RONALD RICE

The councilman's father, state Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Newark), overseeing operations days before Election Day.

NEWARK - West Ward Councilman Ronald C. Rice says his ward - overseen for over two decades by his father, state Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Newark) - is performing well early on Election Day.

"We just had our first round of numbers checks," Rice told PolitickerNJ.com.

The districts targeted for "surge" Obama voters are driving the numbers up to best expectations, Rice maintains. 

"In district 7, for example, the mark at the end of the day for Gov. Jon Corzine in 2005 was 200 votes at 8 p.m.," said the councilman. "As of noon today, that same district is reporting 92 votes.

West Ward Councilman Ronald C. Rice

NEWARK - The crowd spilled out onto the pavement following the rally with President Barack Obama and just in case there was any doubt about why he was in town, a TV truck broadcasting flatscreen images of Gov. Jon Corzine in action started circling the arena blasting out the message, "Corzine, Corzine, Corzine."

The crowd, of course, was still talking about Obama.

"Awesome," said Assemblywoman L. Grace Spencer (D-Newark), who was positioned on the floor in front of the stage where the president spoke at the Prudential Center said in response to a PolitickerNJ.com question. "There is a humility to him - unmistakable. It's easy to see that he worked his way up the hard way."

"I'm writing a book called 'Obama Chicks,'" said Pam Jasper, a certified pilot, wearing a hat with "Obama Chicks" printed on it in pink letters.

But with less than 40 hours to go before Election Day, the president is delivering more than inspirational presence to Newark. 

From left: Assemblyman Fred Scalera (D-Nutley), Gov. Jon Corzine, U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson), Nutley Mayor Joanne Cocchiola, Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo, and Assemblyman Ralph Caputo (D-Belleville)

BELLEVILLE - The self-proclaimed party of diversity lined up at the start of the Columbus Day Parade today, and if the presence of a single woman packed into this brace of gray and blue suited would-be alpha males heartened Democratic Party onlookers, the downside was that Nutley Mayor Joanne Cocchiola is, in fact, a Republican.

"We're from every part of Italy you can imagine," cracked U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) in an effort to explain the gender domination factor; indeed, they even had an Irishman in there, Essex County Clerk Chris Durkin, who made a point, in the midst of all the pre-march backyard chest-thumping, to compliment Celeste Caputo, wife of Assemblyman Ralph Caputo (D-Belleville), on the food.

Making an appearance here at arguably the area's most important Columbus Day event and forced to share a piece of the street with a Christopher Columbus lookalike in Genovese regalia who, when addressed, only responded in Italian, Gov. Jon Corzine relished a chance to inflate his wobbly image in this blue collar, Italian-Irish-Latino Catholic stronghold where Newark's white ethnics re-entrenched after the 1967 troubles.

Twenty-three days from D-Day, he leaned heavily on the locals.

"He opens up his home the way he opens up his heart," Corzine, affectionately gripping the back of Caputo's neck, told a crowd of local Democratic Party rivals who shelved their differences long enough to occupy the same patio with the governor moments before convening in the street at the head of any number of school marching bands, 1940s and 1950s cars, and party flotillas.

In a tweet, Newark City Councilman Ronald Rice is taking on Republican Lt. Governor candidate Kim Guadagno for saying she doesn't feel safe walking across the street in Newark.  From Rice Twitter: U admire our Mayor's anti crime efforts & attack council 4 bodyguards when we vote 4 those efforts and ONLY Mayor has bodyguards.  And do NOT think for one minute that I am not going to now look at your tax payer escorts as Sheriff in your county; glass houses."

In the old days, State Senators either moved up (often to a judgeship) or out.  Of the Senators who have served since 1845, when a new State Constitution began elected one Senator from every county, only eleven men have spent more than twenty years in the Senate.  Of those eleven, four are there now, and another two left within the last decade.

New Jersey's longest-serving State Senators, since 1845:

GOP candidate Chris Christie

If Christopher Christie had disclosed that Lambertville Police issued him three tickets in the fall of 2005, Republicans would not have vigorously pursued the resignation of then-Attorney General Zulima Farber during the summer of 2006, argue Democrats who see an emerging pattern of hypocrisy in the latest Christie behind-the-wheel story.

According to police, Christie, the Republican candidate for governor, identified himself as the U.S. Attorney both at a September 2005 Lambertville police stop where he was allowed to drive away an unregistered vehicle - reported last week - and at the scene of a 2002 traffic accident in which a motorcyclist went to the hospital after Christie drove the wrong way down a one-way street, the Star-Ledger reported today.

