Doug Palmer

Mayor Doug Palmer addresses guests at his fundraiser with, from left, Mercer County Executive Brian J. Hughes, Gov. Jon Corzine, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, former President Bill Clinton, and Palmer's wife.

TRENTON - A wounded county came out here tonight to get a glimpse of former President Bill Clinton before the Secret Service propelled him away - again - to some more voter-concentrated region of the state for what Democrats hope will be a pay dirt rally at Rutgers University.

"I knew you weren't here to see me," Mayor Doug Palmer told a crowd at his $150 fundraiser for his nonprofit Trenton First, over one of his shoulders stood Gov. Jon Corzine with two weeks to go in a dead-heat gubernatorial contest.

Over Palmer's other shoulder stood Clinton.

"God, he looks great, Clinton - so slim," said Assembly Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing).

"You're here to see the president," supplied Palmer with a smile and deafening war whoops filled the banquet hall here at the Marriott, a building Palmer helped bring to Trenton.

The mayor acknowledged Corzine at last, and threw in a "first and foremost" when introducing him. Corzine, it should be said, received raucous applause. 

Mercer County Freeholder Keith V. Hamilton

Even as the gubernatorial battle absorbs attention now and for the duration, next year's Trenton mayoral election looms as one of the more interesting contests of 2010.

In the shuffle of people intent on succeeding 20-year retiring Mayor Douglas Palmer, stands Mercer County Freeholder Keith V. Hamilton, who's built name identification as a 14-year member of the board.

He hasn't yet formally announced, but the Trenton native who raised his family in neighboring Hamilton Township and moved back to Trenton two years ago, is ready to spring into campaign mode after the resolution of the governor's race.

"I'm keeping my powder dry at the moment but I intend to run, yes," Hamilton told PolitickerNJ.com at a Democratic Party fundraiser tonight at Padrino's in Hamilton Township.

Trenton Council President Paul Pintella

TRENTON - The probable retirement of Mayor Doug Palmer next year has sent all would-be successors into scramble mode early in New Jersey's capital city.

At the top of the public heap of next generation leaders stands 44-year-old Council President Paul Pintella, a 16-year veteran of the city council who has served as chief of the governing body for two terms.

"It may be premature to say the mayor's not running, but if he decided to run, I would still consider running," said Pintella, a Trenton native who works as an affirmative action specialist with the state. "I am in the process of testing and polling my name out there and I feel comfortable saying I will be a candidate."

He anticipates making a formal announcement sometime before the end of the year.

Pintella said his base of support in the city goes back to the work his late father did with the Urban League of Metro Trenton.

Former Freeholder Tony Mack

In the lead-up to what looks like the end of the 20-year era of Mayor Doug Palmer in Trenton, Tony Mack measures his words carefully.

Yes, he established a Facebook group over the weekend called "Make it Better, Make it Mack for Mayor," but he won't say in a phone converstion whether he's definitely running.

That's because he can't risk a third loss to Palmer, who defeated Mack in 2006, then punished him last year by quietly working within the party structure to deny Mack the Democratic Party line when he ran for reelection as a Mercer County Freeholder.

Now sources say Palmer's done - not because of any threat but because at 58 he's ready to retire from public life.

The mayor won't confirm it, as sources say the former national chairman of mayors and West Street standard bearer doesn't want to spend the rest of his term relegated to lame duck status.

Newark West Ward Councilman Ronald C. Rice campaigns for Barack Obama in 2007.

NEWARK - President Barack Obama lands on a stage today against the backdrop of a party frantically trying to figure out what to do about Gov. Jon Corzine's apparent number one choice for lieutenant governor, an African-American reality TV star with degrees from MIT, Oxford University and Rutgers University and CEO of a successful technology consulting firm in Newark who nonetheless has never held public office.

Corzine confidantes kept kicking other names around on Wednesday even as Pinkett's supporters argued in favor of his selection.

"The establishment is always wary of change and something new," said state Sen. Ray Lesniak (D-Elizabeth). "The establishment lined up behind Hillary, not Obama, even the black establishment. They also backed Dick Leone over another Rhodes scholar who did well, Bill Bradley."

By contrast, when state Sen. Ronald L. Rice (D-Newark) peeked at Pinkett's resume - heavy on corporate cred and thin on grassroots  - he received an early negative vibe.

