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Roselle Mayor Garrett Smith

Roselle Mayor Garrett Smith needed this one, and so did the Union County Democratic Organization.
 
Those two mutually exclusive desires added up to one thing: a war.
 
Ever since former Assemblyman Neil Cohen's (D-Roselle) career went belly up amid charges of keeping child porn on his computer, the battle lines for local party control intensified here in his town, which, depending on your perspective, is either a buffer for Westfield against the danger-zone of Elizabeth or a buffer for Elizabeth against the whitebread excesses of Westfield.
 
A mild-mannered wonk in Trenton, Cohen could get tough in his hometown as head of the local party. He wasn't beyond delivering full-blown, profanity-laced public dress-downs to recalcitrant committee members as he dealt with the ongoing headache of Smith, a charismatic independent Democrat, originally from Jersey City, who built his name as head of a thriving local basketball league before seeking his first term as mayor in 2003.
 
Smith and Cohen could grudgingly come together to beat on Republicans in presidential or gubernatorial general elections, but mostly they embroiled themselves in a Roselle battle-royale with themselves as chief antagonists.

“Reporters Roundtable with Michael Aron”

Aron hosts Mary Fuchs of The Star-Ledger, The Record’s Al Doblin, The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jonathan Tamari and yours truly, Matt Friedman.  We’ll discuss the budget, the race for governor and the gubernatorial candidates’ newfound time to pick a running mate.  

Airs: Friday at 7pm, Sunday at 10am on NJN

“On the Record”

Michael Aron hosts a show consisting of excerpts from Chris Christie testifying before a U.S. House Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law in Washington, DC.

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

“New Jersey Now”

U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-Hoboken) talks about reopening the crown of the Statue of Liberty and Hispanic contributions to the United States; Cuban-American Assembly members Caridad Rodriguez (D-West New York) and Vincent Prieto (D-Jersey City) talk about coming from Cuba to the U.S.; Iraq vet and former congressional/freeholder candidate Tom Roughneen discusses veterans’ contributions.  

Airs: Sunday at 12pm

"Power and Politics"

Democratic strategist Julie Roginsky and Republican lobbyist Roger Bodman talk about the gubernatorial race; Eagleton Institute New Jersey Project Director Ingrid Reed gives her take; and Dr. Bart Rossi, psychologist and self proclaimed political junkie , analyzes candidates’ body language.  Hosted by Jim McQueeney and Laura Jones.

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

NJN executive Janice Selinger was appointed temporary acting executive director on Tuesday, the network announced today.

Selinger replaces former anchor Kent Manahan, who was NJN’s acting executive director. The New Jersey Public Broadcasting Authority’s Board of Commissioners, which now counts Manahan a a member, made the decision.  

The 12-time Emmy Award winning Selinger has been with the network since 1979, and has served as its deputy executive director for production and executive producer of national and local documentaries.

HAMILTON -- Republican gubernatorial nominee Chris Christie said he doesn’t know for sure whether any of President Obama’s luster will rub off on embattled Gov. Jon Corzine when he visits in support of him later this month, but he doubts it. 

“I firmly do believe that it’s not a race about President Obama. I think it’s a race about Jon Corzine and his record, and me and my vision for what the future would be,” said Christie.  “I don’t think New Jerseyans are going to decide how to vote based upon who comes and visits.”

Obama, who remains popular in New Jersey, is set to campiagn with Corzine on July 16 at Rutgers University.   

PolitickerNJ.com serendipitously ran into Christie at Panera Bread on Route 130 in Hamilton, where he was lunching with his security consultant, former State Police Major Al DelVento, in between campaign stops in Trenton and Hamilton. 

In a three minute interview, Christie answered two other questions before hitting the Turnpike: one on state Supreme Court Justice Barry Albin’s confirmation to tenure until mandatory retirement at age 70, and one on a poll that showed public support for Governor Corzine’s budget.

Former council candidate Jimmy King’s complaint against Nidia Lopez has grown some legs in Jersey City and Orlando.

The Jersey Journal reports today that Florida officials are investigating Lopez for claiming a tax break on her Orlando home that required her to be a permanent resident, and that they’re seeking repayment of the money she saved from it.

PolitickerNJ.com first reported on Tuesday that defeated King filed a complaint against Lopez attempting to invalidate her election.  

Lopez was sworn in yesterday.  At the inauguration ceremony, she said that she did not want to talk about the charges because it was a “day for celebration,” but referred inquiries about it to her attorney, William Northgrave. 

