Barry Albin

Republicans are hoping that a new Appellate Court ruling that towns which already have satisfied their Mount Laurel and Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) obligations may still be required to consider affordable housing zoning applications will move the focus off of Karl Rove and Michele Brown.  Mount Laurel has always been a great Republican issue, as long as Republicans don't step on their own feet. 

Senate Minority Leader Thomas Kean, Jr. (R-Westfield) wants the Legislature to come back into session to overhaul COAH - a move that might annoy at least one of his top supporters.  The Council on Affordable Housing was created in 1985 by his father, who was then on his way to winning 70% of the statewide vote in his bid for re-election as governor.  A year later, Gov. Thomas Kean ignited a firestorm among Republicans by naming the author of the Mount Laurel decision, Chief Justice Robert Wilentz, for a tenured term on the top court.  Earlier this summer, Kean Jr. caught heat from conservatives by being only one of four Senate Republicans to vote for lifetime tenure for Associate Justice Barry Albin, a former partner at Wilentz's old law firm.

HAMILTON -- Republican gubernatorial nominee Chris Christie said he doesn’t know for sure whether any of President Obama’s luster will rub off on embattled Gov. Jon Corzine when he visits in support of him later this month, but he doubts it. 

“I firmly do believe that it’s not a race about President Obama. I think it’s a race about Jon Corzine and his record, and me and my vision for what the future would be,” said Christie.  “I don’t think New Jerseyans are going to decide how to vote based upon who comes and visits.”

Obama, who remains popular in New Jersey, is set to campiagn with Corzine on July 16 at Rutgers University.   

PolitickerNJ.com serendipitously ran into Christie at Panera Bread on Route 130 in Hamilton, where he was lunching with his security consultant, former State Police Major Al DelVento, in between campaign stops in Trenton and Hamilton. 

In a three minute interview, Christie answered two other questions before hitting the Turnpike: one on state Supreme Court Justice Barry Albin’s confirmation to tenure until mandatory retirement at age 70, and one on a poll that showed public support for Governor Corzine’s budget.

Voting yes on the Senate confirmation of New Jersey Supreme Court Associate Justice Barry Albin early this morning was the Republican leader of the State Senate, Thomas Kean, Jr. (R-Westfield).  Christopher Bateman (R-Branchburg) and Sean Kean (R-Wall) were also among a group of Republicans who voted to confirm Albin, who may now serve on the state's top court until he reaches the age of seventy in 2022.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Paul Sarlo (D-Wood-Ridge)

TRENTON - The state Senate majority just stamped its imprimatur on Judge Barry Albin's lifetime renomination to the State Supreme Court by a vote of 27-11.

Justice Albin of Warren Township, 56, a former trial attorney appointed to the Supreme Court by Gov. Jim McGreevey in 2002, came easily out of committee earlier this week by a vote of 9-4, and tonight hit some but ultimately only token turbulence in the chamber at large.

"A balanced and fair jurist - neither a liberal nor consrvative," Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Paul Sarlo (D-Wood-Ridge) said of Albin, whose arguably most controversial decision was his 2002 thumbs-up to the Democratic Party's 11th hour offload of a damaged U.S. Sen. Robert Torricelli.

State Sen. Gerald Cardinale (R-Bergen) worried about the judge's presence on the court after his involvement in that decision.

Middlesex County Sheriff Joseph Spicuzzo, who was hospitalized for two days this week as he recovers from the flu, is in Trenton now after the Senate Judiciary Committee refused to allow him to testify by telephone as Gov. Jon Corzine's nominee for Commissioner of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority.  Legislators, anxious to address the key issues of the day - the passage of a state budget and the Senate confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Barry Albin - are now delayed as the Judiciary panel prepares to reconvene to consider Spicuzzo, the Middlesex County Democratic Chairman.

Update: In an interesting accommodation for a County Chairman, the Senate Judiciary Committee will reconvene after the Senate Democratic Caucus is completed to consider the nomination of Joseph Spicuzzo to the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority.

It’s a big political news day for New Jersey, with three important stories playing out in Trenton and Washington.

