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On the Record

Michael Aron hosts Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts (D-Camden), Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce (R-Parsippany), Senate Majority Leader Stephen Sweeney (D-West Deptford) and Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean, Jr (R-Westfield) to discuss the budget crisis and the election.

Airs: Sunday at 9am and 11am, Monday at 6:30am

Reporters Roundtable with Michael Aron

The Record’s Charles Stile, The Star-Ledger’s Josh Margolin, WHYY-WBGO’s Phil Gregory and PolitickerNJ.com’s Matt Friedman (me) discuss the Corzine and Christie addresses the League of Municipalities in Atlantic City, the gubernatorial transition and Gay marriage.

Airs: Sunday at 12pm on NJN

Power & Politics

Highlights of Gov.-Elect Chris Christie and Gov. Jon Corzine's speeches from League of Municipalities; interviews with Senator Steve Sweeney (D-West Deptford) on his Senate President Vote, gay marriage and other lame duck issues; state Sen. Nick Scutari (D-Linden) talks about chairing the judiciary committee; Garden State Equality Chairman Steven Goldstein on gay marriage; clips of Kim Guadango , Brendan Byrne, Christie Whitman and Cory Booker from their speeches at the League.  

Airs: Saturday and Sunday at 10am and 3pm on News 12 New Jersey

New Jersey Now

Political Strategists Tara Dowdell and Steven Some discuss Governor-elect Chris Christie and steps to deal with crisis in the Garden State; Assemblywomen Valerie Vainieri Huttle (D-Englewood) and Amy Handlin (R-Middletown) on the Party Democracy Act and new guidelines by a government task force on mammograms.

Airs: Sunday at 12pm on My9

Caucus: New Jersey's Democracy Works: NJ Race for Governor Roundtable Wrap Up

A panel of print, electronic, television and radio media members doing a post-mortem analysis of the campaigns of New Jersey gubernatorial candidates Jon Corzine, Chris Christie and Chris Daggett. The panel will also discuss what lies ahea for the new governor and how he will deal with a legislature that isn’t his own party.

Airs:  Saturday at 12:30pm on Thirteen, Sunday at 8:00am on WPSJ, Sunday at 8:30am on NJN, Monday at 5:00pm on Cablevision of Morris, Monday at 9:00pm on Comcast Channel 57 , Monday at 11:30pm on NJN

Former Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joe Ferriero’s attorney has filed to have Ferriero's corruption conviction overturned.

Defense lawyer Joseph Hayden said he filed about a dozen arguments in federal court, chief among them challenging Ferriero's conviction for conspiracy to defraud Bergenfield of co-defendant Dennis Oury’s honest services.  Oury, who was Bergen County Democratic Counsel, was the Bergenfield Borough Attorney.

“The principle motions involve a challenge to the honest services theory of prosecution, which is presently being scrutinized by a case pending before the United States Supreme Court dealing with honest services,” said Hayden. “We believe the Supreme Court case will be decided favorably to the defense, and this will result in overturning Mr. Ferriero’s conviction.”

The conspiracy count was the most serious of Ferriero's three count conviction.  He was also convicted on two mail fraud counts and acquitted of five other mail fraud counts.  

Former Republican assembly candidate Stepfanie Velez-Gentry made national headlines for her unusual occupation, but she would be willing to put that job aside if offered one by the incoming Chris Christie administration.

“I would absolutely be interested,” she said.  “I want to help make changes in the community, and if something was offered to help make changes I would take it.”

Velez-Gentry, 29, runs Nookie Parties, LCC – a company where traveling salespeople host parties to sell sex toys and other adult novelties – or, as PolitickerNJ.com described it when it was first reported in the Inside Edge, a “naughty Tupper Wear party.”  

Rather than generate controversy, however, Velez-Gentry’s business won her favorable press for her entreupeunerial spirit.  The Associated Press picked up the story, as did the New York Daily News, and it ricocheted to several other media outlets and blogs.  Howard Stern even talked her up on his radio show.  Velez-Gentry said she even got a $50 campaign donation from a woman with a similar business in Utah.

She was later endorsed by the Gloucester County Times, which said that, beyond the “snickering” about her job, she had “much to offer.” 

Gov.-Elect Chris Christie today named the 19 issue subcommittee chairs for his transition team.

The 19 chairs include the 10 members of Christie’s transition team that have already been announced, but whose specified roles have now been made public.  Newcomers include state Sen. Marcia Karrow (R-Raritan), who was defeated by Michael Doherty (R-WashintonTwp.) in the June GOP primary; former U.S. Rep. Mike Ferguson (R-Warren), who has a lobbying firm in Washington, DC; and former State Supreme Court justice and Attoney General Peter Verniero.

Below is the full list, taken from the transition team's press release:

Incoming Bergen County Republican freeholders Rob Hermansen and John Driscoll will be outnumbered by Democrats 5-2 on the board, but they plan to propose some bold initiatives as soon as they are sworn in - ideas that will probably be met by a tough crowd.

Driscoll and Hermansen want to enact their campaign pledge of cutting each freeholders' pay by 25%, end pay-to-play by limiting political donations from contractors doing business with the county to $300 and limit county officials - both elected and appointed - to just one pension.

Hermansen said that he would "reach across" to the Democrats "to see if we can get things done."  But that may not be easy, since three of the five remaining Democrats on the board have public jobs in addition to their roles as freeholders.

"This is the part where I'm going to come off a little harsh -- that's not my issue," he said.  "My issue is the taxpayer. And if the freeholders themselves are truly up there to take care of the taxpayer, then guess what?  They're going to start doing it."

Hermansen admits that, while it will be hard enough to institute a county-wide pay-to-play ban, the prolific practice of wheeling contractor donations to freeholder campaigns through PACs -- the most recent cast reported by The Record's Charles Stile and John Reitmeyer - can only be addressed on a state level.

