Chris Durkin

Senate Majority Leader Steve Sweeney (D-West Deptford), left, and Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo Wednesday night at Durkin's fundraiser.

BELLEVILLE - It was fitting that the main man at the microphone tonight at Nanina's in the Park was County Clerk Chris Durkin, a walking hybrid of two opposing political camps, which 20 days before a gubernatorial election can already see the delineations of a county executive battle in 2010.

"Dick Codey was ready to lead when he became governor and he made us all so proud to live, work and play in this state," Durkin said of the former governor and sitting senate president, in the next breath noting of his boss, the Essex County Executive, "Joe DiVincenzo has made Essex County the envy not only of the state but of the country. He is the taxpayers' best friend, and a bureaucrat's worst nightmare."

If it sounded like homage paid to opposing warlords, Durkin is indeed ensconced in the administration of the powerful county executive, but his mother, Joan, is a Codey, cousin of Senate President Richard Codey (D-Roseland), who last month was unofficially forced off the senate throne in a north-south Jersey Democratic Party coup that hinged on DiVincenzo backing Senate Majority Leader Steve Sweeney (D-West Deptford) as the new senate president.

Tonight, Durkin - an amiable presence belying a torturous Codey v. DiVincenzo undercurrent - greeted guests to his $150-a-plate fundraiser, including headlining speaker Newark Mayor Cory Booker and the governor himself, who posed for pictures with Durkin before ascending a staircase where South Jerseyan Sweeney stood in a milling, hors d'oeuvres munching crowd with DiVincenzo. 

Ray Durkin, right, with Assemblyman Tom Giblin (D-Montclair): both former State Democratic Party chairmen.

The following text is reprinted courtesy of Essex County Clerk Chris Durkin, who delivered these remarks Saturday to introduce his father, Ray Durkin, at the Annual Christmas Award Luncheon by the St. Patrick's Guard of Honor of New Jersey. A former State Democratic Party Chairman, Ray Durkin received the Guard of Honor's "Irishman of the Year" award.

It is an honor to have this opportunity to introduce my father...my best friend. 

My father was born and raised in Vailsburg. The "Burg" as he would call it. And growing up I would hear stories of this fantasy neigborhood come to life.

When I was a little boy my father took me to the funeral of a legendary Irish politician. The funeral was at Sacred Heart Church in Vailsburg on South Orange Avenue. As we were sitting in the pew the priest rose to eulogize this man. He pointed down and said there lies a great politician and an honest man. I tugged on my father's suit jacket looked up at him and said, "how can they fit two people in such a small coffin?"

I don't want to talk about Ray Durkin as Politician. I would like to talk about Ray Durkin as father. My father has 5 children who idolize and love him. And growing up in our household my parents had different jobs around the house.

Fomer New Jersey and Essex County Democratic Party Chairman Ray Durkin, and his son, Essex County Clerk Chris Durkin

At Mayfair Farms Restaurant in West Orange on Saturday, the St. Patrick’s Guard of Honor of New Jersey hailed Ray Durkin, or the chairman, as they call him here in a nod of respect to his many years of service to the Democratic Party. 

Full-blooded and hybrid and old and new country Irish fathers and their sons - Giblin, Byrne, Stack, Barrett, McCarthy, Baroni, Mac Donald, O’Toole and Codey – for one afternoon absorbed any and all of New Jersey’s other ethnic groups into the arms of Durkin’s Irish-America.  

Durkin, who led the Essex County Democratic Organization from 1980 to 1992 in addition to serving as chair of the state party from 1985 to 1989, was the 68th St. Patrick’s Guard of Honor on a list going back to 1940 that includes President John F. Kennedy, Justice William J. Brennan, Jr., and governors Richard J. Hughes, Brendan Byrne and Richard Codey.  

In accepting the award, the former Newark City Firefighter and head of the West Ward Young Democrats who has been lowkey politically over the course of the past 12 years, said he was most proud of his wife and five sons, including Essex County Clerk Chris Durkin, who introduced his father on Saturday.

Essex County Clerk Chris Durkin: Politicker file photo 

The people stood outside the offices of Essex County today in long lines, registration forms in hand, trying to get in under the gun, in the words of County Clerk Chris Durkin.

“We’re experiencing high volume,” said the clerk. “The interest is incredible.”

Since the June 2008 primary, numbers of newly registered voters in the Democratic Party stronghold have jumped by 60,000, estimates Durkin, whose office was under siege all day today on voter registration deadline.

“We have 43,000 newly registered voters in the system,” said Durkin. “In the room here we have bags and bags, what we estimate to be more than 17,000. And that’s not accounting for 19 town halls that will be open until 9 p.m. tonight and mail - as long as a registration form is post-marked by today, we’ll take it.”

DENVER - The perceived indignity of standing in a crush of bodies behind the Island of Guam in that gaping blue glow of the Pepsi Center, coupled with the ongoing grind of Sen. Hillary Clinton’s (D-NY) loss, didn’t do much to boost the spirits of the delegation, as coming in here they hung their last hopes on a podium appearance by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-Union City).

