Gerald Cardinale

Cardinale (right) with Bergen County Republican Chairman Bob Yudin (center) and another Christie supporter

PARK RIDGE -- Waiting for Chris Christie to arrive at a diner in his district this morning, state Sen. Gerald Cardinale (R-Demarest) said that he’s unsure of whether asset monetization will have a major affect on the gubernatorial race.

“It was a very bad move. It was a good shot for Christie to remind people of what Corzine actually is,” he said.   “It came so late.  And the major media haven’t played it very forcefully.”

Christie said that he believes Corzine walked back a comment to the New York Times that he wanted to revisit a “scaled back” version of the politically disasterous plan.  

“He’s almost denying his words,” said Cardinale, who said the apparent gaffe was “characteristic of Corzine."

Just a short and respectful note to John Farmer, Sr., the legendary Star-Ledger columnist-turned- editorial page editor:  the Izod Center is in East Rutherford, which has been in the 36th district since 1973.  Today's editorial takes a slap at State Sen. Gerald Cardinale (R-Demarest), who opposes letting the Nets out of their Meadowlands contract.  The Ledger: "Funny, but we haven't heard a peep out of Cardinale for years while the state propped up Izod - located in his district - and the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority with tens of millions of dollars of taxpayer money."  Cardinale represents the 39th district in northeastern Bergen County; it actually takes less time to drive to the Meadowlands from Farmer's Newark office than it would from Cardinale's office in Cresskill.  The Senator from the 36th is Paul Sarlo (D-Wood-Ridge).

In the old days, State Senators either moved up (often to a judgeship) or out.  Of the Senators who have served since 1845, when a new State Constitution began elected one Senator from every county, only eleven men have spent more than twenty years in the Senate.  Of those eleven, four are there now, and another two left within the last decade.

New Jersey's longest-serving State Senators, since 1845:

GOP candidate Chris Christie

If Christopher Christie had disclosed that Lambertville Police issued him three tickets in the fall of 2005, Republicans would not have vigorously pursued the resignation of then-Attorney General Zulima Farber during the summer of 2006, argue Democrats who see an emerging pattern of hypocrisy in the latest Christie behind-the-wheel story.

According to police, Christie, the Republican candidate for governor, identified himself as the U.S. Attorney both at a September 2005 Lambertville police stop where he was allowed to drive away an unregistered vehicle - reported last week - and at the scene of a 2002 traffic accident in which a motorcyclist went to the hospital after Christie drove the wrong way down a one-way street, the Star-Ledger reported today.

Farber, who had been named as the state's top law enforcement official by Gov. Jon Corzine, showed up at the Fairview scene of a May 2006 police stoppage in a government vehicle, in an incident that highlighted the Attorney General's failure to satisfy Republican lawmakers who months earlier during her confirmation hearing grilled her about her blemish-heavy driving record. The incident caused her to resign eight months into her tenure and caused some political problems for the fledgling Corzine administration.

Assemblyman Reed Gusciora (D-Princeton), who said he's probably racked up more tickets than any other legislator in the Assembly, said he's never identified himself as an elected official when he gets stopped.
 
"It's a little self-serving for me to mention it maybe, but I just have never felt that you should throw your title around," said Gusciora. "I cringed in both instances - Christie's and Farber's.  It just makes us all look bad."
 
But Gusciora said he believes Christie's story is worse than Farber's, because of what he identifies as the former U.S. Attorney's hypocrisy.

Some political conflicts never go away: State Sen. Gerald Cardinale (R-Demarest) today opposed the nomination of the State Senator he unseated 28 years ago to serve as the Morris County Superintendent of Elections.  The Senate Judiciary is considering 78-year-old Frank Herbert, who represented Bergen County in the Senate from 1978 to 1982, for the $102,304-a-year elections post in Morris, where he now resides.

The committee went into recess without approving Herbert's nomination, although it could still be done before the end of the day.

Frustrated by his inability to select a new Superintendent of Elections to replace the late Roseanne Travaglia without having State Sens. Anthony Bucco (R-Boonton) and Joseph Pennacchio (R-Montville) block the gubernatorial appointment, Morris County Democratic Chairman Lewis Candura recommended Herbert, a retired English teacher from Rockaway.  Senate rules do not permit senatorial courtesy to be used to block a former member of the upper house.

