2008

State Sen. Joseph Pennacchio will announce today that he is entering the race for the Republican nomination for United States Senator.  The Brooklyn-born Dentist and legislator from Morris County, wants to take on the Democratic incumbent, Frank Lautenberg.

Fourteen years after he mounted a self-financed primary challenge against Congressman Dean Gallo, who was dying of cancer, “Jersey Joe” Pennacchio will announce today that he is a candidate for the Republican nomination for United States Senator.  Since his ’94 race, which featured a harsh attack on Gallo – Pennacchio says he didn’t know the incumbent was sick – Pennacchio courted establishment Republicans in Morris County and became popular enough to win special election conventions for Freeholder and State Assembly with the support of some of Gallo’s closest friends.  When the State Senate seat in District 26 opened up, Pennacchio won the GOP nomination by acclamation.

TWENTY-FIVE NEW ASSEMBLY MEMBERS TO TAKE OATHS
AT TUESDAY REORGANIZATION CEREMONY

Assembly to Boast Largest Number of Women in State History;
New Roster Includes Four Former Legislators  

(TRENTON) – Twenty-five new members – 13 Republicans and 12 Democrats – will take their oaths of office when the Assembly holds its organization ceremony for the 213th Legislative Session at noon on Tuesday, January 8.

McCullough,Amodeo,& Polistina Endorse Rudy Giuliani for President  

(Atlantic County, NJ) Atlantic County’s Republican legislative candidates today  endorsed Rudy Giuliani for the GOP nomination for President in 2008.

By a 10-3 vote, a state GOP advisory committee considering delegate selection plans for the 2008 Republican presidential primary has recommended a winner-take-all plan proposed by Cape May County GOP Chairman David Von Savage.  The full 42-member Republican State Committee must now vote on the proposal, which appears to benefit the candidacy of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, the organizational front-runner in New Jersey.

At the urging of Cape May County Republican Chairman David Von Savage, state GOP leaders are considering a proposal to make the February 5, 2008 New Jersey Republican presidential primary a winner-take-all contest.  In the past, New Jersey delegate selection rules had provided for the direct election of slates of delegates both statewide (At-Large) and in each of the thirteen congressional districts.

Hillary Clinton is the frontrunner to win New Jersey's February 5, 2008 Democratic primary -- she has the backing of Governor Jon Corzine and ten Democratic County Chairmen -- but her campaign loses points out of the box for a sloppy Garden State debut. Their press release unveiling the first wave of endorsements left off five County Chairmen (and included one who says he told the campaign last week not to use his name), and did not include some powerful supporters, like Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo.

Corzine fell far short of delivering the kind of massive organizational endorsements that James E. McGreevey did for Howard Dean in 2004 or that Christine Todd Whitman amassed for George W. Bush in 2000 and for Bob Dole in 1996. Missing from the publicly released list were a mass of legislators -- just four of 22 Democratic State Senators and only four five of 49 Democrats in the State Assembly -- albeit three of the most powerful legislators. (Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts agreed to endorse Clinton only last Friday, and presumably will deliver many members of his caucus over the coming weeks.) Clinton has just two of the state's eight Democratic Congressmen (Dean had more) and neither of New Jersey's United States Senators participated in the New Jersey rollout.

Everyone at the top of the massive, Lincoln Memorial-like entrance to City Hall instinctively or self-consciously struck an imperial pose before descending toward the crowd.

Politicians are attentive to power.

Couple that with the race memory of a place like the Parthenon or the Pyramids, and on this day there were over 100 elected officials and ten County chairs testing their best power walks under the Ionic columns of that monumental building in downtown Elizabeth.

With the occasion of Gov. Jon Corzine endorsing Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for President still 15 minutes away, the warm-up act was finally prodded as a single unit, the New Jersey Democratic Party power structure, down the stairs, compressed into two cellphone-chattering phalanxes, one on either side of the podium at the bottom. 

The State Assembly voted today to move New Jersey's presidential primary to the first Tuesday in February, giving state voters the chance to be relevant in the presidential nomination process.

The vote was 59-20.

WATSON COLEMAN: NJ MUST KEEP PACE WITH OTHER STATES SCHEDULING EARLY PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARIES

Measure would Ensure Front Spot in National Election Timetable

(TRENTON) - Noting how as many as 22 other states could hold presidential primaries on February 5, 2008, Assembly Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman today said New Jersey would be negligent if it didn't follow through in moving its presidential primary to February 5 next year.