Republican gubernatorial nominee Chris Christie will testify before a congressional subcommittee about the way he assigned deferred prosecution agreements as U.S. Attorney.  Also testifying will be his chief critics on the matter – U.S. Reps. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) and Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch) – who have authored legislation regulating the way federal monitoring contracts are assigned.  PolitickerNJ.com will be in Washington to cover it.  

The budget, now with another $400 million put towards property tax relief, is set for a vote in both the Assembly and state Senate.    

And the state Senate will vote on whether to give state Supreme Court Justice Barry Albin tenure.  Although Republicans have accused Albin of judicial activism and made a political issue out of his reappointment, the senate is widely expected to approve his him.  
Albin, 56, will then be able to serve on the court until his mandatory retirement at age 70.  

Barry Albin appears headed toward another fourteen years as a New Jersey Supreme Court Justice, after a four-hour hearing led to a 9-4 recommendation by the Senate Judiciary Committee.  Albin has no apparent obstacles when the full Senate votes on his renomination on Thursday.  He was praised by GOP Senators for meeting privately meeting with Senators and for patiently answering their public questions.

Albin's nomination was never really in danger.  The real news is that the Judiciary Committee has changed the way judicial nominees are confirmed. The recent tradition of simply accepting the Governor's nominee -Albin was not asked a single question during his confirmation hearing seven years ago - appears to have been replaced by a group of Senators who take their constitutional responsibility of advise and consent seriously.

The Albin confirmation set off a small conflict between Judiciary Committee Chairman Paul Sarlo (D-Wood-Ridge) and Gov. Jon Corzine.  A Sarlo staffer, responding to an Inside Edge item wondering if the Bergen County Democrat was up to running the panel, blamed Corzine for taking too much time making appointments and then seeking to push them all through at yesterday's hearing.  The Judiciary Committee met for nearly nine hours and considered over fifty appointments in addition to Albin.

Now, one case does not (necessarily) a career make. But few cases decided by the New Jersey Supreme Court in recent years rankle Republicans as much as the infamous Torricelli switcheroo case.

Recall the facts: Senator Torricelli long labored under an ethical cloud, but as the 2002 general election approached, the Senator’s flagrant misbehavior exceeded even the tolerance of the jaded and forgiving New Jersey electorate – and that of the wholly cynical Democratic Party. With poll numbers plumbing depths even President Bush never explored, Torricelli stood little chance of reelection. Faced with the loss of a crucial Senate seat, the Democratic power brokers importuned the good Senator to step aside in favor of a more electable alternative: former Senator Frank Lautenberg.

One tiny, weeny difficulty: NJ statute permitted substitution of a withdrawing candidate only up to 51 days before the election; Torricelli’s "withdrawal" occurred a scant 36 days prior thereto. Hence, pursuant to any reasonable reading of the statute, no substitution could be legally effected.

The much-anticipated confirmation hearing of Barry Albin just ended  with Albin’s renomination for tenure to the state Supreme Court approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee by a vote of nine to four.  

The vote was mostly along party lines, with Democrats voting in the affirmative and Republicans in the negative.  One Republican – state Sen. Christopher Bateman (R-Branchburg) – voted yes.  

The state Senate will vote to confirm Albin on Thursday.  

Despite speculation during the run up to the hearing, it was relatively tame.  Albin faced a lot of tough questions from Republicans – mostly, as expected, about decisions on school funding and affordable housing – but there were not many tense moments. 

State Sen. Jennifer Beck (R-Red Bank) broached the 2002 state Supreme Court decision that allowed U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg to replace the ethically-troubled incumbent Robert Torricelli on the ballot – despite passing the 48 day deadline.

“The statute speaks very clearly. There’s no leeway,” said Beck.

But Albin said that the case was not an anomaly.  There was a precedent of over 50 years of courts liberally construing ballot deadlines liberally, he said.

“Since 1952, our courts have consistently indicated that the election law statues are directory, not mandatory when it comes to the strict deadlines.  That we should not read the statutes to defeat voter choice, voter participation, or having candidates placed on the ballot,” he said.