Donald DiFrancesco

Gov. Jon Corzine enters the final weeks of his re-election campaign with an upside-down 39%-56% job approval rating.  For comparison purposes, Gov. Christine Todd Whitman was at 53%-43% when she was narrowly re-elected twelve years ago.  New Jersey's last two Governors were popular on Election Day - Richard Codey had a job approval of 68%-16% in 2005, and Donald DiFrancesco was at 60%-14% in 2001 - but they were not candidates for re-election. (These are all Quinnipiac numbers)

One comparison for Corzine and Republican Christopher Christie could be the 2006 U.S. Senate race between Democrat Robert Menendez and Republican Thomas Kean, Jr., which was fought against the backdrop of ethics issues and a strong political environment.  In an October 12 Quinnipiac poll, Menendez led Kean 49%-45%.  Menendez, who had been appointed to the Senate ten months earlier, had split favorables: 32%-32%; Kean, the son of a popular former governor, was at 34%-18%.

The two major party candidates for governor are not likely to agree on a rather complex issue: does the private investment firm Texas Pacific Group (TPG) have a clear connection to TPG-Axon, a hedge fund run out of the same office?

Gov. Jon Corzine has some of his personal fortune invested with TPG-Axon, which sounds similar to TPG.  Corzine maintains that the two companies have separate identities, and that it is unfair to accuse him of having a financial interest in casinos when it's TPG, not TPG-Axon, that invests in the gaming industry.   Republican Christopher Christie thinks that two companies run by the same people sharing the same office are essentially the same company.

The 2009 campaign includes other allegations where both sides have very different views of the world.  And New Jersey politics has a history of similar unsolved mysteries:

The Donald DiFrancesco State Senate sweater vest sold on E-Bay for $51.69.  Now the same seller, asportschick of Chatham, is selling a New Jersey Senate long sleeve sweater.  "This is an extra large, brand new, navy blue knit long sleeve crew neck sweater with the New Jersey state seal and New Jersey Senate stitched in gold and white on the left side." 

"There were several different sweaters, vests, bags, hats etc. that were made with the State Seal during the many years DiFrancesco was Senate President and I will be listing a few more of those items for purchase," the seller wrote.

Here's an update on the breaking news story PolitickerNJ.com has been covering since Monday: bidding on the Donald DiFrancesco State Senate sweater vest is up to $37.69.  The XXL black knit sweater vest - "sleeveless and v-neck with the New Jersey State Seal and New Jersey Senate stitched in gold and white on the left front" made for all Senators when DiFrancesco was Senate President, is available for sale on E-Bay. "It is 100% brand new," says the seller, asportschick of Chatham.

An XXL black knit sweater vest - "sleeveless and v-neck with the New Jersey State Seal and New Jersey Senate stitched in gold and white on the left front" made for all Senators when Donald DiFrancesco was Senate President, is available for sale on E-Bay. "It is 100% brand new," says the seller, asportschick of Chatham.  No bidders so far, and the Senate sweater could be yours for as low as $5.

Update: on Tuesay morning, the top bid on the DiFrancesco sweater vest is at $29.57.

Arnold D'Ambrosa was the 40-year-old Rahway Democratic Municipal Chairman and Public Works Director when he was elected to the State Assembly in 1973.  But his political career lasted just slightly longer than Evelyn Williams'.

D'Ambrosa and Berkeley Heights Township Committeewoman Betty Wilson, 41, unseated two Republican Assemblymen, Arthur Manner (R-Berkeley Heights) and Herbert Kiehn (R-Chatham) in the old 22nd, a politically competitive district that included Berkeley Heights, Clark, Fanwood, Kenilworth, Mountainside, Plainfield, Rahway, Scotch Plains, Springfield and Chatham Township.  Wilson won by more than 6,000 votes, and D'Ambrosa by nearly 4,000.  A Republican Assemblyman, Peter McDonough (R-Plainfield), narrowly won the State Senate seat of Jerome Epstein, the Senator who went to jail for being a pirate.

In July 1974, six months after taking office, D'Ambrosa was arrested on charges that he sold an air conditioner owned by Rahway for $600, pocketing the money, and he took a $200 bribe from a contractor.  He was also accused of lying to a grand jury, and for using city materials and employees to do work on his shore home in Point Pleasant. 

