Local wars in Latino urbs still add up to Democratic backing for Corzine

NEWARK - Gov. Jon Corzine stepped up to the podium at Workers United Union headquarters to accept the endorsements of Latino elected officials even as his GOP rivals in the governor's race loosed a counter list of private sector and former elected official Latinos backing Republican candidate Chris Christie.

"Because of Jon Corzine's failures, our communities, schools and cities are suffering," said Lydia Valencia, director of the Puerto Rican Congress of New Jersey and chairwoman of Hispanics for Christie.  "We need a governor who understands the reality facing real New Jerseyans struggling to make ends meet, especially when Corzine's taxes are taking a bigger and bigger chunk of our money. I am supporting Chris because he will bring jobs to our state, help small businesses and make sure our children receive a quality education."

Alert to Christie's efforts to woo Latino voters (he has campaigned in Union City, Perth Amboy and regularly in Jersey City, and has a "Christie-Guadagno" campaign song set to salsa), Democratic elected officials closed ranks around the governor.

U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-Hoboken); Assemblywoman Nellie Pou (D-Paterson, chair of the Latino Legislative Caucus; Paterson Mayor Jose Torres; Passaic Mayor Alex Blanco; Perth Amboy Mayor Wilda Diaz; West New York Mayor Sal Vega; state Sen. Teresa Ruiz (D-Newark), Newark North Ward Councilman Anibal Ramos; and many others, 17 total, rallied with Corzine at union headquarters in downtown Newark while an audience of mostly SEIU workers rained praise on the incumbent governor.

"He's going to keep us on speed dial," Pou said of the governor. "The only person on his opponent's speed dial is Karl Rove."

At full strength, Latinos form 14% of the electorate, according to Patricia Campos, Corzine's outreach director. Regardless of Christie's aggressive efforts, the Corzine ally is confident of the governor's ability to pull Latinos come Election Day. 

"Latinos composed seven percent of the electorate when McGreevey ran," said Campos. "In 2005, that was up to nine percent. Last year, Latinos came out to make up 11 percent of the electorate in New Jersey. We don't anticipate having numbers like that this year, but they will be high, and we anticipate the majority of them voting for Gov. Corzine."

It's personal for Menendez, by his own admission, a politician who worked his political weight in the 1980s to keep his base camp of Union City to keep from turning Republican at a time when then-Gov. Thomas Kean pulled big numbers in Hudson County.

Under the hoopla for Corzine, however, 50 days before Election Day there were reminders of firefights, flare-ups, hurt feelings and signs of mechanical failure among those Democratic Party outfits connected to New Jersey's Latino population.

The North Ward remains a subject of inquiry by the state Attorney General's Office, which has already indicted five campaign workers connected to Ruiz's 2007 state senate operation.

Assemblywoman Nilsa Cruz-Perez (D-Camden) drove up from Camden County to participate in the event and gave a rousing speech on behalf of the governor, but the South Jersey Democratic Organization retired her this year, reshuffling their representatives to open up a place for Donald Norcross, the brother of South Jersey Democratic Party leader George Norcross III. The machine down there did swap in another Latino - Carlos Fuentes - but lost a Latina in Cruz-Perez.

In Legislative District 19, Assemblyman Joe Vas (Perth Amboy) crashed under federal and state corruption charges, leaving an opening plugged by retired municipal judge Craig Coughlin - not a Latino, despite Diaz's efforts on behalf of retired Superior Court Judge Mathias Rodriguez.

Moreover, Hudson County's party apparatchiks is not at full strength in the aftermath of federal charges that dropped numerous political operatives on the landscape over there. 

For her part, Ruiz said she has not noticed any fall-off in enthusiasm for the Democratic incumbent this year among what party sources worry could be a gun-shy North Ward electorate as state investigators continue to bang on doors and collect information about that 2007 campaign.

"I expect the governor to do very well," Ruiz said. "We had a rally this weekend, which was well-attended and where people were very enthusiastic."

Campos addressed the 19th District situation.

"Fist of all, we have Mayor Diaz here today," she said. "But voters in the 19th District understand that that fight was not about Jon Corzine. They understand the difference between a local fight and what's going on statewide in this gubernatorial campaign. They know Jon Corzine will continue to fight for economic development and healthcare for women and children."

The healthcare angle was significant at this rally, the philosophical cornerstone for why Latinos should back Corzine over Christie, notwithstanding some of the local infighting. 

Ramos invoked it as a difference between Democrats and Republicans, as did Menendez. President George Bush wanted to can 10,000 from the rolls of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP), a counter front Corzine manned in the early part of his gubernatorial tenure. Elected officials don't want their constituents to forget that fight - a success for Corzine.

Everyone from Menendez to Trenton Councilman Manny Segura plugged away, too, at Christie's comments about Sonia Sotomayor, a Supreme Court Justice nominee when Christie pronounced, "She's not my kind of judge."

"If Sotomayor was not good enough for that individual, none of us would be good enough for him," Segura said.