.

In the meantime, there’s another war he’s fighting.

A two-year councilman representing the most sprawling ward in the city, James knows U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews (D-1) is a longshot in his challenge of U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ). But as the Booker Team leader in the south, James wants to help bust apart the Payne family machine that has long controlled ward politics.

RICE BILL TO ENSURE GREATER ACCOUNTABILITY IN LOCAL CONTRACTS APPROVED

TRENTON – A bill sponsored by Senator Ronald L. Rice which would require that local contracts must be approved by a majority of the full membership of the municipal council, as opposed to a majority of council members present, was unanimously approved by the Senate Community and Urban Affairs Committee today.

“Government must be accountable to the people – all the people – when dealing with the people’s money,” said Senator Rice, D-Essex. “In my opinion, any interpretation of existing law which violates this basic spirit of government accountability is wrong. New Jersey’s taxpayers need to have the assurances of their local leaders that government is operating by the rules, and not using legal semantics to pass fly-by-night contracts which aren’t in the public’s interest.”

Its geography just above Newark's North Ward makes Belleville look like a natural complement to the political kingdom of Steve Adubato, who nevertheless denies he's personally backing anyone in nonpartisan municipal races in this hardscrabble town, with a population that hovers around 34,000.

"Belleville's always worried about me going over there," said the North Ward Democratic leader. "I was looking for a place for a charter school once. I went over to Belleville. That would have been great for Belleville, but they weren't interested."

The specter of Adubato in Belleville's May 13th elections comes in part as a result of Assemblyman (and Freeholder) Ralph Caputo's support of three candidates who have teamed up to try to unseat Mayor Ray Kimble's slate. Adubato and Caputo go way back, to when the latter lived in Newark before moving to Belleville. And, of course, it was Caputo who was part of the district 28 ticket that last year ousted Sen. Ron Rice's running mates, Oadline Truitt and Craig Stanley.

"Change is in the air," mused the new assemblyman, consciously invoking the clear-the-decks campaign slogan currently most associated with presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama.

Obama Campaign State Director Mark Alexander

On the day of the Iowa caucuses, the New Jersey state director of Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign has one immediate strategy, win or lose: on the next morning he’s going to stand up volunteers at different locales: the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee, Newark Penn Station, Jersey City. They will be out there waving "Obama" signs, staying visible, shouting, working.

"We were always the candidate talking about change, that message hasn’t changed," says Mark Alexander, 41, seated in his West Orange office on Thursday, composed - given the stakes. Obama’s wife said if they didn’t win Iowa, the campaign would be finished.

"Fundamentally," says Alexander, "we are content that we are offering something the American people really want."