Professing his innocence, D'Ambrosa completed the remaining eighteen months of his Assembly term.  In January 1976, just days before leaving office, he got nine months in prison after admitting to charges of embezzlement, bribery, perjury and misconduct as part of a plea bargain. He was fired from his $16,000-a-year job in Rahway and lost his $10,000-a-year Assembly seat.  (Is anyone else wondering how he was able to afford the shore house?)

After the 1973 election left Assembly Republicans with just fourteen seats, the GOP actually came close to winning control of the lower house in 1975, Brendan Byrne's mid-term election year.  That would likely have meant the return of Thomas Kean as Assembly Speaker; in turn, that could have altered the political landscape for the 1977 gubernatorial election.

Republicans picked up seventeen seats in '75, ousting eleven incumbents and picking up six open seats.  That reduced the Assembly Democratic majority from 66-14 to 49-31.

Seven other Democratic incumbents won close races: Walter Kozloski (D-Freehold) by 428 votes,  Robert Burns (D-Hasbrouck Heights) by 638 votes, Steven Perksie (D-Margate) by 725 votes, Harold Martin (D-Cresskill) by 995 votes, Mary Keating Croce (D-Pennsauken) by 1,068 votes, Vincent Ozzie Pellecchia (D-Paterson) by 1,275 votes, and Paul Contillo (D-Paramus) by 1,821 votes. 

State Sen. Christopher Bateman (R-Branchburg) has won a seat on the Senate Judiciary Committee

State Sen. Christopher Bateman (R-Branchburg) will get a new seat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Senate Minority Leader Thomas Kean, Jr. (R-Westfield) will take the new seat on the Senate Education Committee, sources say.

Last month, the Senate expanded the size of the Judiciary Committee from eleven to thirteen members, adding an eighth Democrat and a fifth Republican.  Senate President Richard Codey (D-Roseland) has already named State Sen. Brian Stack (D-Union City) to fill the new Democratic seat.

The Senate Labor Committee was also expanded from five to seven members.  Codey named State Sen. James Beach (D-Voorhees) to that post.

Former Attorney General John Farmer is expected to be the new dean of Rutgers Law School

John Farmer, Jr., who was the Governor of New Jersey for a little more than an hour on January 8, 2002, is expected to be named Dean of the Rutgers University Law School today.  Farmer served as Chief Counsel to Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, and then as state Attorney General under Whitman and Donald DiFrancesco.   He was Governor for the hour between the end of DiFrancesco's term as a State Senator (which ended his tenure as Acting Governor) and the reorganization of the Senate.  Co-Senate Presidents John Bennett and Richard Codey each served 3 ½ day as Governor until James E. McGreevey was sworn in one week later.

Assemblyman Eric Munoz (R-Summit) passed away on Monday at the age of 61.

Eric Munoz first went to the Legislature in 2001 amidst a game of political musical chairs in the old 21st district, which was about equally divided between Essex and Union counties.  The six -term State Senator, Republican Louis Bassano, resigned to take a job at the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority.  The district had already been chopped up, with Bassano's home town, Union, being placed in the heavily-Democratic 20th district, where Raymond Lesniak was the Senator.

Assemblyman Kevin O'Toole won a special election for Bassano's State Senate seat, knowing that he would return to the Assembly eight months later.  His hometown, Cedar Grove, had already been redistricted into District 40, which was represented in the Senate by Henry "Tapioca" McNamara. 

Munoz defeated former Cranford Mayor Thomas Denny in a special election convention to fill O'Toole's Assembly seat.  At this point, four incumbent Assemblymen lived in the new 21st district: Richard Bagger, Thomas Kean, Jr. (who had won a special election convention earlier that year after Alan Augustine died in office), and Joel Weingarten, an Essex County Republican who had beaten Kean and Michael Ferguson to win the Union County GOP Convention in his 2000 campaign for Congress.  Bagger was unopposed for the GOP State Senate nomination; the incumbent, Senate President and Acting Governor Donald DiFrancesco, was not running for the Legislature.