Fortified by political events in the heartland, Mike Huckabee spear carriers have been slowly but determinedly appearing on the Republican primary battlements in New Jersey.

They know they’re not mobilizing major operations on the East Coast. To get a sense of how Huckabee’s been doing here, in Quinnipiac University’s late September poll, the candidate was two points ahead of Sen. Sam Brownback - who was no longer in the race.

Atlantic County Republican Chairman Keith Davis and Hudson County Republican Chairman Jose Arango both joined Anne Estabrook’s U.S. Senate campaign committee today.

“Change is coming,” said Davis in a press release.  “Anne Estabrook is the leader we need to provide a common-sense approach to finding solutions for New Jersey’s affordability crisis.”

Quinnipiac University will release a new poll on Tuesday on Gov. Jon Corzine's job approvals, his monetization plan, and voter opinions on the death penalty.  Corzine had a 49%-40% approval rating in a September 24 Quinnipiac poll, and was at 48%-39% in July.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman John Adler, the Democratic candidate for Congress in the third district, today asked state Attorney General Anne Milgram to “initiate a thorough criminal review” of Governor Jon Corzine’s $15,000 gift to Rocco Riccio, the brother-in-law of his ex-girlfriend and the President of the state’s largest public employees union.  Adler wants to know if any laws were broken.

Adler’s call comes fourteen months after Corzine told a Gannett New Jersey editorial board that he would not pick Adler as his Attorney General: “John Adler will not be my attorney general. We will pick the very best individual, with the skills to make sure we carry out an executive order to clean up politics in this state." – Jon Corzine, speaking at a Gannett New Jersey debate (Tamari, Asbury Park Press, 10/12/05)

Update: A new version of the AP article reports that Adler's letter to Attorney General Anne Milgram asks her to investigate whether Riccio engaged in misconduct by examining tax records. Adler did not mention the payment of $15,000 in the letter

In the letter, Adler said that he discussed the Rocco Riccio matter privately with Boxer after his initial testimony in front of the judiciary committee and reviewed his notes.

Republicans have held Jim Saxton’s House seat continuously since 1884, when George Hires, a GOP State Senator from Salem County, ousted one-term Democratic Congressman Thomas Ferrell by 1,742 votes.  Now, after four weeks of considerable drama and many surprises, the GOP candidate to hold this open seat against Democrat John Adler, the Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman, may be decided in a June Republican primary between Medford Deputy Mayor Christopher Myers, a Lockheed-Martin executive, and Ocean County Freeholder John Kelly. 

Monday, December 10th is the state Division of Elections' deadline for petition signatures required to get the names of presidential candidates on the New Jersey primary ballot on Feb. 5th.

Democratic Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich may be a non-entity in the official polls in New Jersey, but his supporters made certain their candidate was the first Democrat assured of getting on the ballot. According to the Division of Elections, Kucinich, and Republican candidates Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani and John McCain all have the requisite signatures to be on the primary ballot.

Glyniss Forbes, Essex County campaign co-chair for NJ for Obama, addresses the speech made by Mayor Cory Booker on Obama's behalf, and discusses some of her organizing in her hometown of South Orange and in Newark.

Mayor Cory Booker reminds the crowd attending Saturday's rally for presidential candidate Barack Obama that they have to get out there between now and Election Day to work the streets.

Addressing 150 people at an Obama campaign event Saturday in Newark's Masonic Temple, Councilman Ron Rice, Jr., says the naysayers have dismissed his presidential candidate at each juncture of Obama's campaign - only to be proved wrong.