Gerald Cardinale

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. 

Healy: basking in GOP affection

The wave of GOP Healy love continued in West New York last night, but famously conservative state Sen. Gerald Cardinale (R-Demarest) said his was hardly a Specter-sized appearance at a fundraiser for Democratic Mayor Jerramiah Healy and his running mates.

“I was invited to speak in support of (Council candidate) Guy Catrillo, who’s a Republican,” said Cardinale. “County Chairman Jose Arango invited me, and the municipal party chair asked me to show the flag for him. Look, the bottom line is if you don’t run on the Healy ticket in Jersey City, can’t get elected. From time to time I go to Jersey City to support Republican candidates."

Incumbent legislators who ran for Governor, left to right: Assemblyman Rick Merkt (R-Mendham), State Sen. Raymond Garramone (D-Haworth), and State Sen. Gerald Cardinale (R-Demarest)

If Assemblyman Richard Merkt (R-Mendham) continues to poll in the one percent range, he could set the record for the worst showing by a sitting state legislator in a gubernatorial primary.  The record is currently held by Raymond Garramone (D-Haworth), a one-term State Senator from Bergen County who gave up his seat to challenge Brendan Byrne in the 1977 Democratic primary.  With 6,602 votes statewide, Garramone finished sixth in a field of eleven candidates, with 1.1% of the vote. 

Garramone was the 46-year-old Mayor of Haworth when he rode Byrne's 1973 coattails to an upset win in the heavily Republican 39th district over Harry Randall, a former Assemblyman and the father of BPU Commissioner Elizabeth Randall. 

When Garramone gave up his Senate seat to run for Governor, Republicans were confident of a pickup in District 39.  But Democrats held the seat when Frank Herbert, a Bergen County Freeholder and former Waldwick Mayor, beat Republican Assemblyman John Markert. 

Markert's running mate, Demarest Mayor Gerald Cardinale, lost his bid for an Assembly seat that year.  Cardinale came back to win in 1979, and moved up to the Senate when he defeated Herbert in 1981.  (When Cardinale sought the GOP nomination for Governor in 1989, he won 8.3% of the vote.)

It was a tough crowd for state Sen. Gerald Cardinale (R-Demarest).

Speaking as a surrogate for gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie to a group of conservatives who mostly supported rival candidate Steve Lonegan at the Conservative Leadership Breakfast at a diner in North Brunswick, Cardinale was interrupted by Lonegan's chief strategist, Rick Shaftan, while he was making the case for Christie's conservative ideals. 

"This guy was just out there spewing cold lies out so I just corrected the record a bit," said Shaftan.

That led to a testy exchange between Cardinale and Shaftan that would soon reverberate in the conservative blogosphere and add another layer of drama to an already tense primary campaign.

While Lonegan has taken a confrontational tone with Christie since he entered the race, the Christie camp has, at least until recently, purposefully refused to engage Lonegan.  Last week, Christie gave a rare acknowledgement of Lonegan, albeit without mentioning his name, by criticizing his decision not to compete for party support at Republican county conventions.  But it largely has fallen to Christie's supporters, like Cardinale, to debate with the Lonegan loyalists.

State Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck) thinks that Gov. Jon Corzine should consider gender in picking a Lieutenant Governor, but not as a top priority.

"I would hope that it is a woman.  I think that since it is a new job it would be another breakthrough for women in the state.  But I don't think that's a basic requirement," she said.

Weinberg said that the three potential candidates that she's heard the most speculation about - state Sens. Stephen Sweeney (D-West Deptford), Barbara Buono (D-Metuchen) and Assembly Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Trenton) would all bring valuable traits to the job.

Washington Township Committeeman Robert Schroeder, who sought the 2005 Republican gubernatorial nomination, is now the favorite to replace John Rooney in the State Assembly next year.

Former gubernatorial candidate Robert Schroeder easily won the endorsement of the Bergen County Republican Organization (BCRO) in his bid to succeed John Rooney as an Assemblyman from the 39th district.  Schroeder beat former River Edge Councilman John Felice, 194-32.  In a district where Democrats have not won a legislative race since 1977, Schroeder becomes an overwhelming favorite to go to the Legislature.

