Jim McGreevey

The anticipated guilty plea of John Lynch will end a reign of power that has extended through eight Governors, not including John Bennett. Lynch has spent most of his life in politics: his father, John A. Lynch, was the longtime Mayor of New Brunswick and served as Middlesex County's State Senator from 1955 until his retirement in 1977. (He was the Senate President in 1966, when the Democrats took control for the first time since 1914.) He was elected New Brunswick Democratic Municipal Chairman in 1975, Mayor in 1978, and State Senator in 1981. He was the Majority Leader from 1986 to 1990, the Senate President from 1990 to 1992, and the Minority Leader from 1992 to 1998. He has been the undisputed political boss of Middlesex County -- one of the state's premier Democratic political machines. Since leaving the Senate in 2001 -- reportedly to reap the benefits of his efforts to elect James E. McGreevey as Governor -- Lynch has run one of the largest Democratic political action committees in the state.

The news that will have New Jersey's political community buzzing today is a report that James E. McGreevey told Oprah Winfrey that the first time he had sexual relations with Golan Cipel was while his wife was in the hospital having their daughter. Dina Matos McGreevey was hospitalized for several weeks prior to the birth of their daughter on December 7, 2001 -- less than a month after McGreevey was elected Governor. Just after taking office in January 2002, McGreevey named Cipel to serve as his Homeland Security Advisor.

It will come as a tremendous shock to people who follow New Jersey politics that former Governor James E. McGreevey "declined comment" to the press before and after the taping of his appearance on Oprah yesterday.

According to a Star-Ledger report, among the New Jersey political leaders invited to attend the taping were State Senator Raymond Lesniak, Rahway Mayor/Lobbyist James Kennedy, CWA President Carla Katz, and former Hudson County Democratic Vice Chairwoman/Lobbyist Kay LiCausi.

There is plenty of talk these days among political insiders about the prospects of a candidate switch in the race for United States Senate. This is New Jersey, so such specualtion is fair: Christine Todd Whitman dropped out of the race for U.S. Senate in 2000, followed by Robert Torricelli's exit from the gubernatorial campaign just tweleve days after he got in. In 2001, Donald DiFrancesco dropped his bid for Governor -- just after changing the law to move the primary back a few weeks to accommodate his withdrawal. James Treffinger was the front runner for the GOP U.S. Senate nomination in 2002 when federal prosecutors -- Republican federal prosecutors -- raided his office; he was gone in four days. Torricelli dropped out of the '02 Senate race five weeks before Election Day. And in 2004, James E. McGreevey resigned after just 22 months in office.

DeCROCE: ATTACKS ON FORMER GOVERNOR KEAN CONFIRM MENENDEZ A POOR JUDGE OF CHARACTER

Former Governor James E. McGreevey might be getting a high profile television gig. The New York Post is reporting that McGreevey is a finalist to become "one of the homosexual hosts" on a new Bravo network show produced by Joan Rivers that is the newspaper describes as "a queer version of 'The View." Rivers is quoted as saying: "I am mad about the ex-governor. I am dancing down the street"

Saying that they are better together, Amazon.com is marketing former Governor James E. McGreevey's new book, The Confession, along with the Brokeback Mountain DVD. McGreevey's book is due to be released on September 19. According to a recent poll released by Monmouth University, 79% of New Jerseyans have no interest in McGreevey's book.

Waging battle in the heart of his opponent's political base, Republican Congressman Scott Garrett will embark upon a speaking tour of local Rotary Clubs in the fifth district. "Rotary Clubs transform our towns into communities," Garrett said. "I'm pleased to have this opportunity to speak with these community leaders at these upcoming meetings." Over the next week, Garrett will to Rotary Clubs in Paramus, Hackettstown and Park Ridge, and says he will speak to other Rotary Clubs later this month. Garrett is opposed in his bid for a third term by Paul Stuart Aronsohn, a former Press Secretary to Governor James E. McGreevey.

Rotarian-American congressional candidate Paul Stuart Aronsohn has raised just $750 from his top eleven colleagues from the office of Governor James E. McGreevey, where he served as Director of Communications from 2002 to 2003. Policy and Communications Chief Jo Astrid Glading, now the Assistant Public Advocate, gave Aronsohn $500, while Deputy Chief Counsel Emery Ungrady, now with New Jersey Transit, contributed $250.

None of the other nine senior McGreevey staffers listed in the 2002 edition of Fitzgerald's Legislative Manual have made a contribution to Aronsohn's campaign to unseat Republican Scott Garrett in the fifth district: Chief of Staff Gary Taffet; Deputy Chiefs of Staff Amy Mansue, Kevin Hagan and James Gee; Chief Counsel Paul Levinsohn; Chief of Management and Operations James Davy; Policy Counselor Mitchell Ostrer; Authorities Unit Director Paul Josephson; and Appointments Director Tara Dowdell.

According to Federal Election Commission records, most of the original McGreevey senior staff have not made any federal campaign contributions this cycle. Josepson has donated to Senator Robert Menendez, Congressman Frank Pallone and the Democratic State Commitete; Hagan has contributed to the Democratic National Committee and the DSC; and Mansue has given $250 each to GOP Congressman Michael Ferguson and his Democratic opponent, Assemblywoman Linda Stender.

To be fair, Garrett's FEC report does not list any contributions from attorneys at Sellar and Richardson, the law firm where he worked before winning election to Congress in 2002.

Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean is coming to New Jersey on Friday to campaign for Paul Aronsohn, who is challenging GOP Congressman Scott Garrett in the fifth district. Dean may feel a bit queasy when he comes to the Garden State: when he visited in December 2003, he was the front runner for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination. He came to accept the endorsement of Governor James E. McGreevey and much of the state's Democratic establishment. But within a few weeks, his bid for the White House had come to a crashing halt. But Dean may have an affinity for Aronsohn, who was McGreevey's press secretary -- he once proclaimed January 27, 1997 as "Rotary Founder's Day" when he was the Governor of Vermont.