Carmen Pio Costa

With eleven days until Election Day, District 36 Democrats Assemblyman Fred Scalera (D-Nutley) and Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic) took in stride the news from a federal courtroom this afternoon that jurors found former Bergen County Democratic Party Chairman Joseph Ferriero guilty on federal corruption charges."

"We answer to three county chairs," said Scalera, speaking to the confluence of counties in the 36th, which includes Passaic, Essex and Bergen.

"I was never funded by the Bergen party at all," the Democratic assemblyman added. "I was never one of their inner circle by any means. I'm seen as an Essex guy, not a Bergen guy. It doesn't play as an issue in the race at all. Those fights between him and (state Sen.) Loretta (Weinberg), I never got involved because it really isn't my county."

In 2007, District 36 Republican Assembly candidate Don Diorio came within 2,400 votes of unseating incumbent  Gary Schaer (D-Passaic). 

Diorio and his running mate, Carmen Pio Costa, cam closer that year than most observers expected, and they left state Republicans wringing their hands over failing to put more resources into the district sooner.  Two years later, the EnCap development debacle that factored to the Republicans’ advantage in 2007 continues to generate headlines in The Record, and state Republicans have marked the district as one of their top priorities this year.

But fundraising in District 36 has lagged.  According to 29 day pre-election reports released today by the Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC), the two District 36 Republican candidates – once again Diorio and Pio Costa -- have raised a total of $7,753.  

Schaer and running mate Fred Scalera (D-Nutley), by contrast, have raised $437,954 and spentalmost all of it. 

Diorio and Pio Costa have $7,753 on hand to Scalera and Schaer’s left over $8,848.27

Reached by phone, Diorio said that he and Pio Costa have more money than the reports show.  For instance, they had a fundraising event Tuesday night that took in $16,000, but was after the disclosure’s cut off date.  In fact, Diorio said, the two have raised about $50,000 so far. 

The newest recipient of the Neil Romano Award for scamming a Bergen County political organization goes to Carmen Pio Costa, who convinced Republicans to nominate him for State Assembly in the potentially competitive 36th district by promising to raise money from his wealthy family.  For the second consecutive cycle, Pio Costa, the son of a millionaire developer/philanthropist from Morris County, has not come through; his individual and joint accounts show about $7,500 raised.

The last winner of the Neil Romano Award was Democrat Paul Stuart Aronsohn in his 2006 campaign for Congress.

One of the legendary scams in Bergen County politics came in 1984, when Republicans were considering candidates to take on newly-elected Democratic Congressman Robert Torricelli. Torricelli had won the seat two years earlier, when he ousted three-term GOP incumbent Harold Hollenbeck by a 53%-46% margin. The political climate in 1982 (and congressional redistricting in the 9th) favored Democrats and Torricelli leveraged the national contacts he made working for Vice President Walter Mondale and running Jimmy Carter's 1980 re-election campaign in Illinois to help him raise $266,000 -- about $70,000 more than Hollenbeck had.

Ronald Reagan's popularity heading into the 1984 election, and a new congressional map (the '82 redistricting plan was tossed by federal judges), gave Republicans reason to believe Torricelli could be beaten. The 9th district went strongly for Reagan, giving him a 59%-41% win over Mondale -- a plurality of almost 47,000 votes.

Noteworthy in the race for State Assembly in District 36, State Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-Wood-Ridge) has not contributed to the re-election campaign of his two running mates, Assemblymen Gary Schaer (D-Passaic) and Frederick Scalera (D-Nutley).  The incumbents, who had a poll this summer showing Republicans ahead in this potentially competitive district, have spent over $425,000 on their campaign.  The GOP challengers, Donald Diorio and Carmen Pio Costa, have spent less than $7,500.

While Sarlo has apparently taken a walk on Schaer and Scalera, other Democrats have come through.  They have received $16,400 each from Speaker Joseph Roberts (D-Camden), Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing), Budget Committee Chairman Louis Greenwald (D-Voorhees), and from Gloucester County Freeholder Stephen Sweeney's campaign fund.  Gov. Jon Corzine gave them a personal check for $5,200, and State Sen. Nia Gill (D-Montclair) gave Schaer $500.  The Democratic State Committee has spent $67,976 in the 36th, while the Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee has spent $43,381.

Republican District 36 candidates Don Diorio of Carlstadt, left, and Carmen Pio Costa of Nutley.

GARFIELD - Thirty-six District Republican Assembly candidates Don Diorio of Carlstadt and Carmen Pio Costa of Nutley figure they can target their rivals on plenty of issues, from property taxes to the EnCap debacle, to the incumbent Assemblymen Gary Schaer's (D-Passaic) and Fred Scalera's (D-Nutley) record of regularly voting with Gov. Jon Corzine.

But the GOP tag team trying to compete in this 2-1 Democratic-leaning district have received little press attention as they run their property tax relief campaign and fail to capture the attention of a depleted press corps focused mainly on the big ticket gubernatorial election.

