Diane Allen

Peter Cammarano, elected Mayor of Hoboken in June by a narrow margin and gone in July after federal prosecutors arrested him for taking bribes, seemed to believe that he was on his way to political stardom.  While still a candidate for Mayor, Cammarano appeared to be planning a bid for the Democratic nomination for Governor.  The events that led to the resignation late last night of Burlington County Democratic Chairman Rick Perr were tied to Cammarano's empire building strategy.  Perr, it seems, was to be Cammarano's man in South Jersey. 

Just a week before Cammarano was arrested, he had a lunch meeting with a group of about a dozen young Democrats from different parts of the state to talk about his statewide prospects.  Perr was there.  Perr even sent out an e-mail to Democratic donors talking up Cammarano and seeking contributions to his campaign.  He did this while Republicans were outspending Democrats in Evesham by a 4-1 margin as they won back control in the May elections - a move that truly annoyed some key South Jersey Democrats.

Perr had personal political ambitions too.  He aggressively lobbied party leaders to win the Democratic nomination for Congress last year when it appeared that Rob Andrews (D-Haddon Heights) would not return to the House.  Sources say that in a Global Strategy poll paid for by the Burlington Democratic organization, Perr tested himself as a potential candidate for State Senator in District 8, where the conventional wisdom is that Philip Haines (R-Springfield) will resign later this year to become a Superior Court Judge.  The poll showed that Perr had little name ID and that the leading Republican candidate, former Medford Mayor Christopher Myers, was beating him by a huge margin.  Sources say that Perr ally Jeff Meyer, a lobbyist who quit as party Treasurer because of his ties to a PAC that was helping Cammarano, was himself eyeing a run for State Senate against Diane Allen (R-Edgewater Park) in two years.

After a tough week answering questions about his loan to his former employee, career federal prosecutor Michele Brown, Republican gubernatorial candidate Christopher Christie this afternoon tried  to change the subject with an offensive on Gov. Jon Corzine, accusing the Democratic incumbent of engineering an income reporting loophole that allowed major corporations like Enron to hide debt.

When Corzine was CEO of Goldman Sachs in the 1990s, Christie said, he was integral in creating Monthly Income Preferred Securities (MIPS), which provided a way for corporations to make debt look like equity, and later lobbied President Bill Clinton in a letter, also signed by 34 others, against reigning the practice in.

"The Governor, as CEO of Goldman Sachs, personally lobbied to get a tax loophole for Enron to make debt look like equity.  What this did was contribute, as you all know, to the precipitous fall of Enron when things that looked like equity turned out to be debt," said Christie during a conference call with reporters."

GOP gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie in between state Sen. Kevin O'Toole (R-Cedar Grove), left, and state Sen. Brian P. Stack (D-Union City).

News about GOP gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie's failure to disclose a loan to a former employee and report the income on his federal income tax and fallout from his pre-campaign discussions with Karl Rove have Democrats alert to shifting terrain in the gubernatorial election even if they remain guarded about the outcome.

Ahead by double digits through the bulk of the summer, Republicans say the headlines are inevitable campaign turbulence, and not even close to death spiral spasms.

"We'll continue to work contrasts between Jon Corzine and Chris Christie," said Democratic State Chairman Joseph Cryan, who wouldn't identify this week as the first time in the cycle that Gov. Jon Corzine has appeared to have climbed off the political cold slab, a condition some polls have shown the governor to be in since he and Christie officially started their head-to-head rivalry back in June.

State Sen. Barbara Buono (D-Metuchen) today stepped up the optimism.

"At this point it's a horse race, but I'm feeling very confident the governor will be successful," said the chair of the Senate Budget Committee and a prospective candidate for lieutenant governor until Corzine picked her colleague, state Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck).

Buono toured Indian-American businesses with Corzine today on Oak Tree Road in Edison in her first campaign appearance with the governor since failing to lock up the LG spot.

Senator Diane Allen, R-Burlington, was angered by reports that the Corzine administration has decided to withhold the details of investigations conducted after a child under the supervision of the Division of Youth and Family Services (DYFS) dies from abuse or neglect. The new policy of less disclosure was reported today in the Star-Ledger of Newark.

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State Sen. Diane Allen, left, says she will consider a challenge to freshman U.S. Rep. John Adler, right, in 2010

Now that state Sen. Diane Allen (R-Edgewater Park) is no longer in the running for lieutenant governor, she's a top prospect to run against freshman U.S. Rep. John Adler (D-Cherry Hill) next year - at least among Burlington County Republicans.

"The organization would whole-heartedly support Diane Allen if she decided to run for Congress," said Burlington County GOP Chairman Bill Layton.

Allen, a moderate Republican who consistently wins reelection easily in a district with a two-to-one Democratic registration advantage, has fought bitterly over the years with former chairman Glenn Paulsen and more recently Layton, his close ally.  The party divide even sunk her fledgling bid for the House in late 2007, with the Paulsen/Layton faction instead recruiting Lockheed Martin executive Chris Myers, who became the nominee.

"Now is not the time in my life that I feel prepared to again fight a Democrat opponent as well as a rogue faction of the Burlington County Republican Party simultaneously," Allen said when she announced in late 2007 that she would not seek the open House seat>

But Layton says he's intent on letting bygones be bygones.

