fadedyouthblog.com has photos of Gov. Jon Corzine's post-election vacation to St. Barts.

Gov.-elect Christopher Christie's first big move - putting Richard Bagger and Robert Grady in charge of the state budget transition team - is an impressive display of gravitas and seems to avoid some of the early mistakes made by his predecessor, Jon Corzine.  Bagger and Grady offer an interesting contrast to Bradley Abelow and Gary Rose, two Goldman Sachs executives with no government or campaign experience, who were brought in by Corzine to run his economic shop. Christie has picked government insiders-turned-private sector outsiders who understand politics.  Democrats complained about Abelow and Rose all the time, but never about Bagger.

Bagger, who spent nearly a dozen years in the Legislature, knows his way around the state budget; he chaired the Assembly Appropriations Committee for four years, and was well-liked and respected by legislators from both parties.  He left the State Senate in after one year to move up within the Pfizer corporate structure, so he bears no responsibility for budgets passed by Democratic governors.  He also understands local government; he was a Mayor and Councilman in Westfield before his election to the Assembly.

Grady is an expert on budget matters; he was the Associate Director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) under President George H.W. Bush, and understands New Jersey politics - and the media - from his years as Gov. Thomas Kean's Communications Director and as Chief of Staff to U.S. Rep. Millicent Fenwick.  He returns to New Jersey after spending more than fifteen years as a partner at the Carlyle Group, one of the nation's largest private equity firms.

Former NFL star Jon Runyan has already fumbled: he put out a statement expressing his interest in running for Congress without first talking to the most powerful Republican in his district, Ocean County GOP Chairman George Gilmore.  Gilmore, a superstar since he delivered a 70,000-vote margin for Gov.-elect Christopher Christie last week, has reacted poorly to demonstrations of disrespect like this in the past.  In 2005, Gilmore gave GOP gubernatorial candidate Douglas Forrester a list of calls he needed to make to secure support in Ocean County.  To Gilmore's annoyance, Forrester never made most of the calls; Gilmore instead gave the Ocean County GOP line to Robert Schroeder, who diligently courted local Republicans.  Forrester won the primary, but never got Gilmore fully engaged; he won Ocean County by about a third of what Christie did.

Republicans have hired Benjamin Ginsberg, one of the nation's top election law experts, as national counsel for legislative and congressional redistricting in 2011.  Ginsberg served as counsel to the Bush/Cheney campaigns in 2000 and 2004, and has worked for the Republican National Committee.  His appointment was announced jointly by GOP State Chairman Jay Webber, Senate Minority Leader Thomas Kean, Jr. (R-Westfield), and Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce (R-Parsippany).

As State Chairman, Webber will name all five Republicans on the legislative redistricting commission - presumably in consultant with Kean, DeCroce and Gov.-elect Christopher Christie.  For the congressional redistricting commission, Webber, Kean and DeCroce each get two appointments.

The Ginsberg appointment marks an unusually early start for Republicans on redistricting.  Democrats started their redistricting process back in 1999, more than a year before the GOP.

Now that Lou Dobbs has resigned as anchor of the CNN nightly news, some Republicans are wondering if the Wantage resident will seek the GOP U.S. Senate nomination against Robert Menendez (D-Hoboken) in 2012.  In June 2008, there was considerable speculation that Dobbs would run for governor.  He initially told reporters that he would not dismiss the idea outright; a few days later, he said he would not run.

Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts (D-Camden) has no plans to change the seating chart for the Legislature's lame duck session, which will leave three indicted Assemblymen sitting in their old seats.  That will leave Democrats Linda Greenstein (D-Plainsboro) and Wayne DeAngelo (D-Hamilton) sitting in between the indicted three - Joseph Vas (D-Perth Amboy) to their right, and Harvey Smith (D-Jersey City) and Anthony Chiappone (D-Bayonne) to their left. 

Assemblywoman-elect DiAnne Gove (R-Long Beach), who will be sworn in this month to replace another indicted legislator, Daniel Van Pelt (R-Ocean Twp.), will set next to Chiappone.

The rumor in financial circles is that Gov. Jon Corzine could wind up as CEO of Bank of America.  Business Week has mentioned it, as did Charlie Gasperino on CNBC today.  There is no confirmation or denial from the governor's staff.  Bank of America received $45 billion in federal bailout money this year. 

Update: Corzine denied that he has met with Bank of America officials regarding their CEO post, and said he's not sure if he'll go back to Wall Street.

Just in case you're interested: Republican Christopher Christie won New Jersey's third congressional district by 35,947 votes over Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine, 116,911 to 80,964.  Last year, Democrat John Adler won the third district House seat by 13,268 votes, 52%-48%, the first Democrat  to carry the seat since 1884.

Assemblyman Michael Doherty (R-Oxford) is expected to be sworn in as a State Senator when the Senate comes back into session on November 23.  Doherty defeated incumbent Marcia Karrow (R-Raritan) in the June Republican primary - five months after he lost a special election convention to fill the seat of Leonard Lance, who was elected to Congress.  Karrow has been lobbying hard for a post in Gov.-elect Christopher Christie's cabinet; she wants to be Commissioner of Community Affairs.

One week after losing two Freeholder seats, a group of county and state Democratic officials from Bergen County met last night to protect the status quo and unite - at least for now - behind the re-election of all incumbents in 2010, including Bergen County Democratic Chairman Michael Kasparian.  Democrats are anxious to hold off discussions about a possible replacement for Kasparian, who is unlikely to run again, until they figure out who they have to replace him. 

Publicly, elected officials want Bergen County Executive Dennis C. McNerney, Sheriff Leo McGuire, and Freeholders James Carroll, Tomas Padilla and Elizabeth Calabrese to seek re-election.  But privately, Democrats sense that McNerney, a protégé of convicted former Democratic leader Joseph Ferriero, could lose his bid for re-election to a third term.  And if McNerney loses, Democratic control of the Board of Freeholders could also be in jeopardy.  McGuire is anxious to run for County Executive, but he won't do it unless McNerney steps down first.