Donald DiFrancesco

A decade ago, there were ten Republicans who dominated politics in their counties: Bill Gormley in Atlantic, Pat Schuber in Bergen, Glenn Paulsen in Burlington, James Treffinger in Essex, Robert Prunetti in Mercer, Harry Larrison in Monmouth, George Gilmore in Ocean, Peter Murphy in Passaic, Dale Florio in Somerset, and Donald DiFrancesco in Union. Today, Democrats now govern six of those counties, and only Gilmore and Florio remain in power.

In 1999, Bergen Republicans controlled the County Executive post (Schuber won re-election in '98), had a majority on the Freeholder Board, and had GOP State Senators in districts 38, 39 and 40.  Democrats won the County Executive office when Schuber retired in 2002, and now hold all seven Freeholder seats; County Clerk Kathleen Donovan is the lone Republican elected countywide.  And Gerald Cardinale is the lone Republican Senator from Bergen County.

An Associated Press report suggests that Steve Lonegan's "ties to an anti-tax lobbying group raise questions about whether he was entitled to receive nearly $500,000 in taxpayer-financed matching funds."

In an e-mail to an official of a rival campaign, Senate Republican Executive Director James Harkness says that gubernatorial candidate Steve Lonegan will lose his public financing because he did not disclose his affiliation with Americans for Prosperity, an anti-tax organization.

“AFP will not reveal their donors. They are obviously conservatives who like 'convenient" transparency,' wrote Harkness a former Chief Counsel to Gov. Donald DiFrancesco.  “Lonegan will lose his public money.

Left to right: U.S. Sen. Clifford Case and his 1978 GOP primary opponent, Jeff Bell; 2001 Republican gubernatorial candidates Acting Gov. Donald DiFrancesco and Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler.

There is a temptation by the media, including this site, to designate former U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie as the front runner for the Republican gubernatorial nomination.  A Quinnipiac poll released yesterday with a 27-point lead, 44%-17%, over former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan. 

A February 2001 Quinnipiac poll had Acting Gov. Donald DiFrancesco leading Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler 45%-16% among Republican primary voters.  A Quinnipiac poll taken in May showed former U.S. Rep. Bob Franks with a 46%-24% lead over Schundler.  Schundler won the primary by fourteen points, 57%-43%. 

In 2000, former Gov. Jim Florio had a 57%-22% lead over first-time candidate Jon Corzine in a February Quinnipiac poll.  Corzine won the primary 58%-42%.

Conservative Jeff Bell, a former speechwriter for Ronald Reagan, beat four-term U.S. Senator Clifford Case in the 1978 GOP Primary by a 51%-49% margin.  But just a month earlier, an Eagleton-Rutgers poll had Case leading Bell 35%-7%.

Richard Zeoli, the author of The 7 Principles of Public Speaking, is giving up the Sussex GOP Chairman post to run for Freeholder.

Former Sparta Mayor Ailish Hambel has emerged as the leading candidate to replace Richard Zeoli as Sussex County Republican Chairman when County Committee members hold a special election on February 7.  Zeoli, the Chairman since 2003, is resigning on Saturday to focus on his campaign for the GOP Freeholder nomination.

Hambel was Acting County Chairman briefly in 2003. As Vice Chair, she took over when David Mortimer resigned to run for the State Assembly after Scott Garrett won a seat in Congress.  Jill Space, the current Vice Chair, will be Acting County Chairman for the week between Zeoli's resignation and the election of his successor.

Zeoli, a former aide to Garrett and Acting Governor Donald DiFrancesco, is seeking the seat of Glen Vetrano, who is not a candidate for re-election. 

The text of Zeoli's letter to the County Committee follows:

John Azzarello is widely viewed as an extraordinary lawyer, the kind of guy who might wind up on a short list for U.S. Attorney or U.S. District Court Judge someday.  He's a partner at a politically influential law firm; his partners are Jack Arsenault, who was nearly James E. McGreevey's Attorney General, and John Farmer, Jr., who was Attorney General under Christine Todd Whitman and Donald DiFrancesco.  He's a former Assistant U.S. Attorney who was Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division.  He went to Washington with Tom Kean as counsel to the 9/11 Commission.

