Bradley Abelow

As he stood with futility against a bill he believes would ravage his 39th GOP Assemblyman Vince PolistinaLegislative District, Assemblyman John Rooney took little joy in noting a personal milestone.

For while 2008 marks the Bergen County Republican’s 25th anniversary as an assemblyman, it is also the low point of his legislative career.

"My towns got destroyed last night," said Rooney, a day after the majority Democrats passed a $32.9 billion budget, which includes 25% cuts in aid to all of the 28 municipalities in Rooney’s district, and eliminations of property tax rebates for residents in the $150,000 to $250,000 income range.

Monday also brought the Democrats’ successful if ignominious - by Rooney’s reckoning - passage of a bill requiring the construction of affordable housing in affluent towns.

Brad Abelow may have a bridge to sell youFormer State Senator Nicholas Asselta’s vote for Governor Jon Corzine’s school funding plan Monday night and his appointment to a $125,000-a-year position on the state Board of Public Utilities on Tuesday are unrelated, says Corzine’s Chief of Staff, Bradley Abelow.

Abelow told The Star-Ledger that he was “not aware of” and link between the vote and the appointment.

Brad Abelow slammed the Asbury Park Press for using a "manipulated image" of Jon Corzine on the front page of Sunday's edition
Governor Corzine’s Chief of Staff, Bradley Abelow, sent a scathing letter to the Asbury Park Press today over a manipulated image of Corzine hocking highways as if they were stolen goods.

An edited photograph on the front page of Sunday’s edition of the paper shows Corzine opening his jacket to reveal cars and trucks dangling on key chains below emblems of the New Jersey Turnpike, Garden State Parkway and Atlantic City Expressway. The picture accompanied a series of articles about the potential impact of Corzine’s asset monetization plan.

“I feel that many readers of the Asbury Park Press share my view that you did the readers – and your own reporters – a tremendous disservice with the accompanying fictionalized image in Sunday’s story, ‘Hocking the Highways.’ While working with photo editing software may be a useful tool for assembling gag photos or correcting minor imperfections, using it to manipulate the Governor - any governor - into a sinister character is not what we would expect from a responsible media organization,” wrote Abelow.

Jon Corzine and Brad Abelow earned millions together as partners on Wall Street, and one Republican legislator says they should "contribute a few hundred million dollars of their own to pay for what they want to spend" in Trenton.

Tom Shea is stepping down as Gov. Corzine’s chief of staff and will be replaced by State Treasurer Bradley Abelow.

Corzine sent a staff e-mail earlier this afternoon alerting his office to the change, which he said he will announce today.

"Tom is an immensely talented and dedicated public servant whom I relied on greatly in both campaigns, as a United States Senator and now as Governor,” wrote Corzine.

Abelow, Corzine wrote “has proven himself to be an outstanding and selfless public servant.