PASSAIC - Standing in the midst of a melting pot audience, with Latinos, Jews and African Americans dominant in a crowd that also contained a smattering of Italians and Indians, and probably sprinklings of just about everything else given Passaic and Passaic pride, School Board member Salim Patel requested a hand for the first Dominican-American mayor in the United States.

There was clapping.

Then Mayor Alex Blanco stood, and the School No. 6 auditorium erupted.

As usual at these big ticket events here in Passaic, the mayor had top-tier love in the room in the form of Gov. Jon Corzine and U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-Hoboken), who both backed Blanco for mayor earlier this year.  

"If you truly love Passaic, you must help him succeed, because in his success, the people of Passaic succeed," Menendez said.

Child of immigrant parents Blanco went to the podium early, but not before Menendez spoke, wringing a laugh-line out of a setup created by the cheering section for Councilman-elect Terrance L. Love, the governing body's lone black. 

Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic) welcomes Gov. Jon Corzine to Passaic Wednesday evening

PASSAIC - The backroom wrangling on EnCap ain't over.

"We're studying it," Gov. Jon Corzine said of a reform bill on the subject that passed overwhelmingly in the legislature a week ago.

Senate President Richard Codey (D-Roseland) called a vote last Thursday evening on the reform bill authored by Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck), Sen. Bob Gordon (D-Paramus) and Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic), overriding Sen. Ray Lesniak's (D-Elizabeth) 11th-hour worries as Lesniak and Schaer sat in Corzine's office.

Lesniak fretted that some of the bill's sharper edges might undercut his economic stimulus bill, and he told Schaer he had the votes to kill a piece of legislation Schaer's worked for two and a half years.

Schaer called his bluff, and demanded a machine vote in the Assembly.

Codey, meanwhile, went ahead and opened the machines on the Senate side.

"This is a bill that demands accountability and transparency so that we avoid another Encap," said Weinberg, referring to the State of New Jersey's infamous attempt to resusitate a Bergen garbage dump into a golf course, which resulted in a more than $300 million killzone for taxpayers.  

Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy today called former council candidate Jimmy King’s residency challenge to newly sworn in Councilwoman Nidia Rivera Lopez “sour grapes to the 10th power.”  

“This is an effort to achieve through the courts what couldn’t be achieved through the election process, and you know, the election wasn’t even close,” said Healy just after being sworn in to a second full term as mayor.  “Her not living here is a joke.  She of course lives here. She does have a house in Florida.”

Lopez, who ran on Healy’s slate, beat King, who ran on former Assemblyman Lou Manzo’s, on the first ballot.  Manzo and his at-large running mate, former Hudson County Sheriff Joseph Cassidy, tried to knock Healy out of the race through legal challenges, alleging that he tried to use his position as Jersey City Mayor to dissuade Bradley Beach police officers from arresting him for obstruction of justice in 2006.

Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano

HOBOKEN - Hoboken Now reports that Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano assumed the oath of office today shortly before the council unanimously elected 4th Ward Councilwoman Dawn Zimmer as council president.

While Cammarano defeated Zimmer in a run-off election last month, the councilwoman's three running mates won in the earlier May 12th election.

Second Ward Councilwoman (and failed mayoral candidate) Beth Mason's endorsement of Zimmer over Cammarano in the runoff signaled her alliance with Zimmer and yet another Zimmer vote on the council.

It was Mason who nominated Zimmer today for council president, according to Hoboken Now. 

Menza addressses the crowd.

HILLSIDE - This little, oft-dispected town practically buried under a criss-cross of highways in the muscled-up arms of Newark on one side and Elizabeth on the other today showed little sign of breaking a four-year standoff between mayor and council as Joe Menza assumed the oath of office several hours before the council's reorganization meeting this evening.

Real estate developer Menza beat the local Democratic Party machine on May 12th when he defeated At-Large Councilman Jerome Jewell, a staunch ally of local party chair Charlotte DeFilippo, who also runs the county party.

DeFillipo allies still controls five seats on the seven-member governing body, but Menza kicked off his mayoralty by letting the crowd of 150 people here know that under the Faulkner Act, it is his responsibility to prepare and submit an annual operating budget and to sign all contracts, and he doesn't intend to abdicate those powers.

On the contrary, "The buck stops right here, you can expect that from me," announced the new mayor, moments after taking the oath at the prompting of substitute Township Judge Geoffrey Gechtman.