Cory Booker

Pennsylvania Gov. Edward Rendell will campaign for Gov. Jon Corzine tomorrow in Asbury Park and Atlantic City, and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa Jackson will appear for Corzine in Newark on Sunday.  Newark Mayor Cory Booker will join Rendell in Asbury Park.

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TRENTON - A wounded county came out here tonight to get a glimpse of former President Bill Clinton before the Secret Service propelled him away - again - to some more voter-concentrated region of the state for what Democrats hope will be a pay dirt rally at Rutgers University.

"I knew you weren't here to see me," Mayor Doug Palmer told a crowd at his $150 fundraiser for his nonprofit Trenton First, over one of his shoulders stood Gov. Jon Corzine with two weeks to go in a dead-heat gubernatorial contest.

Over Palmer's other shoulder stood Clinton.

"God, he looks great, Clinton - so slim," said Assembly Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing).

"You're here to see the president," supplied Palmer with a smile and deafening war whoops filled the banquet hall here at the Marriott, a building Palmer helped bring to Trenton.

The mayor acknowledged Corzine at last, and threw in a "first and foremost" when introducing him. Corzine, it should be said, received raucous applause. 

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BELLEVILLE - Notwithstanding a mistaken reference at one point to "Corky Booker," Newark Mayor Cory Booker's New Jersey political peers paid tribute Wednesday night to their rock-star-in-residence, who tonight is scheduled to sit down on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien in a mock-up mano-a-mano for their now weeks-long national news spat. 

"I wonder if New Jerseyans are going to be watching Conan and Cory or Corzine and Christie," cracked Gov. Jon Corzine, a day before heading into pre-debate seclusion in preparation for his William Paterson University gubernatorial showdown with GOP rival Chris Christie and independent Chris Daggett, which also airs tonight.  

Booker two nights ago headlined the Nanina's in the Park fundraiser held by Essex County Clerk Chris Durkin, who called the motor-mouthed metaphor generating mayor now racing to have more Twitter friends than Ashton Kutcher and locked in a playful back and forth with O'Brien over the late night talk show hosts disparaging remarks about Newark, "global." 

"Conan and I could have a fun and very substantive conversation on Friday," Booker tweeted on Tuesday to 836,795 followers, whose cyberspace Hollywood rival, Kutcher, this week observed to his his 3,830,305 followers that "arts education in our pubic schools is important."

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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. 

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NEWARK - The door to campaign headquarters opened and inside the spacious front room several tables had phones on them and a lone woman toiled after hours in front of a working list of area voters.

It was the campaign headquarters of GOP candidate Chris Christie, which opened in late summer to peals of laughter from local Democrats who said the Park Place HQ represented a GOP blunder.

A couple of blocks removed in the same Central Ward business district tonight, labor's headquarters for the campaign of Gov. Jon Corzine was locked and apparently empty.

In the vicinity, exiting the Newark Pride Alliance Cocktail Party at the public library this evening after attending with LG candidate state Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck), Mayor Cory Booker dismissed the suggestion that the Corzine campaign lacks strength in New Jersey's biggest city.

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Newark Mayor Cory Booker needed to do some damage control yesterday after taking heat for his endorsement of Richard Codey (D-Roseland) in the race for Senate President.  Booker, at the urging of two lawyers who advise him, Elnardo Webster and Paul Fader, backed Codey after Stephen Sweeney (D-West Deptford) had already announced he had a majority of the Democratic Senate Caucus on his side.   That caused some Democrats close to Sweeney - especially George Norcross - to offer Booker a bit of friendly guidance.  (It's fair to assume that the advice included strategic assumptions for the 2013 Democratic gubernatorial primary.)  Booker, realizing Webster and Fader might have screwed up a bit, put out a statement late in the day acknowledging Sweeney's victory over Codey, and endorsing Sheila Oliver (D-East Orange) for Speaker.  That probably made Norcross happy, but it won't be any consolation to Codey, who thought announcing a Booker endorsement a few hours earlier might be his salvation.

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Newark Mayor Cory Booker says that Stephen Sweeney (D-West Deptford) will be the next Senate President and has endorsed Sheila Oliver (D-East Orange) for Assembly Speaker.

Earlier today, Richard Codey (D-Roseland) issued a statement announcing that Booker has endorsed his re-election as Senate President, along with thirteen other Democratic mayors from Essex County.  Booker offered praise of Codey's service, but acknowledged that Sweeney has the votes to win.

