Jill Hazelbaker, who worked in New Jersey four years ago as Communications Director for Tom Kean, Jr.’s bid for the United States Senate, was named today as head of the corporate communications department at Google.  After working for Kean, Hazelbaker became Communications Director for John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign; she worked for New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s re-election bid last year.

Matthew Miller, who was the Communications Director for U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez’s 2006 campaign, later became the Communications Director for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.  He is now the Communications Director for U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.

Just a few end-of-the day observations:

What would Frank Hague have thought of a Mayor of Jersey City (who is also the Hudson County Democratic Chairman) who could not deliver most of the key Hudson party leadership and elected officials to his candidate for President?  And could the gullible Brad Abelow be the only one who believes Bob Menendez is no longer involved in Hudson County politics?

An impressive list of finance committee members, led by Lewis Eisenberg, has raised just $100,000 for Anne Evans Estabrook’s bid for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination; that’s about half what Dennis Shulman, the blind Rabbi/Psychologist, has raised for his fledgling congressional campaign against Scott Garrett.  Luckily for Estabrook, she put $1.6 million of her own money into the race.  Estabrook still won’t say how much she’ll invest to unseat Frank Lautenberg.

The shakeup of John McCain’s presidential campaign team means a promotion for Jill Hazelbaker, who worked in New Jersey during the last cycle as Communications Director for Tom Kean, Jr.’s U.S. Senate campaign. 

Hazelbaker, the McCain Communications Director in New Hampshire, is expected to succeed Brian Jones as National Communications Director, according to Atlantic Online’s Marc Ambinder.  Ambinder says Hazelbaker has “worked closely with McCain's new team, worked well with his old team, and has no dog in the fight but McCain.”

State Senator Thomas Kean, Jr. did not prepare any advance questions for a hearing on the confirmation of Virginia Long to the New Jersey Supreme Court, according to a spokesperson for his campaign. Kean, who switched from the Senate Appropriations Committee to Judiciary this year, and GOP State Senator Robert Martin joined the seven Democrats on the panel to support Long's confirmation. The other two Republican Senators on Judiciary, Gerald Cardinale and Joseph Kyrillos, voted no.

The Kean campaign's Jill Hazelbaker argues strongly that the GOP State Senator was well prepared. "He doesn't have to have typewritten questions," Hazelbaker told PoliticsNJ.com. "He had four major areas of questioning that he wanted to hear answers from the Justice on: the switcheroo (Torricelli/Lautenberg), Abbot vs. Burke, Lance vs. McGreevey and her judicial philosophy and temperament."

Long, a Democrat who served in Governor Brendan Byrne's cabinet in the 1970's, was appointed to the Supreme Court by GOP Governor Christine Todd Whitman in 1999. If the full Senate votes to confirm her, she will serve until she reaches the mandatory retirement age of seventy in June 2012.