Cory Booker

Newark Deputy Mayor Ron Salahuddin resigned on Thursday.

A key member of Newark Mayor Cory Booker's administration, Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Ron Salahuddin, quietly resigned yesterday.  Booker's spokesperson, Desiree Peterkin Bell, says that Salahuddin is leaving for health and personal reasons.  The news may have gotten lost in a busy day as federal agents arrested dozens of elected officials and public employees on corruption charges.

A politically active lawyer with close ties to Booker, whose name is being withheld for his own protection, has been working the phones today gauging support of a Booker for Governor candidacy, just in case Gov. Jon Corzine changes his mind about seeking re-election.  Democrats have been buzzing all day about a candidate switch, after WNBC-TV's Brian Thompson reported that George Norcross wants Corzine out of the race.  Booker was mentioned as a possible replacement candidate.

To be clear, Corzine has given no indication that he is considering a withdrawal.

If Barbara Buono is elected Lt. Governor in November, it will trigger a special election convention to fill her 18th district State Senate seat.  Assemblyman Patrick Diegnan (D-South Plainfield) would be the front runner, although former State Sen. Thomas Paterniti (D-Edison) and lame duck Edison Mayor Jun Choi could also emerge as candidates.  A Diegnan victory would trigger a second special election convention to fill his Assembly seat.

Buono's election as Lt. Governor would also create an opening for the Senate Appropriations Committee chairmanship - a slot that would be filled by the Senate President.  That puts a power committee chair in play during a possible Senate leadership fight.

More important to New Jersey politics if Buono is elected LG: she would immediately become a potential candidate for the 2013 Democratic nomination for Governor, when Jon Corzine would be term-limited out.  And if Corzine were to trade is own lame duck status for a post in the Obama administration (possibly in January 2013, if Barack Obama is re-elected), Buono would become the Governor of New Jersey.

If Jon Corzine picks Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo to run for Lt. Governor and they win, Essex County Democrats would hold a special election convention early next year to elect a new County Executive.  There is speculation that a deal to include DiVincenzo on the statewide ticket would include a commitment to replace him with an African American Democrat.

The problem for Corzine and DiVincenzo is that they don’t have the votes to guarantee the election of the first African American to serve as a County Executive in New Jersey.  There are plenty of factions within the Essex Democratic organization and it is hard to imagine a harmonious convention that would feature Tom Giblin, Steve Adubato, Dick Codey, Cory Booker and Donald Payne holding hands and belting out a couple of verses of “Cumbaya”.

But the identity of the next County Executive is not as important to Democrats as the current gubernatorial campaign.  DiVincenzo has a strong relationship with South Jersey Democratic leaders.  And Corzine is counting on a huge plurality out of Essex – something DiVincenzo can help him with.

HOLMDEL -- If Governor Corzine’s choice for lieutenant governor comes down to state Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck) and technology consultant/reality TV star Randal Pinkett, Newark Mayor Cory Booker is happy either way.  

Still, he gives a slight preference to Weinberg

“I’m still a big fan of Loretta Weinberg.  She’s tremendous and great.  But you have to understand, Randal was a co-chairman of my transition, he’s been a friend of mine for years, and I just know the greatness of him – he’s an extraordinary young man,” said Booker.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker, who had been advocating State Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck) for Lt. Governor, is now predicting that Gov. Jon Corzine will choose former Reality TV star Randal Pinkett as his running mate.

"I have no inside information, but I think Jon Corzine is going to pick Randal Pinkett for lieutenant governor spot. Randal co-led my transition. Great guy," Booker said in a post on his Twitter page.

Newark West Ward Councilman Ronald C. Rice campaigns for Barack Obama in 2007.

NEWARK - President Barack Obama lands on a stage today against the backdrop of a party frantically trying to figure out what to do about Gov. Jon Corzine's apparent number one choice for lieutenant governor, an African-American reality TV star with degrees from MIT, Oxford University and Rutgers University and CEO of a successful technology consulting firm in Newark who nonetheless has never held public office.

Corzine confidantes kept kicking other names around on Wednesday even as Pinkett's supporters argued in favor of his selection.

"The establishment is always wary of change and something new," said state Sen. Ray Lesniak (D-Elizabeth). "The establishment lined up behind Hillary, not Obama, even the black establishment. They also backed Dick Leone over another Rhodes scholar who did well, Bill Bradley."

By contrast, when state Sen. Ronald L. Rice (D-Newark) peeked at Pinkett's resume - heavy on corporate cred and thin on grassroots  - he received an early negative vibe.

His son, Newark West Ward Councilman Ronald C. Rice, a Joshua generation leader who was one of Obama's first impassioned  supporters among New Jersey elected officials, celebrates Pinkett's decision to open his firm in Newark where he participates in a business incubator program with the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT).

