Brian Hughes

Robert F. Kennedy campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1968

Working guard duty at Fort Dix in 1968, 22-year-old government issue Ray Lesniak counted himself a fortunate one because he didn't get shipped off to Vietnam.

"Even though I ain't no senator's son," said the senator, 40 years later now, quoting the Creedence Clearwater Revivial song lyrics from the older era.

He was into politics even then, and he liked Sen. Robert Kennedy for president.

"I was a huge supporter," he said.

For insiders like Lesniak who have been immersed in Democratic Party stand-offs for decades, the primary rumble between senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama bears traces of that 1968 match-up between establishment warhorse Hubert Humphrey and tousle-headed rock star Kennedy.

Pre-Iowa, they thought it was going to be a cakewalk, but supporters of Sen. Hillary Clinton insist that initial jolt of dread between Iowa and New Hampshire has turned into excitement, while the supporters of Sen. Barack Obama say they are excited - and on guard for truth-twisting.

Obama’s victory in South Carolina last night - his second in the process so far - made the Clinton machine in New Jersey change gears again as they get ready to try to roll over Obama’s grassroots operations on Feb. 5.

"Obviously, we got a late start because people were taking some things for granted," said Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes, who in the lead-up to Obama’s win gathered about 25 people at the Ewing Township Library on Saturday to help prepare them for phone-banking duties on behalf of the Clinton campaign.

Assemblyman Joseph CryanWith a few hours to go before the end of the New Hampshire primary, Sen. Hillary Clinton’s statehouse supporters went into full-bore Rudy Giuliani campaign strategy mode, downplaying New Hampshire, and emphasizing the importance of the Feb. 5th primary in New Jersey and 21 other states.

Lagging behind Sen. Barack Obama in Iowa and likely New Hampshire, Clinton's supporters also found a comforting target in the former senator from North Carolina, whom Clinton had excoriated in in self-defense during Saturday's ABC debate.

Assemblyman Joseph Cryan, New Jersey spokesman for the Clinton campaign, said of tonight's primary, "It doesn’t matter whether she wins or loses. What’s going to happen in New Hampshire tonight is you’re going to see John Edwards eliminated. Then it’s going to be Barack and Hillary straight up."

Senate Majority Leader Stephen Sweeney said he doesn’t believe Edwards - a second place finisher in Iowa after Clinton - is done after tonight. "I think they can go to South Carolina (Edwards' birthplace) and he can compete," said Sweeney.

Obama Campaign State Director Mark Alexander

On the day of the Iowa caucuses, the New Jersey state director of Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign has one immediate strategy, win or lose: on the next morning he’s going to stand up volunteers at different locales: the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee, Newark Penn Station, Jersey City. They will be out there waving "Obama" signs, staying visible, shouting, working.

"We were always the candidate talking about change, that message hasn’t changed," says Mark Alexander, 41, seated in his West Orange office on Thursday, composed - given the stakes. Obama’s wife said if they didn’t win Iowa, the campaign would be finished.

"Fundamentally," says Alexander, "we are content that we are offering something the American people really want."

Hamilton Mayor John BencivengoStrengthened by what he described as a "shared vision with my people, a cause to be accomplished and a dream come true," John Bencivengo officially became mayor of Hamilton today as he was sworn in by U.S. Rep. Chris Smith in the ballroom of the Nottingham Firehouse in front of a crowd of 350 people.

"I wish that I could have given a more cheerful address today," said Bencivengo in a nod to the town’s $10 million budget deficit. "But even if our fiscal circumstances had been better, even if we had ample surplus, I’d be saying the same things. It should be our goal, no matter the circumstances, to do more with less."

The former Republican Party municipal chairman and fired government worker ran and won on a platform of restoring common sense and accountability to government. Today Bencivengo swore always to remember that working families fund the town, and promised to present the 2009 budget on time in July.

He made the second of these vows in defiance of the record of his predecessor, Glen Gilmore, who sat on the document last year until a judge ruled he had to release it to the Township Council prior to the November election. The release of the 2008 budget, which initially showed a $5 million shortfall, helped propel the Republican Bencivengo to victory over Gilmore by fewer than 500 votes.

Republican insiders seem a bit underwhelmed by their choice of candidates to challenge Democratic U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg next year – neither Anne Evans Estabrook, a millionaire developer making her first bid for public office, or Joseph Pennacchio, a dentist and four-term Assemblyman who won a State Senate seat last month, seem to have been successful in convincing Republicans that they can beat Lautenberg next year. 

“It's the choice between Forrester-Lite and Diet Schundler,” one Republican County Chairman told PolitickerNJ.com.

The Trenton Times has endorsed the re-election of Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes.  READ

If Dennis Levinson loses his bid for re-election as Atlantic County Executive, that would mean that Democrats would control all five County Executive offices in New Jersey.  Five years ago, Republicans had four County Executives: Atlantic, Bergen, Essex and Mercer. 

Hudson County has always had a Democratic County Executive.

Bergen went Democratic after William "Pat' Schuber retired in 2002 (Democrat Dennis McNerney beat Henry McNamara), Essex moved to the Democratic column the same year when James Treffinger gave up the post to run for the United States Senate (a campaign that endedfollowing an FBI raid of his offices), and Democrats won Mercer following Robert Prunetti's retirement in 2003; Brian Hughes just narrowly defeated Republican Catherine DiCostanzo.

The last time one party held all County Executive posts was in 1979, when Democratic incumbents were unseated in Atlantic and Mercer.

Party leaders and state officials are predicting a low turnout in this year's midterm legislative races. This, despite the low ratings that most New Jerseyans give the legislature and citizens deep concerns about high property taxes, political corruption, and the direction in which the state is headed. But with most legislative districts drawn to be safe, the high cost of mounting a serious challenge against an entrenched incumbent, and citizens' skepticism about either party's ability to solve the state's complex problems, folks simply don't seem to be excited this campaign season.

Dismissing the protocol that says the champion needs to enter the ring last, Hamilton Mayor Glen Gilmore sat on stage before GOP challenger, John Bencivengo, made his entrance today in the ballroom of the Nottingham Fire House.

General election politics in most towns gets ugly come October. In the politically charged Hamilton, where everything hits a little earlier, the candidates have been trading freely and often. Months ago, Bencivengo went after Gilmore on gangs and the mayor’s open space plan. Gilmore’s camp in turn hit Bencivengo on the latter’s attempts to sell anthrax-proof hand lotion to terror-spooked postal workers, and floated a rumor that an overwrought Bencivengo would soon be exiting the race.