"In politics, sometimes you have your differences, but you put them aside and try to do the best thing for the party," he said.

Myers, who lost narrowly to Adler in 2008, may be in line for a state Senate seat if state Sen. Phil Haines (R-Springfield) is appointed to a Superior Court judgeship.  He would likely have a lot of support if he decided to run for Congress again, but he is not expected to.

Allen remains non-committal about running, but she leaves the possibility open.

"It is kind of early, and truthfully it's just nothing I've given any thought to," she said.

Allen said that her decision will depend on whether Adler does a good job addressing the district's issues.

ASBURY PARK - Monmouth County Sheriff Kim Guadagno walked onto the boardwalk here with GOP gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie and stood at his side as he formally affirmed her as his choice for lieutenant governor.

"We are here to make history," announced Christie. "After a great deal of consideration, yesterday I called Kim Guadagno and I am thankful to say that she said yes."

Christie heralded the Iowa-born Guadagno's record as a crimebuster during her time as Assistant U.S. Attorney under Michael Chertoff in the 1990s, her past service on the Monmouth Beach local governing body, and what he cited as her aggressive one-and-half-year tenure as sheriff, during which time she has backed down unions and advocated for beefed-up federal powers for local law enforcement to combat illegal immigration.

Senate Deputy Republican Leader Diane Allen called on Jon Corzine to join the bipartisan chorus urging Congress to delay a vote on a health care reform bill until Washington figures out a way to pay for the plan without shifting costs to the states.

Most of the attention of picking a Lt. Governor candidate has been on the Democratic incumbent, Jon Corzine.  But that doesn't mean Republican Christopher Christie is having an easy time either.  As a former U.S. Attorney, Christie was supposed to be the ethics candidate.  But a couple of self-inflicted wounds - mega million dollar federal monitor contracts for John Ashcroft, David Kelley and John Inglesino - have put Christie, who sent more  than 100 public officials to prison, on the defensive as Corzine and the Democratic Governor's Association have already spent more than $3 million basing Christie on ethics. 

Despite the heaving spending attacking him, Christie leads Corzine by twelve points in a Quinnipiac University poll and eight points in a Monmouth University/Gannett New Jersey poll.   He is the first Republican to be over 50% in an independent poll in 24 years, and some key Democratic insiders now believe Christie can win.  Imagine what the race might look like had Christie hired federal monitors not named Ashcroft and Kelley, and rejected campaign contributions from Inglesino and law partner Herbert Stern? 

Christie will have an easier time picking a running mate because he doesn't have influential officeholders from his own party putting extraordinary pressure on him to pick - or not pick - a particular candidate.  Christie has had to pay special attention to the vetting process, partly because as a former federal prosecutor the bar is set a little higher for him, and partly because he can't any more self-inflicted wounds.  Once Christie loses his lead in arguably the most Democratic state in the nation, it will be nearly impossible to get it back.

Christie may be favoring Kim Guadagno, a former federal prosecutor and state Director of Criminal Justice who has served short stints on the Monmouth Beach governing body and as the Monmouth County Sheriff.  Some say Guadagno is in Christie's comfort zone; she comes out of the same prosecutorial establishment world.  She also has no legislative voting record to pick apart, and may be relatively low-risk for the GOP candidate.  Steve Lonegan, the conservative who challenged Christie is the gubernatorial primary, sort of gave his blessing to Guadagno this week. 

If Corzine picks a Reality TV star, Guadagno can make the argument that she is the most experienced LG candidate.  If Corzine picks a Democrat with more gravitas, Guadagno could be seen as someone who held local office in a town half the size of Wasilla, and as Sheriff of a county about the size of Alaska.

Monmouth County Sheriff Kim Guadagno, thought to be a leading candidate for Lt. Governor, with State Sen. Sean Kean (R-Wall)

While it appears that Democrat Jon Corzine will go first (there is considerable speculation that he wants his running mate in place before President Obama campaigns with him in Holmdel next week), Christopher Christie continues to mull his own pick for a GOP Lt. Governor candidate.  The conventional wisdom, at least right now, is that Monmouth County Sheriff Kim Guadagno is at or near the top of the list.  Also under consideration: Assembly Minority Whip Jon Bramnick (R-Westfield), Bergen County Clerk Kathleen Donovan, and State Sen. Diane Allen (R-Edgewater Park).

Assembly Minority Whip Jon Bramnick (R-Westfield), right, at a GOP event earlier this year with Chris Christie.

GOP sources confirm that GOP gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie is assessing Assembly Minority Whip Jon Bramnick (R-Westfield) as a potential running mate.

Contacted about the information coming from three sources, Bramnick said, "no comment."

A moderate Republican and staunch longtime ally of Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean, Jr., (R-Westfield), who became whip two years ago, built some statewide campaign cred in the 2007 cycle and generated buzz as a possible 2008 candidate for U.S. Congress in the 7th Congressional District before electing not to run, Bramnick last year also founded the progressive policy committee as a way to focus Assembly Republicans on environmental, women's and other issues.

Bramnick backed Christie for governor before the U.S. Attorney's formal announcement last year, and in late January threw a $3,400-a-head fundraiser for the budding gubernatorial candidate at his Westfield home.