Bill Pascrell

Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch) has the biggest campaign war chest in New Jersey's thirteen member congressional delegation, with more than twice as much money in the bank as Steve Rothman (D-Fair Lawn).  Pallone has $4,012,918, while Rothman has $1,759,842.  Pallone raised $355,661 during the last quarter, while Rothman brought in just $25,212 - less than any other New Jersey Congressman from either party.

Christopher Smith (R-Hamilton) has the lowest cash on hand - just $120,480.  He is expected to face a Republican primary challenge, possibly from former Holmdel Deputy Mayor Alan Bateman.  Rob Andrews (D-Haddon Heights) has $195,210 in the bank, and still carries a debt from his challenge to Frank Lautenberg (D-Cliffside Park) in the 2008 Democratic U.S. Senate primary.

Freshman John Adler (D-Cherry Hill), who won a House seat last year with 52% in a district the Republicans had not lost since 1886, has $1,193,060 cash on hand.  He raised $404,405 during the last quarter - the  best in the New Jersey delegation.  Another freshman, Leonard Lance (R-Clinton), has $314,755.

From left: Assemblyman Fred Scalera (D-Nutley), Gov. Jon Corzine, U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson), Nutley Mayor Joanne Cocchiola, Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo, and Assemblyman Ralph Caputo (D-Belleville)

BELLEVILLE - The self-proclaimed party of diversity lined up at the start of the Columbus Day Parade today, and if the presence of a single woman packed into this brace of gray and blue suited would-be alpha males heartened Democratic Party onlookers, the downside was that Nutley Mayor Joanne Cocchiola is, in fact, a Republican.

"We're from every part of Italy you can imagine," cracked U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) in an effort to explain the gender domination factor; indeed, they even had an Irishman in there, Essex County Clerk Chris Durkin, who made a point, in the midst of all the pre-march backyard chest-thumping, to compliment Celeste Caputo, wife of Assemblyman Ralph Caputo (D-Belleville), on the food.

Making an appearance here at arguably the area's most important Columbus Day event and forced to share a piece of the street with a Christopher Columbus lookalike in Genovese regalia who, when addressed, only responded in Italian, Gov. Jon Corzine relished a chance to inflate his wobbly image in this blue collar, Italian-Irish-Latino Catholic stronghold where Newark's white ethnics re-entrenched after the 1967 troubles.

Twenty-three days from D-Day, he leaned heavily on the locals.

"He opens up his home the way he opens up his heart," Corzine, affectionately gripping the back of Caputo's neck, told a crowd of local Democratic Party rivals who shelved their differences long enough to occupy the same patio with the governor moments before convening in the street at the head of any number of school marching bands, 1940s and 1950s cars, and party flotillas.

U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) wants the National Basketball Association to review a deal for a controversial Russian billionaire to purchase the New Jersey Nets.  Mikhail Prokhorov, a 44-year-old nickel and gold producer considered to be the richest man in Russia, has announced plans to purchase an 80% stake in the NBA team for a reported $200 million.

"Mr. Prokhorov's background raises questions about his fitness to be the owner of a high-profile NBA franchise," Pascrell wrote to NBA Commissioner David Stern.  "Both Mr. Prokhorov's business and personal history have come under intense scrutiny in his home country and abroad."

Pascrell, citing media reports, says that Prokhorov has agreed to finance much of the construction costs for a new arena in Brooklyn.   The current Nets owner, Bruce Ratner, could lose his tax-free financing if he doesn't break ground by December, and is facing some financial and legal obstacles.

New Jersey's congressional delegation voted 8-5 along party lines in support of a House resolution voicing disapproval of U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), who shouted "You lie!" during President Barack Obama's address to a joint session of Congress last week.  Democrats John Adler, Rob Andrews, Rush Holt, Frank Pallone, Bill Pascrell, Donald Payne, Steven Rothman, and Albio Sires voted yes.  Republicans Rodney Frelinghuysen, Scott Garrett, Leonard Lance, Frank LoBiondo and Christopher Smith voted no.  The resolution passed 240-17.  Seven Republicans voted yes and twelve Democrats voted no.