The early part of state Supreme Court Justice Barry Albin’s questioning by Republicans has focused on school funding.

State Sen. Gerald Cardinale, citing the 1970s-era Abbot v. Burke and Robinson v. Cahill cases – both of which provided the basis for state funding of poor school districts -- asked Albin if he though the court had acted in an “activist” manner.

Albin said that he did not feel able to comment on cases the court heard before he was seated in 2002.  But he did try to answer Cardinale in principle, arguing that labels like “activist” and “conservative” were inadequate to describe complicated court decisions.

TRENTON -- What was expected to be the uneventful nomination of a workers' compensation judge just turned into a small-scale preview of the confirmation hearing for U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonya Sotomayor.

The New Jersey nominee, workers compensation attorney Theresa Yang, faced some tough questioning by state Sen. Gerald Cardinale over the way she answered a question on her application.  At issue was an addendum to an answer in which she wrote  "I think my ethnicity will lend a unique perspective to my position as a workers' compensation judge."

"I don't believe in any of the resumes we have seen that someone has made that kind of comment," said Cardinale.  "This is an answer to a question on essentially an application. I certainly hope that does not reflect your thinking process."

Gov. Jon Corzine might have pulled a rabbit out of his hat by suddenly finding an extra $400 million for his budget, but the political trick of the week goes to Morris County Democratic Chairman Lewis Candura.  Frustrated by his inability to select a new Superintendent of Elections to replace the late Rosemary Travaglia without having State Sens. Anthony Bucco (R-Boonton) and Joseph Pennacchio (R-Montville) block the gubernatorial appointment, Candura picked Frank Herbert, a 78-year-old retired English teacher from Rockaway.  Herbert served one term as a Democratic State Senator from Bergen County (1978 to 1982), and Senate rules do not permit senatorial courtesy to be used to block a former member of the upper house.

Herbert is actually a good pick for Morris County Democrats: younger than the state's current senior United States Senator, he first won public office in 1969 when he was elected Waldwick Councilman.  He won a race for Bergen County Freeholder in 1973 -- the Watergate landslide year -- defeating future Congressman Harold Hollenbeck.   (Hollenbeck, elected to the State Senate in 1971, opted to run for Freeholder instead of re-election.)

Defeated for a second term as Freeholder in 1976, Herbert ran for an open State Senate seat in 1977.  The 39th district had gone Democratic in 1973, elected Raymond Garramone to the State Senate and two Democrats to the State Assembly.

Instead of seeking a second term in the Senate, Garramone instead ran for Governor -- unsuccessfully challenging incumbent Brendan Byrne in the Democratic primary.  The Republicans ran John Markert, who had won one of the Assembly seats in 1975.  But Byrne carried the 39th in the general and helped Herbert score a 53%-47% victory in the Senate race

Four years later, the Republicans ran Gerald Cardinale (R-Demarest), who had lost an Assembly race in 1977 but won in 1979.  Cardinale easily defeated Herbert, 58%-42% -- a margin of nearly 11,000 votes.

Sen. Gerald Cardinale (R-Bergen)

His entrenchment in the Christie camp made state Sen. Gerald Cardinale (R-Bergen) a target of the renegade GOP gubernatorial campaign of Steve Lonegan.

"Some of his people are..." the veteran lawmaker searched for the right word to charecterize the followers of the movement conservative, "...tough."  

Senate President Richard Codey (D-West Orange) builds up Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy at Healy's campaign kick-off

Senate Judiciary Chairman Paul Sarlo (D-Wood-Ridge) said he intends to post Senate President Richard Codey’s (D-Roseland) bill that would bar the state attorney general, first assistant attorney general and county prosecutors from running for elected office for two years after leaving their respective positions. 

But he would also like to look into expanding the legislation to include federal prosecutors.

“I would support this measure and post it for a hearing but I also want to get an opinion on whether we can apply this to U.S. Attorneys and therefore include all those who can prosecute,” Sarlo told PolitickerNJ.com.