Barbara Buono

State Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck) thinks that Gov. Jon Corzine should consider gender in picking a Lieutenant Governor, but not as a top priority.

"I would hope that it is a woman.  I think that since it is a new job it would be another breakthrough for women in the state.  But I don't think that's a basic requirement," she said.

Weinberg said that the three potential candidates that she's heard the most speculation about - state Sens. Stephen Sweeney (D-West Deptford), Barbara Buono (D-Metuchen) and Assembly Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Trenton) would all bring valuable traits to the job.

Another name for the list of potential Democratic candidates for Lt. Governor, according to one party leader, is former state Commerce Secretary Virginia Bauer. She first appeared in the public eye as an advocate for 9/11 families after her husband was among the casualties of the attack on the World Trade Center.  She later became state Lottery Director and now serves as a Commissioner of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.  Bauer is a senior vice president at Covenant House, and in 2007 married Donald Steckroth, a federal bankruptcy judge.

There are some leaders among the Democratic base who are strongly pushing Gov. Jon Corzine to consider a woman as his running mate.  Other possible candidates often mentioned by Democratic insiders include Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Barbara Buono (D-Metuchen), Assembly Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing), State Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck), Assemblywoman Pamela Rosen Lampitt (D-Cherry Hill), Secretary of State Nina Mitchell Wells, and Perth Amboy Mayor Wilda Diaz.

TRENTON- New Jersey General Assembly Appropriations Chair Nellie Pou today called on Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Chris Christie to put forward a budget in light of comments he made last week on the Brian Lehrer show.

State Sen. Bob Smith (D-Piscataway)

EDISON – At the Middlesex County Democratic Organization’s (MCDO) annual convention at the Pines Manor here tonight there was palpable frontrunner fever for Sen. Barbara Buono (D-Metuchen) as the state’s first Democratic Party candidate for lieutenant governor.

“No one but (Gov.) Jon Corzine can make that choice, but Barbara Buono would be a magnificent lieutenant governor,” veteran state Sen. Bob Smith (D-Piscataway) told PolitickerNJ.com. “I think her chairmanship of the budget committee gives her a unique perspective, and she’s very well liked in Middlesex.”

In his introduction of the governor to the convention, Smith billed Buono as a fierce Corzine ally.

CAMDEN - The Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee today held its first Fiscal Year 2010 public hearing at Rutgers Camden Law School.  Present were Camden Mayor Gwendolyn Faison and Former New Jersey Supreme Court Chief Justice Deborah Poritz.   The Committee heard testimony from students from Camden's LEAP Academy University Charter School, representatives of the State's mental health and disabled communities, as well the State's gaming industry.   "The testimony we heard today came from residents from all walks of life," said Senator Barbara Buono, D-Middlesex, who chairs the Senate Budget and Appropriations panel.  "I think that this budget will be different than in past years simply because of the current economic climate.  It is the responsibility of this Committee, and of our colleagues, in both the Senate and the Assembly to make sure that the needs of residents are met.  This year we'll have to do more with less, but I am confident that we will be able to maintain the key programs on which some of our neediest residents have come to rely."

Gov. Jon Corzine and state Sen. Barbara Buono (D-Metuchen)

Testing out their attack dog tonsils in a gubernatorial election year, legislative budget chairs state Sen. Barbara Buono (D-Metuchen) and Assemblyman Louis Greenwald (D-Voorhees) each gave a tongue lashing to GOP gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie.

The presumptive Republican frontrunner for governor, Christie told NPR radio show host Brian Lehrer last Friday that “Governor Corzine has the responsibility for putting together this budget, and my responsibility is to critique what he’s done.” 

Both potential candidates for lieutenant governor on a 2009 ticket headed by Corzine, Buono and Greenwald said Corzine proposed a 2010 budget protecting education, health care, seniors, the most vulnerable, and $1 billion of property tax rebates, while executing $4 billion in spending cuts. 

Worth watching: how Democratic legislators who are prospective candidates for Lieutenant Governor position themselves on Jon Corzine's proposed state budget. Specifically, keep an eye on Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Barbara Buono (D-Metuchen) and Assembly Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing).  Buono and Watson Coleman were complimentary toward Corzine, but stopped short of endorsing his proposals.

Assemblyman Patrick Diegnan could move up to the State Senate, if Gov. Jon Corzine picks Barbara Buono as Lt. Governor.

If Barbara Buono were to win election as Lt. Governor, it would mean a January 2010 special election convention to fill her State Senate seat.  Democrats say the leading candidate would be four-term Assemblyman Patrick Diegnan (D-South Plainfield).  If he wins re-election, Edison Mayor Jun Choi could also emerge as a Senate candidate, although he would have a tough time in an election where the voters are Democratic County Committee members.  Assemblyman Peter Barnes (D-Edison) is also a potential Senate candidate.

State Sen. Barbara Buono (D-Metuchen)

EDISON – The sight of Gov. Jon Corzine and state Sen. Barbara Buono (D-Metuchen) conferring at the front of the room, by turns smiling and serious with flashbulbs popping, conjured images of some future press conference – not too long from now - in which the governor unveils Buono as his running mate.

It’s a gubernatorial election year and she’s on his short list, after all, as a seven-year senate veteran with organizational ties to South Jersey, who last year landed the chairmanship of the powerful Budget Committee in a state where women outvoted men in last year’s presidential election: 54 to 46%  and where Catholics make up 48% of voters.

“I would definitely consider it,” said Buono, who lives in Metuchen, one of New Jersey's municipal donut holes, surrounded by the bigger and more politically potent Edison, making Buono no stranger to intra-party turf warfare in this Democratic county, where Republicans perennially threaten to reawaken the suburban Reagan Repubican vote.

Ultimately backed by then-Democratic Party boss John Lynch, she knocked off an incumbent Republican assemblyperson in 1993 in her first foray into Trenton politics, and is currently serving her third term as a senator.

"I think she's ideal for the position," state Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Elizabeth) said of Buono in reference to the LG job. "She's articulate and well-respected, she's from Central Jersey and she has experience with budget issues."