GOP candidate Chris Christie

If Christopher Christie had disclosed that Lambertville Police issued him three tickets in the fall of 2005, Republicans would not have vigorously pursued the resignation of then-Attorney General Zulima Farber during the summer of 2006, argue Democrats who see an emerging pattern of hypocrisy in the latest Christie behind-the-wheel story.

According to police, Christie, the Republican candidate for governor, identified himself as the U.S. Attorney both at a September 2005 Lambertville police stop where he was allowed to drive away an unregistered vehicle - reported last week - and at the scene of a 2002 traffic accident in which a motorcyclist went to the hospital after Christie drove the wrong way down a one-way street, the Star-Ledger reported today.

Farber, who had been named as the state's top law enforcement official by Gov. Jon Corzine, showed up at the Fairview scene of a May 2006 police stoppage in a government vehicle, in an incident that highlighted the Attorney General's failure to satisfy Republican lawmakers who months earlier during her confirmation hearing grilled her about her blemish-heavy driving record. The incident caused her to resign eight months into her tenure and caused some political problems for the fledgling Corzine administration.

Assemblyman Reed Gusciora (D-Princeton), who said he's probably racked up more tickets than any other legislator in the Assembly, said he's never identified himself as an elected official when he gets stopped.
 
"It's a little self-serving for me to mention it maybe, but I just have never felt that you should throw your title around," said Gusciora. "I cringed in both instances - Christie's and Farber's.  It just makes us all look bad."
 
But Gusciora said he believes Christie's story is worse than Farber's, because of what he identifies as the former U.S. Attorney's hypocrisy.

MONTCLAIR - Thursday night was U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell's (D-Paterson) turn to walk the gauntlet of rage among those anti-Obama forces fearing government-run health care. Given Pascrell's propensity to turn into the old street fighter at the sign of aggression, his allies worried privately that this encounter with right-wing critics objecting to his championing of a public option could turn into a brawl.

But it didn't, as Pascrell combined gut-level anger over the lack of coverage for 77,000 constiuents in the 8th District and 45 million Americans whenever someone challenged him in a provocative tone, section-by-section quotations from the House health care reform bill, and patriotic invocation to back up his arguments.

"You're going to put all the pizzerias in this district out of business with this bill," a woman told the congressman, suggesting that communisim lurked behind the healthcare legislation.

Pascrell appeared shocked, then feigned being wounded.

"I'm Mr. Pizza!" he cried. 

About 900 people packed the Memorial Theater here on the campus of Montclair State University where the crowd appeared split in half between those supporting the public option as part of the healthcare reform favored by Pascrell and those against it, with the edge going to the Pascrell team over the course of his two-and-a-half plus hour performance.

The chairman of a congressional subcommittee reviewing deferred prosecution agreements has given former U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie, above, until September 4 to answer additional questions regarding a settlement with Zimmer Holdings

The chairman of a House Judiciary Subcommittee that questioned former U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie last June on his use of deferred prosecution agreements has given the Republican gubernatorial candidate until September 4 to fully respond to questions asked by several members of the panel.

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN), the chairman of the Commercial and Administrative Law subcommittee, called Christie's responses to additional questions "particularly unsatisfactory." 

After the hearing, Cohen sent Christie a series of questions related to a settlement with Zimmer Holdings.  Christie's decision to appoint former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft as a federal monitor to oversee the deferred prosecution agreement has become an issue in the gubernatorial campaign.

"For all but two of the questions, you responded with a general assertion that the questions were answered in your oral and written testimony," Cohen wrote to Christie.  "At times you cited page numbers in the unofficial hearing transcript, which on further inspection appear not to contain anythig responsive, and which in any event will be confusing to those who will have only the officially published hearing record." 

