Alison McHose

Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce (R-Parsippany)

If Republicans fail to make significant gains in the legislature this year, the political fate of Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce (R-Parsippany) becomes a question mark, despite the avowed strength he has in his own caucus.

A coup launched by Assemblyman Pete Biondi (R-Hillsborough), the Republican conference leader, and Assemblyman Richard Merkt (R-Mendham Twp.) fizzled last month when Biondi, working in tandem with Merkt, couldn't scrape together sufficient support to threaten DeCroce.

But Assembly Republicans in conversation lay out the contests where they hope to win, and a list that has at various times included districts 14, 19, 36 and 22, now most emphatically begins with District 1, with the other theatres of endeavor offered more faintly in a hard luck economy where the GOP has failed to match the Democrats in fundraising.

PARSIPPANY, NJ - Assemblywoman Alison McHose, who sits on the Assembly Tourism and Gaming Committee, made the following statement calling on Jon Corzine to commit to transparency and fully disclose the extent of his investments with Texas Pacific Group:

Two days after then-Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano was arrested on corruption charges, Jay Lassiter, a South Jersey political activist, publicly dropped him from his Facebook friends.

"Please don't re-friend me until after you've resigned," Lassiter wrote on Cammarano's wall on July 25 - a message visible to hundreds of the disgraced mayor's Facebook friends. It was supposed to be one of those "who's coming with me?" moments. 

"It didn't go over like I thought it would.  I thought I was going to lead the parade," said Lassiter.  "I actually got snarky notes by Cammarano supporters telling me what a worthless South Jersey piece of (expletive) I was."

Outside of cyberspace, Cammarano, 32, saw his political career come to an abrupt end and his associations evaporate after he was arrested for allegedly taking bribes from an FBI informant posing as a developer. 

But that obligatory public distancing did not extend to Facebook, where many politicians, insiders and media types (including this reporter) remain Cammarano's "friends" - if only out of morbid curiosity over whether he'll update his profile or out of neglect in pruning their own profiles.  

Many politicians have embraced social networking technology, but, as the July 23 corruption sting demonstrates, there is no standard for online etiquette when your online friend has been arrested.  Some politicians (or the staffers who administrate their profiles) do "defriend" ethically troubled Facebook associates, while the thought doesn't cross others' minds.  

Senate President Richard Codey (D-Roseland) is still Facebook friends with Cammarano.

"I think he's suffered enough," said Codey, who added that he tries to be humorous and non-political on his profile.  "I try to be different, as you know if you ever read any of the things I put on there.  I try not to be political, and do different things to get a chuckle sometimes, lighten up somebody's day."

Assemblywoman Alison Littell McHose (R-Franklin Twp) remains Facebook friends with Cammarano, and with former Assemblyman Lou Manzo (D-Jersey City), who was arrested in the same sting.

"I didn't defriend either one of them. That wasn't something I consciously thought about doing," said McHose, who has 1,233 friends.  "I was curious to see whether it would be a means for them to reach out to supporters."

If Christopher Christie wins his race for Governor, look for Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce (R-Parsippany) to actively seek a post in the new administration.  The 73-year-old Morris County Republican has been anxious to serve in the cabinet for several years; he was interested enough in becoming the Commissioner of Transportation that he discussed the job with then-Gov. James E. McGreevey. 

“I am singularly focused on winning a Republican majority in the state Assembly and helping Chris Christie become the next Governor of New Jersey. I am not interested in becoming Transportation Commissioner," DeCroce said in an e-mail to PolitickerNJ.com. "I am very interested in serving as Assembly Speaker and working with Governor Christie to restore fiscal sanity and make New Jersey affordable again. Any report to the contrary is simply false.”

A DeCroce move to the administration would create two new campaigns - one to replace him as the Assembly Minority Leader (assuming the GOP does not capture control of the Assembly in November) and the other to fill his District 26 Assembly seat.  Some Assembly Republicans believe a leadership battle could turn out to be contest between the GOP Conference Leader, Peter Biondi (R-Hillsborough) and Minority Whip Jon Bramnick (R-Westfield).  Biondi has been eyeing the Minority Leader post for a while, and has reportedly considered challenging DeCroce.    Don't count out Assemblywoman Alison McHose (R-Franklin) as a leadership candidate.

