Hillary Clinton

Representative Frank Pallone acknowledged today that Hillary Clinton is the underdog for the Democratic presidential nomination, but said that he will continue supporting her until she either wins or decides to end her run.

“I’m sticking with her. I think it’s her decision to decide what she wants to do,” he said. “As long as she’s running I’m supporting her.”

Pallone disputed the conventional wisdom that Barack Obama is virtually sure to win the nomination, saying that it’s “still possible for (Clinton) to win”

“You still have some primaries, you still have the superdelegates and you still have Florida and Michigan,” he said.

Mayor Cory Booker frolics with seniors in the Central Ward 

NEWARK - Fresh off a Motown workout with Newark seniors at the John F. Kennedy Recreation Center, Mayor Cory Booker reveled in running with the underdogs in a high stakes political contest in which his candidate just took a hit.

Booker’s an at-large delegate for Sen. Barack Obama, who lost to Sen. Hillary Clinton in Tuesday’s Democratic Primary in Pennsylvania in their ongoing war to be the party’s presidential nominee.

Gov. Jon Corzine 

Gov. Jon Corzine said Sen. Hillary Clinton's near double-digit victory over arch-rival Sen. Barack Obama in Pennsylvania last night lays the foundation for a successful conclusion to the Democratic Primary for his presidential candidate.

"You can't underestimate that Obama was looking for a knockout. He played to win and lost," Corzine told reporters in an afternoon conference call, which also included State Democratic Chairman Joseph Cryan.

The Democratic State Committee met tonight to select the delegates it's sending to the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

Below is the full list:

LONG BRANCH - U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-6), a supporter of Sen. Hillary Clinton for president, says her 2002 war authorization vote was not the same as Andrews's. Pallone himself voted against the resolution to go to war.

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both narrowly lead John McCain in New Jersey, according to a Fairleigh Dickinson University PublicMind poll released this morning.

In head-to-head match-ups, Clinton and Obama both beat McCain by 5 point margins – with Clinton having 48% to McCain’s 43%, and Obama having 47% to McCain’s 42%. Obama appears to draw more from independents, while Clinton has stronger support from the state’s Democratic base.

That differs from a Rasmussen poll released earlier this week that shows John McCain leading both Clinton and Obama, though within the poll's margin of error.

A Rasmussen poll released this morning shows Republican presidential candidate John McCain in a statistical dead heat with both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in New Jersey.

McCain holds slight leads against both Obama and Clinton in the Garden State, though both within the poll’s margin of error.

McCain leads Clinton 45%-42%, while he leads Obama by a slightly narrower margin – 46%-45%.

That’s a major change from a month ago, when Rasmussen showed Clinton beating McCain in New Jersey by 11 points. But while Clinton’s support seems to have plunged, Obama remains almost exactly the same – last month, McCain led him 45-43%.

A member of the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign’s finance committee resigned last month after she said the campaign billed her credit card thousands of dollars in unauthorized charges. She is now backing Barack Obama, according to a post she made on Bluejersey.com.

Appearing in a debate Sunday with Sen. Claire McCaskill on CNN'sSen. Bob Menendez on CNN's Late Edition Late Edition, Sen. Robert Menendez argued that to better ensure the party's victory in November, Democratic delegates in Florida and Michigan must be seated in the primary season.

"We need them," said Menendez, who told CNN's Wolf Blitzer that if the party fails to enfranchise Michigan and Florida, Democratic voters in those states could repay the party in the general election by staying home.

"Voters should vote," said the New Jersey senator, speaking as a surrogate for his presidential candidate, Sen. Hillary Clinton. "We want them in out column, and so this is a critical decision."

Gov. Jon Corzine 

Gov. Jon Corzine today celebrated Sen. Hillary Clinton's Tuesday victories in Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island as significant in her ongoing primary battle with Sen. Barack Obama.

"I'm very  excited about last night," said Corzine, a staunch Clinton backer. "Hillary Clinton won by hundreds of thousands of votes  - a substantial victory - and she has the clear momentum.
She's the most  qualified candidate to be President of the United States in either party."