PolitickerNJ.com is pleased to welcome our two newest columnists: Michael Patrick Carroll and Carla Katz. Carroll, a Morris County Republican, was re-elected to his seventh term in the State Assembly last week. Katz is the President of the Communications Workers of America Local 1034; with over 16,000 members, Local 1034 is the largest CWA Local in the nation.

Will former GOP State Chairman David Norcross run for Congress?U.S. Rep. James Saxton's retirement has opened the floodgates, with over a dozen names pouring out as potential successors to the dozen-term Congressman. And many of those names hail from Ocean County, a solidly Republican locale that has never had a Congressman who called it home.

Ocean County politicians see this as a great opportunity to a long-deserved seat. But while they appear to have more aspirants than Burlington County, which makes up a roughly equal chunk of the district, so far no potential candidate has appeared from Ocean with the name recognition or draw of Diane Allen, who bobs to the surface of congressional hopefuls.

Short of drafting a celebrity to run, the best hope for any Ocean County Republican to win the nomination is an internal battle in Burlington County - a real possibility. Allen's current nemesis, GOP boss Glenn Paulsen, could make things more complicated for her as long as their two party factions are warring. Or former GOP State Chairman David Norcross, a veteran political player who has reportedly expressed interest in running for the seat, could wage a strong challenge as well.

Can the Burlington GOP war end if Glenn Paulsen backs Diane Allen for Congress?Pressed into a special session by GOP boss and former county chairman Glenn Paulsen on Saturday, Burlington municipal party chair people passed two resolutions at party headquarters in Mount Holly.

The first was to reinstate Paulsen confidants Chris Russell and Bill Layton, whom Acting Chairwoman Dawn Lacy had dismissed after Tuesday’s election from their respective duties as campaign manager and campaign chairman.

The second resolution was to impose a deadline of on or before December 1 to replace Lacy, who says she had offended Paulsen by actually presuming to do her job instead of getting pushed around by the former chair.