"For his entire career Dick Codey has been a true champion of New Jersey and the city of Newark. And for my short career as mayor he has been an honorable friend and invaluable ally. It is clear to me that the question of who will be our next senate president has been settled," Booker said in an e-mail to PolitickerNJ.com. "We are all Democrats and it is time to come together and work on the important issues facing our state and each individual municipality and also ensure that Governor Jon Corzine is re-elected. I look forward to working with Senator Sweeney in his new role and am confident that he too will be a champion of New Jersey and the city of Newark."

Booker made it clear that he is backing Oliver, an ally of Newark Democratic leader Stephen Adubato, Sr., for Speaker.

"What remains unsettled is the question of who will be the Assembly Speaker. I have no vote in this matter, but to the degree that I am able I will be a strong advocate for Sheila Oliver," Booker said.  "Her ascendancy to this position will not only be historic as the first African American to hold this seat but much more importantly, she is a qualified public servant who will provide critical leadership for our state during these challenging times.

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All fourteen Democratic mayors in Essex County - including Newark Mayor Cory Booker -- today endorsed Richard Codey (D-Roseland) for re-election as Senate President.  The endorsement comes one day after Codey's rival, Stephen Sweeney (D-West Deptford) announced that he had the backing of fourteen of the 23 Democratic State Senators.

Mayors have no voice in the Senate Democratic Caucus, which will choose legislative leadership positions in the upper house, but Codey is seeking to put some pressure on two Essex Democrats, Nia Gill (D-Montclair) and Teresa Ruiz (D-Newark), who were among the Senators who endorsed Sweeney yesterday.

In addition to Booker, Codey won the backing of: East Orange Mayor Robert Bowser, Irvington Mayor Wayne Smith, Orange Mayor Eldridge Hawkins, West Orange Mayor John McKeon, Livingston Mayor Charles August, Bloomfield Mayor Ray McCarthy, Belleville Mayor Ray Kimble, Maplewood Mayor Vic DeLuca, Montclair Mayor Jerry Fried, Livingston Mayor Charles August, Caldwell Mayor Sue Gartland, South Orange Mayor Doug Newman and Roseland Mayor John Arvanities.

The full text of their statement:
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NEWARK - Mayor Cory Booker jogged down the steps of the Quitman School this morning, flashing a broad grin at faces in the crowd, snapping a wink at one of them.

"There's the movie star," said a woman, chuckling at the sight of the mayor, three days after the completion of cable television's five-night debut reality TV series, "Brick City."

Behind Booker slogged Gov. Jon Corzine, here with five weeks remaining in his reeelection campaign to announce new crime prevention and community building initiatives to keep at-risk children in school. 

Not immune to the mayor's statewide star status as they war with Corzine, Chris Christie's gubernatorial campaign has hit the Booker button on several occasions, trying to gouge out a gulf between Booker and the governor, notably when Christie earlier this month said the high-profile mayor of New Jersey's most populous city would enjoy a "real partner" in the governor's office were Christie to unseat incumbent Democrat Gov. Jon Corzine.

"He's doing the best he can under the circumstances," Christie running mate Monmouth County Sheriff Kim Guadagno added of the mayor.

Today, at an unveiling of new urban school initiatives in the Central Ward, Booker, the man many believe to be a lock as the 2013 Democratic nominee for governor, made the case for Corzine and why, contrary to Christie's pronouncements, he believes the sitting governor is a good partner for Newark.

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ATLANTIC CITY - Identifying the touchstone values of their party, Democrats bucked one another up here at the Trump Plaza Casino, trying to build feeling for what amounts now to the last 38 days of their campaign effort to maintain control of Drumthwacket and deliver another four years to Gov. Jon Corzine.

"I love you all," Corzine told his supporters in a room packed with party insiders, stirring into his speech humanizing buzz notes - farm boy, soccer coach, parent teacher conference attendee - to offset the image of an aloof leader who landed in Trenton three and a half years ago with comparatively little time honed at the street level of New Jersey politics.  

Corzine noted his commitment to the vulnerable and poor - his move to enact the country's first economic recovery plan, broaden early childhood education and healthcare, and build new schools.

Echoing Bill Clinton with former Vice President Al Gore in the room, "I still believe in the family values my family taught me back on the family farm," said Corzine, who told the crowd that in his battle with GOP candidate Chris Christie "every value we hold dear is at stake." 

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