Although pushing those reforms is bound to be contentious, the grace period between the campaign and swearing in continue.  For no, the Democratic incumbents and incoming Republicans all express a hope and willingness for bipartisanship.

"They're just two or three things. There are going to be a lot of things over the years we're going to work on," said Driscoll, who said another priority of his is to bring controversial Bergen County Technical School District Superintendent Robert Aloia in front of the board to answer questions about his travel and expenses. "I have the feeling at the end of the day you're going to be pleasantly surprised when we start working together."

Democratic Freeholder David Ganz, for his part, said he had a pleasant conversation with Hermansen last night at Freeholder Director James Carroll's party at the League of Munipalities convention.

"The vitriol from the campaign appears to be gone.  It thought personally it showed a lot class," he said.

It’s on.

Chris Fifis, the Lumberton Democratic Chairman who is the favorite of South Jersey Democratic leaders to become chairman of the Burlington County Democrats, put out a statement officially acknowledging his candidacy for the chairmanship in response to Assemblyman Herb Conaway’s (D-Delanco) decision to run for the post.

“I remain as committed to strengthening the Burlington County Democratic Party as I was when I took the fight to the entrenched GOP in 2004,” said Fifis, who that year ran unsuccessfully for freeholder and ran for assembly in 2007.

The party, currently headed by Acting Chairwoman Alice Furia, will elect a new leader in June.  The former chairman, Rick Perr --  who just last year was considered a rising star in Democratic circles after presiding over a pickup of two freeholder seats and the county clerk's office – resigned under an ethical cloud after revelations surfaced about his involvement in a PAC that raised money for arrested Hoboken mayor Peter Cammarano.  

The GOP has a 3-2 majority on the freeholder board, and this year they successfully defended two seats left open by retiring Republicans. 

Marlboro Mayor Jon Hornik, left, and his ally, Councilman Jeffrey Cantor, who is currently serving in the Middle East while continuing to serve on the local governing body via satellite.

While his fellow party members took a frontline beating from Chris Christie on Election Day in Monmouth County, Mayor Jon Hornik quietly won two out of three council seats in Marlboro to preserve his majority in western Monmouth's largest, most voter-concentrated town.

"Gov. Jon Corzine lost Marlboro by over 30%, but I think Marlboro voters were smart enough to acknowledge what we're doing, said the 39-year old Democrat. "Notwithstanding the Christie tsunami, they believe Marlboro is moving in the right direction. We've cut operating expenses by 15%, and we've reduced total payments by 11% through furloughs, layoffs, attrition and retirement. Government is running well and lean. By year's end, we hope to dissolve our water authority, a completely unnecessary layer of government with 14 people working there set up for political patronage at a total annual cost of $5 million. We're really treating government like a business and we've acted more like a Republican than a Democratic administration.

"I have not spoken to him but I am fully behind Chris Christie right now, Hornik added. "I hope he stands firm and makes the tough decisions. You can't worry about getting elected in four years, that's a sure way to failure. He needs to 100% deliver on COAH (the Council on Affordable Housing, which Christie in the campaign promised to reform), a big factor for my residents. Christie has to undo COAH, it does not work."

Assemblywoman Sheila Oliver (D-East Orange) told The Star-Ledger today that Assemblywoman Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Trenton) has dropped her campaign to become assembly speaker.

Oliver, who is expected to ascend to the speakership as part of a deal between north and south Jersey Democrats to install state Sen. Stephen Sweeney (D-West Deptford) as senate president, claimed the votes for the position in September.  Watson Coleman, however, continued to campaign for it until this week.

If she is voted to lead the lower legislative house, Oliver will replace retiring Speaker Joseph Roberts (D-Camden).    

Assemblyman Herb Conaway (D-Delanco)

Assemblyman Herb Conaway Jr. (D-Delanco) wants to be the next chairman of the Burlington County Democratic Committee, setting up a potential contest to lead the troubled organization.  

“What made me decide to run was that we have a need for a county party that functions.  We have a lot of important races coming up in the near term, and quite frankly we’ve had under the old regime dysfunctional leadership that’s led to problems getting things done,” said Conaway in a phone interview from the League of Municipalities convention in Atlantic City.  

Conaway, a medical doctor, practices internal medicine at Cooper University Hospital.  He has served in the assembly since 1998, and ran unsuccessfully for Congress against former U.S. Rep. Jim Saxton (R-Mount Holly) in 2004.  

Facing pressure from South Jersey Democrats, former Chairman Rick Perr resigned in August over his involvement in a PAC that raised money for former Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano, who was arrested on corruption charges in July.  Since then, Alice Furia, long-time party activist and vice-chair, has headed up the party.

Furia will remain as chairwoman until June, when the county committee will elect a new leader. 

New Jersey residents narrowly support legalizing same-sex marriage but do not consider it a high priority, according to a Rutgers-Eagleton poll released this morning.

By a 46% to 42% margin, New Jersey residents think same sex couples should have the right to marry, while 12% are unsure.  If the legislature were to pass legislation legalizing gay marriage, 52% said they would accept it, while 40% said they would support a constitutional amendment banning it.  

In California last year, residents voted in favor of Proposition 8, which amended the state constitution to recognize marriage as between only a man and a woman, overturning a California State Supreme Court ruling that same-sex couples have right to marry.  And earlier this month, Maine residents voted to repeal the state’s gay marriage statute.  

But pollster David Redlawsk said New Jerseyans appear more likely to accept legalization of same sex marriage.  

“While this tests opinion outside the intensity of a campaign to ban gay marriage, as occurred in California, there is more of a ‘live and let live’ attitude in New Jersey than in many other states that have dealt with this issue,” he said.