Bill Clinton

Former President Bill Clinton will be in New Jersey next week to boost Gov. Jon Corzine's re-election bid.

Twelve years ago, New Jersey Democrats were begging - literally - for the Democratic National Committee and President Bill Clinton for help in the race for Governor.  National Democrats saw polling that had popular Republican Gov. Christine Todd Whitman ahead of Democrat James E. McGreevey, a one-term State Senator and Mayor of Woodbridge who was good on message discipline. The DNC pollster, Mark Penn, said McGreevey had no chance.  But in New Jersey, Democrats sensed an opportunity.  National Democrats viewed Virginia as the more winnable race, and poured millions of dollars into the campaign of Lt. Gov. Donald Beyer. 

On Election Day, Beyer lost 56%-43% to Republican James Gilmore, the state Attorney General. McGreevey came within one percentage point of upsetting Whitman, 47%-46%, a margin of 25,426 votes.  Some New Jersey Democrats still think Whitman would have lost if they DNC had helped.

Corzine, right, and Gore.

ATLANTIC CITY - Identifying the touchstone values of their party, Democrats bucked one another up here at the Trump Plaza Casino, trying to build feeling for what amounts now to the last 38 days of their campaign effort to maintain control of Drumthwacket and deliver another four years to Gov. Jon Corzine.

"I love you all," Corzine told his supporters in a room packed with party insiders, stirring into his speech humanizing buzz notes - farm boy, soccer coach, parent teacher conference attendee - to offset the image of an aloof leader who landed in Trenton three and a half years ago with comparatively little time honed at the street level of New Jersey politics.  

Corzine noted his commitment to the vulnerable and poor - his move to enact the country's first economic recovery plan, broaden early childhood education and healthcare, and build new schools.

Echoing Bill Clinton with former Vice President Al Gore in the room, "I still believe in the family values my family taught me back on the family farm," said Corzine, who told the crowd that in his battle with GOP candidate Chris Christie "every value we hold dear is at stake." 

Former Vice President Al Gore will be in New Jersey today, lending a hand to Gov. Jon Corzine's re-election by addressing an annual meeting of Democrats in Atlantic City.  Gore becomes the second of the eight living Democratic nominees for President to stump for Corzine; Barack Obama was in the state last July.  Democrats expect two others to be in New Jersey over the next few weeks: former President Bill Clinton, and U.S. Sen. John Kerry.  There are no plans for any of the other four onetime Democratic standard bearers to campaign for Corzine: George McGovern, Jimmy Carter, Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis.

There are four living Republican presidential candidates.  It's almost certain that former Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush will not campaigning for GOP gubernatorial candidate Christopher Christie.  There is no word if Bob Dole or John McCain will be visiting New Jersey before November.

Gore also puts in checkmark under the living former Vice Presidents column. It seems certain that Christie won't ask Dick Cheney to come to New Jersey this fall - the heavy traffic on Route 1 notwithstanding. There are no apparent invitations for Mondale or Dan Quayle to stump for Corzine or Christie, respectively.

Vice President Joseph Biden appeared at a Corzine rally on the night of the Democratic primary.

Of the other five living former VP candidates, three almost certainly will not be invited: Sarah Palin, John Edwards, and Joseph Lieberman.  Sargent Shriver has health issues and is no longer making public appearances. That leaves Geraldine Ferraro, and there is a decent chance the Corzine campaign won't want her.

Barack Obama's visit to New Jersey marks the fourth time a President has come to campaign for the re-election of an incumbent Governor. 

Bill Clinton stumped for Jim Florio in 1993, Ronald Reagan for Thomas Kean in 1985, and Jimmy Carter for Brendan Byrne in 1977.  Lyndon Johnson did not visit New Jersey when Richard Hughes ran for re-election in 1965, although the First Lady did join Hughes for a tour of a Head Start center in Newark.  And Richard Nixon did not come to New Jersey in support of William Cahill, who lost the Republican primary to a White House ally, U.S. Rep. Charles Sandman.

With the release of an audio tape from Osama bin Laden on the eve of the sixth anniversary of the U.S. led invasion of Iraq, did the most wanted fugitive on the planet signal that another Al Qaeda attack on America is imminent?   

