Marlboro Mayor Robert Kleinberg
How a sleepy hollow farming burgh became a build-out crossroads and earned itself a shot as a sprawl capital may have roots in human nature but surely can be immediately traced to the world of New Jersey politics.

When the daughter of a local market farmer here died in child birth in the 1970s, that death was symbolic of a transition to a time when people not only didn’t work the land anymore but cashed in on wrecking it as at no other time. Surrounded by new development and still deaf from artillery fire in Vietnam, another farmer retreated to a broken down school bus on his dried up spread on the side of Route 79 before he left town. Now it’s the senior citizens clinging to a last shred of space, wondering whether to sell and move to Florida or keep forking over money.

Assemblyman Joseph Pennacchio today announced that he has formed an exploratory committee for a possible bid for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination next year. 

Pennacchio says that Morris County GOP Chairman John Sette will head the exploratory effort.  He did not release the names of any other supporters, although another potential candidate, Assemblyman Michael Doherty, dropped out of the race last month and endorsed Pennacchio. 

For much of the year, it appeared that New Jersey was a two-party state -- the problem for the Republicans is that they weren't one of the two parties.  But suddenly, just after Labor Day, it looks like the NJ GOP hibernation may have ended.  Between reports that Governor Jon "Hold Me Accountble" Corzine gave a $15,000 cash gift to the brother-in-law of his former girlfriend, CWA President Carla Katz, and the arrests of eleven public officials (all but one were Democrats) that included two Democratic Assemblymen, the Republicans had a good week.  And now, Republican State Chairman Tom Wilson, Senate Minority Leader Leonard Lance and Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce, have been on fire .