Look for Schroeder, a 49-year-old millionaire businessman who self-funded his 2005 campaign for Governor, to emerge as a leader within the Assembly Republican caucus next year.  The Washington Township Committeeman will have the ability to help raise money for other GOP Assembly candidates this year.

Former gubernatorial candidate Bob Schroeder could be headed to the State Assembly.

Robert Schroeder, who spent $2.1 million - most of it his own money - in pursuit of the 2005 Republican nomination for Governor, is now the leading candidate for an open State Assembly seat in the Bergen County-based 39th district.  The Washington Township Committeeman won the endorsement today of the incumbent, John Rooney, who is stepping down after 26 years in the Assembly. 

As a gubernatorial candidate, Schroeder won the organization line in Ocean County, and scored a victory at the Northeastern Republican Organization convention in Bergen County.  But he won just 6% of the vote in the GOP primary, finishing fifth in a field of seven candidates.  He did beat former Assembly Majority Leader Paul DiGaetano and former Bergen County Freeholder Todd Caliguire.

Schroeder now faces former River Edge Councilman John Felice (the son of former Assemblyman Nicholas Felice) and Harrington Park Councilman Thomas Bettancourt for the support of the Bergen County Republican Organization.  Assemblywoman Charlotte Vandervalk (R-Montvale) is seeking re-election to an eleventh term, and while she is favored to win the Northeastern Republican Organization (NERO) convention on Saturday, it is possible that two other candidates might do so. The NERO vote will determine the line.

Former U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie picked up more endorsements in northeastern Bergen County.

The Northeastern Republican Organization (NERO) will meet on Saturday to endorse a candidate for Governor, a prequel to the Bergen County Republican Convention on March 19 and an important test of strength as former U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie and former Bogota Mayor Steven Lonegan face off in Lonegan's home county.

Gov. Jon Corzine, above, has reappointed three members of the New Jersey State Investment Council.

Gov. Jon Corzine has again nominated Jeanne Fox as President of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities.  Fox had been reappointed last year, but the nomination stalled after then-Senate Judiciary Chairman John Adler (D-Cherry Hill) declined to post it for a committee vote.  Sources say that the new Judiciary Chairman, Paul Sarlo (D-Wood-Ridge) will back Fox for another term at the BPU.

Jose Claxton, Montgomery Cerf, and Erika Irish Brown have been reappointed by Corzine to the New Jersey State Investment Council, which has lost an estimated $25 billion of state pension funds since July.

Corzine has also resubmitted the nomination of Bergen County Executive Dennis McNerney to the Local Unit Alignment, Reorganization and Consolidation Commission.  State Sen. Gerald Cardinale (R-Demarest) has been blocking McNerney's appointment.

Republicans have not yet settled on who they're going to run for assembly in the 39th  legislative district, but two Democrats are eager to take on whoever is on the Republican ticket. 

John Shahdanian, a labor attorney and Democratic municipal chairman from Old Tappan, and Michael McCarthy, the political director of a stage hands' union, have both filed to run for the party line in the District 39 convention. 

The district, a Republican stronghold where Democrats haven't won since 1977 despite their dominance in the rest of the county, saw a well-funded but unsuccessful challenge two years ago by Democrats, who spent millions on the state senate campaign of attorney Joseph Ariyan and the assembly campaigns of River Edge Councilwoman Esther Fletcher and Dumont Councilman Carl Manna.  Despite the effort, state Sen. Gerald Cardinale (R-Demarest) and assembly incumbents John Rooney (R-Northvale) and Charlotte Vandervalk (R-Montvale) all won by comfortable margins.

"They got the wheels in motion. I think the tide is turning, and we can do really well," said Shahdanian. 

One Bergen County Democratic insider who worked on the 2007 campaign called it "our Vietnam" and doubted that the local party, let alone the state party, would again pour significant resources into the district - especially when it is still reeling by the indictment of its former chairman, Joe Ferriero.  And it's not yet officially known if Rooney, who last time around was considered the most vulnerable incumbent, will run again.  Republican sources say he won't.