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Assemblywoman Mary Pat Angelini (R-Ocean) with her daughter, Toni, a Matawan councilwoman-elect.

The Chris Christie cabinetmaking process has begun and among insiders talk inevitably turns to Republican candidates who are already out there in the public sphere with specific expertise - people like Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce (R-Parsippany), Assemblywoman Mary Pat Angelini (R-Ocean) and Assemblyman John Amodeo (R-Margate), among many others.

"If Chris Christie asked me, I would take it under serious consideration," said Angelini, the executive director of a youth nonprofit whose name has surfaced early as a possibile commissioner of human services in a Christie administration.

"I'm happy where I am," added the assemblywoman, who had several reasons to celebrate last Tuesday night.

Not only did the Monmouth County-based legislator's choice for governor win, but she and her running mate Assemblyman David Rible (R-Wall) won by larger margins than two years ago, and her daughter, Toni, was elected to the Matawan Borough Council.

Toiling in the minority for the past two years with a Democratic governor in charge, Angelini said she never knew a different Trenton terrain, and is thrilled now to be a forward observer to a change in her party's favor on the executive side of government.

South Jersey GOTV central on Election Day last Tuesday.

The North Jersey urban operative, under the radar as always, eyes bloodshot late in the game last Tuesday night, said he saw what Senate Majority Leader Steve Sweeney (D-West Deptford) saw among rank and filers in South Jersey, and it rattled him early on Election Day.

"For the first time in all my years doing GOTV, rank and file labor guys weren't telling me who they were voting for," said the operative. "These are guys I'm talking to as they're heading in and out of the polls and ordinarily you'll get a thumbs up sign for the Democrat or some fraternal sign for the Democratic candidate. Not this time. This time - silence."

Sweeney saw it a while ago - rank and file worry translating itself into anti-Corzine sentiment.

Poised to become the next state Senate President, Sweeney, an ironworker by trade and business agent for Ironworker's Local 399, said South Jersey Democrats did everything they could to get the vote out for Gov. Jon Corzine.

"We worked very hard," Sweeney told PolitickerNJ.com. "But it wasn't in the cards, you could feel it on the ground."

AFL-CIO Prez Charles Wowkanech on Election Day, 2007

Another strategy wouldn't have changed the outcome, he acknowledges, but Charles Wowkanech, president of the New Jersey AFL-CIO, admitted today that the 11th hour influx of big rallies inhibited the Central Labor Council's ability to lock in on GOTV in the closing days of the gubernatorial campaign.

"I don't want this to come off as negative or critical of the campaign, which did a great job, but you can't have rallies three times a week," said Wowkanech, whose coordinated labor effort registered wins at the legislative level but watched Gov. Jon Corzine get unseated by Republican challenger Chris Christie.

"Our people were working every weekend, doing labor walks," said the labor leader, reflecting on the last two weeks of the campaign wherein the Corzine camp spread out a constellation of Democratic Party luminaries including President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, former President Bill Clinton, the Kennedy family, etc.

"I'm not second guessing anyone, but trying to run our program and make all these events - two and three times a week - was tough."

The race for governor helped give PolitickerNJ.com our best month since the site launched on February 1, 2000.

As compared to the four weeks before Election Day 2008, visits to our site are up 93%.   Page views have increased by 151%, and time on site has gone up 44% -- our readers send more than 12 minutes per visit on PolitickerNJ.com.  We had over 3.5 million page views during the month leading into Election Day 2009, and nearly 600,000 visitors!

Reporters Roundtable with Michael Aron

Gannett’s Michael Symons, The Star-Ledger’s Claire Heininger, The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jonathan Tamari and PolitickerNJ.com’s Matt Friedman (me) talk about the Chris Christie’s victory.

Airs: Tonight at 7:00, Sunday at 10am on NJN

On the Record

Michael Aron talks about Chris Christie with three Republican analysts: Alan Steinberg, Jeff Michaels and Gregg Edwards.

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

Power & Politics

Republican State Chairman/Assembyman Jay Webber (R-Morris Plains) on Christie's Win, state Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck) on Corzine's loss , Ben Dworkin of Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics with analysis,  Bill Dressell of the League of Municipalities about his hopes that Christie will address unfunded mandates, and Dr. Bart Rossi on the Body Language of the Candidates.

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

New Jersey Now

Political Consultant Rick Thigpen and FDU pollster Peter Woolley analyze the election results; Assemblymen John McKeon and Jon Bramnick discuss Governor-elect Chris Christie working with a Democratic Majority in the Legislature as well as the approval of the open space bond question. Brenda Flanagan hosts.

Airs: Sunday at 12pm on My9.

Frank Pallone

The 6th District Congressman will be talking health care and the swine flu vaccine on three programs this weekend: CBS News with Michael Levi, C-Span with Peter Slen and America’s News with Shannon Beam on Fox News.

