If support for independent candidate Christopher Daggett is soft, as indicated by this morning's Quinnipiac University poll, then the race for second choice among those who say they are likely to vote for Daggett remains important.  Republican Christopher Christie leads Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine 40%-33% among Daggett supporters who list a second choice.  Nearly six out of ten Daggett (39%) voters say they might change their mind before Election Day.

U.S. Senator Robert Menendez pushed the Federal Reserve to approve an acquisition of a failed Elizabeth bank run that would have protected the investments of State Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Elizabeth) and Joseph Ginarte, a major campaign contributor, according to a Wall Street Journal report.  First BankAmericano failed last July after the board declined to take action.  Losses were estimated at $163 million.  Click here to read Menenendez's letter.

The CEO of the failed bank was Holly Bakke, who served as Commissioner of Banking and Insurance under Gov. James E. McGreevey.  The attorney for the bank was Michael Horn, a former Republican Assemblyman who was state Banking Commissioner under Gov. Thomas Kean.  Horn served on one of Gov. Christopher Christie’s transition teams.

Menendez, a member of the Senate Banking Committee, told the newspaper that helping the failed bank, which served Elizabeth’s Hispanic community, was the right thing to do.  "If any New Jersey constituent—regardless if it is a family or a local community bank—comes to me seeking assistance with a legitimate federal matter, not only is it important to help, I was elected to help," he told the Wall Street Journal. "Telling them 'no' would be abdicating my responsibility."

The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously released the nomination of state Adjutant Gen. Glenn Rieth to continue as Commissioner of Military and Veterans' Affairs.  Rieth, 53, was named to the cabinet post by Gov. James E. McGreevey in 2002, and reappointed by Governors Jon Corzine and Christopher Christie.  His nomination now heads to the full Senate for a conformation vote.

The 2012 New Jersey presidential primary is scheduled for two years from today, and so far there has been no serious talk of changing the 2007 law that moved the 2008 primary from June to February in an effort to make the state more relevant in the selection of major party presidential nominees.  Democrats, who control both houses of the Legislature, are unlikely to care, assuming that Barack Obama has no formidable opponent for the Democratic nomination.  Republican Gov. Christopher Christie will need to keep GOP leaders out of the presidential game until he decides if or when he picks a horse.  Christie must also determine if he wants to continue New Jersey’s winner-take-all system of picking delegates, something he’s likely to want if he endorses a candidate.

Governor Christopher Christie rounded out his cabinet appointments, the assembly leadership held hearings to hear the public’s concerns (even if much of the testimony came from familiar lobbyists and activists), and lawmakers heard about – no surprise – a dire budget forecast, and a new poll came out showing that the public gives Christie a 2-1 approval rating, although a majority haven’t formed an opinion of him yet.

So how did they do?  We asked three academics to grade the performance of our state’s three top elected officials.

Gov. Christopher Christie will address a joint session of the legislature next Thursday to address New Jersey’s estimated $2. 2 billion budget deficit.  The new governor appointed a commission to look at the role of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority (NJSEA), Xanadu, the horse racing industry, and Atlantic City tourism.  He continues to rip apart the embattled Passaic Valley Sewerage Authority – this time for discovering that they planned to use public funds to hire lobbyists that might influence him. 

So far voters like Christie: a Monmouth University/Gannett poll released this week gave him job approval ratings of 33%-15%. The public is skeptical that Christie will be able to do anything to rein in property taxes over the next four years, but will still be upset with him if he doesn’t.  

Senate Majority Leader Barbara Buono says that the Senate Legislative Oversight Committee she chairs will hold a special hearing this month to examine the future of the NJSEA.    The hearings will scrutinize the overall fiscal operations of the NJSEA, including budgeting, contracts, staffing, transparency, long and short term debt, and the shrinking responsibilities of the authority as tenants at the Meadowlands shift and vacate. The panel will also look at each component of the Meadowlands to determine if the NJSEA should continue to manage other venues, including Monmouth Racetrack and the Atlantic City Convention Center. State Sen. Paul Sarlo, whose district includes the Meadowlands, acknowledged that he was perturbed that Buono did not give him a heads up about hear plans to hold hearings.

Peter Tober has resigned his seat on the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission and will join Gov. Christopher Christie’s administration as an attorney in the Chief Counsel’s office.  Tober, an ELEC commissioner since 2002, had served as a senior assistant counsel to two other Republican governors, Christine Todd Whitman and Donald DiFrancesco. 

The resignation creates an open Republican seat on the panel that regulates political campaigns and lobbyists.  Christie makes that appointment, with the advise and consent of the State Senate. 

“ Peter Tober served the citizens of New Jersey with distinction, always being guided by the principles of fairness and neutrality. This trait is imperative when serving on the Commission,” said ELEC chair Jerry Fitzgerald English. “In the same way that a justice must leave his or her partisanship at the door, so too must a Commissioner who oversees the financial activities of candidates, political parties.”

Governor Christopher Christie plans a speech to a joint session of the legislature next week about the state’s current year budget deficit, which is estimated at approximately $2.2 billion.

The speech is scheduled for some time next Thursday, according to a statement from Christie spokesman Michael Drewniak.  Drewniak said that Christie spoke with Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-West Deptford) and Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D-East Orange) to request the joint session.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa Jackson, considered a potential Democratic gubernatorial candidate in 2013, used her speech at the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce dinner in Washington last week to criticize Republican Gov. Christopher Christie for skipping the event. “Folks, we can bring more change by sitting down at a table and having a meal here in DC, talking to each other, than we can yelling or editorializing about why we’re not here,” said Jackson, who served as Jon Corzine’s state Environmental Protection Commissioner, and briefly as his Chief of Staff. This was a clear shot at Christie, who skipped the chamber trip in a very public way, by the highest ranking New Jerseyan in the Obama administration.

Gov. Christopher Christie’s appointment of South Jersey Chamber of Commerce president Debra DiLorenzo to a key commission that will review the state’s sports, gaming and entertainment industries is a not too subtle reminder that New Jersey Chamber of Commerce president Joan Verplanck remains on the outs with the new administration.  DiLorenzo was also one of ten people picked to serve on Christie’s transition team.  Verplanck is popular with her business community membership, but is viewed by Republican leaders as entirely too close to Democrats.  Christie's decision to skip the chamber's annual shmoozefest to Washington was another clear shot at the chamber leadership, which supported then-Gov. Jon Corzine's toll hike plan in 2008, and played a role in the diminished attendance.  In the ultimate metaphor, Verplanck missed the train.

Noteworthy on Christie’s commission: it took the new governor just sixteen days to get the Star-Ledger to slam him in an editorial.  The newspaper applauded Christie’s decision to closely examine the money-losing New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, but didn’t like his picks of Jon Hanson and Robert Mulchahy for seats on the panel.   The Star-Ledger thinks that Hanson, a former NJSEA chairman, and Mulchahy, who was the president, were part of the crew that created the problems in the first place.