Donald Payne

U.S. Rep. Donald Payne (D-Newark), and Piscataway grassroots organizer Nadia Brown: Politicker photo 

ROSELLE - It’s Garrett Smith country on a Saturday.

Emptying a chair alongside the young Roselle mayor, U.S. Rep. Donald Payne (D-Newark) stood in front of a microphone and gave Gov. Jon Corzine props for playing a role in discovering Sen. Barack Obama (D-Il) when Corzine chaired the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Obama’s romping here in Roselle by every indication, but Payne and Obama aren’t eyeball to eyeball on everything, including last week’s Wall Street bailout.

While Obama and his Republican rival in the presidential race on Wednesday quietly supported the $700 billion measure that its critics say falls disproportionately across the shoulders of American taxpayers, Payne twice vociferously bucked the controversial bill in the House.

Today he laid out his views before a cheering crowd in Roselle’s Warinanco Park, where several hundred people gathered in support of Obama on the front-end of a Union County voter registration drive days before the Oct. 14th registration deadline.

With the House likely to vote on the revised bailout package tomorrow, six of the seven New Jersey congressmen who voted against it on Monday have either not decided or not indicated how they will vote tomorrow. 

Only Scott Garrett (R-Wantage) has given any inkling as to how he’ll vote.  On Fox News this morning, he said that the bill has barely changed.

“Basically we’re getting the exact same bill with some pork added to it to sweeten things up.  And that doesn’t make matters better. It really makes matters worse,” he said. 

U.S. Rep. Donald Payne (D-Newark): Politicker file photo 

U.S. Rep. Donald Payne (D-Newark) didn't vote for the Wall Street bailout package the first time, and he would need to see significant changes benefiting low income Americans and workers before he could support it on a second pass.

"We have not extended unemployment benefits or mortgage relief," Payne said moments ago in an appearance on MSNBC.

The veteran congressman acknowledged there is no question the economy is in crisis mode, but insisted on seeing stronger bottom up measures.

The New Jersey delegation's vote on the bailout bill was close, and did not occur along party lines.

But while there were some odd vote combinations, with liberal Congressmen like U.S. Rep. Steve Rothman (D-Fair Lawn) voting the same way as his conservative neighbor, Scott Garrett (R-Wantage), they tended to cite different reasons.

Ultimately, New Jersey Congressmen voted against the bill by a 7-6 margin. None, however, enthusiastically supported it. Nor did any of its detractors express glee at its downfall, and some expressed more openness to voting for a new compromise package than others.

By far the most vociferous opponent of the bailout was Garrett, who yesterday took to the floor and excoriated his colleagues who supported it.

U.S. Rep. Donald Payne (D-Newark): Politicker photo

DENVER - It was coming to an end in an Irish bar, only it wouldn’t actually end there. It would in another bar, a few blocks removed.

Two bars separated by one speech.

"It should be a walkover, of course," said U.S. Rep. Donald Payne (D-Newark). "These guys - Obama and McCain - are neck and neck. I think it’s perhaps the trepidation about race that makes it that way, but we'll see."

In a few hours, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) would take the stage and accept his party’s nomination.

Payne, and his elder brother former Assemblyman Bill Payne, mingled among a respectably large crowd of guests in this, the last big, pre-Obama speech bash in downtown Denver at the Celtic Tavern, thrown by U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch) and U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson).

The Celtic Tavern is located near the light rail line, and soon the delegates and superdelegates and other guests would pile aboard and head out to Invesco Field to see and hear Obama.

In the meantime, the hosts brought Speaker Joe Cryan up onto the stage with the folk band to take a bow. Just as they were stepping over the microphone cords and getting ready to launch into the Irish songs, the bar door swung open and Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy walked in, prompting Pascrell to make a special introduction.

It almost looked staged, as if a staffer had sent Healy a text message. Healy's a good Irish tenor with a rich, well-modulated voice.

But the mayor’s stride-in would astoundingly prove a premature entrance to the main event, for on this afternoon, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-Union City) went to the front of the room.

There is some chatter among Passaic County Democrats attending the Democratic National Convention in Denver that veteran State Sen. John Girgenti could be in his last term.  Girgenti, a legislator since 1977, is the last white male to represent a district where minority voters represent the majority of the district.  Two years ago, Assemblywoman Nellie Pou went as far as to present her name to the Passaic Democratic screening committee as a Senate candidate, but Girgenti—rather easily – secured party support for another term.  Pou, by the way, says she’s not interested in challenging the popular Girgenti in 2011. 

At-large Councilman Luis Quintana: Politicker photo 

NEWARK - Coming off a press conference in which he stood with former Councilwoman Dana Rone, veteran Councilman Luis Quintana said he favors keeping Rone’s Central Ward council seat vacant until the public votes in a Nov. 4th special election.

"I’d be willing to introduce a resolution saying leave it alone," Quintana told PolitickerNJ.com.

Keeping the seat unoccupied makes sense from several vantage points, argued Quintana, an at-large representative who lives in the city’s North Ward.

Former Councilwoman Dana Rone greets well-wishers in City Hall Rotunda on Tuesday.: Politicker photo 

NEWARK - Former Councilwoman Dana Rone stood in the rotunda of City Hall today with her colleagues and in front of cheering supporters, apparently happy to be reunited with the Newark City Council.

"I'm grateful for the support of my colleagues," said Rone in a brief statement.

How far the council would go to support her was not clear on Tuesday.

The lower courts have rendered their verdicts, said West Ward Councilman Ronald Rice, but the Council intends to support the former Councilwoman as she continues to pursue the process at the appellate level and in the state Supreme Court.

Flanked by Rone, and fellow council people, who this morning in council chambers helped Rice pass a resolution in favor of standing beside the former Central Ward councilwoman, Rice said the penalty in Rone's case is too severe.

She's called a special meeting, but will Council President Mildred Crump and the council take substantive action tomorrow?: Politicker photo 

NEWARK - They could end up coming out of their offices tomorrow and standing unified behind their fallen colleague with a statement of support, but a prospective City Council vote on whether or not to replace embattled former Councilwoman Dana Rone summons an inevitable question.

Who would vote to replace Rone, and who would replace her?

The fact that Council President Mildred Crump called a special meeting tomorrow at a time when East Ward Councilman Augusto Amador is on vacation may indicate that Mayor Cory Booker - an ally of Crump’s - wants the council to move on the vote as quickly as possible.

Some Newark sources say Crump - not Booker - has more of a stake in would-be replacement Nikea White; and that is was Crump acting alone, not the mayor, who pushed for tomorrow’s vote.

NEWARK - Although its members can choose to leave the seat Newark Mayor Cory Booker: Politicker file photovacant, the City Council has the statutory power to appoint an interim replacement for Central Ward Councilwoman Dana Rone.

At the moment there are no obvious candidates to replace her.

The street buzz all week in Newark was that Essex County Prosecutor Paula Dow would back off from her recommendation that the book be thrown at Rone, who was convicted of obstructing justice and under the law had to renounce her council seat.

Dow did back off, issuing a letter to Essex County Judge Patricia Costello to waive forfeiture in Rone’s case.

North Ward Democratic leader Steve Adubato: Politicker file photoBut Costello didn’t see leniency as an option here, and barred Rone from serving on the council - and from serving elected office, period.

If Rone’s abrupt exit leaves the field of individuals open - and sources say former Central Ward Councilman Charles Bell may be interested in running for the vacant seat - there are two obvious machines with a stake in Newark’s second largest ward.