Angelo Genova

Barack Obama's presidential campaign is expected to name Paul Josephson, a former Chief Counsel to Gov. James E. McGreevey, as the counsel to their New Jersey campaign.  There had been speculation that the post would go to either Angelo Genova or Bill Matsikoudis, the Jersey City Corporation Counsel.  By picking Josephson, the Obama campaign avoids another internal battle like the one that delayed the appointment of a state campaign director.

Sources close to the Barack Obama campaign say that there will be roles in the New Jersey campaign for Rep. Steve Rothman’s Chief of Staff, Bob Decheine, and for Bill Matsikoudis, the top lawyer for Jersey City Mayor/Hudson County Democratic Chairman Jerramiah Healy.  Obama selected Tricia Mueller, the political director for the carpenters union, to run his N.J. operation.

Sometimes a little tone deaf to process issues, Governor Jon Corzine is not exactly the poster child for full disclosure. That’s something that began with his refusal to release his federal income tax returns during his 2000 U.S. Senate bid, and his initial failure to release a list of contributions his charitable foundation made as he launched his political career in 1999. An Op-Ed written last year by a member of his own administration alleged that “Jon Corzine has engaged in unprecedented secretive decision-making, without consulting community leaders, elected officials, legislators, government affairs professionals, or government agencies.”

One sign that Hillary Clinton’s New Jersey campaign may have been a bit overconfident -- her campaign sent out an e-mail this afternoon recruiting lawyers to work on Election Day: “As you know, tomorrow – February 5, 2008 – is primary election day across New Jersey.  As in years past, we are assembling a statewide team of volunteer attorneys to work at the polling places, respond to potential problems, make court applications, answer questions, assist the field operation, and generally help the campaign’s legal efforts.  These efforts by volunteer attorneys on Election Day are an integral part of ensuring proper conduct throughout the election, protecting every person’s right to vote, and making sure every vote counts.”

If you have some time next week and want some free entertainment, go to the courthouse in Morristown and watch Angelo Genova and John Carbone duke it out in the case that never ends: a challenge to the 2005 Parsippany mayoral election.  Democrat Michael Luther, who took office two years ago after seemingly defeating Republican Rosemarie Agostini by 39 votes, now faces a court fight to keep his seat as Agostini, who has lost four races for Mayor and lost her Council seat in a GOP primary last year, seeks to become Mayor amidst allegations that several dozen Luther votes were cast by people who did not live in Parsippany.

In Fairfield Township, where Democratic Township Committeeman Albert Beverly lost re-election to Republican Patrick Conahey by just five votes, lawyers for both sides will be before a Cumberland County Superior Court Judge this month to discuss the legal merits of a recount.  Clearly, Beverly wants a recount and Conahey does not. 

Bergen Democrats say the status of the 37th district "changes hourly," but to expect State Senator Loretta Weinberg to run for re-election on the organization line.  Last Friday, the state Attorney General's office granted Weinberg, Assemblyman Gordon Johnson and Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle approval to move to the BCDO line, as requested by their attorney, Angelo Genova.  But confusion remains, with Weinberg expected to go to court on Friday as part of a suit to be bracketed with her Freeholder candidates.  Ninteen days ago, Weinberg appeared at a news conference with County Chairman Joseph Ferriero to declare a peace treaty; the Ferriero-backed opponent to Weinberg, Englewood Mayor Michael Wildes, dropped out of the race. 

Angelo Genova is intimidating in cross-examination.

When he asked the nervous clerk from the state Division of Elections Office whether or not she would certify the petitions again were she to review them "sitting here today," she stammered, "No."

Judge Joseph Paone released the tension in the courtroom with a joke.

"Because you don't want to sit here again," he told her with a smile and she smiled back, relieved.

The judge repeatedly interrupted both attorneys during their closing statements, trying to get them to refine their respective arguments - and hitting them where he thought they were stretching the facts.

When Stephen Edelstein said everyone -- "clerks, candidates, voters� -- knew Sandra Cunningham was running as a Democrat in the primary and not the general election, Paone pursued clarity.

In a combative political state, it figures that it would come down to Jersey City and Bayonne and the 31st district that incorporates pieces of both those two-fisted towns, where Sandra Bolden Cunningham and Assemblyman Louis Manzo both want to be State Senator.

First the two rivals need to slog across that Normandy Beach of mayhem and doom otherwise known as a Hudson County Democratic Party Primary. But whether or not Cunningham will even be able to participate in the action now hinges on Judge Joseph Paone of the state Office of Administrative Law, who today said he needed more time to reach a decision in the case of Manzo v. Cunningham.

Two of New Jerseys most prominent election law experts, Angelo Genova and John Carbone, will face off in a Morristown courtroom on January 8 to decide the November 2005 race for Mayor of Parsippany. Republican Rosemarie Agostini, who lost to Democrat Michael Luther by 39 votes, alleges that as many as 124 voters were either illegally turned away from the polls or voted improperly.

The expedited trial was scheduled after a state appellate panel overturned a Superior Court Judge's denial of Agostini's challenge. Genova, Luther's attorney, has asked the state Supreme Court to issue a stay of the appellate decision. Genova is challenging the constitutionality of a state law that permits elections to be challenged. In that effort, he will be opposed by state Attorney General Stuart Rabner.