On Friday, Azzarello did what other good white collar criminal defense attorneys do - he sought the mercy of a judge who was about to sentence his client - in this case a corrupt former public official, Mims Hackett.   And while he was ultimately successful - Hackett can serve his federal and state sentences concurrently and may only have to spend six months of his five year state sentence in prison - his argument wasn't exactly up there with Temple Houston.

Here's how the Star-Ledger reported it:

Former Gov. Donald DiFrancesco, left, and former U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie

RARITAN TWP. – There were a lot of bodies in the room here in Raritan Township tonight as former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie swore in Mayor Richard O’Malley – and in the process ratcheted his own gubernatorial drama up another notch. 

Arriving in a suburban and clad in a dark blue suit and powder blue tie, Christie entered the municipal chamber trailing half a dozen whispers about his intentions for statewide office.   

“I’ll have an announcement soon,” he said.   

He’s been making the rounds of these swearing-in ceremonies for seven years – ever since he became U.S. Attorney, and when the newly minted Mayor O’Malley gave Christie the floor, the newly retired lawman and establishment GOP’s best hope for a crack at Gov. Jon Corzine, made his usual good government remarks.

Lawyers will be the minority on the 2009 State Senate Judiciary Committee headed by engineer Paul Sarlo (D-Wood-Ridge)

For the first time since the new State Constitution was approved in 1947, a majority of members of the 2009 New Jersey State Senate Judiciary Committee -- six of eleven -- are not lawyers.  Chairman Paul Sarlo and Vice Chairman John Girgenti are not attorneys, as is fellow Democrat Loretta Weinberg.  Among the Republicans, Gerald Cardinale (who serves as the unofficial ranking Republican), Joseph Kyrillos and Jennifer Beck are not attorneys.

The lawyers on the Judiciary Committee are Democrats Raymond Lesniak, Nicholas Scutari, Robert Smith and Nia Gill, and Republican Bill Baroni. 

Senate President Richard Codey, who is responsible for the non-lawyer a majority -- a move some pols are applauding -- is one of a few non-lawyers to serve as Senate President.

Governor's Office Photo

John Farmer, the new Star-Ledger editorial page editor, says he doesn't believe in giving one party more than eight years in office

The NJ Voices interview with John Farmer, the new Editorial Page editor of the Star-Ledger, is a must-read for the New Jersey political community.  Farmer says he’s an Independent (a political “agnostic”) who voted for George W. Bush in 2000 “because I don't believe in giving any one party more than eight years in office.”

On the Star-Ledger’s political leanings:

“The editorials over the past eight years have been largely liberal.  But that's as much a function of events as it is of any internal inclination of the paper.  Largely, it's been a reaction to the record of the Bush administration. He hasn't given us much to cheer. We supported him quite enthusiastically after 9/11. But as the record of the Bush administration has unfolded, we've been pretty critical.”

On newspapers competing with the Internet:

An observation on how the New York Times’ coverage of New Jersey has changed over the years: when Bergen County Republican Chairman Anthony Statile resigned in 1973, the New York Times wrote five separate stories on the special election to replace him – but did not cover the passage of the state budget in 2008. The promotion of David Chen from Trenton to New York City Hall ends a chain of highly influential New Jersey-based New York Times reporters (like Joseph Sullivan, Ronald Sullivan, David Halbfinger and David Kocieniewski) that influenced New Jersey politics as much as any in-state newspaper. As recently as 2001 and 2002, the NYT played a key role in ending the political careers of Gov. Donald DiFrancesco and U.S. Sen. Bob Torricelli.

Is a lawsuit – settled out of court last month – against Donald DiFrancesco’s law firm alleging that the former Governor sexually harassed an attorney at this firm and then fired her the reason why against DiFrancesco Bateman Coley Yospin Kunzman Davis & Lehrer has a low percentage of women lawyers?  Of the nineteen partners at the firm, which includes State Senator Christopher Bateman, only one is a woman; the other eighteen are white men.  Of the eleven associates, eight are men; and three of the four Of Counsel are white men