Frank Pallone

U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch), left, with state Sen. Bob Gordon (D-Paramus) and Assemblywoman Sheila Oliver (D-East Orange).

TRENTON - A few Democrats circulate in the big room here at the East Brunswick Hilton, sorting through the devastation with varying viewpoints and plans.

"It's hard for an incumbent in a recession," U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch) says after lame duck Gov. Jon Corzine leaves the stage.

"Jon did a good job as governor, but the economic times are bad," Pallone adds. "That's all it comes down to. The economic times were bad, but we're on our way back."

There's Senate President Richard Codey (D-Roseland), who endured his own drama this fall in which he apparently emerged on the losing end.

U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch), center, in the crowd today with Assemblyman Joe Egan (D-New Brunswick), left, and Middlesex County Freeholder H. James Polos.

EDISON - Against a landscape of Middlesex County Democratic Party strife, Vice President Joe Biden this afternoon stumped for Gov. Jon Corzine, arguing the international context of the recession, which he said Republican candidate Chris Christie has tried to pin solely on Corzine.

"Jon has said he governed in tough times," said the vice president. "Let's give him the chance to govern in good times."

Deadlocked with Christie, according to most polls, Corzine's handlers want him to repeat a double-barrel message from here until Election Day two weeks from now: remind people that he acted early to blunt the impact of the recession, and that the pro-unon, pro-choice, anti-gun incumbent shares the values of most New Jersey voters. 

Biden was here to amplify that two-pronged argument.

"Isn't it great we have Barack Obama and Joe Biden in the White House?" Corzine asked the crowd. "Their values are our values, right?"

Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch) has the biggest campaign war chest in New Jersey's thirteen member congressional delegation, with more than twice as much money in the bank as Steve Rothman (D-Fair Lawn).  Pallone has $4,012,918, while Rothman has $1,759,842.  Pallone raised $355,661 during the last quarter, while Rothman brought in just $25,212 - less than any other New Jersey Congressman from either party.

Christopher Smith (R-Hamilton) has the lowest cash on hand - just $120,480.  He is expected to face a Republican primary challenge, possibly from former Holmdel Deputy Mayor Alan Bateman.  Rob Andrews (D-Haddon Heights) has $195,210 in the bank, and still carries a debt from his challenge to Frank Lautenberg (D-Cliffside Park) in the 2008 Democratic U.S. Senate primary.

Freshman John Adler (D-Cherry Hill), who won a House seat last year with 52% in a district the Republicans had not lost since 1886, has $1,193,060 cash on hand.  He raised $404,405 during the last quarter - the  best in the New Jersey delegation.  Another freshman, Leonard Lance (R-Clinton), has $314,755.

Frank Esposito, a longtime college history professor, is independent Chris Daggett's running mate

NORTH ARLINGTON -- Independent lieutenant governor candidate Frank Esposito says there's an idea out there about him that's just not accurate.

"The illusion that was reflected in one of the questions at the debate - that I'm this kind of ivory tower academic who knows nothing about politics - is a false perception that has deliberately been created," he said.  .

Esposito, 68, is a history professor at Kean University and a former interim president there.  A lifelong New Jerseyan who grew up in Ocean City, Esposito has never run for elected office at any level before, but he worked for two years as an assistant commissioner of education under Gov. Tom Kean - where he met his current running mate, Christopher Daggett -- and later spent two years in the Christie Whitman administration working the Charter School Act of 1995. 

Writing and passing that charter school legislation took bipartisan cooperation, Esposito said, with people like former Senate Education Chair Jack Ewing (R-Peapack-Gladstone) and state Sen. Bernard Kenny (D-Hoboken). 

Nevertheless, that inside politics experience has not yet translated to a high public profile.  
A recent Monmouth University poll showed that 93% of likely voters either had not heard of Esposito or did not know enough to form a judgment, but Esposito says people have started to recognize him since Thursday night's televised lieutenant governor debate.

Still, Esposito remains the most obscure of the six gubernatorial and lieutenant governors who are, at least in the eyes of the Election Law Enforcement Commission, considered viable. 

This morning, Esposito stumped at a senior center in North Arlington - a crucial blue collar swing town in the state's biggest swing county.  About 25 seniors listened to him - mostly politely - although some chatted and two women played cards in the back of the room. 

A Monmouth County Democrat thinks Jon Corzine won the gubernatorial debate, while a Republican from Monmouth County thinks it was a win for Christopher Christie.

"Tonight's debate highlighted the very clear choice facing New Jersey voters in November. While Governor Corzine has fought for what matters for New Jersey families over the past four years, Chris Christie has been wrong when it matters most," said U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch). "He said he'd reject President Obama's stimulus funds, driving up property taxes by $2 billion and now he says he still backs the Bush policies that got our country into this mess."