His son, Newark West Ward Councilman Ronald C. Rice, a Joshua generation leader who was one of Obama's first impassioned  supporters among New Jersey elected officials, celebrates Pinkett's decision to open his firm in Newark where he participates in a business incubator program with the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT).

State Sen. Dana Redd (D-Camden)

Sources close to Gov. Jon Corzine have said for months now that he won't pick a white male for lieutenant governor.

Not enough balance.

A week ago three names seemed fairly solid in a firmament that nevertheless shifts daily: state Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck), state Sen. Barbara Buono (D-Metuchen) and Secretary of State Nina Mitchell Wells.

If the first two were white, they were women, at least. But the fact that they weren't males wasn't the only obvious jump-off-the-page quality they shared.

Both women had reputations as elected officials who wouldn't easily get pushed around. 

Weinberg earned a rep - and endeared herself in the process to Corzine - as an enemy of the Bergen County Democratic Organization, while Buono aggressively sought the budget chairmanship despite efforts by leadership to install somebody more pliant.

Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer

Mentioned early by Gov. Jon Corzine as a potential candidate for lieutenant governor, Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer today said he never received a questionnaire or any invitation from the governor's reps to participate in a vetting process for the job.

The veteran mayor said he would have been interested if LG came with a specific description, such as overseeing the agenda of New Jersey's metro economies.  

But "it was never a job that was explained to me in a way that would be something i was interested in," said Palmer. "It was too ambiguous as presented, and it's even more abiguous now, and I let the powers that be know that.  It was never spelled out, and so it's not something I'm interested in. I would have been intrigued by a job of substance, but it doesn't make sense for me to leave my job as CEO of a city for ambiguity."

Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer

TRENTON – Notwithstanding an 11th hour campaign effort to woo the African American community through church leadership contacts, the quiet terror in some Democratic Party circles that Gov. Jon Corzine’s candidacy has stalled irredeemably and creates little barriers-breaking hoopla in urban cities, prompted Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer today to defend the governor and call for an end to the negative back chatter, even as state Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Newark), chair of the Legislative Black Caucus, maintained his resistance.

Palmer said there is much the governor must accomplish to be viable in urban New Jersey in a close contest, but he’s confident about Corzine’s ability to get it done between now and Election Day.

“Certainly he’s down in the polls because of the economy and on top of the economy everyday there is a story about the public employees’ furloughs and that’s hurting his base – the unions and families – and so he’s suffering a double whammy, but if you’re going to be behind, now is the time to be behind,” said the veteran mayor, a short-list candidate for lieutenant governor.

Senate Majority Leader Steve Sweeney (D-Bridgeton), right, and state Sen. Kevin O'Toole (R-Cedar Grove)

With South Jersey’s rolling ten-year headline to finally take over the state diminished somewhat by U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews’s (D-Haddon Heights) doomed run for the Senate, then redeemed when U.S. Rep. John Adler (D-Cherry Hill) won later the same year, a lot of establishment eyes turned to state Sen. Majority Leader Steve Sweeney (D-Bridgeton) as the most likely South Jersey Democrat to make a statement this year, and in the process, further embolden the South Jersey Democratic Organization. 

Amid ongoing cloakroom chatter about Sweeney – who also serves as Gloucester County freeholder director - and his South Jersey colleagues teaming across the aisle with state Sen. Kevin O’Toole (R-Cedar Grove) to banish Senate President Richard Codey (D-West Orange), Sweeney today said he wouldn’t rule out running for lieutenant governor, if Gov. Jon Corzine offered him the job.     

“I would never say never,” Sweeney told PolitickerNJ.com. “I would have to consider it if it was offered. I’m not pursuing it.” 

Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer

TRENTON – There was Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal on a television set and Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer listening with deepening skepticism. Palmer, a short-list candidate for lieutenant governor, thought Jindal’s Tuesday night GOP bite-back at President Barack Obama’s federal stimulus speech was especially poor. 

“I think he’s being panned a lot,” Palmer said of the Republican governor who in his remarks likened an aid package to federal bureaucrats haplessly attempting to micromanage Hurricane Katrina relief, and who would refuse a profusion of new federal funds to his state.

“Bobby Jindal’s either hypocritical or he’s putting politics ahead of his responsibility as governor of Louisiana,” said Trenton’s mayor since 1990. “Louisiana especially should welcome aid, and it’s his job to make sure that money is used effectively. Look, we tried the governor’s approach and it’s not going anywhere.”