NEWARK - School is out for Newark's students, but Mayor Cory Booker's junior-year report card on civil liberties has just been released by the ACLU-NJ. The mayor passed, but not with flying colors. At the end of his third year in office, the Stanford and Yale-educated All-American and Rhodes Scholar earned a "C" average in civil liberties, with his worst grade, a "D," in the area of Police Practices.

"Mayor Booker deserves high marks in public speaking, but he has room to improve on the subject of civil liberties," said ACLU-NJ Executive Director Deborah Jacobs. "The Mayor came to City Hall promising to protect civil liberties, but when it's time to put those principles into practice, he hasn't lived up to his potential."

The good news: Mayor Booker earned a "B" on Immigrant Rights, and a "B" in Open Government.

The bad news: Mayor Booker earned a "C-" for Free Speech, and a "D" in Police Practices - and just barely.

To review the Mayor's report card in full detail, see: http://www.aclu-nj.org/newarkreportcard (230k PDF)

"This report card is more than just handing out a grade -- we're looking at the real lives of people in this city and adding up the costs to their rights," said Jacobs. "The Booker administration still needs to learn that you can't have public safety without public trust, and you can only earn that trust by respecting the rights of the people."

Possible Democratic candidates for Lt. Governor: Passaic County Freeholder Tahesha Way and Reality TV star Randal Pinkett

As some establishment Democrats voice resistance to Reality TV star Randal Pinkett as their candidate for Lt. Governor, there is some speculation that Gov. Jon Corzine's search for an African American running mate includes Passaic County Freeholder Tahesha Way, the wife of former Giants fullback Charles Way.

Corzine appears to be having a hard time finding an LG candidate who will satisfy the multitude of factions within the New Jersey Democratic Party.  Two State Senators under consideration, Barbara Buono (D-Metuchen) and Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck), have substantial intra-party opposition.  Corzine, sources say, has been actively shopping for a Black LG candidate.  He was reportedly turned down - several times - by his first choice, Newark Mayor Cory Booker.  Other potential candidates, including Assembly Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing) and Trenton Mayor Douglas Palmer, were apparently non-starters.   Trial balloons for Montclair State University President Susan Cole and New Jersey Chamber of Commerce President Joan Verplanck did not go well.  Corzine emissaries even approached former State Sen. Joseph Charles (D-Jersey City), who said he was not interested and hoped to remain as a Superior Court Judge.

While it appeared yesterday that the Pinkett nomination is nearly done, it now looks as though Corzine is having second thoughts.  Since the Governor will not announce his pick before President Barack Obama campaigns for him in Holmdel tomorrow, it is looking more likely that Corzine will take at least another week to choose a running mate.

State Sen. Ray Lesniak (D-Elizabeth)

Power broker state Sen. Ray Lesniak (D-Elizabeth) likes technology consultant Randal Pinkett as a running mate for Gov. Jon Corzine and dismissed speculation that the Rhodes scholar TV star was a doppelganger pushed into the public sphere to haunt Newark Mayor Cory Booker into running with Corzine. 

"Irrelevant and immaterial," said Lesniak when PolitickerNJ.com asked him about the nudge effect, designed to move Booker off his commitment to running for re-election to the mayor's office next year.

"Obviously Cory was the first choice," he admitted. "But Dr. Pinkett brings a lot to the table on his own in terms of educational background and experience. He says a lot about the governor's vision for the people of New Jersey."

Lesniak wouldn't talk about how he advised the governor.

The Rev. Pastor Buster Soaries, who served as New Jersey Secretary of State under two Republican Governors, has told Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine to pick TV reality star Randal Pinkett as his running mate.

SOMERSET - The First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens dominates the streetscape in this gritty stretch of Franklin that laps at the edges of New Brunswick, and at the pulpit on a Monday night, where summer Bible study has packed the outsized parking lot and filled the rows with congregants, the Rev. Pastor DeForest "Buster" Soaries Jr. opens the Good Book and urges scrutiny of a certain passage.  
 
Simultaneously, in the enclosures of political power, Gov. Jon Corzine and his allies are squinting extra hard at one of Soaries' church members: Dr. Randal Pinkett, a technology consultant, Rhodes scholar, family man, nice guy, cunning victor of Donald Trump's reality TV show "The Apprentice," and celebrity, who lives here in Franklin on the other side of town.

Pinkett's also studying Corzine - and the political situation around Corzine - to determine if he wants to run and potentially serve as the state's first lieutenant governor.

"I recommended Randal," Soaries tells PolitickerNJ.com when the pastor repairs to his chambers after delivering his sermon. "If he can afford to do it, I thought he'd be a great, fresh face. I gave Randal his first contract here. He's thoroughly honest. The fact that he doesn't have any government experience when it comes to New Jersey politics, I think is a blessing. Of course, our trouble is that pay-to-play is built into the fabric of New Jersey politics. The fact that Randal is pure - from a political perspective - is refreshing."

Soaries knows this game.