Jeff Tittel

Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean (R-Westfield), left, and Sen. Robert Gordon (D-Paramus).

ATLANTIC CITY - The legislative leadership transmogrifications are evident at the Atlantic City Convention Center, even if the good government intentions are nowhere visible outside whatever sessions convene behind closed doors.

A lot of people are talking about Senate President Richard Codey's party last night.

"An Irish wake," is how Sierra Club Executive Director Jeff Tittel describes the event.

More than a few people note that Codey appeared unflappable - even merry.

"Personable is not personal," explains another insider. "You have to understand the Irish. Whatever he's feeling inside, however personal he's taking this, will not take away from his ability to be personable."

A court decision yesterday brought the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) back into the race for governor.

A three member appeals panel yesterday ruled that, despite meeting its COAH obligations, Eastampton could not deny the nonprofit group Homes of Hope an exception to build multi-unit housing in an area designated for single family homes.  

"Yesterday's ruling is the latest blow to our struggling towns and residents already overwhelmed by skyrocketing property taxes, diminished services and heightened urban sprawl,” said Republican gubernatorial nominee Chris Christie in a statement.  “Enough is enough - placing more onerous requirements on our towns is a lazy and sloppy approach to solving our affordable housing problem and only creates further problems at the local level.”

Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie did not get the Sierra Club’s endorsement for governor, but his campaign used the occasion of the group’s backing of independent Christopher Daggett to point out the obvious: Governor Corzine did not get it either.

“The Sierra Club and other groups formerly aligned with Corzine are sending a clear message that they believe him to be responsible for New Jersey's dire economic outlook and incapable of following through on important environmental initiatives and green job creation,” said a Christie press release.

Corzine won the Sierra Club’s support late in his first gubernatorial race four years ago, but his relationship with the club and other environmental organizations soon deteriorated.  The frequent criticism aimed at Corzine from Sierra Club New Jersey Director Jeff Tittel -- who faulted the governor for not committing to open space funding, cutbacks at the Department of Environmental (DEP) Protection and a proposed closure of some state parks -- signaled early on that another endorsement was unlikely. 

The New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club endorsed Christopher Daggett, an independent who has a deep resume as an environmental agency official under Republican administrations, for governor today.

It was the first time that the group has endorsed a candidate for governor who was not affiliated with one of the two major political parties. 

The Sierra Club justified its decision by recounting Daggett’s accomplishments as a regional EPA administrator and DEP commissioner in the 1980s.  As EPA administrator, they said,  he ended ocean sludge dumping off Sandy Hook, brokered a large polluter-funded Superfund cleanup and fought against projects that were supported by his political superiors.  As DEP commissioner, he implemented the Wetlands Law and started the Skylands Task Force, denied a permit for a sewage treatment plant in Chatham to protect the Great Swamp from “harmful development” and “worked to stop medical waste, garbage and other debris that was polluting the ocean and washing up on our shores.”

“By endorsing Chris Daggett for governor, the Sierra Club not only made the principled choice but the right choice,” said Sierra Club New Jersey Director Jeff Tittel.  “Chris Daggett has shown leadership and a real commitment to protecting our environment. He has demonstrated his willingness to stand up to special interests and politicians to do what’s right for the environment. It’s very rare when you have the opportunity to endorse someone of such principle and integrity with a broad background in environmental issues.”

The New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club will endorse a candidate for governor this afternoon.

The decision came down to the three candidates that the group considered viable:  Gov. Jon Corzine, Republican gubernatorial nominee Chris Christie and independent Christopher Daggett.  

Corzine won the Sierra Club’s endorsement four years ago, but has faced intense criticism from them and other green advocates over his environmental record since then.

The group has lauded Christie’s record prosecuting environmental crimes as U.S. Attorney and had some positive things to say about his green energy plan, but his vow to make cuts at the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) may have hurt his chances of winning an endorsement.

Daggett, who headed up the DEP in the late 1980s and before that was this area’s regional administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), qualified for the group’s consideration for its endorsement after he raised enough money to get matching funds from the state.  

The announcement is planned for 12:30pm on the State House steps.