There has been a pattern to the attacks on America by Al Qaeda since the February 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.  Although the attack injured more than a one thousand Americans and killed six, newly elected president Bill Clinton did not launch a global "war on terror" in his first year in office.  Instead, U.S. law enforcement authorities successfully hunted down the perpetrators who were then tried, convicted and jailed. 

Patti Nelson McGuire, who spent three years as Gov. Jon Corzine's Deputy Chief of Staff, has joined Princeton Public Affairs Group, one of the state's largest lobbying firms.

"We are excited to have Patti join our dedicated and successful government and public affairs team," said Dale Florio, a partner at PPAG and the Somerset County GOP Chairman.  "Her role at our firm will help strengthen our reach in the New Jersey political arena."

U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg is trying to help Paul Fishman become the next U.S. Attorney from New Jersey.

Paul Fishman was fairy close to becoming New Jersey's U.S. Attorney in 1999, and as Democrats prepare for their first opportunity to fill the post since then, there is increasing speculation that 2009 may be his year. 

U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg pushed hard for Fishman to get the U.S. Attorney post when Faith Hochberg was nominated to a federal judgeship in 1999.  But Fishman got in the middle of a rather extraordinary public feud between Lautenberg and U.S. Senator Robert Torricelli.  The Clinton administration sided with Torricelli, and when Hochberg resigned to take her seat on the bench (after a lengthy delay in the confirmation process), Attorney General Janet Reno elevated Torricelli's preferred choice, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Cleary, as New Jersey's interim federal prosecutor.  Cleary served until George W. Bush's nominee, Christopher Christie, took office in January 2002.

PolitickerNJ.com reported last October that Fishman would be Lautenberg's top choice if Barack Obama won the presidency.  With other potential contenders asking not to be considered, including attorney Joseph Hayden and Attorney General Anne Milgram, Fishman has moved to the top of the list in a campaign that essentially needs just two votes: Lautenberg and U.S. Senator Robert Menendez. 

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Former Gov. Tom Kean at a GOP rally earlier this year with John McCain and Joe Lieberman

Former Gov. Tom Kean will not comment on whether he’s been asked about or vetted for a cabinet position in the Obama Administration. But don’t read anything into that.

“I don’t comment on those things. I can’t,” said Kean, a Republican whose name surfaced in media reports both as a potential pick for Secretary of Education and for Department of Homeland Security Secretary (which is likely to go to Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano).

Being vetted for a cabinet position is a tricky situation. If the administration has talked to you, you’re not supposed to comment on it, and it’s better to err on the side of caution and not say even if you have not been contacted about it.

“It’s an elaborate dance,” he said.

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Former President Bill Clinton with Linda Stender in the closing days of the 2006 campaign

CRANFORD -- Speaking in support of Assemblywoman Linda Stender's congressional bid at Union County College today, former President Bill Clinton said Hillary had sent him.

"She said that New Jersey had been good to me and good to her, and we needed to be good to New Jersey by helping Linda Stender get elected to Congress," said Clinton.

Clinton spent the bulk of his time giving his usual stump speech for Barack Obama, but he started off by rattling off some of Stender's accomplishments in the legislature.  He characterized her as an integral part of a sweeping change needed in Washington.

"I have reviewed Linda Stender's record very carefully, and if you look at the needs of America today, I think you can make a very compelling case that she has a record that is one of the finest not only in the legislature in New Jersey, but in the entire United States of America," he said.

Clinton specifically mentioned Stender's global warming bill, her previous work dealing with mortgages, her support for stem cell research and her bill to ban junk food in school cafeterias.

He also demonstrated some familiarity with her last race against now-retiring U.S. Rep. Mike Ferguson.

"She lost by 3,000 votes last time.  There are enough people in this room to turn 3,000 votes between now and Tuesday," he said.

He was less familiar with the margins he won New Jersey by in his two elections.  Clinton said he won the first time by one percent, and the second time by 15 percent.

"We haven't won by less since," he said. (John Kerry beat President Bush in the New Jersey by 6%).