Carla Katz

If Barack Obama wins the presidency, a leading candidate for U.S. Attorney is Paul Fishman, a former federal prosecutor who reportedly has the backing of New Jersey's senior United States Senator, Frank Lautenberg.  Sources close to Lautenberg say that he plans to strongly advocate Fishman's appointment to replace Republican Christopher Christie.

But Fishman essentially needs two votes to get the job, and U.S. Senator Robert Menendez has not committed any support to Fishman. Even though Lautenberg is the senior Senator, insiders say that the support of Menendez will be crucial to any successful candidate for U.S. Attorney.

Lautenberg pushed hard for Fishman to get the U.S. Attorney 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 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.  Read More >

er union leader and gubernatorial ex-girlfriend Carla Katz has filed a legal brief saying that the emails she exchanged with Gov. Corzine should be kept private because they touched on union negotiations, reports the Associated Press.  

Katz attorney Paul Fishman argued that the some of the emails made “in connection with” contract negotiations don’t have to be disclosed, while the rest of the correspondence is private.

Republican State Chairman Tom Wilson is suing to make the emails public, believing that they should be public information.  Corzine cited executive privilege.  Wilson won the initial phase of the lawsuit, but Corzine appealed. 

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An internal poll commissioned by Gov. Jon Corzine says that "more than half of New Jersey's voters question the first-term governor's integrity because of his relationship with ousted state-worker union leader Carla Katz," according to Josh Margolin's story in the Star-Ledger.

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From the Democratic side, there are calls for GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin to release e-mails sent to her husband from her private e-mail account.  These demands are part of a state probe of Palin's firing of Alaska's Public Safety Commissioner.  This is not dissimilar to ongoing litigation in New Jersey, where Republicans want Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine to release his personal e-mails to Carla Katz, who was the head of the state’s largest public employee union and the Governor’s girlfriend.

Corzine has refused to release the e-mails, arguing that they are personal and would violate his right to privacy.  His spokesmen say that the lawsuit was politically motivated and dismissed it as a Republican tactic to embarrass the Governor for political gain.

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Responding to a column Carla Katz published on PolitickerNJ and The Star-Ledger that was skeptical of Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s reform credentials, Republican State Chairman Tom Wilson shot back, accusing the former union leader and Corzine companion of being a hypocritical “special interest peddler.” 

”Carla Katz’s op-ed yesterday is just what we’ve come to expect from her: half-truths, smears, and the politics of greed and self interest.  John McCain and Sarah Palin represent a threat to Ms. Katz’s special interest influence peddling and her op-ed should be taken for what it is – the pained wails of a special interest leader who’s way of doing business will come to a much needed and abrupt end when John McCain and Sarah Palin move into the White House,” he said.

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Last year, like many New Jerseyans, I spent Labor Day weekend, with my family at the ever-shrinking shoreline on Long Beach Island. This year, I stayed close to home and ran a 5K race with my other family, my union brothers and sisters from the fire service, police officers and EMS in honor of Jimmy D'heron--a hero, a firefighter, a union member, father, husband and grandfather.

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President of CWA Local 1040, Carolyn Wade has not received a serious challenge in close to 18 years. But in the wake of what he describes as meager contract negotiation results in March of 2007, Tom Bruno says he’s a legitimate contender to head a local filled with disaffected members who are genuinely steamed.

"When people have challenged her in the past, their nomination forms have been thrown out," says Bruno. "That won’t happen with me. Other people running against her did the bare minimum. I never do anything at a minimum. I go all the way."

A former CWA Local 1040 staffer and Wade’s political point person, Bruno left the local’s inner sanctum two and a half years ago on Wade’s orders. Now he serves as lead supervisor in the Hunterdon Development Center, where he leads a 450-man strong branch of the local, whose numbers of state workers equal 7,200.

According to Bruno, the Trenton local has gotten kicked around in Trenton, and not because a relationship between Gov. Jon Corzine and former CWA Local 1034 president Carla Katz stoked a carnival-like aftermath of press coverage, or even because Sen. Stephen Sweeney’s (D-Gloucester) has repeatedly undertaken efforts to weaken state workers’ benefits packages. He’s a buildings and trades union man. Disappointing, in Bruno’s eyes. But not shocking.

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This week's Winners & Losers: Click here

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The revelation that U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie is investigating former CWA Local 1034 President Carla Katz, reported by the Star-Ledger yesterday, has unavoidable political ramifications.

Christie is, in effect, investigating the ex-girlfriend of the man he will likely face off against if he chooses to challenge Gov. Jon Corzine next year.

You won't hear them go on the record about it, but the idea has some Democratic insiders grumbling.

"It sure as hell doesn't look right, I can say much," said one prominent Democratic official.

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