Brian Hughes

Corzine enters IBEW Local 269 tonight in Lawrenceville.

LAWRENCEVILLE - Gov. Jon Corzine embraced labor here at IBEW Local 269 just before completing his day of campaigning on the night before Election Day.

"Get out there and vote," Corzine roared to a room packed with men who claim membership in this electrical workers union numbering 1,200 strong from around Central Jersey.

"Everything is what happens, not what people speculate," he told PolitickerNJ.com moments later when asked about his trust in the strength of the Democratic Party machine. "We think we have the better operation, and it's up to people to execute."

Asked why the voters of New Jersey should give him another four years, Corzine said, "I'm the best guy to get us out of this recession on the issues that matter: education, healthcare, partnership with the president; I'm in a much better position on every front, not for giving tax cuts to people making over $400,000 a year."

U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch), Assembly Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing), Assemblyman Reed Gusciora (D-Princeton), Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein (D-South Brunswick), and Assemblyman Wayne DeAngelo (D-Hamilton) were in the room.

The race for Assembly Speaker is causing political headaches for Linda Greenstein (D-Plainsboro),  who will  steer clear of an endorsement until her own re-election campaign is over.  On Friday, Middlesex County Democratic Chairman Joseph Spicuzzo announced that the entire Middlesex Democratic Assembly delegation would back John Wisniewski (D-Sayreville) for Speaker.  That put Greenstein, a five-term Democratic lawmaker from Middlesex, in hot water with Mercer County Democrats, who are backing Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing) for the post.  Greenstein's district is evenly divided between Middlesex and Mercer.

Spicuzzo's announcement that Greenstein was backing Wisniewski upset Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes, who is backing Watson Coleman.  Hughes convinced Greenstein to back off her pledge to Spicuzzo and remain comfortably on the sidelines.    For Wisniewski, it means that a campaign that was just hours old already had a defection.

This is bad news for Watson Coleman, who was assuming the support of Greenstein and hoping for the backing of Wayne DeAngelo (D-Hamilton).  With African American legislators sidelined as another candidate, Sheila Oliver (D-East Orange) mulls a bid for Speaker, all Watson Coleman really has at this point is one vote from her running mate, Reed Gusciora (D-Princeton), and her own. 

With the Primary Election now past us and the General Election still seemingly far in the future for most folks, the hot topic in New Jersey politics centers around who will be chosen to represent the major parties in the newly-created Lieutenant Governor post. 

The gubernatorial candidates have 30 days from the Primary Election to name their choice for running mate.  This letter is an open argument as to why a leader from Mercer County ought to be at the top of the list for consideration, at least on the Democratic side of the aisle.

As with most state-wide offices, the selection of a lieutenant governor nominee will play out not only based on the accomplishments of the persons being considered, but also on the geo-political balance of the state.

New Jersey has been traditionally divided politically between the north and the south.  Recently, Mercer has become the key stone between the two, bridging the arc of oft-competing interests to play an important role, especially in Democratic politics.  In the hotly contested US Senate Primary last year, it was Mercer that delivered the third highest percentage of support in the stat e for Senator Frank Lautenberg, the ultimate winner of that contest.

Mercer’s Hughes Calls on Christie to Return Pay to Play Campaign Contributions From No-Bid Contract Recipient

County Executive: Ex U.S. Attorney Should Refund State Taxpayer Matching Funds

TRENTON- In response to published reports that Republican gubernatorial candidate Christopher J. Christie has accepted significant campaign contributions questionable under pay-to-play and no-bid contract rules, Mercer County Executive Brian M. Hughes is calling on Christie to pay back the money.

With Mercer County facing a $43 million budget shortfall and County Executive Brian Hughes raising the possibility of public worker layoffs, local Republican Chairman Roy Wesley wants to know why Sheriff Kevin Larkin is collecting a pension for the job he’s still working.  

On January 1st, Larkin met the requirements for the Police and Fire Retirement System, at which point he started receiving a pension of about $85,000 per year.  But he remains employed as sheriff, concurrently collecting his regular salary of $129,364.

Wesley thinks that, while legal, Larkin’s collection of the benefits represents a double standard, and that Larkin should either resign or wait until he actually retires to collect the pension.  As a public official, he said, he ought to set an example.  

Lawrence Mayor Pam Mount is a potential Assembly candidate in the 15th district, if Bonni Watson Coleman runs for Lt. Governor this year.

If Jon Corzine picks Bonnie Watson Coleman to run for Lt. Governor in June, Democrats in the Mercer County-based fifteenth district would need to hold a special primary convention to pick a new candidate for State Assembly.  Watson Coleman could keep her Assembly seat, but she would not be permitted to seek both offices in November 2009.

Democrats will feel some pressure to replace Watson Coleman with another African American candidate, but in a district that has not had a legislative vacancy since 1997, it might be hard for state Democratic leaders to dictate anything.

Possible candidates include: Trenton City Council President Paul Pintella; Trenton Councilwoman Cordelia Staton; Lawrence Mayor Pam Mount; Mercer County Freeholder Lucy Walter (D-Ewing); and Kelly Ganges, the former Executive Director of the Assembly Democratic Office and now the Chief of Staff to Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes.

Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes expects to leave the hospital within the next couple days after suffering a heart attack over the weekend, according to his half brother, Michael Murphy.

“I think he’s getting out in a day or two.  He was anxious to get out and cooler medical heads prevailed.  They said give yourself a little extra time,” said Murphy, a lobbyist and former gubernatorial candidate who chaired Rob Andrews’s U.S. senate primary run.

Hughes, the son of former Gov. Richard J. Hughes, was walking his family’s dog outside of his Princeton home on Sunday afternoon when he fell ill.  A neighbor saw him and called an ambulance, which then took him to the University Medical Center at Princeton, where he’s been recuperating since then. 

Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes suffered a heart attack on Sunday.

Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes is resting comfortably after suffering a heart attack on Sunday afternoon.  The 52-year-old Democrat, had surgery to repair a blocked artery.  In late 2004, underwent brain surgery to treat trigeminal neuralgia, a disorder that causes intense facial pain.

State Democratic Party Chairman Joseph Cryan address the crowd at Obama HQ on Saturday.: Politicker photo

WEST WINDSOR - The sense here on Saturday is the presidential race is no longer deadlocked nationally.

At this moment.

So when State Democratic Chairman Joseph Cryan asks the crowd of 260 Obama canvassers to demonstrate an upbeat mood, they respond with full-throated gusto in the packed headquarters of Obama’s campaign headquarters.

No one committed to a candidate in this cycle lets pass an opportunity to celebrate the good fortune of his or her presidential aspirant, be he Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) or Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).

To hear the media tell the story, the fortunes appear too transient.

If this event occurred a week ago, the mood would have been borderline gloomy. But today Washington is mulling a $700 billion bail-out package for a flat-lining Wall Street and Sen. John McCain - longtime champion of deregulation in the private sector - also lugs a five-day old burden of suggesting that America’s economy is fundamentally sound.

Brian M. Hughes, Mercer County executive: Politicker file photo 

Arguing for why voters should choose Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes today contrasted the tax cut proposals of both Obama and his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

Simultaneously, the McCain Campaign unveiled their new television ad, "Lipstick," which punches back at Obama in defense of McCain running mate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

In his Statehouse press conference this afternoon, Hughes argued that Obama’s plan cuts taxes for 95 percent of American workers and provides tax relief to middle class families, while McCain’s plan offers zero relief to 2.8 million New Jersey families, and offers only a $125 benefit to others.