"No comment," state Party chairman Joseph Cryan said when poked about Menendez’s chances of speaking.

When it finally didn’t happen, the bulk of Garden State Democrats looked again for sustenance in Senator Clinton, who won by nearly ten points in New Jersey, whose presence on stage could keep the painful tensions of every silently suffering delegate alive for a few more hours - building to some end that was as yet unknown.

And yet when she spoke on Tuesday, Clinton put a larger political conflict in very stark terms, attempting to uplift to battle stations a mood that could easily go straight to a meltdown with the wrong tone.

Steve Adubato, Jr., presides over a meeting between Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo, center, and Sen. Joseph Kyrillos.: Politicker photo 

SPRING LAKE - They drove and were driven to the Irish Riviera from all corners of New Jersey, in cars with government plates on them and dark SUVs and sedans with tinted glass, sporting sunglasses and paunches covered with sports jackets, mostly Democrats and a handful of Republicans, converging on this mansion by the sea.

Congressmen and mayors and assembly people and state senators and opposition researchers and retainers.

Standing at the front of the Seashell Dining Room in the Breakers to greet them was Steve Adubato, wearing a Hawaiian shirt and welcoming smile - and casting an eye that invariably sharpens human activity into the lineaments of political theater.

"I believe in the luck of the Irish," said the executive director of Newark’s North Ward Center and head of the Democratic Party in the North Ward, facing a sun-filled room packed with rivals hunched over plates of eggs and bacon: Gov. Jon Corzine and Republican State Party Chairman Tom Wilson; former Assemblyman Wilfredo Caraballo, and Assemblyman Albert Coutinho and Assemblwoman Grace Spencer; Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo and Assemblyman Thomas Giblin (D-Montclair).

In this poor man’s Olympiad of Jersey ethnic groups gathered under one roof, Adubato highlighted - as he does annually at this North Ward Center-sponsored breakfast - the Irish, who now number 141,379 registered voters in New Jersey, or 47,514 Democrats, 36,063 Republicans and 57,802 independents.

NEWARK - Although its members can choose to leave the seat Newark Mayor Cory Booker: Politicker file photovacant, the City Council has the statutory power to appoint an interim replacement for Central Ward Councilwoman Dana Rone.

At the moment there are no obvious candidates to replace her.

The street buzz all week in Newark was that Essex County Prosecutor Paula Dow would back off from her recommendation that the book be thrown at Rone, who was convicted of obstructing justice and under the law had to renounce her council seat.

Dow did back off, issuing a letter to Essex County Judge Patricia Costello to waive forfeiture in Rone’s case.

North Ward Democratic leader Steve Adubato: Politicker file photoBut Costello didn’t see leniency as an option here, and barred Rone from serving on the council - and from serving elected office, period.

If Rone’s abrupt exit leaves the field of individuals open - and sources say former Central Ward Councilman Charles Bell may be interested in running for the vacant seat - there are two obvious machines with a stake in Newark’s second largest ward.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker, backing up Senate President Richard Codey's endorsement of Obama.

Obama Campaign State Director Mark Alexander knew it would be hard to pry Sen. Hillary Clinton’s supporters loose in New Jersey after her victory in New Hampshire.

This was a fight now, and Clinton’s people were solid.

"We have an opportunity here in Hudson - Hudson, Hispanics, Hillary and history," Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) cried to a North Bergen audience of mostly Latinos with Clinton on stage.

The response was near to deafening with Clinton standing on stage with Menendez, U.S. Rep. Albio Sires (D-13) and state Sen. Teresa Ruiz (D-Essex).

But that didn’t mean there weren’t other opportunities for Obama; in fact, one big opportunity, in the form of Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex), who was at the moment glumly serving as state director for the foundering campaign of John Edwards.

Alexander knew Codey. He also knew Codey was close to former U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley (D-NJ), who had come onto the Obama campaign as an advisor.

NEWARK - In Essex County as in other northern Democratic PartyEssex County Primary Ballot strongholds, U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg has the organizational line on the ballot in his primary fight with U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews (D-1).

Copies of the ballot landed in mailboxes this week, and this is what voters will see when they close the curtain on June 3.

As has been reported, Andrews has the advantage of possessing line "A," but Lautenberg’s line "B" placement gives him the advantage of all of the Essex County Democratic Committee’s candidates, including U.S. Rep. Donald Payne (D-10), incumbent freeholders and county committee district leader candidates.

Against that, Andrews - and Morristown Mayor Donald Cresitello on line "C" - stand alone.

The delegate district that is a fusion of the 28th and 29th legislative districts, and which includes Newark, Belleville, Bloomfield, Hillside, Irvington, went for Sen. Barack Obama over Sen. Hillary Clinton by a margin of 54% to 46%, according to Essex County Clerk Christopher Durkin.

But with 99% of the votes counted, Durkin also noted that the City of Newark split its delegate districts evenly between Clinton and Obama.