Steve Lonegan fired a clear and direct warning shot at Chris Christie today, suggesting that the endorsement he offered in his concession speech one week ago is based upon the continuation of his conservative agenda during his general election campaign against Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine.  But if Christie seeks a move to the political center, as many GOP primary winners do in New Jersey, he could alienate Lonegan and his core political supporters.

One interpretation of Lonegan’s intentions: that Christie needs to proceed with caution as he considers pro-choice running mates.  State Sen. Diane Allen (R-Edgewater Park) and Bergen County Clerk Kathleen Donovan are reportedly the leading candidates for Lt. Governor on the GOP ticket.  Instead, some Lonegan backers are telling Christie to look at three other candidates: Assemblywoman Alison McHose (R-Franklin) and Monmouth County Sheriff Kim Guadagno.

Lonegan is taking some heat from supporters for his conciliatory primary night endorsement of Christie, according to sources close to the former Bogota Mayor.  Also taking some heat is New Jersey Right to Life (NJRTL) Legislative Affairs Director Marie Tasy, whom some Lonegan supporters insist backed Christie.  Sources say that Tasy stopped returning Lonegan’s telephone calls in January, and even prevented Lonegan volunteers from handing out literature at a NJRTL dinner.

The Republican gubernatorial primary is over, but Democrats apparently have no intention of letting fade away the accusation by former candidate Rick Merkt that a friend and advisor of newly minted Republican nominee Chris Christie tried to buy him out of the gubernatorial race.

Assembly members Reed Gusciora (D-Princeton) and Valerie Vainieri Huttle (D-Englewood) today again called on Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph Marra to investigate whether John Inglesino, a former Morris County freeholder, offered Merkt, an assemblyman from Christie's home town of Mendham, a plum position on the campaign and in a future Christie administration if he dropped his plans to run for governor.

"Three weeks ago, Assemblyman Gusciora and I called on law enforcement to investigate a report of impropriety and see if the law had been broken," said Huttle.  "The politicking of the primary election is now behind us, but the specter of corruption remains. Now is the time to determine if, and to what extent an illegal act took place.  Now that the election is over we need to get to the bottom of this."

Merkt wound up getting a miniscule portion of the vote in Tuesday's primary, although his impact on the race was not clear when he announced his intention to run late in the summer.

All eight countywide elected officials from Sussex County today endorsed Christopher Christie for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, along with Sussex GOP Chair Ailish Hambel and former County Chairman Richard Zeoli.  But Christie has not yet scored a Sussex sweep, with U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett (R-Wantage), State Sen. Steven Oroho (R-Franklin), Assemblywoman Alison McHose (R-Franklin), Assemblyman Gary Chiusano (R-Frankford), former State Sen. Robert Littell, and former GOP State Chair Virginia Littell still uncommitted in the Republican primary for Governor.

Former Bogota Mayor Steven Lonegan has won the endorsment of the New Jersey Conservative Party Chairman.

New Jersey Conservative Party (NJCP) State Chairman Stephen Spinosa will "temporarily resign" his post because he has changed his party registration to Republican in support of Steve Lonegan's campaign for Governor.  Spinosa has urged the 45 voters registered as members of the New Jersey Conservative Party to change their registration to Republican and then change back after the June primary.   Spinosa says the NJCP has also endorsed Michael Doherty for State Senate, and Michael Patrick Carroll and Alison Littell McHose for Assembly.

Spinosa's statement, in entirety:

Six legislators will face no opposition in the November general election, as long as no write-in candidate wins 100 votes in the primary: Democrats Joseph Cryan and Annette Quijano in District 20, Republicans Alison McHose and Gary Chiusano in District 24, and Democrats Joan Quigley and Vincent Prieto in District 32.  Cryan is the Democratic State Chairman, and Quijano is a freshman who won a 2008 special election following the resignation of Neil Cohen. None of these districts are politically competitive. 

Afraid of facing a GOP primary challenge, Assemblywoman Alison Littell McHose (R-Franklin) had indicated to Republican leaders that she would endorse former U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie for Governor after the filing deadline - which was last Monday.  Sources say that the Christie camp, aggravated by McHose's delay, is no longer viewing her as a possible candidate for Lt. Governor.  It's possible that Christie would not have asked McHose to be his running mate anyway, but her neutrality has all but ended her hope of running statewide this year.