Javier Inclan

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Governor Jon Corzine’s Deputy Chief of Staff, Javier Inclan, is on the witness for federal prosecutors in the bribery trial of Guttenberg Mayor David Delle Donna, according to a report in The Record. Inclan, a former Hudson County Democratic Organization Executive Director and ex-Hudson County Clerk, will explain “how he came to deliver what he believed to be a cash-filled envelope,” The Record reported.

Javier Inclan, a former Hudson County Clerk and Executive Director of the Hudson County Democratic Organization, is slated to replace Jeannine LaRue as Governor Jon Corzine’s Deputy Chief of Staff. And as reported in The Inside Edge last month, Corzine has picked Adam Zellner to serve as his new Policy Director. He replaces Heather Howard, who was named Commissioner of Health.

While their tickets wage war, Hudson County Clerk candidates Mary Jane Desmond and Barbara Netchert are unfailingly polite to each other.

“I ran into (Netchert). I went right up to her when she was coming up the steps and said ‘this may be awkward over the next couple months but I prefer that it not be,” said Acting County Clerk Mary Jane Desmond, a former Bayonne City Councilwoman and one time Republican . “I sat at her table for 20 minutes talking to her. This is not personal.”

The appointment of Barbara Netchert as Hudson County Clerk has hit some major obstacles, according to a report in the Jersey Journal's Political Insider column.

Netchert, who runs the Jersey City Department of Housing, Economic Development and Commerce, was expected to replace Javier Inclan, who is supposed to be taking a job on Governor Jon Corzine's staff. She is an ally of County Executive Thomas DeGise, and her nomination reportedly played a role in ending Jersey City Councilman (and DeGise Chief of Staff) William Gaughan's challenge to incumbent Assemblywoman Joan Quigley.

But Corzine is now in hot water with Hudson County Democrats for not following protocol by clearing the appointment with the HCDO. The HCDO is run by the county's twelve Democratic Mayors (some of whom did not know about the Inclan-for-Netchert switch until a November 29 on PoliticsNJ.com) and DeGise. Senate Majority Leader Bernard Kenny told the Jersey Journal that the Governor's Office has apologized to him for that slight. Until Kenny signs off, Inclan's offer of employment is essentially on hold.

There are other candidates now on the short list for County Clerk, including Hoboken Councilman Ruben Ramos and Deputy County Clerk Mary Jane Desmond. Desmond, a former Republican who served on the Bayonne City Council, is an ally of Mayor/State Senator Joseph Doria.

The Jersey Journal also reported that four-term Hudson County Sheriff Joseph Cassidy is in danger of losing party support for re-election in 2007. Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy wants Jersey City Deputy Police Director Juan Manuel Perez to get the job.

For extreme junkies: the Democratic nomination for Hudson County Sheriff is a good thing to have -- the last time the Republicans won the post was in 1904, when John Kaiser, helped by President Theodore Roosevelt's coattails, upset incumbent John Zeller. Democrat James Kelly ousted Kaiser in 1907.