Cory Booker

Sources close to Newark Mayor Cory Booker say that Central Ward Councilman Charlie Bell - who bested Booker-backed Eddie Osborne in a November 2008 special election to replace ousted Councilwoman Dana Rone - has cut a deal to run on the Booker Team's ticket in next year's municipal elections.  The deal was reportedly negotiated a few days ago over golf between Bell, Booker's former law partner and (ex-Pittsburgh Steeler) Elnardo Webster, and campaign manager Pablo Fonseca.

This leaves only one real race in Newark next year, between South Ward Councilman Oscar James and former Councilman Ras Baraka.  Sources say Booker expects to have between $5 and $7 million by the end of the year and is committed to spend as much as necessary to ensure a South Ward victory.  James is a favorite of Booker and Webster.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker, left, and Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo (photo courtesy of the Booker Administration)

Newark Mayor Cory Booker today officially endorsed Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo for re-election to a third term.

“The mayor supports Joe. D,” Booker spokeswoman Desiree Peterkin Bell told PolitickerNJ.com after speaking with Booker this afternoon.

DiVincenzo runs next year for county executive, while Booker, who has ruled out running for lieutenant governor desite entreaties by sources close to Gov. Jon Corzine, intends to pursue a second term as mayor.

Assemblyman Albert Coutinho (D-Newark)

NEWARK - Running for re-election this year in the 29th Legislative District, Assemblyman Albert Coutinho (D-Newark) today dispelled rumors that he wants to run for City Council in 2010, and publicly endorsed East Ward incumbent Augusto Amador despite a burgeoning political challenge by Coutinho's friend, local businessman Peter Pantoliano.

“No disrespect to the City Council, but I believe I can accomplish more where I am now than on the City Council,” said Coutinho. “I have no interest in running for the council. I have zero interest. I’ll be fully supportive of the Booker Team next year.”

Old pal Pantoliano is working hard to secure both Coutinho’s and Mayor Cory Booker’s support.

“Al is very supportive of me,” Pantoliano said. “He has said in the past that the city would suffer if I were not the councilman. As for Cory, I’ve supported him over the years, and we have a great dialogue and friendship. If he can’t support me because of certain political realities, I understand, but I am trying to win his support.”

If Jerramiah Healy wins re-election as Mayor of Jersey City tomorrow, it would be excellent news for Newark Mayor Cory Booker.  Healy and Booker are close political allies (and friends), and the conventional wisdom is that Healy, the Hudson County Democratic Chairman, will support Booker for the Democratic nomination for Governor in 2013.

About 31% of the statewide Democratic primary vote comes out of Essex and Hudson counties - a good base for Booker if he decides he wants to run statewide.

Jersey City residents will go to the polls tomorrow to either elect their next mayor or set the stage for a runoff next month.

Four candidates are taking on Mayor Jerramiah Healy in this city of 240,000, and the most well-funded among them, former Assemblyman Louis Manzo, has only one-tenth of the funds Healy does.   Also running are Assemblyman L. Harvey Smith, good government activist Dan Levin and police detective Phil Webb.  

There are also 42 candidates for council on the ballot -- a relatively small number by historical Jersey City standards.   

Healy, who had raised $3.1 million as of the last report with the Election Law Enforcement Commission, has been considered the favorite throughout the race.  He's rolled our one big name state endorsement after another, and spent this morning campaigning at the Journal Square PATH station with Newark Mayor Cory Booker.  He's hitched his campaign to President Barack Obama, and by now most Jersey City residents with cable television have seen Obama's two-year-old remarks praising Healy, then an early endorser of his underdog candidacy.  

Conventional wisdom dictates that the best chance someone has to upset Healy is to force him into a runoff by keeping him from getting a majority of the vote.  But Manzo, making his fifth bid for mayor, sees an upset in the making, one so large that it will overshadow John Kenny's 1949 defeat of Frank Hague Eggers, which ended the influence of Jersey City's three-decade mayor and powerful political boss, Frank Hague.  

"Based on what we've seen in our polling in the last week, the undecideds stay high and the other guys in the race were not drawing a significant amount of votes," said Manzo,  who got the front-page endorsement of the Jersey Journal this weekend.   "If the undecideds break one way or the other, this could be a first ballot win for us."

Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer

TRENTON – Notwithstanding an 11th hour campaign effort to woo the African American community through church leadership contacts, the quiet terror in some Democratic Party circles that Gov. Jon Corzine’s candidacy has stalled irredeemably and creates little barriers-breaking hoopla in urban cities, prompted Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer today to defend the governor and call for an end to the negative back chatter, even as state Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Newark), chair of the Legislative Black Caucus, maintained his resistance.

Palmer said there is much the governor must accomplish to be viable in urban New Jersey in a close contest, but he’s confident about Corzine’s ability to get it done between now and Election Day.

“Certainly he’s down in the polls because of the economy and on top of the economy everyday there is a story about the public employees’ furloughs and that’s hurting his base – the unions and families – and so he’s suffering a double whammy, but if you’re going to be behind, now is the time to be behind,” said the veteran mayor, a short-list candidate for lieutenant governor.

Howell: The School District’s decision to close Southard Elementary School opens up the prospect of where to route the children displaced by the closing – but that decision occurs only if voters approve the School Board’s proposed budget today.

Robbinsville: This is one of those towns where the School Board hopes to reverse a tide of voter discontent, but faces a political environment worse than last year, when voters rejected the budget. Robbinsville’s $38.6 million price tag for schools represents an increase of about $1.4 million from what it is now. The increase would result in an extra $189 for a homeowner assessed at $400,000, from $4,334 to $4,523. Last year, after killing the School Board's initial proposal, residents settled for a 3-cent hike engineered by the Town Council.

Hoboken: While the Zimmer Team supports the Kids First Slate in the School Board Elections, her opponents are ostensibly staying out of today's fight. “Part of that reason is I wanted to keep politics out of it - the mayor doesn’t support the Board of Education,” said councilwoman Beth Mason, while the Cammarano Team this morning issued an email blast reminding people to remember to register to vote.

U.S. Rep. Donald Payne (D-Newark) was endorsed for re-election by Gov. Jon Corzine and Newark Mayor Cory Booker, who were attending a rally for the Devils at the Prudential Center

NEWARK – When it comes to U.S. Rep. Donald Payne (D-Newark), the local political battles don’t diminish his standing, and if anything, taking fire overseas only augments his party cred. 

A day after CNN reported that Payne’s plane was the target of gunfire on its way out Mogadishu, and as his nephew runs a renegade primary campaign against Democratic incumbents in the 28th District, Gov. Jon Corzine and Mayor Cory Booker both hailed the veteran congressman as a hero and endorsed him for reelection in 2010.

“He has the strongest record in the Congress in standing up to genocide in Darfur and in maintaining an ongoing dialogue with Africa,” said Corzine, who worked the Darfur issue with Payne when he was in the U.S. Senate. 

“He’s a hero and I absolutely and unequivocally endorse him,” the governor added.

Assemblyman Albert Coutinho (D-Newark)

NEWARK – The creeping disillusion Fred Linhares felt with the East Ward Democratic Party reached its denouement two weeks ago when the Ironbound attorney, Kean University professor and former municipal judge changed his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican and filed to run for the Assembly in the 29th Legislative District. 

“I’ve been a registered Democrat my whole life,” said Linhares, 40, who served on the local bench from 1999 to 2002, when he hung up his robes to run for freeholder on a ticket with then-county executive candidate Tom Giblin.

That ticket famously lost to Joe DiVincenzo and his team, and when it comes to assessing the self-styled progressive Linhares, who admits he feels no heartfelt tug from the GOP and says he voted for Ralph Nader in the last three presidential elections, members of his former party generally point to 2002 as Linhares’s real turning point in politics.

“I’ve known Fred Linhares since we were kids, and I think he should have stayed as a judge. I respect everyone’s right to run, but he was a good municipal judge,” said Assemblyman Albert Coutinho (D-Newark).

Former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie maintains his lead against Gov. Corzine in an FDU PublicMind poll released this morning.

Christie leads Corzine in a head-to-head general election match up by nine points, 42% to 33% -- almost the exact same margin of an FDU poll released a month ago.

"Sometimes timing is everything," said FDU pollster and political scietist Peter Woolley. "He's the only incumbent governor up for reelection this year as the financial crisis hits."  

The Governor’s approval rating is at 40%, while 49% of respondents disapproving, while his favorability rating is even lower.  Thirty-three percent have a favorable opinion and 56% have an unfavorable opinion.  Christie’s name recognition now stands at 62% -- 5% more than a month ago – and he is viewed favorably by 31% and unfavorably by 12%.