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.

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.

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.

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.

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State Sen. Nicholas Scutari (D-Linden)

One of the last senators to announce publicly that he would support Senate Majority Leader Steve Sweeney (D-West Deptford) for leadership over Senate President Richard Codey (D-Roseland), state Sen. Nicholas Scutari (D-Linden) today said he intends to stick with Sweeney.

"That's not the first time I have heard that, but I don't think it changes my thinking," Scutari said to an argument made by East Orange Mayor Robert Bowser that Democrats should remain with the veteran Codey as senate president to ensure the toughest top legislative negotiator in the coming era of Republican Gov. Chris Christie.

"I certainly don't think Steve Sweeney is a poor negotiator and I believe he would do a fine job," Scutari explained. "Senator Codey would do a great job - and has. But with the new governor coming in I think there are real opportunities for change. Senator Sweeney has been a strong advocate for stabilizing our pension system and he will lend credence to our efforts."

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.

After discussing the budget at a meeting with State Treasurer David Rousseau and two officials from the Office of Management and Budget, Gov.-Elect Christopher Christie said his reaction was a "rueful chuckle." 

And at a press conference today talking about that meeting, the faces of Christie and his two top budget advisors, Richard Bagger and Robert Grady - who were also present at the meeting -- were dour. 

That $8 billion structural deficit we've been talking about for 2011?  If things remain the way they are and infusions like the one that came from the federal stimulus for the 2010 budget are not repeated, the men said, that's "the low end of the range."  Moreover, the revenue projections for the 2010 budget, which were about $190 million short in the first quarter, are set to continue to come in below projections, while there are expected to be supplemental needs in agencies that will increase spending. 

"If you add together the fact that revenues are continuing to come in light and there are supplemental needs, it's clear that we will have a problem in Fiscal 2010 that will need to be addressed," said Grady to a room packed shoulder-to-shoulder with a few dozen reporters and cameramen. 

Christie and his advisors did not give details about how they planned to solve the problem, but said they will deliver a letter to Gov. Jon Corzine today about it and said they would undertake four steps:

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.

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.