DNCC

DENVER -- New York Governor David Paterson this morning said he was a “great admirer of the State of New Jersey.”

Paterson came a long way across the Denver Metropolitan area to speak to the New Jersey delegation at the Inverness Hotel in Englewood, Co, arriving close to an hour late after watching Gov. Corzine speak to his own delegation. After being introduced by U.S. Rep. Rush Holt (D-Princeton), Paterson joked about the distance.

“I am a great admirer of the state of New Jersey, and I will come to any event that’s schedule that any of you invite me to,” he said. “I just want you to know that this facility is further away from the Sheraton than any geographic point in New Jersey is from New York. So if I can get here, I can get to your event.”

New York Governor David Paterson said he shares a special bond with Dennis Shulman, the blind rabbi and psychologist who’s running in the 5th Congressional District.

“I’m really proud of him. He’s a great person and we’ve got a lot of similar experiences, and it was a lot of fun to have some kinship,” said Paterson, who like Shulman has been legally blind since childhood. “There are a lot of African-American elected officials, but the only blind elected official I ever met was the former Lieutenant Governor from Maryland."

Shulman was in the audience when Paterson gave the keynote address at the New Jersey delegation’s breakfast this morning. Paterson actually endorsed Shulman before former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer resigned, when he was merely Lieutenant Governor. Since then, he’s held two fundraising events with Shulman in New York City.

Both Shulman and Paterson said a third event is planned, though they haven’t worked out the specifics.

Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer: Politicker file photo

DENVER - The name of Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer often appears on people’s short lists for lieutenant governor in 2009.

Palmer doesn’t have a problem with that.

"I’m thinking about it," he told PoltiickerNJ.com, regarding attempting to land an under-card position on a ticket with Gov. Jon Corzine.

New Jersey Veterans for McCain will hold a rally tonight in Carlstadt, but Bergen County GOP Chairman and U.S. Navy veteran Bob Yudin has been left off the guest list.  Yudin seemed to annoy some Republicans last week when he named former Assembly Majority Leader Paul DiGaetano, an Essex County resident, as the Bergen County campaign coordinator for the Republican ticket headed by John McCain.  DiGaetano is in a bitter feud with State Sen. Kevin O’Toole, an early McCain supporter who represents part of Bergen County in the State Senate – and is also the Essex County Democratic Chairman.  Yudin has unsuccessfully sought to get Douglas Doyle, a politically active Bergen County lawyer, named as the McCain county coordinator.

Former Gov. Brendan Byrne: Politicker file photo 

DENVER - The crowd here at the Inverness jumped to its feet for former Gov. Brendan Byrne, who went to the podium to address the delegation - and promptly dropped them practically out of their chairs with laughter.

"When I heard Cory Booker here the other day, he was inspiring," said Byrne, of the Newark mayor’s Revolutionary War evocation at Monday’s breakfast.

Byrne said he tried to do the same thing once in the name of Jersey pride, and it backfired massively.

DENVER -- If there's any controversy involved with today's roll call vote, New Jersey will not be a part of it.

Democratic State Chairman Joe Cryan made a motion this morning to endorse Barack Obama by universal acclimation. It passed, without any voices raised in opposition.

Cryan said that after listening to Hillary Clinton’s speech last night “I really think it would be mistake if the New Jersey delegation had a roll call,” he said before putting it up for a vote. “If there was some way, I ask that we by acclamation nominate Barack Obama and dispense with the roll call.”

DENVER – As unlikely as it sounds, the former Mayor of Denver has raised a campaign issue in the New Jersey U.S. Senate race.

After praising Sen. Frank Lautenberg’s (D-Cliffside Park) help in securing funding to build the Denver International Airport in the 1990s in a speech to the New Jersey delegation yesterday morning, former Mayor Wellington Webb joked that a wing of the facility should be named after him.

That brought a harsh response yesterday from former U.S. Rep. Dick Zimmer, who called him “Colorado’s third Senator.” Zimmer has made his anti-pork credentials central to his Senate candidacy against Lautenberg.

The delegation at breakfast.: Politicker photo

DENVER - With blue collar foreign policy expert Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) on-deck tonight, Democrats promise that the family values phase of the convention will at last come to an end.

"Absolutely," Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex) said when asked if his party is now prepared to take the fight to the Republicans and their eight-year record in office.

Possessing a 90% Labor rating compared to 16% for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), according to union pump-up speakers at this morning's delegation breakfast at the Inverness, Biden is supposed to fulfill the lunch bucket running mate role of resident tough guy.

For some Democrats, the transition to more outward-directed energy will come as a welcome respite from the internal Obama-Clinton angst that to date has bedeviled the delegation.

DENVER - South Jersey Democratic Party leader George Norcross would not speculate on the specific public future of U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews (D-Haddon Heights), who’s due in at the Hotel Inverness this afternoon.

Andrews failed in his bid to oust U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-Cliffside Park) in the Democratic Primary earlier this year, and is now considering retiring to take a job at Goldman Sachs.

His wife, Camille, is holding his congressional seat amid talk out of South Jersey that Norcross’s younger brother, Donald, desires to make a run for the First Congressional District seat.

"What Rob and his family choose to do, I will support and advocate for his benefit," said Norcross. "Rob has to make that decision himself, and I don’t think he’s made that decision yet."

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.