David Chen

The New York Times sent a reporter to Trenton to cover the Governor's 2009 State of the State address.

Some encouraging new from the New York Times: the paper of record that has closed its Trenton news bureau and pulled their New Jersey reporting team, sent one of their top-flight reporters, David Chen, to the statehouse yesterday to cover Gov. Jon Corzine’s State of the State Address.  This is the NYT’s second story on the New Jersey governor this week; on Sunday, freelancer Dunstan McNichol wrote about Corzine’s future prospects.  Chen ran the Trenton bureau for the NYT before being assigned to New York City Hall.

"New Jersey voters deserved a better race this year than the nearly invisible contest between Senator Frank Lautenberg and Richard Zimmer, his Republican challenger," begins the New York Times' endorsement of U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg.

Although accurate, a generous interpretation of this seemingly hypocritical charge is that it is in fact a veiled criticism of their own paper's decision to ignore the U.S. Senate race in New Jersey. Not once has the Times written a story about the general election contest between Frank Lautenberg and Dick Zimmer. (By comparison, Cynthia Burton at the Philadelphia Inquirer has written 11 pieces on the race.)

To add insult to injury, Zimmer told PolitickerNJ: "One of the editors of the New York Times who interviewed me for their editorial thought I was still a member of Congress."

An observation on how the New York Times’ coverage of New Jersey has changed over the years: when Bergen County Republican Chairman Anthony Statile resigned in 1973, the New York Times wrote five separate stories on the special election to replace him – but did not cover the passage of the state budget in 2008. The promotion of David Chen from Trenton to New York City Hall ends a chain of highly influential New Jersey-based New York Times reporters (like Joseph Sullivan, Ronald Sullivan, David Halbfinger and David Kocieniewski) that influenced New Jersey politics as much as any in-state newspaper. As recently as 2001 and 2002, the NYT played a key role in ending the political careers of Gov. Donald DiFrancesco and U.S. Sen. Bob Torricelli.

Did anyone notice that The New York Times completely overlooked the $32.9 billion budget adopted by the state legislature on Monday?

Despite its run-up to the grand event, nary a mention could be found on its inside pages or in the Metro section.

The New York Times endorsed Frank Lautenberg for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination.  Sensing their work in New Jersey was over, the declined to cover the debate between Lautenberg and Rob Andrews on NJN Friday night.  The newspaper is backing Dick Zimmer for the GOP Senate nod.  Their decision not to cover the lone TV debate in the Lautenberg-Andrews primary comes a week after they moved their talented Bureau Chief, David Chen, from Trenton to New York City Hall.  The New York Times, perhaps reading Jon Corzine’s memo on filling vacancies slowly, has not yet announced who – if anyone – will represent the New York Times in New Jersey.

Jonathan Tamari, who has been Gannett’s statehouse reporter since 2005, is switching to the Philadelphia Inquirer, where he’ll continue his statehouse beat.

When it comes to covering a political sex scandal, it’s important to have someone from New Jersey on your team. Maybe that’s why The New York Times brought in New Jersey reporter David Chen as part of the team that began working the Eliot Spitzer prostitution story since yesterday afternoon. And Steve Kornacki, who covered the withdrawal of U.S. Sen. Bob Torricelli in 2002 and the resignation of Gov. James E. McGreevey in 2004, is the point man for the New York Observer's coverage of the Spitzer scandal.

New Jersey Network archives their weekend television shows for on-demand online viewing:

On the Record: The races for Governor and the State Assembly in the 14th district, with Michael Aron, David Rebovich and Brigid Harrison

Reporter's Roundtable with Michael Aron: Three new polls out this week show the tightening gubernatorial race, former President Bill Clinton campaigns for Senator Jon Corzine at Kean University, and Acting Governor Richard Codey announces the Jets/Giants deal, which includes building a new stadium that both teams will share. With Jim Goodman, Nick Acocella, David Chen and John McAlpin.

Caucus New Jersey with Steve Adubato