Fred Scalera

Gov. Jon Corzine and Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein (D-Plainsboro)

Amid fullblown intrigue elsewhere, Nutley businessman Carmen Pio Costa and Carlstadt School Board member Don Diorio will formally announce their Republican candidacies in Rutherford Thursday evening, and few doubt the battleground, gauntlet-down implications of their challenge to Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic) and Assemblyman Fred Scalera (D-Nutley).

But if the 36th Legislative District remains a decided field of contention this cycle (as is the 1st District in New Jersey’s deep south), two other districts – the 2nd and the 14th – early identified by operatives in both parties as potential battlegrounds in their own right,  at least for the moment do not appear to be marquee headline races.

Certainly that opens up the possibility for North Country Democrats and Republicans to expend more resources in the 36th, where Democrats enjoy a 2-1 edge but where the Dems must run with an unpopular leading man in Gov. Jon Corzine. 

Yet it could also open up other regions, other terrain, formerly classified as green zones. Arguably chief among these, particularly given its bordering proximity to the 14th, is the 12th District, where Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon (R-Little Silver) and Assemblywoman Caroline Casagrande (R-Colts Neck) seek reelection, and last night double-teamed at a town hall meeting in Manalapan.

State Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-Wood-Ridge)

Passaic Democratic Committee Chairman John Currie’s decision to welcome three strikes and you’re out (Assembly, Congress, mayor) Republican candidate Jose Sandoval into the Democratic Party this afternoon triggered a curiosity wave in the city as Democrats wondered about Sandoval’s intentions.

The chief question was whether the real estate developer with a bug for politics and access to cash would turn around and run in the 36th Legislative District Democratic Primary against his former conqueror Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic)?

Currie said he did not discuss that possibility with Sandoval.

“I first heard that he might do that on Friday night, but I couldn’t stop him if I wanted to,” said the party chairman. “All he told me is he’s bringing 1,000 of his people into our party, and if you ask me, that’s pretty positive. Anyone can challenge anyone at anytime. I told him you don’t really need me to change parties but if you want to do something publicly, that’s fine.”

Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic) campaigns for Alex Blanco on election Day last year.

Arguing that Gov. Jon Corzine’s $29.8 billion budget proposal should be a vehicle of “unity, not separation, a statement that we are all in this together, all of us affected by the cuts,” Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic) defended Corzine’s working document in the face of his own party’s doubts about forestalling tax deductions on income taxes and capping property tax rebates at $75,000.

And against blistering, out-of-the-gate attacks by the GOP.

“I think that most people initially look at a budget in terms of how they will personally be affected,” said Schaer, who chairs the Assembly Institutions and Insurance Committee. “In that regard, what people need to look at are those fundamental areas where the budget is strong: in education, higher education and medical care. In that sense, the budget is addressing historic values of the middle class.”

***MULTIMEDIA PACKAGE***

ASSEMBLY DEMS COMMENTARY ON SECOND COMMITTEE REVIEW OF OVERSIGHT FOR NJ PORTION OF FEDERAL STIMULUS

(TRENTON) – Chairs of seven Assembly committees today issued a multimedia package on the Assembly’s efforts to ensure legislative oversight and accountability of the money made available to New Jersey from the recently enacted federal stimulus package.

The committee hearings were the second of two days largely devoted to discussing the impact of the federal stimulus on the state. Assembly committees heard from a variety of state commissioners and department heads on their efforts to obtain and oversee distribution of federal stimulus dollars.

***MULTIMEDIA PACKAGE***

GREENSTEIN/SCALERA/SPENCER ON 10-BILL PACKAGE TO ENHANCE INTERNET SAFETY FOR MINORS

(TRENTON) – Assembly members Linda R. Greenstein, Frederick Scalera and L. Grace Spencer today released a multimedia package on a sweeping 10-bill initiative to better protect children from Internet and digital predators.

