Observations

Just a few end-of-the day observations:

What would Frank Hague have thought of a Mayor of Jersey City (who is also the Hudson County Democratic Chairman) who could not deliver most of the key Hudson party leadership and elected officials to his candidate for President?  And could the gullible Brad Abelow be the only one who believes Bob Menendez is no longer involved in Hudson County politics?

An impressive list of finance committee members, led by Lewis Eisenberg, has raised just $100,000 for Anne Evans Estabrook’s bid for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination; that’s about half what Dennis Shulman, the blind Rabbi/Psychologist, has raised for his fledgling congressional campaign against Scott Garrett. Luckily for Estabrook, she put $1.6 million of her own money into the race. Estabrook still won’t say how much she’ll invest to unseat Frank Lautenberg.

A Superior Court Judge today sentenced Lesley Devereaux, who served as Chief of Staff to the state Commerce Secretary in Gov. James E. McGreevey’s administration, to 6 ½ years in prison for having a state employee do work for her private law practice at taxpayer expense.  Christy Davis Jackson, who was forced to resign her $125,000-a-year post as a UMDNJ Vice President amidst allegations that she ran her lobbying business from her state job, was among those considered to manage Hillary Clinton’s campaign in New Jersey this year.

Since when does Chris Smith take sides in a hotly contested Republican congressional primary between two pro-life candidates?

And finally, note the extraordinary success of Jill Hazelbaker. Less than two years ago, she was watching Tom Kean, Jr. hide in elevators and explain the considerable traffic congestion along Route 1. Now she’s the Communications Director for the straight-talking, national-poll leading, New Hampshire primary-winning John McCain.