Airs: check your listings

Assemblyman Thomas Giblin (D-Montclair) says he will donate a dime to charity for every campaign lawn sign brought to his Clifton office. 

"Some of these signs sit around for months following an election," said Giblin, a former Democratic State Chairman. "We can clean-up our streets and help the less fortunate at the same time." 

Giblin says the money will go to Eva's Village, a Paterson-based social services agency.

"Not only do these things become an eyesore, but the metal hangers they're on start rusting and the laminated cardboard winds up in the streets and jamming up the sewers," Giblin said. "It poses a real hazard to the environment."

It was literally minutes after Bergen County Republicans won two freeholder seats that they started eyeing another prize.

"Now for the big one: county executive," said one Republican operative who often works in Bergen County from the Chris Christie Election Night victory party in Parsippany.

Two days after winning two freeholder seats in Bergen County - a prayed for shot in the arm for a county party that has spent the last several years on the brink of irrelevance- the talk in Bergen County Republican circles is who the party will run for the top office in 2010.

"A number of people have expressed interest.  I'm hearing a lot of it informally. No one has officially come to me," said Bergen County Republican Chairman Bob Yudin, whose party could stand to receive a cash infusion now that donors see that they can win elections.

So far, three names pop up: County Clerk Kathleen Donovan, who ran in the 2006 Republican primary for the office but was defeated on the right by Todd Caliguire, who went on to lose the general election; Fair Lawn Councilman Edward Trawinski, who yesterday just won a second consecutive (and third overall) term in that heavily Democratic town; and former Hackensack Mayor Jack Zisa. 

Since the Republicans appear to have some momentum, other potential candidates are expected to come forward.  And with a GOP governor, Bergen Republicans will have an easier time raising money.

"It's a different ball game now that we've demonstrated we can win a couple county seats," said state Sen. Gerald Cardinale (R-Demarest), who has taken an active role in behind-the-scenes party politics.

Assemblyman David Russo (R-Ridgewood), long rumored to be interested in the post, told PolitickerNJ.com that he will not run.

MORRISTOWN - The happiest Democrat in Morris County.

That would be Tim Dougherty, who on Tuesday night won the Morristown mayor's race with 64.62% of the vote on a night when every municipality went for home county gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie by large margins with the exception of Dover, Victory Gardens and Morristown.

Doherty took pride in the fact that he won without going negative on his opponent, local businessman Jimmy Gervasio. 

"I told (campaign strategist Barrett) Tommy I'm not putting out one piece of negative literature," said the mayor-elect. "Why? I figured somebdy's gotta start doing it that way. Voters want to hear about what you're going to do."

In the primary, Dougherty built a coalition among African Americans, progressives, Latinos and downtown business people to crush veteran Morristown political animal Mayor Donald Cresitello.

Bergen County Republicans Rob Hermansen and John Driscoll won two freeholder seats with a micro-targeted, internet heavy ad campaign that focused on a positive message, according to Hermansen’s campaign manager.

Ramsey Republican activist Deirdre Woodbyrne, who ran Hermansen’s campaign but not Driscoll’s, said that her candidate smartly focused on things like a front page newspaper “popper,” Facebook ads and YouTube videos more than more traditional mediums like television, radio and mailers.

“Where Christie lost, we won. We didn’t have any money for TV ads. We didn’t have any money for radio ads.  We used the internet and we used the positive message,” she said.

Woodbyrne said the campaign got especially positive feedback from a YouTube ad they put up featuring footage of the all-Democratic Bergen County freeholder board unable to explain what a $100,000 project they were about to vote on entailed.  They voted for it anyway, drawing a rebuke at the meeting from Hermansen that was featured at the end of the video.  

One of the more aggressive critics of Gov.-elect Chris Christie early in the campaign, U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) today said he plans to reach out to Christie and establish working relations with him for the sake of New Jersey.

"I wish Chris Christie well," said Pascrell. "It's going to be a tough four years overcoming the last eight years of national inaction."

The former mayor of Paterson and veteran 8th District congressman last year mused on a potential bid for the governship in the event that Corzine did not seek re-election. 

Asked if he intends to run for governor in 2013, Pascrell said, "No, it's too early to talk about that now."

Pascrell said he has not talked to defeated Gov. Jon Corzine since the governor's loss to Christie on Tuesday.

"The governor was unable to overcome some unfavorable perceptions many voters had of him," said the congressman. "Most of the Democrats running for (the legislature) didn't run with the governor, and I think it's clear he was also unable to overcome that. He was not able to articulate what he accomplished. This governor accomplished a lot of things. The state budget is the same as it was four years ago. He was trying to do his part with the caps."