The 10-bill package, among other things, would upgrade penalties and crimes for offenders who communicate in a harassing, sexually offensive or abusive manner with minors on Web sites and through electronic communication.

SCHAER/SCALERA BILL TO PREVENT ENCAP REPEAT CLEARED BY SENATE COMMITTEE
Measure Would Protect Public from Being Financially Liable In Future Public/Private Deals Gone Bad

(TRENTON) - Legislation Assemblymen Gary S. Schaer and Fred Scalera sponsored to enhance the protections and oversight surrounding public investments in private redevelopment projects was today released by a Senate panel.

PANEL OK'S SCALERA/McKEON/GREENWALD BILL FOR
TAX-DEDUCTIBLE CONTRIBUTIONS TO COLLEGE FUND
Measure Would Exempt First $5,000 in Annual Contributions To NJ BEST
College Savings Plan from State Income Taxes

(TRENTON) -- An Assembly panel has released legislation Assemblymen Fred Scalera, John McKeon and Louis Greenwald sponsored to provide a state income tax deduction to residents who save for their children's higher education through a state-administered college savings plan.

State Sen. Kevin O'Toole (R-Cedar Grove)

Insiders lay out several battlefields this year, and Republican or Democrat, it’s not two or three gulps of beer into a conversation before they spill the strategic terrain of the coming legislative contests.

The Democrats will put money into 1 to defend their incumbents there, and they will try to take down the Republican incumbents in 2. They’ll play in 8 again largely as a diversionary tactic, defend in 14 and – and this is big - heavily fortify 36, where the GOP last time came within 2,400 votes of stripping the Dems of a seat.

Representatives in both parties usually mention the last of these prospective showdowns as the most meaningful, a potential north Jersey version of the 12th District Karcher-Beck war in 2007, where both parties will likely lay down their heaviest barrage.

For the moment, Democrats feel they have some GOP civil war drama on their side, and are gleefully inclined to let the Republican body count mount at this fractious tri-county, multi-ego crossroads of Passaic, Bergen and Essex, before they get in and scrap in earnest to protect Assemblyman Fred Scalera (D-Nutley) and Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic).

Better to let the other side give itself a good going over before taking casualties. That’s the attitude.

Nutley businessman Carmen Pio Costa today officially entered the race for a seat in the 36th legislative District, as he submitted a letter of intent asking for the support of the  three party chairmen of those counties with towns in the district: Kevin O’Toole, chairman of Essex; Scott Rumana of Passaic, and Bob Yudin of Bergen.

This is a second go for Pio Costa.  

In 2007, the Republican lost to Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic) and Assemblyman Fred Scalera (D-Nutley), but came close enough – in his words – to take another crack at the Democrats in this cycle. 

“In spite being outspent 5-to-1 in 2007, I made substantial gains and came within 2,500 votes of victory,” Pio Costa wrote. “In light of this monumental accomplishment I am poised to cross the finish line and bring this district Republican representation.  The experiences of my campaign in 2007 have left me with the knowledge, understanding, and determination necessary to achieve victory in 2009."

In a tortured political terrain, Republican power players in the 36th  legislative district appear to be slowly coalescing around East Rutherford Councilman/businessman Joel Brizzi and Nutley businessman Carmen Pio Costa as their best chance ticket this year. 

It’s not yet set – in this geographically jagged district encompassing battle weary portions of Bergen, Passaic and Essex counties – nothing is ever really set, and there are candidate screening opportunities, after all; but there remain real factors immediately outside the district threatening party implosion. 

Sensing opportunity after coming close to victory two years ago, the party – and this goes all the way up to the top of the hierarchy - wants to stay focused here in the 36th despite the flailing fortunes of divided Republicans in the neighboring 40th.  

Toward that end, local leaders will sit down tonight at the Franklin Lakes Firehouse and try to re-establish in their sights the deeply fractured Bergen Democrats as their enemies and Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic) and Assemblyman Fred Scalera (D-Nutley) as statehouse targets one and two.