"New Jerseyans saw a clear distinction between Governor Jon Corzine and Chris Christie at tonight's debate," said State Sen. Jennifer Beck (R-Red Bank).  "While Chris Christie spoke to the concerns of all New Jersey families and reaffirmed his commitment to fixing our great state, Governor Jon Corzine deflected from his weak leadership and record of failure with more of the same broken promises. Chris powerfully demonstrated that New Jerseyans have a brighter future to look toward once he's governor."

Corzine, right, and Gore.

ATLANTIC CITY - Identifying the touchstone values of their party, Democrats bucked one another up here at the Trump Plaza Casino, trying to build feeling for what amounts now to the last 38 days of their campaign effort to maintain control of Drumthwacket and deliver another four years to Gov. Jon Corzine.

"I love you all," Corzine told his supporters in a room packed with party insiders, stirring into his speech humanizing buzz notes - farm boy, soccer coach, parent teacher conference attendee - to offset the image of an aloof leader who landed in Trenton three and a half years ago with comparatively little time honed at the street level of New Jersey politics.  

Corzine noted his commitment to the vulnerable and poor - his move to enact the country's first economic recovery plan, broaden early childhood education and healthcare, and build new schools.

Echoing Bill Clinton with former Vice President Al Gore in the room, "I still believe in the family values my family taught me back on the family farm," said Corzine, who told the crowd that in his battle with GOP candidate Chris Christie "every value we hold dear is at stake." 

Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce (R-Parsippany) says that federal prosecutors should probe whether four New Jersey legislators violated any laws when they pushed the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve a medical device marketed by campaign contributors.

A New York Times story this morning alleged that U.S. Senators Robert Menendez (D-Hoboken) and Frank Lautenberg (D-Cliffside Park), and U.S. Reps. Steven Rothman (D-Fair Lawn) and Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch), asked the FDA to reverse the recommendation of their scientists and approve a patch for injured knees that had been found to be unsafe.  The manufacturer, ReGen Biologics, Inc., made what the Times called "significant" contributions to their campaigns a few months before they intervened with the FDA.

DeCroce, citing OpenSecrets.org, a website that tracks campaign contributions, the four Democrats received a total of $26,00 from ReGen executives.  He wants the incoming U.S. Attorney, Paul Fishman, to make a probe of the congressional Democrats his first priority.

"This could be one of the worst cases of ‘pay-to-play' perpetrated by any public official in New Jersey," said DeCroce.

            Assembly Republican Leader Alex DeCroce said today the first order of business for Paul J. Fishman, soon to be the new U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, should be to determine if both U.S. Senators and two congressmen from New Jersey crossed ethical and legal bounds by exerting undue influence on the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) to approve a medical patch for injured knees manufactured by a major campaign contributor.

            “If the charges leveled by the FDA are true, the only conclusion that can be drawn is that Senator Robert Menendez, Senator Frank Lautenberg and Representatives Frank Pallone Jr. and Steven R. Rothman put the interests of a campaign contributor ahead of the health of people in pain,” said DeCroce, R-Morris and Passaic. “This could be one of the worst cases of ‘pay-to-play’ perpetrated by any public official in New Jersey.

            “Every surgical procedure has risks,” he noted. “How anyone can push for approval of a device medical experts deemed to be unsafe, exposing patients to serious risks is incomprehensible to me. Menendez, Lautenberg, Pallone and Rothman must be held accountable for such recklessness.”

            The New York Times reported today that scientific reviewers for the FDA repeatedly and unanimously over many years decided that the device, known as Menaflex and manufactured by ReGen Biologics Inc., was unsafe because the device often failed, forcing patients to get another operation.

            But after receiving what an FDA report described as “extreme,” “unusual” and persistent pressure from four Democrats from New Jersey — Senators Menendez and Lautenberg and Congressmen Pallone  and Rothman — agency managers overruled the scientists and approved the device for sale in December.

            Three executive officers at ReGen, which is based in New Jersey, contributed a total of $26,000 to the four Democratic representatives beginning in October 2007, according to OpenSecrets.org.

Menendez, Lautenberg, Pallone & Rothman Received Donations from ReGen Biologics, Pressured FDA to Approve Company’s Medical Device

Senator Robert Singer (R-30) urged Governor Jon Corzine to join his call for the United States Attorney’s Office to investigate shocking revelations that four New Jersey congressmen exerted pressure on the Food and Drug Administration to force the approval of a medical device after receiving campaign donations from several executives of ReGen Biologics, the producer of the device.

In a published report, the New York Times stated: “The agency has never before publicly questioned the process behind one of its approvals, never admitted that a regulatory decision was influenced by politics, and never accused a former commissioner of questionable conduct.”

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If these allegations are true, then it is very important that New Jersey find and aid any state patients victimized by political failures, Kean said. Governor Corzine should order the health commissioner to start her inquiry today.