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The Assembly Republican caucus this morning reelected Assembly Mniority Leader Alex DeCroce (R-Parsippany) to a fourth consecutive term. 

Support was unanimous.

After threatening, Assembly Conference Leader Pete Biondi (R-Hillsborough) ended up not challenging DeCroce, who is rumored to be a short list candidate for the cabinet of Gov.-elect Chris Christie.

Assemblyman Jon Bramnick (R-Westfield) this morning received his caucus's backing to be conference leader and Assemblyman Dave Rible (R-Wall) moved up to become whip.

Assemblyman Reed Gusciora (D-Princeton)

Assemblyman Reed Gusciora (D-Princeton) today blamed party bosses for deal-making when they should have been focused on re-electing Gov. Jon Corzine.

"Party leaders undermined the governor by having a party leadership fight," said Gusciora. "They reinforced the message that if Corzine won, the reins of power would be handed over to special interests."

Asked on Election Day morning about the intra-party deal cultivated by South Jersey Democratic Party leader George Norcross III and Newark North Ward Democratic Party boss Steve Adubato, Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts (D-Camden) dismissed its larger-scale impact on voter production.

"It's inside baseball and affected very few people beyond Trenton," said Roberts of a North-South deal that would oust Senate President Richard Codey (D-Roseland) in exchange for Senate Majority Leader Steve Sweeney (D-West Deptford), and launch Assemblywoman Sheila Oliver (D-East Orange) into the lower house leadership chair being vacated by Roberts.

Former Star-Ledger Statehouse reporter Joe Donohue is joining the Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC).

Donohue, who took a buyout from the Ledger last year and moved on to become an Assistant Treasurer for the New Jersey Department of the Treasury, will serve as a Deputy Director with responsibilities in communications, legislative outreach, and development of “white papers” on campaign finance trends, according to a press release from the commission.

“Joe Donohue brings to this position a wealth of experience in campaign finance issues and a reputation for fairness that will greatly assist the Commission’s efforts to protect the integrity of the State’s election finance system and to encourage a more engaged electorate,” said Brindle.,” said ELEC Executive Director Jeffrey Brindle.

Gov.-elect Chris Christie (at podium) with, from left: Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce, State GOP Chairman Jay Webber, and Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean.

Leaders of a once fractured minority party - over the last years seemingly constantly at the verge of splitting farther apart - see unity in Gov.-elect Chris Christie.

During the campaign, Christie regularly invoked the example of former Gov. Tom Kean, a moderate, then publicly embraced movement conservative Steve Lonegan in the closing days of the general election campaign to solidify his Republican base.

Kean's son, state Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean, Jr. (R-Westfield) said he believes Christie's leadership abilities are expansive enough to include both the conservative wing and moderate wing of the GOP, in addition to independents and Democrats.

Not unlike his own father's skills in that regard.

Dana Redd's victory in the Camden mayoral race was as easy as everyone expected, which means Democrats will need to fill her fifth district State Senate seat.  Possible candidates include Assemblymen-elect Donald Norcross and Angel Fuentes, outgoing Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts, Camden City Councilwoman Dana Burley, and Camden City Councilman Whip Wilson.  Redd will need to step down no later than January 1, when she takes office as mayor; a special election convention would be held 7-35 days after her resignation.  If it's Norcross or Fuentes, a second special election convention would need to be held to fill their Assembly seats.

Councilman Julio Tavarez

Paterson - New Jersey's third largest city and now on the brink of a mayoral election next year - delivered the same voter turnout for Gov. Jon Corzine that he received four years ago in his first bid for governor.

These results are unofficial and don't include provisionals: Corzine received 16,038 votes in the Silk City, to Republican candidate (now Gov.-elect) Chris Christie's 2,040.

Those numbers almost mirror Corzine's 2005 performance against Mercer buisnessman Doug Forrester: 17,000 to 1,600 votes.

Ask leaders of the two Republican factions in Passaic County how they swept the county office elections last night and you get two different interpretations.

Passaic County Republican Chairman Scott Rumana (R-Wayne), who's also an assemblyman, attributed the win to the dominant Democratic Party losing touch with the county's residents. 

"You have citizens in Passaic County who have been disenfranchised by the Democratic Party," he said.  "We've been pulling in people who were not part of the party for many years, and that's really been a big, big help in this process."

In a stunning upset, Republicans beat three Democrats - including the incumbent freeholder director, Tahesha Way - and won the county clerk seat

Rumana said that his party's "team building" approach to leadership also played a role.

But Mike Mecca, who is chairman of the splinter group GOP Strong - which challenged Rumana for his chairmanship and supported assembly primary candidates against him - said that Kristin Corrado, county clerk candidate that GOP Strong recruited to defeat the PCRRO's candidate in the June primary -- led the Republican ticket to victory.

Although Democrat Bill Collins trailed by 1,021 votes as of last night, Democrats say that there may be enough uncounted mail-in ballots out there for him defeat Republican Domenick DiCicco in the 4th Legislative District.

Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee (DACC) Executive Director Mike Muller said that mail-in ballots counted since last night have given Collins another 440 votes. 

"There are reports of 1,000 more that are still out there," he said. 

"The one thing we don't want to do is assume [a loss]," said Muller.  "There was such an effort vote-by-mail-wise that in that district alone there were something like 6,500 or 7,000 who applied for vote by mail applications, that we want to make sure we have a good, accurate count of everything that came in."

Incumbent Paul Moriarty (D-Washington Twp.) was the district's top vote getter.

If there was one bright spot for New Jersey Democrats last night, it was in District 1.

In this southernmost district in the state, incumbents Nelson Albano (D-Vineland) and Matt Milam (D-Vineland) held on against Republicans Michael Donohue and John McCann by a relatively comfortable margin.

The two were thought to be the most vulnerable Democratic incumbents this year, since they represent a traditionally Republican district that is dominated by Cape May County - where Christopher Christie did especially well.  Perhaps considered most damning for their chances was the absence of state Sen. Jeff Van Drew (D-Dennis), whose coattails helped get Albano elected in 2005 and Milam in 2007, from the ballot. 

But Van Drew was anything but absent from the campaign.  He played a crucial role in it, folding his two running mates into his independent brand and campaigning as if he were on the ballot himself. 

"Do I feel like I was on the ballot in a way?  Yes, because I have a commitment to them and the people in this district that we'll stand up and continue to do what is right regardless of party politics," he said, adding that the candidates still had to win on their own merits "regardless of how much help they had."

The stunner of the night in North Jersey for Democrats was the loss of their county ticket, the Kazmark-Way-Gomez-Stampone team that suffered the downside of a squeaker to the Corrado-Marratoa-O'Connell-Ciambrone team.

Democratic Party Chairman John Currie takes solace in the fact that incumbent Gov. Jon Corzine defeated Chris Christie here by a vote of 51 to 44% - solace that was shattered by evening's end when Corzine lost statewide.

But of most pressing concern to veteran county man Currie was the win by Republican clerk candidate Kristin Corrado over Democrat Keith Kazmark, 51.91% to 48.09% and the fall of three freeholder candidates, including incumbent rising star (and potential LG candidate) Freeholder Director Tahesha Way.

With provisionals not yet in, Way is losing to Ciambrone by 1400 votes.