Deborah Howlett

Attorney General Anne Milgram had already decided she would leave her post when Gov. Jon Corzine lost his bid for re-election.  She has been seeking jobs in Washington, D.C., where she lived when she worked on Corzine's U.S. Senate staff.  Her spokesman, David Wald, told PolitickerNJ.com yesterday denied reports that Milgram was headed to the U.S. Department of Justice to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. 

It will be interesting to see what the new Republican governor does with Wald, who was dominate political reporter in the state from 1978 to 2000, when he left the Star-Ledger to join Corzine's campaign staff when he ran for the Senate.  Wald worked in Corzine's Senate office before taking the Attorney General's communications director after Corzine named Zulima Farber to the post after the 2005 election.

Gov.-elect Christopher Christie will also have to decide what to do with other former reporters who wound up getting jobs with Democratic governors in recent years.  Deborah Howlett, who was covering Corzine for the Star-Ledger when he hired her as Communications Director, is sure to be a goner.  Corzine demoted Howlett a few months ago, although she remains on the front office payroll.

Gov. Jon Corzine's new Communications Director, Stephen Sigmund, has a political pedigree: he is the son of former Princeton Mayor Barbara Sigmund and the grandson of former House Majority Leader Hale Boggs (D-New Orleans).  His grandmother, Lindy Boggs, represented Louisiana in Congress for seventeen years following the death of her husband, and later served as U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican.  His aunt is journalist/author Cokie Roberts, and his uncle is Thomas Boggs, one of Washington's most powerful lobbyists.

The Star-Ledger reported on Sunday that Sigmund will take a leave of absence from his post with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to take over for Deborah Howlett, a former Star-Ledger statehouse reporter who is being reassigned. Sigmund, a former spokesman for New York City Public Advocate (and mayoral candidate) Mark Green, worked at the Port Authority when Jamie Fox, now a senior advisor to the Corzine campaign, was Deputy Executive Director.

Former Star-Ledger reporter Jeff Whelan will direct opposition research for Gov. Jon Corzine's re-election campaign.

The latest addition to what has become an extensive list of former newspaper reporters who now work for the people they once covered in Jim O'Neil, who reported on the Middlesex County Prosecutor while for the Star-Ledger, has taken a job as a public information aide to Bruce Kaplan, the Middlesex County Prosecutor.

O'Neil's colleague, Diane Walsh, who covered Middlesex County government and politics for the Star-Ledger, is now the communications director to Assembly Minority Whip Jon Bramnick (R-Westfield).  Bramnick is actively seeking the Republican nomination for Lt. Governor on a ticket with Christopher Christie.

Jeff Whelan, the Star-Ledger reporter who covered Christie at the U.S. Attorney's office until late last year, will head the opposition research team for Gov. Jon Corzine's re-election campaign.

Star-Ledger editorial writer Kathy Barrett Carter, an award-winning journalist who was a longtime member of the Statehouse Bureau team, is going to work for Gov. Jon Corzine beginning next week. Carter is going to be handling policy communications for a governor who has acknowledged having problems communicating. She will be reporting to another alum of the Ledger's Statehouse Bureau, Deborah Howlett.

More movement in Governor Jon Corzine’s office:  Lilo Stainton, the former Gannett statehouse reporter who has served as Corzine’s press secretary since last June, is leaving for another state post.  She’ll be the Communications Director for the Meadowlands Commission.  Stainton took over for Anthony Coley (now Senator Ted Kennedy’s press secretary) when Coley moved up to Communications Director following the departure (under not-so-great terms) of Ivette Mendez.  When Coley left earlier this year, Corzine (after taking some time to mull his options) hired a reporter who covered him for the Star-Ledger, Deborah Howlett.

Fifty days ago today, Star-Ledger reporters Josh Margolin and Deborah Howlett broke the story that “Frank Lautenberg's opposition to Gov. Jon Corzine's highway toll plan has opened a rift between the two men that could affect the senator's re-election bid.”

“Lautenberg's announcement was a surprise and led one senior Corzine aide tell top Democrats that the governor would retaliate by ceasing his fund-raising efforts for the senator's re-election campaign,” wrote Margolin and Howlett.

Governor Corzine’s new communications director, Deborah Howlett, took some time during her brief hiatus to answer our questions about her new role, the job offer and her transition from reporter to public servant. The Q&A conversation was on the record, but is not a verbatim transcript of the interview.

How do you go from aggressively covering the governor to aggressively defending the governor?

First of all, if his communications staff is defending him, there’s a problem. What he’s trying to do shouldn’t need defending.

And that’s not why he hired me.

Claire Heininger will be the Star-Ledger's new statehouse reporter assigned to the Jon Corzine beat.  She replaces Deborah Howlett, who left to become Corzine's Communications Director.  Heininger is current part of the Continuous News Desk staff in at the Star-Ledger's Newark office.

Gov. Jon Corzine is expected to name Star-Ledger reporter Deborah Howlett as his new Communications Director. Howlett has been covering Corzine as a Star-Ledger statehouse reporter. She replaced Anthony Coley, who left in December.