RONALD RICE

State Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Essex), left, and Assemblyman Ralph Caputo (D-Belleville).

TRENTON - The 28th District primary battle to take down state Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Essex) in 2007 proved bloody enough for Rice - the survivor - to comment in its aftermath, “Every war has casualties.” 

Running off the line, Rice fended off his own challenger, but lost his running mates, Craig Stanley and Oadline Truitt, who were defeated by Ralph Caputo and Cleopatra Tucker. 

Now months before the 2009 Democratic primary in Essex County with sources saying Stanley wants back in, Rice wants it known he supports the reelection of Assemblyman Caputo (D-Belleville) and Assemblyman Tucker (D-Newark), and won’t back challengers to the two people who in the last election helped comprise a ticket that challenged him. 

Gov. Jon Corzine, right, with senior policy advisor (and former 4th Congressional District candidate) Josh Zeitz

TRENTON – It’s very early, of course. 

But Gov. Jon Corzine at his full-fledged press conference on the fourth floor of the Hughes Justice Center this afternoon, where he was flanked by Chief Justice Stuart Rabner and Attorney General Anne Milgram, suggested the déjà all over again feel of Gerry Ford’s defensive posture campaign against Jimmy Carter one day after Corzine’s presumptive chief rival entered the race for governor.  

In that 1976 presidential contest between Carter and Ford, Carter was out in the hinterlands while Ford tracked the sedate and somber steps of good government, immersed in all the symbolic trappings of his office. 

In this case, in the face of repeated Republican put-downs that Democrats with their overt culture of political patronage and government first ask questions afterwards approach, Corzine projected the image of an executive committed to making the engine run as he announced in the midst of a national recession the creation of a new state-supported mortgage foreclosure mediation program.

Former Assembly Minority Leader Willie Brown passed away on Monday.    He was 68.  Brown spent 24 years representing Newark in the State Assembly.

First elected in 1973, at age 33, he was a member of a freshman Essex Assembly delegation that included Richard Codey.  He was re-elected eleven times.  He was the Assembly Minority Leader in 1988 and 1989.  When Democrats took control of the Assembly in 1989, the caucus picked Joseph Doria for Speaker and Wayne Bryant for Majority Leader; Brown became the Speaker Pro Tempore.

Politicker.com photo

Former Assemblyman William Payne (right, with Gov. Jon Corzine) is not likely to seek his old 29th district seat, but he wants his nephew, former Assemblyman Craig Stanley, to get his old 28th district seat back next year.

Freshman Assemblywoman Cleopatra Tucker is in danger of losing the support of the Essex County Democratic organization if she runs for re-election to a second term in 2009, Democratic sources say.  Part of the deal to keep Assemblywoman Grace Spencer, perhaps Newark Mayor Cory Booker's closest friend in the Legislature, in her 29th district seat is to replace Tucker with former Assemblyman Craig Stanley, who lost his bid for renomination in the June 2007 primary. 

The New Jersey Board of Agriculture -- seven men and one woman, all white -- will pick the state's new Secretary of Agriculture when Charles Kuperus retires at the end of the year.

The workers toiling in New Jersey's fields around Vineland are mostly Mexican, and because of that fact, Mayor Bob Romano acknowledges it might help to have a Latino serve as Secretary of Agriculture.

"I think it would be great idea," Romano said in response to the question, "as long as the person has the knowledge. You need somebody who's qualified. That's the main thing. We need someone who's going to be a strong advocate for keeping New Jersey farmers on their farms."

Acknowledging that many migrant workers in New Jersey come from Mexico and Central America, Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Essex) jumped at the suggestion of a Latino state Secretary of Agriculture to succeed Charles Kuperus, who retires at the end of this month.

"I think a Latino would be very good for that position," said the veteran Newark senator.  "I'm sure New Jersey farmers understand the need to bring balance to that position. Diversity is our greatest strength, coupled with a candidate who would bring objectivity to the job."

However, state Board of Agriculture Vice President Robert Matarazzo says the Department of Agriculture - salvaged from the budget chopping block last year - remains in precarious shape in bad economic times. He doesn't see the recruitment of a Latino secretary, or anything else short of industry survival - as a priority.

Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Essex)

TRENTON- Challenged by Mayor Wayne Smith and Team Irvington in his squeak-out, off-the-line re-election victory last year, state Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Essex) said he hopes Smith did not authorize Keith Reid to accept a $5,000 bribe on his behalf – which is what Reid told a jury in Newark earlier today.

“Wayne is a real hard working mayor, always has been, and he’s committed to his township,” said Rice, who in 2007 fended off a challenge by Smith ally Councilman L. Bilal Beasely after Smith himself expressed a desire to go up against Rice.

“Hopefully that’s not the case,” Rice added of the under-oath statement by Reid, former chief of staff of Newark City Council President Mildred Crump.

Gov. Jon Corzine

TRENTON - Emerging from passing six bills, part of a larger, nine-bill $245 million economic recovery plan championed by Gov. Jon Corzine - senators in both parties agreed that the work today represents only a small part of what’s required. 

Predictably, Democrats and some dissenting Republicans diverged starkly on fundamentals, with key GOP reps doubtful about enabling government to work as a problem solver, and Democrats digging in to take another big crack at the problem with that all-purpose tool: government.

“I think today New Jersey took a step in the right direction,” said state Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-Bergen), whose EDA Main Street Assistance bill dishes $50 million to help jumpstart small businesses. “We recognize this needs to be solved on the national level. But although a lot of Republicans talked, many of them came with us in the end.”

Taking a shot at the campaign run against him by the Laborers and the allies of Mayor Cory Booker, Central Ward Councilman Charles Bell at his swearing-on ceremony in City Hall last night noted gratefully that money and turkeys don’t vote.

The crack was a reference to Eddie Osborne campaign’s massive GOTV operation, which included the coordinated distribution to of hundreds of early Thanksgiving turkeys.

Officially assuming the seat left occupied by former Central Ward Councilwoman Dana Rone, Bell seized the opportunity to instruct the mayor, who was not in attendance.

The new councilman disapproved of the tone of the campaign, expressed in hand and pole signs with the words: “Charles Bell equals corruption and waste.”

Former lawmaker Bill Payne doesn’t know if he’s going to run for his old seat in the Assembly next year against Assemblywoman L. Grace Spencer (D-Newark), but he appears less inclined to make a move than he was this past summer.

Payne’s longtime friend, state Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Newark), told PolitickerNJ.com that he would urge the retired legislator not to pursue a run against Spencer.

“I’m supporting the re-election of every member of the Legislative Black Caucus,” said Rice, including the Mayor Cory Booker-backed Spencer, who won Payne’s South Ward-based seat in last year’s election.

North Ward Councilman Anibal Ramos

NEWARK – Among Newark elected officials, the election of Barack Obama last week sparked hope for healthcare reform, more federal aid, a re-invigorated sense of American leadership - and a special place on the president’s to-do list for the Brick City.

Inevitably, the Democratic victory also opened up questions about the future of Mayor Cory Booker, a supporter of Obama’s from the beginning of his campaign, who now serves on the president-elect’s transition team as it relates specifically to urban affairs.

As mayor of one of New Jersey’s biggest and one of America’s oldest cities with a battered infrastructure, Booker will join over 20 other New Jersey mayors in Newark on Wednesday for a conference to redefine urban needs for the new administration.