Grace Spencer

Assemblyman Ralph Caputo (D-Belleville), left, and Assemblywoman Cleopatra Tucker (D-Newark), with Newark Mayor Cory Booker and Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts, could be playing a game of political musical chairs for one 28th district Assembly seat.

Ralph Caputo may be passing Cleopatra Tucker as the most vulnerable member of the State Assembly in District 28 as the Payne political machine moves to return Craig Stanley to the Legislature.  Sources say the Payne organization, led by U.S. Rep. Donald Payne, has made Stanley, the nephew of former Assemblyman William Payne, a priority as the April filing deadline approaches.  Stanley spent twelve years in the Assembly before narrowly losing the 2007 Democratic primary to Caputo and Tucker.  He was a casualty of a political war that sought to oust State Sen. Ronald Rice, who won his primary despite strong opposition from Newark Mayor Cory Booker.  Stanley ran on the Rice line.

William Payne, 76, has mulled his own return to the Assembly seat he gave up in 2007 to mount an Independent bid for State Senator in the 29th district.  Sources say he is willing to forego a primary challenge to incumbents Albert Coutinho and Grace Spencer if Essex Democrats will agree to put Stanley on the organization line in the neighboring district.

For a while it looked like Tucker was the most likely casualty, but now the talk is that it may be Caputo, a 68-year-old white Belleville Democrat who represents a Newark-Irvington district drawn to elect African American legislators.  Caputo is also an Essex County Freeholder (he represents a blue collar district) and served in the Assembly as a Republican from 1968 to 1972.

The fate of Assemblyman Anthony Chiappone (D-Bayonne) is in the hands of Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy and State Sen. Sandra Cunningham.

Twelve New Jersey legislators, all from districts that are not especially competitive in general election contests, face potential obstacles in their bid to win party support for another term.

Click here to view the slideshow

Politicker.com photo

Former Assemblyman William Payne (right, with Gov. Jon Corzine) is not likely to seek his old 29th district seat, but he wants his nephew, former Assemblyman Craig Stanley, to get his old 28th district seat back next year.

Freshman Assemblywoman Cleopatra Tucker is in danger of losing the support of the Essex County Democratic organization if she runs for re-election to a second term in 2009, Democratic sources say.  Part of the deal to keep Assemblywoman Grace Spencer, perhaps Newark Mayor Cory Booker's closest friend in the Legislature, in her 29th district seat is to replace Tucker with former Assemblyman Craig Stanley, who lost his bid for renomination in the June 2007 primary. 

Assemblywoman Grace Spencer (D-Newark) is now expected to receive party support in her bid for re-election to a second term in 2009.

Freshman Assemblywoman Grace Spencer, a close political ally of Newark Mayor Cory Booker, appears positioned to get a second term in the Legislature next year.  There has been talk that Spencer might get dumped from the Essex Democratic line so that former Assemblyman William Payne could return, but now it looks like Payne will not be a candidate and Spencer will have a clear path.  

Taking a shot at the campaign run against him by the Laborers and the allies of Mayor Cory Booker, Central Ward Councilman Charles Bell at his swearing-on ceremony in City Hall last night noted gratefully that money and turkeys don’t vote.

The crack was a reference to Eddie Osborne campaign’s massive GOTV operation, which included the coordinated distribution to of hundreds of early Thanksgiving turkeys.

Officially assuming the seat left occupied by former Central Ward Councilwoman Dana Rone, Bell seized the opportunity to instruct the mayor, who was not in attendance.

The new councilman disapproved of the tone of the campaign, expressed in hand and pole signs with the words: “Charles Bell equals corruption and waste.”

Former lawmaker Bill Payne doesn’t know if he’s going to run for his old seat in the Assembly next year against Assemblywoman L. Grace Spencer (D-Newark), but he appears less inclined to make a move than he was this past summer.

Payne’s longtime friend, state Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Newark), told PolitickerNJ.com that he would urge the retired legislator not to pursue a run against Spencer.

“I’m supporting the re-election of every member of the Legislative Black Caucus,” said Rice, including the Mayor Cory Booker-backed Spencer, who won Payne’s South Ward-based seat in last year’s election.

North Ward Councilman Anibal Ramos

NEWARK – Among Newark elected officials, the election of Barack Obama last week sparked hope for healthcare reform, more federal aid, a re-invigorated sense of American leadership - and a special place on the president’s to-do list for the Brick City.

Inevitably, the Democratic victory also opened up questions about the future of Mayor Cory Booker, a supporter of Obama’s from the beginning of his campaign, who now serves on the president-elect’s transition team as it relates specifically to urban affairs.

As mayor of one of New Jersey’s biggest and one of America’s oldest cities with a battered infrastructure, Booker will join over 20 other New Jersey mayors in Newark on Wednesday for a conference to redefine urban needs for the new administration.

ASSEMBLY DEMOCRATS REACT TO VOTING SESSION FOCUSED ON PROTECTING RESIDENTS FROM ECONOMIC MELTDOWN

Assembly Passes Nearly 30 Bills Designed to Jumpstart State Economy & Help Insulate Residents, Businesses from Global Recession

(TRENTON) - Assembly Democrats today issued the following multimedia package following an Assembly voting session that considered nearly 30 bills to jumpstart the state's economy and help protect residents and businesses from the continuing global economic meltdown.

County Chairman Phil Thigpen: Politicker photo 

NEWARK - It was appropriate that their office should stand across the street from the War Memorial. Sized up as a group, they were the veterans of a lot of Essex County wars.

The office setting, too, underscored tough times, like a set-piece out of "Glengarry Glen Ross.".

A former Countrywide home loan office that went belly up in a bad economy, this storefront a few doors down from the Robert Treat Hotel now houses the county’s Obama campaign headquarters, which officially opened Monday.

"You could say we’re one good thing to come out of them going out of business," said West Ward Councilman Ronald C. Rice, county campaign coordinator, standing in the split level, nearly wallpapered over now with Obama campaign signs.