Cory Booker

The Governor in Essex on Wednesday evening.

WEST ORANGE – The Governor of New Jersey usually doesn’t wait long to address a collective of his own party, but this being Essex in a gubernatorial election year, the governor stayed on ice during a drum roll ceremony that was as much a buildup of Essex as it was a buildup to Gov. Jon Corzine.

Corzine didn’t appear to mind – and with reason.

“Barack Obama won nearly 250,000 votes in Essex last year,” the governor roared when he finally took the microphone. “If you give me 250,000 votes, this election’s signed, sealed and delivered” – a reference to the Stevie Wonder anthem a deejay played to introduce Corzine, subliminally strengthening the governor’s linkage to Obama, who  favored the song last year on the campaign trail.

The all-day buzz was that this Essex County Democratic Convention would present the unmistakable photo op of former Gov./Senate President Richard Codey (D-West Orange) and Corzine onstage together, arms raised in a ceremonial show of solidarity as the blockbuster credits rolled. 

U.S. Rep. Donald Payne (D-Newark), left, and Councilman Donald Payne, Jr.

NEWARK – In what is more than a one-man crusade, even if its most significant political implication may be a test of the fighting shape of a respected political dynasty, and the future of an aging congressman, former 28th District Assemblyman Craig A. Stanley intends to launch his off-the-line election campaign tomorrow at noon at the corner of South Orange Avenue near the Garden State Parkway.

The nephew of U.S. Rep. Donald Payne (D-Newark), Stanley served for six consecutive terms before the alliance of Mayor Cory Booker and North Ward Democratic Party leader Steve Adubato backed an alternative district slate that included Assemblyman Ralph Caputo (D-Belleville) and Cleopatra Tucker (D-Newark), both of whom are now seeking reelection with Booker’s and Adubato’s backing.

NEWARK – Veteran Sen. Ronald L. Rice (D-Newark) said he has had several sit-downs with Gov. Jon Corzine to make certain women and minorities are an integral part of the federal aid package, which Rice fears could turn into a labor free-for-all that would little benefit low-income District 28 constituents.

“As a Democrat I’m asked to fight for construction trades contracts but then those projects don’t include women and minorities, and all I’m saying is when we start really distributing this aid from the feds, we better pay attention to Latinos, our African Americans and women – you follow me? Because historically with projects like these, there has not been that inclusion. 

“We’re in a tough cycle economy,” added Rice, who infuriated the AFL-CIO when he abstained on last year's Paid Family Leave Act vote. “This is real in terms of the downside: 12-13-14 % unemployment in Newark, but I want to make sure we are part of the stimulus, and the Black Caucus will continue to meet with the governor to collectively drive that issue home.”

From left: U.S. Rep. Donald Payne, Sen Ronald Rice, Andre Reames, Bill Payne, Freeholder/Councilman Donald Payne, Jr., and Craig Stanley

NEWARK – Democratic Party stronghold Essex was supposed to be quiet this season as Newark and the environs reflect on a North Ward-City Hall lovefest and prepare for the reelection campaign of Gov Jon Corzine. 

Now the Payne family appears mobilized on the primary horizon here in the 28th District and potentially in the 29th, though insiders say it's unlikely they will be able to escalate a fullscale battle, even if they choose to fight.

After getting bumped out of office by an Adubato-Booker alliance in 2007, family scion former Assemblyman Craig Stanley (D-Irvington) is trying to scratch his way back into the legislature and finding little organizational support in the process with two weeks to go before the April 6th state filing deadline.

Essex sources on all sides say there’s little or no chance Chairman Phil Thigpen will award the District 28 party line to Stanley over incumbents Assemblyman Ralph Caputo (D-Belleville) and Assemblywoman Cleopatra Tucker (D-Newark) - not in a gubernatorial election year when an unpopular Corzine faces more than a warm body challenge from the Republican Party, and party chieftains are intent on trying to keep his troops in line. 

Thigpen himself is cryptic on the Stanley issue.

Gov. Jon Corzine continues to struggle for the approval of New Jersey voters. He is upside-down, with 40% approval and 46% disapproval.

