DNCC

DENVER -- State Sen. Sandra B. Cunningham still hasn’t made a decision about whether she’ll run for mayor of Jersey City.  And that’s as much as she’ll say on the subject.

“I don’t know yet,” she said.  “I’d rather not answer any of the stuff relating to that right now.”

Although Cunningham is staying in the same hotel as incumbent Mayor Jerramiah Healy, both said that they had not discussed anything about the mayor’s race during their time at the convention or, for that matter, ever (whether people close to them are talking about it is a different matter). 

A New Jersey Congressman says that former White House advisor Karl Rove is going to hell: Getty Images Photo
DENVER -- Speaking in front of the New Jersey delegation this morning, U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) said that former White House official Karl Rove – for years President Bush’s closest advisor – is going to hell.

Pascrell said that the last eight years have been full of squandered opportunities and missteps, both domestically and internationally, and pinned the blame squarely on the Bush Administration.

“We might have missed the last eight years because folks did not tell us the truth,” he said. “Dante’s Inferno laid out very specifically the very levels receding into hell. And the hottest place is reserved for those who distort the truth, who manipulate our minds, or who attempt to do it, anyway. So I don’t think Bush and Cheney will be at the hottest point in the inferno, but I sure as hell know that Karl Rove will be.”

U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch): Politicker file photo 

DENVER - Seniors should vote for Obama given the GOP’s designs on healthcare and social security, said U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch), but the real strength for Democrats this year will break the Republicans, in his view.

It’s the youth vote, and Obama plays into it in a way that will not only mean victory now - but maybe for years, in the congressman’s estimation.

"We will capture a generation of new voters (with an Obama victory)," Pallone said. "We could be the majority in the Senate and House of Representatives for the next 40 years if we were to accomplish that. We believe in the promise of America, and Obama makes such a change from what we have now in that regard."

Garden State Equality Chair Steven Goldstein is a Clinton delegate from New JerseyDENVER -- With a captive audience, leadership of the LGBT advocacy organization Garden State Equality made a push this morning for legislation that would legalize gay marriage in New Jersey.

The group even opened the floor to ask for new legislative co-sponsors to the current bill. Assembly members Gordon Johnson, Joan Quigley, Pamela Lampitt and Nellie Pou all signed on, as did State Sen. Sandra B. Cunningham.

Chair Steven Goldstein lead the group’s efforts, detailing a recent poll that the group conducted on the issue and several state races and drawing their attention to Speaker Joseph Roberts’s support of gay marriage. But Goldstein made his most powerful appeal by telling a personal story.

DENVER - Addressing the New Jersey delegation this morning, former Gov. Jim Florio told his fellow Democrats that they need to brush up on the harder-edged passages of the Hebrew Scriptures to get toned for what’s coming.

"We can’t afford to have this as a New Testament campaign," Florio told the crowd. "This is not turning the other cheek. This has got to be an Old testament campaign."

The way the Republicans demolished John Kerry four years ago, twisting a war hero, in Florio’s words, into a coward, should provide sufficient preview for GOP campaign tactics. But the Democrats have to huddle up and get ready to fight back with the obvious arguments.

"This president has to slither in and out of a foreign country before anyone knows he’s there, because he’s shredded our relations with the world," Florio said of President George W. Bush. "It’s an embarrassment."

Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin, right, with Sens. Bob Menendez, Frank Lautenberg and Barack Obama in 2006: Getty Images Photo
DENVER - The affable salesman from the Midwest landed on the outskirts of town here with a bright smile and anecdote-laden speaking style that even the most bleary-eyed early morning Democrats responded to through the haze.

If the junior senator from his home state is the glamorous superstar, Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) can claim the mantle of progressive, happy warrior work horse, and he kicked off his breakfast address to the New Jersey delegation today by noting how much he liked the deli cuisine that Sen. Bob Menendez (D-Ill.) introduced him to when Menendez hosted Durbin one day in Hoboken.

He would get a standing ovation here, this politician who looks like an actor who would insist on playing Willie Loman as the guy who plays out a happy ending, in what amounted to a nearly perfect set-up when Gov. Jon Corzine prepped the crowd for his onetime Senate colleague.

"If you want to know how we get through healthcare, it’s going to be through the leadership of Dick Durbin," Corzine said of Durbin. "If you want to know how we’re going to change our foreign policy, it’s going to be through the leadership of the majority whip."

Obama calls Durbin his mentor and the older legislator responds publicly in the role of witness to what he sells as American excellence. Tonight he will introduce his friend and the Democrats’ presidential nominee at Invesco Field.

DENVER -- United States Rep. Rob Andrews made it to the convention yesterday, and while there are clearly still some frayed relations between himself and members of the party who were loyal to incumbent Sen. Frank Lautenberg, he said he’s been received warmly.

“It’s really been very positive, very heartwarming, very good,” he said. “I feel very comfortable here.”

This morning he ducked out of the delegation’s breakfast during Sen. Dick Durbin’s (D-Illinois) address to pick up his credentials. There he ran into his recent campaign chairman, Michel Murphy.

Andrews has been the topic of much discussion among members of the New Jersey delegation. Despite the report that he’s negotiating for a job at Goldman Sachs, many say he’s still weighing returning to Congress. When asked today why people were still speculating about it, Andrews didn’t issue the blanket denials about returning to his house seat that he’s used since he entered the primary against Lautenberg.

“I’ll have something to say about that next week. This is a week to talk about the convention, not about me.”

Check back tomorrow morning to view my sketchpad for day three of the Democratic National Convention, and go to my national blog to follow convention coverage by cartoonists from around the country.

Joe Biden accepts the Democratic nomination for Vice President in Denver on Wednesday: Getty Images Photo

• In Denver, Rice comes nearly full circle with Obama

• Biden's son brings tears to the New Jersey delegation

• Florio to Dems: Kerry 'Swift-boating will look like kindergarten'

• Praising Clinton, new DNC member Wisniewski wants to examine superdelegate rules

• Wisniewski's Spotted Dog crowd gears up for Biden

• Sebold: 2008 is not like 1980

• Pascrell not ready to forgive Andrews

• Pascrell: lack of New Jersey speakers at both conventions is "an insult"

• Greenstein would like Baroni's seat if he becomes U.S. Attorney

• Clinton backers face challenge of channeling Hillary pride into party force

• Making statement regarding gubernatorial intentions, Merkt won't run for re-election

• Chivukula says a McCain/Jindal ticket would help with Indian community

• DiVincenzo says Corzine is definitely running

• Paterson explains difference between Obama and McCain through Holt's perspective

• David Paterson on Dennis Shulman and Steve Lonegan

• Palmer considers play for lieutenant governor's job

• Byrne delights the delegationNew Jersey delegates will unanimously back Obama

• Former Denver mayor injects an issue into New Jersey Senate race

• On Biden's day, morning message is blue collar tough

• Norcross says Andrews's decision is his own

• Former Denver mayor injects an issue into New Jersey Senate race

• Team DiVincenzo try to go yard for the Democrats at Coors

• Corzine, New Jersey delegation party with the Clintons

West Ward Councilman Ron Rice, Jr. pounds pavement with Obama volunteers.: Politicker file photo 

DENVER - Months and months ago, when West Ward Newark Councilman Ronald C. Rice used to display his Obama button, friends would laugh.

"No chance," they told Rice, who went on organizing and serving as an Obama surrogate.

Tonight, from his vantage point among the New Jersey delegation, Rice said he felt inspired when he heard Sen. Joseph Biden’s (D-Del.) speech and saw the vice presidential nominee stand on-stage with Obama.