There’s no question that the Democrats would love to take out rising Republican star Jennifer Beck in the 12th legislative district.

But with her reelection over three years away and redistricting coming up in 2010, none of the potential challengers on deck for her will even indicate that they’re thinking of taking her on. But they won’t rule it out either.

Former Assemblyman Mike Panter, who spent four years in the legislature before being ousted in a miniature Republican wave led by Beck in November – one largely blamed on a controversial farmland tax assessment break taken by former State Sen. Ellen Karcher – said he’s made a conscious effort not to think about politics this year.

Former Assemblyman Michael Panter, who lost his bid for re-election to a third term in 2007, is expected to play an active role raising money for Democratic legislative candidates in 2009. Assembly Democratic sources say that Panter won’t run again next year, but instead hopes to pick up a series of political IOU’s that he can use in 2011 as mapmakers redrew legislative districts.  Panter wants to see the twelfth district become more Democratic and then challenge Republican Jennifer Beck for the State Senate.

State Sen. Kevin O'Toole (R-Essex) on Wednesday stepped out in frontChris Christie of the back-static regarding a pairing of U.S. Attorney Jen BeckChris Christie with state Sen. Jennifer Beck (R-Monmouth) for GOP governor/lt. governor in 2009.

"I think it's a dream ticket," said O'Toole. "If Chris Christie decides to run, I expect Jen Beck to be considered in what would be an ideal combination of law enforcement, ethics and government transparency."

O'Toole recalled as "gutsy" Beck's drubbing out of of office of state Sen. Ellen Karcher last year.

Amy Mallet has not had much time to rest.

Last year, she ran for Assembly in what was perhaps the most hotly contested - and most expensive - election district in the state. Her entire ticket, which was made up of two incumbents, went down, largely attributed to a controversial farmland assessment tax break used by state Sen. Ellen Karcher.

But shortly after that loss, Mallet was again tapped by Democrats, the perennial minority party in Monmouth County, to work towards winning a majority on the freeholder board for the first time in recent memory. She's running with Hazlet Board of Education President Glen Mason against incumbent Republican Freeholder Director Lillian Burry and Republican Red Bank Councilman John Curley, a former Democrat and outsider to machine politics who beat out the Republican establishment's choice to win the party's nomination.

"After I put so much into it last year, I was thinking about how the issues have not gone away," said Mallet, who owns a promotional marketing company. "They're still out there in terms of government spending, and really the cost of living here and the fact that folks don't have a lot of faith in their elected officials."

State Sen. Joseph Pennacchio (R-Morris) today. 

TRENTON - Sen. Joseph Pennacchio (R-Morris) sees a link between his Republican primary opponent Dick Zimmer and fallen Democrat Ellen Karcher.

In her state Senate fight last year, Karcher was bedeviled by a farmland assessment mini-scandal that her opponent Jennifer Beck highlighted in aggressive television advertising on her way to finally burying Karcher by a ten-point margin on Election Day.

Running behind Zimmer in their U.S. Senate primary contest, according to a Monmouth University poll and just ahead of economist Murray Sabrin, Pennacchio thinks he can sink the front-running former congressman with the same strategy.

"He’s got a Karcher problem," said Pennacchio, questioning Zimmer’s sincerity as a Washington-D.C. based lobbyist who claims a farmland assessment tax break.

Eighteen women have served in the New Jersey State Senate: Mildred Barry Hughes (D-Union) in 1966, Jerry English (D-Union) in 1971, Wynona Lipman (D-Essex) in 1972, Anne Martindell (D-Mercer) and Alene Ammond (D-Camden) in 1974, Leanna Brown (R-Morris) and Catherine Costa (D-Burlington) in 1984, and Martha Bark (R-Burlington) in 1997. Diane Allen and Shirley Turner (D-Mercer) took office in January 1998, Barbara Buono and Nia Gill in 2001, and Teresa Ruiz, Dana Redd, and Sandra Cunningham in 2007.

Ellen Karcher in January 2004, and Loretta Weinberg the following November. Jennifer Beck defeated Karcher last November – the first time one woman unseated another.

As PolitickerNJ.com begins a subjective tournament to choose New Jersey's Smartest Legislator, state Sen. Leonard Lance could be the early front runner. Lance has faced some criticism from members of his own party for being more of a statesman than a politician, but several statehouse watchers and former legislators say he may be one of the brightest people in Trenton.

"Leonard Lance is the one guy who sits in the legislature today that could have sat in the Senate in the late 1960's and early 1970's," said lobbyist/public relations executive Alan Marcus, who served as Clerk of the General Assembly in 1969, at age 21. "Leonard is a throwback to that era of the noblesse oblige, of quiet brilliance -- of people who don't speak on every issue, but who become conversant on every issue."

Lance isn't the only name that comes up in discussions about smart legislators. In the Senate, the most repeated names were Raymond Lesniak, Nia Gill, Kevin O'Toole, Bill Baroni, John Adler, Dick Codey, and Barbara Buono.

In the Assembly, Joe Roberts, Michael Patrick Carroll, Joe Malone, David Russo, and John Wisniewski were frequently mentioned as among the brainiest.

Sharpe James NEWARK - A lot of Democrats who worked with Sharpe James over the years had one word to describe what they felt today as they watched a federal jury deliver a guilty verdict in the former mayor’s corruption trial.

They felt sad.

"Sometimes we cooperated, sometimes we didn’t, but I really believe he cared about Newark," said North Ward Democratic leader Steve Adubato. "It’s a terrible tragedy."

Embattled Board of Public Utilities President Jeanne Fox made a fast  and not at all subtle exit tonight from a New Jersey Women’s Political Caucus Awards dinner,  just as State Sen. Jennifer Beck was about to receive the Barbara Boggs Sigmund award.  Beck, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is leading the movement to deny Fox another term at the BPU. 

Monmouth County Democratic Chairman Victor ScudieryATLANTIC HIGHLANDS - Just one day after the 2007 general election, Monmouth County GOP Chairman Adam Puharic posted the results on his party’s website and noted gleefully that the Republicans had sumo tossed the Democrats out of the circle in every non-municipal contest - with the exception of one: a freeholder match between Democrat John D'Amico and Republican Jeffrey Cantor.

At that point, D'Amico-Cantor was undecided, and Puharic mused about the possibility of humiliating the Democrats with a shutout. But post provisional and absentee ballots, D'Amico squeaked out a victory and became the second Democrat in as many years to win a seat on the Monmouth County Freeholder Board, in a traditionally Republican stronghold.