Carla Katz

It was a dark and stormy November night.  An icy wind whistled through leafless moonlit trees. A loud thud is followed by a piercing scream.  A lone figure emerges from the mist, bloodied and weary, but victorious.  Coming to your hometown, Tuesday November 3rd.

This year has brought the usual ration of menacing slasher movies that inexplicably compel us to spend billions at the box office just to be scared out of our seats. It is possible that we are collectively trying to find something more pulse pounding and heart stopping than opening the bills.  Here, in New Jersey, we don't have to go to the movies to get our dose of ghouls and goblins, as the governor's race is giving us all an unhealthy, unwelcome dose of good old American horror.

Paul Fishman will become New Jersey's next U.S. Attorney after a ten-year quest for the post.  His nomination was confirmed by the United States Senate tonight.

U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-Cliffside Park) pushed hard for Fishman to get the post in 1999, when Faith Hochberg was nominated to a federal judgeship.  But Fishman got in the middle of a rather extraordinary public feud between Lautenberg and then-U.S. Senator Robert Torricelli.  The Clinton administration sided with Torricelli, and when Hochberg resigned to take her seat on the bench (after a lengthy delay in the confirmation process), Attorney General Janet Reno elevated Torricelli's preferred choice, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Cleary, as New Jersey's interim federal prosecutor.  Cleary remained in office until George W. Bush nominated Christopher Christie in 2001.

President Barack Obama must now formally sign his commission; that could happen as early as tomorrow.  Then Fishman must arrange for a federal judge to swear him in; that also could happen immediately.

Trimming the state budget is a little like dieting. The plan might be good but sticking with it is tough . Most of us have had to diet at some point and we start out with great intentions, will power and a pledge to stick to a detailed diet and exercise regimen to shed those damn extra pounds.  But then we get hungry. Then we get cranky.  We whine, "It's hard!"  And, then we eat the Ho-Ho's.  

As with any diet, reducing the fat in the state budget and shrinking the waistline on the people's ‘taxes belt' that's making it hard to breathe, is far easier said than done. Every gubernatorial candidate, for the past 25 years, has campaigned on promises to make our collective tax-fat melt away and make our state budget leaner.   We all want to believe.  Just like we all want to believe those hyped up ads for the newest pills that guarantee we'll lose 20 pounds in our sleep.  The reality is, we still wake up fat.

Chris Christie's diet for New Jersey is a failure before it even gets under way.  The biggest problem is that he has no solid ‘diet' plan for the state budget, or for the looming $8 to $10 billion deficit, at all.  Christie has spent the last six months loudly criticizing Governor Corzine, and blaming Democrats, for not cutting the state's flab without presenting any solution of his own. We know from own dieting experiences that ‘no plan' means no results.

About two-thirds of New Jersey voters (66%) have heard something about Christopher Christie giving a personal loan to a former federal prosecutor who worked for him.  Of those who are aware of the Michele Brown loan, 43% say it is a legitimate campaign issue and 49% say it would be an unfair attack:

Former U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie has a ten point lead over incumbent Jon Corzine in the race for Governor of New Jersey, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll

A new Quinnipiac poll shows Gov. Jon Corzine trailing Republican Christopher Christie by ten percentage points, 47%-37%, among likely voters, with independent Christopher Daggett running third with 9%.

An August 11 Quinnipiac poll had Christie leading 46%-40%, with Daggett at 7%. 

Corzine has upside-down approvals of 34%-60%, and has upside-down favorable of 34%-57%.  Christie has favorable of 41%-30%, while 87% of likely voters don't know much about Daggett.

 "Christie wins on many questions and he is pulling away from Corzine in a three-way matchup, with a double-digit lead," said Maurice Carroll, the poll director.  "Daggett's candidacy is just chipping away at the edges as he fails to climb out of single digits."

Nearly one-quarter of Democrats (26%) are not voting for the governor.  Christie is getting 15% of the Democratic vote, while 7% is going for Daggett.   Among independents, Christie leads Corzine 46%-30%, with Daggett getting 16%.  Christie gets 86% of the Republican vote, with 8% for Corzine and 4% for Daggett.