Cohen said that the answers to those two questions are incomplete.

Correspondence between Christie and Cohen was released today by two Democratic congressmen from New Jersey, Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch) and Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson).

GOP gubernatorial nominee Chris Christie, far left, sits with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Paul Sarlo (D-Wood-Ridge) and Sen. Nia Gill (D-Montclair). U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) appears at far right.

WAYNE - Gov. Jon Corzine's ceremonial swearing-in of Camelia Mercedes Valdes as the new Passaic County prosecutor this evening featured the shared-stage presence of Republican gubernatorial rival Chris Christie, who smudged somewhat the Democrats' hopes of a singular Corzine imprimatur on the first Latina prosecutor in New Jersey.

Although Wayne's solid GOP, this is a Democratic base country county, and for Corzine to have to worry about a split-screen effect with Christie had Democratic Party operatives quietly fuming up and down the wings of the auditorium here at the Passaic County Technical Institute.

Both parties credit Passaic County Democratic Party Chairman John Currie - who sat next to the governor during the ceremony as the counterpoint to Christie, who settled into a chair beside Senate Judiciary Chairman Paul Sarlo - with kick-starting the Valdes as prosecutor concept on marching order's from the Governor's Office to find a Latino(a) candidate for the vacancy.

The good news for Democrats in this county where Latino registered voters form well over a fifth of the voting population and where registered D's outnumber R's 78,009 to 47,498? Currie tracked down a hard-nosed white collar crime and financial fraud prosecutor with courtroom experience who was also Dominican American. They checked out the resume and to a man/woman the conclusion was competence. And then there was the history-making factor. Valdes would be the first Dominican-American lead prosecutor in the country, creating an opportunity for Corzine to oversee a Sotomayor scenario two months before Election Day in a state with a big and growing Latino voting bloc.

U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) today urged federal authorities to investigate GOP gubernatorial candidate Christopher Christie for failing to report a $46,000 loan he gave U.S. Attorney underling Michele Brown.

"Add this to the growing list of Christie's capers," said Pascrell. "Is it mere coincidence that Mr. Christie's personal life is again in conflict with his public obligations? A prosecutor at his level should know that once he gave that loan, no matter how well-intended it was, it changed the relationship between Mr. Christie and Ms. Brown. We have a right to know to what extent it changed. At the very least, this is a conflict of interest."

A self-professed fan of the former U.S. Attorney's until the 2006 U.S. Senate election when news leaked from Christie's office about a probe of property owned by U.S. Sen. (and candidate for reelection) Robert Menendez (D-Hoboken), Pascrell has also been on Christie's case about the latter's oversight of deferred prosecution agreements when he served as U.S. Attorney.

Gov. Jon Corzine, right, in the Central Ward today with Essex County Clerk Chris Durkin.

NEWARK - Notwithstanding good spirits on the occasion of a new school opening in the Central Ward, an ongoing investigation by the state Attorney General's Office into possible North Ward voter fraud has Newark political operatives rocking on their heels with worry 83 days in front of Gov. Jon Corzine's Nov. 3rd showdown with Republican Chris Christie.

Corzine needs big numbers in Essex County, Democratic Party base country where Presidential candidate Barack Obama last year drove higher voter turnout than anywhere else in the state. The usually performing North Ward Democratic Organization plays a key role - especially in a low voter turnout election, but a cowed infrastructure could play havoc with Corzine's local results here.

Even as his campaign continues to target former U.S. Attorney Christie's phone conversations with former George W. Bush political mastermind Karl Rove and raises questions about Christie's political motivations while serving as U.S. Attorney, Corzine today said Attorney General Anne Milgram and her investigators will carry out their duties regardless of whether it hurts him politically.

"The state Attorney General pursues an even-handed administration of justice," Corzine told reporters. "The political commitments that people make, I think are independent of that."