Jersey City Councilwoman Nidia Lopez, who spent today in Orlando, told the local paper that she has lived in Jersey City since March, 2008.

The paper caught up with Lopez while she was in Orlando today, after she attended a city council meeting last night.  

According to the report, Lopez could owe Orange County, Fla. as much as $33,000 in taxes for claiming a homestead tax exemption meant only for that state’s residents.  

Lopez, the city’s first Hispanic councilwoman, was sworn in to her first term just last week.  She is facing a lawsuit over her residency from vanquished council opponent Jimmy King, who hopes to throw out the results of the May election.  

Gov. Jon Corzine says he'll help raise money for Florida and Michigan to help them run do-overs of the Democratic presidential primaries -- a move that might help Corzine's preferred candidate, Hillary Clinton, according to a report filed by WNBC-TV's Brian Thompson.  Corzine's pledge of generosity comes as he attempts to sell his own state budget cuts and toll hikes in New Jersey, and raise money for his non-profit toll hike advocacy group and a new football stadium for Rutgers University.

FOR RELEASE: Immediate
Feb. 26, 2007

SENATE COMMITTEE APPROVES CODEY/GIRGENTI BILLS TO PULL THE PLUG ON INTERNET PREDATORS

Package Would Give New Jersey Some of the Toughest Oversight in the Country

TRENTON -- The Senate Law, Public Safety and Veterans' Affairs Committee today advanced a package of bills sponsored by Senate President Richard J. Codey (D-Essex) and Senator John Girgenti (D-Bergen, Passaic) that would give New Jersey some of the toughest tools in the nation to crackdown on the growing threat of Internet predators.

The name of the day is Malik Cupid, a Corzine administration official who was charged with stealing $1,400 from the bank account of his former girlfriend, who is now on active duty in Iraq. Cupid, who served on Governor Jon Corzine's staff before becoming Chief of Staff to the New Jersey Secretary of State, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in Westchester on Tuesday. He faces up to sixteen years in prison. A spokeswoman for Secretary of State Nina Mitchell Wells says no decision has been made about Cupid keeping his $102,000-a-year job. Mitchell Maddux's story in The Record is a must read.

Cupid came to New Jersey after working on John Kerry's presidential campaign in Florida, where he was on the Political Staff in Pinellas County. Coincidentally, former Atlantic City Councilman Craig Callaway -- now awaiting sentencing for his federal corruption conviction -- worked in the Kerry Field Staff in Pinellas County. Corzine's Chief of Staff, Tom Shea, ran the Kerry Florida campaign.

Cupid has the distinction of being the first member of the Governor's staff to fail upward. Front office sources say Cupid was such a disaster as Corzine's Cabinet Liaison that they gave him a big raise and moved him to Wells' staff to get rid of him.

Clare Farragher, a Republican who represented Monmouth County in the State Assembly from 1987 to 2004, retired to Florida last April. She is living in Vero Beach and says she is "adjusting well to my new right knee." Farragher says she does not miss New Jersey politics, but does "miss all the friends I made during my 30 years in Freehold."

George Smathers, an Atlantic City native andthe nephew of New Jersey's United States Senator who became a U.S. Senator from Florida, died today. He was 93. Smathers was a member of a the freshman House class of 1946 that included John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon .

Smathers ran for the U.S. Senate in 1950, defeating incumbent Claude Pepper in an epic Democratic primary. Time Magazine reported that during that campaign, Smathers asked a rural Florida audience: "Are you aware that Claude Pepper is known all over Washington as a shameless extrovert? Not only that, but this man is reliably reported to practice nepotism with his sister-in-law, and he has a sister who was once a thespian in wicked New York Worst of all, it is an established fact that Mr. Pepper before his marriage habitually practiced celibacy." Smathers strongly denied making those comments and offered a $10,00 reward to anyone who could prove he said it. No one could.

He retired from the Senate in 1968 to become a lobbyist. His uncle, William Smathers, defeated incumbent Hamilton Fish Kean, the grandfather of the former Governor, in the 1934 U.S. Senate race.

QUIGLEY: WHY IS OUTSPOKEN ANN COULTER SUDDENLY SO MUM?
Conservative Columnist Refusing to Cooperate in Voter Fraud Investigation

(JERSEY CITY) - Noting how conservative columnist Ann Coulter is an uncooperative target of a Florida voting fraud investigation, Assemblywoman Joan M. Quigley today said the caustic Coulter should make herself as available for law enforcement authorities as she does for right-wing television talk show hosts.

O'TOOLE ASKS FOR ACTION ON BILL PROHIBITING OFFICIALS FROM CASHING IN ON CAMPAIGN ACCOUNTS

LEGISLATION GOES AFTER USE OF CAMPAIGN FUNDS TO CREATE CHARITABLE ORGANIZATIONS THAT THEN PAY FORMER OFFICIALS

Joseph Bubba served as a Passaic County Freeholder and Republican County Chairman before winning a seat in the New Jersey State Senate in 1981. He beat four-term Assemblyman (and former Senator) William Bate-- now the Passaic County Surrogate -- by a 53%-47% margin. Bubba only narrowly held the seat two years later, first in a bitter primary battle with Assemblyman Terry LaCorte, and then in a general election against Passaic County Freeholder James Roe, the brother of popular Congressman Robert Roe; Bubba won by only 974 votes. He beat Clifton attorney Donald Hetchka in 1987, Assemblyman Joseph Mecca in 1991, and former state Consumer Affairs Director Patricia Royer in 1993. He ran for Congress in 1992, when Roe retired, and lost to former Assemblyman Herbert Klein by a wide margin.

A long-running feud with Passaic County GOP Chairman Peter Murphy and Sheriff Edwin Englehardt finally ended his career in 1997 when he lost the Republican primary to Norman Robertson, then a Freeholder, by a 2-1 margin.

The 68-year-old Bubba retired to Florida six years ago and in 2004 attempted a political comeback as a candidate for the Pompano Beach City Commission. He received 235 votes -- just 8% -- in his fourth place finish. (The candidate who finished third lost by 27 percentage points and Bubba got less than half the number of votes she did.)

Today, Bubba -- sporting the Steve Ayscue look -- sells real estate for Coldwell Banker in Pompano Beach. Old friends can reach him at info@BubbaByTheSea.com.

CODEY INTRODUCES BILLS TO PULL THE PLUG ON INTERNET PREDATORS

Package Would Give New Jersey Some of the Toughest Oversight in the Country

TRENTON -- Senate President and former Governor Richard J. Codey, D-Essex, today formally introduced a package of bills that would make New Jersey a national leader in the fight to crack down on online sexual predators by providing the state with nearly unparalleled authority to monitor or restrict Internet access by convicted sex offenders and impose severe penalties for those convicted of using the Internet for luring. The bills have now been referred to the Senate Law, Public Safety and Veterans Affairs Committee.