Of the 77% of likely voters who have seen one of Corzine's ads about Christie giving federal monitor contracts to Bush administration officials, 56% say the attacks are unfair and 36% view it as legitimate campaign issue. By a 59%-34%, independent voter say the issue is unfair.

Nearly half of voters (49%) who are familiar with charges, claims or attacks in the race for governor consider Corzine's attacks on Christie for giving a $46,000 personal loan to former federal prosecutor Michele Brown as unfair, while 43% call it fair.

Voters are split 45%-47% on whether it's fair to criticize Corzine for his personal relationship with former CWA President Carla Katz, and on Christie's ads criticizing Corzine for failing to guard against economic collapse.

President Barack Obama submitted his first seven nominations for U.S. Attorneys on June 4.   The U.S. Senate confirmed five of the seven on August 7, but New Jersey's Paul Fishman was not one of them.  The five who were confirmed came from New York (Southern District), Alabama, Minnesota, New Hampshire and Vermont. 

Until the Senate confirms Fishman, which is unlikely to be any earlier than next month, Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph Marra will remain in the post he's held since Christopher Christie resigned on December 1, 2008 to seek the Republican nomination for Governor.  The Associated Press, citing two unnamed sources, reported earlier this week that the Department of Justice is investigating whether Marra made inappropriate public comments during a high profile announcement of public corruption cases that might have boosted the Christie campaign.

Representatives of New Jersey's two U.S. Senators, Frank Lautenberg (D-Cliffside Park) and Robert Menendez (D-Hoboken), continue to predict a smooth confirmation for Fishman, who jointly recommended his appointment to Obama in February.  But Lautenberg and Menendez have not been able to get the Democratic-controlled Senate to move forward on Fishman.  They have not said why.

Gov. Jon Corzine and former CWA president Carla Katz

Carla Katz’s name has surfaced in the gubernatorial contest, but it’s not coming from Republican gubernatorial nominee Chris Christie.  

Even in light of potentially damaging news accounts about Christie’s loan to high ranking U.S. Attorney staffer Michele Brown, his campaign has no plans to hit back by raising Governor Corzine’s relationship with the former leader of the state’s largest public workers’ union, who he dated before becoming governor.  .

“Chris has made a real effort to run a different kind of campaign and has from the very beginning stipulated that this will be a campaign about the issues,” said Christie advisor Maria Comella.  “In a state that is facing the highest unemployment in 32 years the highest tax burden and a 32% up-tick in home foreclosures, these are the issues that voters are going to go into the booth to make a decision on in November, and they’re exactly what Chris is going to be talking about.”  

In a February, Christie told The Record’s Chares Stile “you won't hear anything about Carla Katz and e-mails out of me and or out of my campaign.” 

Carla Katz for Mayor?

In an e-mail to PolitickerNJ.com responding to our inquiry, former CWA President Carla Katz says she has not ruled out a bid for Mayor of Hoboken in the November 2009 special election to replace Peter Cammarano.  This site is not publishing her exact comments; e-mails between Katz and Wally Edge are confidential.  Since leaving the CWA, Katz has become an attorney and a NJ 101.5 radio personality.

Twelve years after a rancorous campaign that ended in a lawsuit, Chris Christie and John Murphy have, apparently, buried the hatchet - at least publicly.  Murphy has endorsed Christie for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, something he told fellow Morris County Republicans he would do if the primary contest tightened up.

But Christie and Murphy, both strong advocates of full transparency and public disclosure, are still keeping one aspect of their tumultuous relationship a secret: the sealed records of an out of court settlement after Christie sued Murphy for defamation following his loss in the 1997 GOP primary for Morris County Freeholder.

The settlement probably isn't as sexy as the Republican State Committee's request for Gov. Jon Corzine's e-mail correspondence with his former girlfriend, Carla Katz.  Still, political watchers might be curious to learn how much money Murphy had to pay Christie, if any, to drop his lawsuit.  And after all, a Judge agreed to seal the records, so their hands are tied.

"The past is the past," said Christie.  "John and I made an agreement. There is no chance that John and I would breach that agreement to remain private."

Carla Katz makes her radio debut tonight at 6PM on NJ 101.5's The Jersey Guys.  The state's most politically influential radio station announced last week that Katz, a former labor leader and Gov. Jon Corzine's onetime girlfriend, will join their station.