Anthony Cimino

Mercer County Freeholder John "Hop" Cimino has a new job: he's been hired to do "sales and marketing for both the public and private sector" for T&M Associates, engineering firm that has done work for Mercer County and other public entities.  That means Cimino will be able to use his contacts as a county official to drum up public engineering contracts for the firm - not a bad gig.

"John, like his father, Skip, both formerly worked at CMX," said Peter McDonough, a spokesman for T&M.  CMX was formerly Schoor DePalma, a politically connected engineering firm. 

According to their website, T&M clients include the New Jersey Highway Authority, the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, the New Jersey Department of Transportation, and the United States Army Corps of Engineers.  The firm also had the engineering contract for Baldplate Mountain, which is part of the Mercer County parks system.

Two politicians with new jobs: former Assemblyman Anthony "Skip" Cimino is the new CEO of Robert Wood Johnson Hospital in Hamilton and West Caldwell Mayor Joseph Tempesta is the new East Hanover Township Administrator.

Cimino takes the helm of the hospital even though he has never run a health care company.  He operated a small flooring business before becoming running for the Legislature, and after he lost in 1991, he became Gov. Jim Florio's Commissioner of Personnel.  Later he worked for Schoor DePalma, the politically active engineering firm, and ran unsuccessfully for the State Senate.  His son is now a Mercer County Freeholder.

Tempesta, an unsuccessful Republican candidate for State Assembly in 2001 against John McKeon (D-West Orange) and Mims Hackett (D-Orange), spent less than two years as the administrator in Mountain Lakes before getting the East Hanover job this week.  He told The Star-Ledger that he will "waive his health insurance benefits in East Hanover," an act of tremendous sacrifice, since the taxpayers of West Caldwell give him full health benefits.

Again in an act of personal sacrifice, Tempesta supports Republican Christopher Christie for Governor despite Christie's pledge to end dual public office holding and health benefits for part-timers.

There are now more Democrats than Republicans in Monmouth County, and the GOP is in danger of losing control of the Freeholder Board for the first time since 1986, but state Democrats remain lukewarm over the prospects of playing for State Assembly seats in Districts 11, 12 and 13 in 2009.  Nearly six months before filing day, Democrats are uncertain about investing money to oust any of the six Republican incumbents in districts where they have invested heavily in recent years.

Indeed, twelfth district Democrats won a Senate seat and two Assembly seats in 2003 after ethics charges were hurled at longtime incumbent John Bennett, then the Co-President of the State Senate.  But the GOP won back one of the Assembly seats two years later, and seats in the Senate and Assembly in 2007.  They have been unable to crack the Republican hold on Districts 11, where an aggressive campaign in 2005 fell short, and in District 13, where they came within a few hundred votes of ousting an incumbent five years ago.

Now, it appears Democrats are prepared to wait patiently for 2011, with the hope that they can prevail during the legislative redistricting process and secure a better district.  One idea that seems to be receiving universal consideration by Democratic legislative leaders is to place Jennifer Beck, a freshman Republican State Senator from Red Bank, in a district with either Sean Kean or Joseph Kyrillos, who represent the 11th and 12th districts in the Senate, respectively.   Democrats want to add part of Middlesex County, perhaps strongly Democratic Monroe and Plainsboro, to the 12th and remove some Republican towns.