Farber, who had been named as the state's top law enforcement official by Gov. Jon Corzine, showed up at the Fairview scene of a May 2006 police stoppage in a government vehicle, in an incident that highlighted the Attorney General's failure to satisfy Republican lawmakers who months earlier during her confirmation hearing grilled her about her blemish-heavy driving record. The incident caused her to resign eight months into her tenure and caused some political problems for the fledgling Corzine administration.

Assemblyman Reed Gusciora (D-Princeton), who said he's probably racked up more tickets than any other legislator in the Assembly, said he's never identified himself as an elected official when he gets stopped.
 
"It's a little self-serving for me to mention it maybe, but I just have never felt that you should throw your title around," said Gusciora. "I cringed in both instances - Christie's and Farber's.  It just makes us all look bad."
 
But Gusciora said he believes Christie's story is worse than Farber's, because of what he identifies as the former U.S. Attorney's hypocrisy.

Jon Corzine' early endorsement of Irvington Mayor Wayne Smith appears to have angered a group of local Democrats planning to challenge Smith when he comes up for re-election in May 2010.  Corzine took sides even though one likely Smith rival, Councilman David Lyons, is also backing Corzine.   Former Assemblyman Craig Stanley (D-Irvington), who is part of the Payne political dynasty, is also a possible candidate.  And the governor endorsed in a race knowing that State Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Newark), who represents Irvington, is unlikely to support the incumbent.

State Sen. Ronald L. Rice (D-Newark)

No, he's not hitting the panic button yet, but veteran state Sen. Ronald L. Rice (D-Newark) calls Gov. Jon Corzine's campaign to this point the worst he's seen from his perch on the frontlines of state politics. 

As far as Rice is concerned, Corzine's selection of state Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck) as his running mate is one more belly flop in a series of such campaign trip-ups.

"I think he just ran out of names," shrugged Rice, a state senator since 1986, who all along had hoped Corzine would select an African-American to serve as the state's first lieutenant governor.

"He's down to the wire here with the deadline being Monday, you follow me, and so he's just grasping at straws, no disrespect to my fine colleague, Senator Weinberg," Rice added. "Yes, she's respected. Most of us are respected. But overall, I am disappointed that the governor gave no serious consideration to minorities and African-Americans."

Corzine, in fact, did consider Rhodes Scholar/reality TV star Randal Pinkett as his running mate, but Rice didn't like the pick on its face, as Pinkett's resume, by Rice's reckoning, was heavy on private sector glam and slim on the public service side. 

State Sen. Ronald L. Rice (D-Newark), foreground, campaigning for Obama with his son, West Ward Councilman Ronald C. Rice.

The early establishment reaction out of Democratic Party stronghold Essex County to LG prospect Randal Pinkett ranged from off-the-record outrage to on-the-record bewilderment to polite resignation.

Staring at a 12-point deficit in the governor's race and saddled with the responsbility of driving big Essex numbers in November for Gov. Jon Corzine, name Democrats here gaped at Corzine's rumored impending selection of a private sector African-American running mate. At least intially they question Pinkett's presence beside an incumbent schooled on Wall Street whose strong point was never his old-hand knowledge of politics and government.

"I don't know him, so I wouldn't have any comment about him," Essex County Democratic Party Chairman Phil Thigpen said of Pinkett. "The skills required to get elected and to get people to vote are not necessarily the same as the skills you need to make money. He hasn't been active in politics, to my knowledge."

State Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Newark) doesn't know Pinkett, but doesn't have a good feeling about him.

"People have relationships in business, and when they do, frankly, I get a little nervous when it comes to grassroots issues," said Rice of the 38-year old technology consultant from Franklin Township who's never held elected office. "Some of these business people should remain business people. Their trouble when they get into politics is they personalize what's good for them and they reach that point where they cross that line and can't see the people anymore."

State Sen. Dana Redd (D-Camden)

Sources close to Gov. Jon Corzine have said for months now that he won't pick a white male for lieutenant governor.

Not enough balance.

A week ago three names seemed fairly solid in a firmament that nevertheless shifts daily: state Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck), state Sen. Barbara Buono (D-Metuchen) and Secretary of State Nina Mitchell Wells.

If the first two were white, they were women, at least. But the fact that they weren't males wasn't the only obvious jump-off-the-page quality they shared.

Both women had reputations as elected officials who wouldn't easily get pushed around. 

Weinberg earned a rep - and endeared herself in the process to Corzine - as an enemy of the Bergen County Democratic Organization, while Buono aggressively sought the budget chairmanship despite efforts by leadership to install somebody more pliant.