Bob Torricelli

Joseph Biden dropped his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination on January 4, but his name will remain on the ballot for the February 5 New Jersey primary.  A spokesman for the state Division of Elections says the difference between Biden’s withdrawal (32 days before the primary) and Robert Torricelli’s exit from the U.S. Senate race (36 days before the 2002 general election) is that in ’02 the Democratic State Committee was willing to pay the cost of changing candidates. 

Five years later, Republicans could be the beneficiary of "Bob's Law" -- a New Jersey Supreme Court decision to allow Democrats to replace Robert Torricelli on the ballot with Frank Lautenberg in the '02 U.S. Senate race. In two of the state's larger towns, where Republicans could win mayoral seats they had held until recent years, their potential success could be impeded by flawed candidates. A change of candidates -- it's administratively feasible to do that for at least another month -- could change the races entirely.

In Toms River, population 89,706, the Internal Revenue Service has over $120,000 in federal tax lients against Council President Greg McGuckin, the Republican candidate for Mayor. And in Hamilton Township, population 87,109, John Bencivengo, the GOP mayoral candidate, faces allegations that he sought to profit over an Anthrax scare at the Hamilton Post Office after 9/11.

Bergen County Democrats would like Kathleen Donovan to become a Superior Court Judge within the next year, since that would increase their chances of winning the County Clerk’s post that has eluded them since Donovan first won in 1988.

There has been speculation about Donovan’s judicial ambitions before, and some Republicans say he greatest obstacle has been State Senator Gerald Cardinale, a fellow Republican who has been allied with Donovan rivals over the years. Their feud goes back to 1989, when Donovan supported Jim Courter for Governor against two Bergen candidates, Cardinale and former Attorney General Cary Edwards.

New Jersey's United States Senators typically get mixed reviews in independent public opinion polls taken the year before they run for re-election.  Frank Lautenberg, with a 41%-32% approval rating in a Quinnipiac University poll earlier this week, was at 42%-42% in 1993 (Eagleton/Rutgers) and at 48%-26% in 1987 (Eagleton-Rutgers).  Bob Torricelli was at 42%-26% in 2001.

Actually, the Senator with the best approval rating was Bill Bradley in 1989: an Eagleton-Rutgers poll had him at 64%-17%.  One year later, he nearly lost his bid for re-electon, winning just 50.4% against Christine Todd Whitman in the worst showing for an incumbent U.S. Senator from New Jersey since William Smathers lost his bid for a second term in 1942.