The Schaer-Scalera campaign is ready to launch their first wave television ads - with former Gov. Richard Codey (D-Roseland) in a starring role, days after Pio Costa and Diorio sat in the living room of Rico Benigno - a Goliath and David juxtaposition 36 days before Nov. 3rd.

Assemblyman Fred Scalera (D-Nutley), left, and Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic).

WOOD-RIDGE - Assemblyman Fred Scalera (D-Nutley) and Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic) part company slightly in reaction to a call from their Republican opponents in the 36th District to debate - but neither is embracing the prospect with relish.

Scalera says he would do it if he had the assurance that the venue didn't turn into a town hall free-for-all.

"I wouldn't want to get in there and just have people shouting," Scalera told PolitickerNJ.com. "We'd have to have some set parameters."

Schaer isn't convinced that could happen, and says he would rather devote time to working the district than squaring off against challengers Carmen Pio Costa of Nutley and Don Diorio of Carlstadt.

From left: Assemblyman Fred Scalera (D-Nutley), Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic) (who also serves as Passaic Council president), and state Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-Wood-Ridge), who is also Wood-Ridge's mayor.

PASSAIC - The appearance of State Democratic Committee Chairman Joe Cryan at a unity rally in Passaic two weeks ago signified the chairman's will to win in a 2-1 Democratic legislative district where the Republican opposition is especially revved up two years after coming shockingly close to victory.

"If you didn't have this dynamic duo here fighting for you - if you had two Republicans instead, let me tell you, folks, funding for the City of Passaic would be under siege," maintained Cryan. "You have two different philosophies. On the Republican side you have a gubernatorial candidate who wouldn't take federal stimulus dollars. Under GOP watch, we would have cut children's health insurance."

Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic) and Assemblyman Fred Scalera (D-Nutley) stood with state Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-Wood-Ridge) while they accepted the endorsement of craggy city supervisor Vinny Capuana, a Democrat who in 2008 and earlier this year ran vigorously against Schaer's local machine and lost. 

"It's a wonderful thing to stand here with this group of people coming together," said Sarlo. "Unifying the city is a wonderful thing."

Gov. Jon Corzine and Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein (D-Plainsboro)

Amid fullblown intrigue elsewhere, Nutley businessman Carmen Pio Costa and Carlstadt School Board member Don Diorio will formally announce their Republican candidacies in Rutherford Thursday evening, and few doubt the battleground, gauntlet-down implications of their challenge to Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic) and Assemblyman Fred Scalera (D-Nutley).

But if the 36th Legislative District remains a decided field of contention this cycle (as is the 1st District in New Jersey’s deep south), two other districts – the 2nd and the 14th – early identified by operatives in both parties as potential battlegrounds in their own right,  at least for the moment do not appear to be marquee headline races.

Certainly that opens up the possibility for North Country Democrats and Republicans to expend more resources in the 36th, where Democrats enjoy a 2-1 edge but where the Dems must run with an unpopular leading man in Gov. Jon Corzine. 

Yet it could also open up other regions, other terrain, formerly classified as green zones. Arguably chief among these, particularly given its bordering proximity to the 14th, is the 12th District, where Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon (R-Little Silver) and Assemblywoman Caroline Casagrande (R-Colts Neck) seek reelection, and last night double-teamed at a town hall meeting in Manalapan.

State Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-Wood-Ridge)

Passaic Democratic Committee Chairman John Currie’s decision to welcome three strikes and you’re out (Assembly, Congress, mayor) Republican candidate Jose Sandoval into the Democratic Party this afternoon triggered a curiosity wave in the city as Democrats wondered about Sandoval’s intentions.

The chief question was whether the real estate developer with a bug for politics and access to cash would turn around and run in the 36th Legislative District Democratic Primary against his former conqueror Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic)?

Currie said he did not discuss that possibility with Sandoval.

“I first heard that he might do that on Friday night, but I couldn’t stop him if I wanted to,” said the party chairman. “All he told me is he’s bringing 1,000 of his people into our party, and if you ask me, that’s pretty positive. Anyone can challenge anyone at anytime. I told him you don’t really need me to change parties but if you want to do something publicly, that’s fine.”

Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic) campaigns for Alex Blanco on election Day last year.

Arguing that Gov. Jon Corzine’s $29.8 billion budget proposal should be a vehicle of “unity, not separation, a statement that we are all in this together, all of us affected by the cuts,” Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic) defended Corzine’s working document in the face of his own party’s doubts about forestalling tax deductions on income taxes and capping property tax rebates at $75,000.

And against blistering, out-of-the-gate attacks by the GOP.

“I think that most people initially look at a budget in terms of how they will personally be affected,” said Schaer, who chairs the Assembly Institutions and Insurance Committee. “In that regard, what people need to look at are those fundamental areas where the budget is strong: in education, higher education and medical care. In that sense, the budget is addressing historic values of the middle class.”