Former U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie leads Gov. Jon Corzine by nine percentage points, 41%-32%, in a Fairleigh Dickinson University Public Mind poll released this morning.

In a matchup among Republican primary voters, Christie leads former Bogota Mayor Steven Lonegan 43%-15%.  Two other candidates, Franklin Mayor Brian Levine and Assemblyman Rick Merkt (R-Mendham) barely register, at 2% and 1%, respectively.

Corzine’s approval rating is upside-down at 40%-46%.  And the governor has a taken major hit in popularity with public employee households, with only 31% of their members approving of his job performance, while 56% disapprove. 

“When budgets are cut, public employees laid off, and taxes are in danger of being raised, lots of people think twice about their support for the incumbent,” said pollster Peter Woolley.Christie’s name recognition, which the same poll measured at 44% in January, is now 57%.  Lonegan’s statewide name ID is at 33%.

Corzine does come out on top in head-to-head match ups with the other Republican gubernatorial candidates, but not by huge margins, leading Lonegan by four points, 36% to 32%.  He leads Merkt 38% to 28% and Levine 38% to 27%.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker

Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo today honored Newark Mayor Cory Booker as Essex County's "Black Man of the Year” at the Essex County Hall of Records.

The ceremony featured a typically rousing acceptance speech by Booker, a local level punctuation mark on President Barack Obama’s oratorical efforts at the national level last night to uplift the country’s spirits in a flagging economy.

Longtime allies who find themselves on opposing sides of local wars at times, but more often in the same encampment, DiVincenzo and Booker both face crises in their respective domains, as the former battles local union reps in search of an agreement for county workers, while the latter fights a crime wave in the City of Newark.

Democrat Craig Stanley is expected to announce next month that he will seek his old State Assembly seat.  Stanley spent twelve years in the Assembly before narrowly losing the 2007 Democratic primary to Ralph Caputo and Cleopatra Tucker, a casualty of a political war that sought to oust State Sen. Ronald Rice.  Rice won his primary despite strong opposition from Newark Mayor Cory Booker; Stanley ran on the Rice line.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker

NEWARK – If Chris Christie wants to get in Gov. Jon Corzine’s face on the issue of urban renewal, he will have to first get through Mayor Cory Booker, who claimed bragging rights to New Jersey's incumbent governor tonight in his annual state of the city address.

“We stand with you, Jon Corzine, because Jon Corzine stands with Newark,” said Booker, waiting while the packed audience here at historic Symphony Hall, first slowly, then nearly uniformly, stood to applaud the unpopular governor who faces reelection this year and the prospect of battling GOP frontrunner Christie.

The latter’s from Newark originally, and last week he launched his campaign for governor at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center downtown with the promise that he would create tax incentives in New Jersey’s largest urban center as a means of enticing businesses.

While conceding that the times aren’t the best nationally – even globally – Booker adopted a been-there-done-that Democratic response to the energized former U.S. Attorney.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker

NEWARK – Television star Oprah Winfrey’s decision this month to drop a $500,000 gift on Steve Adubato’s North Ward Center effectively stamps out the fuse on a standoff between the North Ward Democratic leader and Winfrey confidante Mayor Cory Booker, in a resolution that underscores the political strengths of the two main combatants.

If Adubato, native Newarker and a grizzled guru now in his seventies, proved his relevance by waging a war in the streets and alleys he has known since childhood, Booker the Bergen County outsider turned Newark activist and statewide star, proved his manna from Heaven connections. 

And the community won in the end, according to sources from both camps, as Adubato’s Blue Ribbon charter school, the Robert Treat Academy - whose students consistently rate higher math and science test scores than students in schools in all of urban New Jersey and all of Essex County - stands to get an unprecedented infusion of funds.

The contribution came with a back story.  

For almost as long as Booker’s been in office, Adubato poked, prodded, cajoled, and chest-thumped in the face of the young star’s particular power, and now sources close to the North Ward leader say he intends to endorse the first term mayor for reelection next year.

It’s been an odd relationship.