Sierra Club New Jersey Director Jeff Tittel continued his unrelenting assault on Gov. Corzine’s environmental record today.

Just two hours before Obama took the stage at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel to rally the Democratic base for Gov. Corzine, Tittel put out a release calling the governor “Unbama.”  

“The Sierra Club, which endorsed President Obama for election and has worked with his administration on many environmental issues, finds the differences between the Obama and Corzine Administration’s striking. In many instances when it comes to the environment they are on opposite sides,” said Tittel, whose organization yesterday issued a mostly negative report on Corzine’s environmental accomplishments.

As a sign that New Jersey’s environmental groups aren’t much closer to endorsing Governor Corzine for reelection than they were earlier this year, Sierra Club New Jersey Director Jeff Tittel issued a press release today highly critical of his renewable energy efforts so far.

The release, which cites an independent Pew Charitable Trusts report that found New Jersey isn't making much progress toward “green job” growth, comes just as Corzine and Repulbican opponent Chris Christie are slogging it out over renewable energy.  It shows New Jersey losing just over one percent of green jobs between 1998 and 2007 – ranking it 49th in growth, just behind Utah.  

“While the Corzine Administration was out there trying to save Xanadu, Pennsylvania was able to entice a windmill factory to open its doors right across the river from the statehouse,” said Tittel. “While New Jersey has talked a lot about renewable energy, other states are actually doing things. While New Jersey has put in place programs for energy efficiency, other states have actually created jobs and are getting the job done.”

State environmental leaders hint that their endorsements in the 2009 gubernatorial campaign could go to Gov. Jon Corzine (D), former U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie (R), or former Environental Protection Commissioner Christopher Daggett (I).

In his 2005 gubernatorial bid, then-U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine had the whole-hearted support of New Jersey's biggest environmental groups, who called his campaign platform "one of the most comprehensive" ever outlined by a gubernatorial candidate.   

"We were the first to publicly endorse him," said New Jersey Sierra Club Director Jeff Tittel. 

This time around, that is far from certain.

"I think Corzine has aggravated and frustrated the environmental community at large," said Tittel. "I think that in a lot of ways, peoples' patience has kind of run out, partially because a lot of things that he committed to doing really haven't gotten done. Part of it has also been that a lot of little bad things have happened."

With the national and state economy in shambles, residents concerned with their property taxes and state workers' unions rebelling against money-saving measures, the environment will almost certainly not be the foremost issue this election cycle.  Tittel acknowledges that, but doesn't think that it relegates his cause to the back burner, especially since it's tied into the economy by President Obama's green jobs plan. 

The announcement this week that former Commissioner of Environmental Protection Christopher Daggett, who held posts in the Kean and Reagan administrations, will run for Governor as an independent could force the two major party candidates to spend more time talking about the environment than they otherwise would.

Environmentalists put the Governor's lack of commitment to open space funding among the worst parts of his record.  Corzine favors once again funding open space through a ballot question, which annoys environmentalists who believe the issue is too important to depend on the whim of the electorate.

Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club, lavishes praise on Lisa Jackson, former director of the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and President-elect Barack Obama’s choice to head the national Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). 

“I think it’s a great appointment,” said Tittel. “She’s young, dynamic, well-spoken and has very strong, core environmental beliefs.”

Calling the 46-year old Jackson “Corzine’s star,” Tittel credited her with convincing the governor to support the state’s global warming initiative and for strengthening the alternative energy focus of the state’s energy plan.

MINNEAPOLIS - Offshore drilling.

It’s a dominant issue in the presidential campaign, and one that directly impacts state Sen. Sean Kean (R-Monmouth), whose district encompasses part of the Jersey Shore.

Kean wants federal protection from drilling for the New York/New Jersey area, and has a bill in the Statehouse urging such a measure.

His presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is meanwhile generating respect in the oil industry and from base conservatives with his exhortation to "drill here, drill now."

Despite what he sees as Sen, Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) lack of a Shermanesque stand against drilling, N.J. Sierra Club Executive Director Jeff Tittel said the McCain model is much closer to that of President George W. Bush, and wrongheaded, in his view.