Joe Cryan

State Democratic Chairman Joe Cryan (right), with Passaic County Democratic Chairman John Currie

State Democratic Party Chairman Joe Cryan says his party doesn't feel mortified today after a looksee at new Quinnipiac University poll numbers, which show Gov. Jon Corzine trailing GOP nominee Chris Christie by nine points in aa head-to-head.

"We're clipping into the guy," said Cryan, who laughed off Bergen County Republican Organization Chairman Bob Yudin's assertion that Christie's campaign has yet to engage with its own money.

"Everytime I turn on a baseball game I see another RGA (Republican Governor's Association) ad for Christie," said Cryan. "They're on there. I'd be disappointed to hear them say about their own ads that they don't believe they're not working."

Democrats like the Quinnipiac poll's 7% showing by independent Chris Daggett, whose presence in a three-way tightens the race to 46% to 41%.

"That puts us right in range," Cryan said.

From left: Assemblyman Fred Scalera (D-Nutley), Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic) (who also serves as Passaic Council president), and state Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-Wood-Ridge), who is also Wood-Ridge's mayor.

PASSAIC - The appearance of State Democratic Committee Chairman Joe Cryan at a unity rally in Passaic two weeks ago signified the chairman's will to win in a 2-1 Democratic legislative district where the Republican opposition is especially revved up two years after coming shockingly close to victory.

"If you didn't have this dynamic duo here fighting for you - if you had two Republicans instead, let me tell you, folks, funding for the City of Passaic would be under siege," maintained Cryan. "You have two different philosophies. On the Republican side you have a gubernatorial candidate who wouldn't take federal stimulus dollars. Under GOP watch, we would have cut children's health insurance."

Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic) and Assemblyman Fred Scalera (D-Nutley) stood with state Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-Wood-Ridge) while they accepted the endorsement of craggy city supervisor Vinny Capuana, a Democrat who in 2008 and earlier this year ran vigorously against Schaer's local machine and lost. 

"It's a wonderful thing to stand here with this group of people coming together," said Sarlo. "Unifying the city is a wonderful thing."

State Democratic Chairman Joe Cryan

HOLMDEL - Democratic State Chairman Joe Cryan told a brace of reporters jostled in the crowd outflow that Gov. Jon Corzine will not pick and announce a lieutenant governor tomorrow.

"Not happening," said Cryan, who received early criticism about how Obama appeared to use the venue more to talk about national healthcare than to discuss the particular merits of the incumbent governor by noting Corzine's standup for the State Children's Health Insurance Plan (S-CHIP).

"Those were two profiles in political courage on that stage today," said Cryan.

Obama as a presidential candidate with AFL-CIO workers at the War Memorial in May, 2007.

This time, he is the establishment.

Democratic Party dog-soldiers go back to 2006 with Barack Obama, who campaigned in the Garden State for Bob Menendez and made fast friends with Paterson Councilwoman Vera Ames - among others - when he addressed her personally from the stage at a Passaic County rally.

Since then, Obama came here for numerous private fundrasiers connected to his 2008 presidential campaign, among them an early Bergen County mixer with elected official supporters he could count on two hands at that stage of his career, including state Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck), Newark Mayor Cory Booker and West Ward Councilman Ronald C. Rice; and later a summer soiree at the Middletown manse of Jon Bon Jovi after he secured his party's nomination for the presidency and had the big money behind him. 

Now as Democrats hope to solder their champion to the still-standing but wobbling - if most of the polls are to be believed - candidacy of Gov. Jon Corzine in an attempt to create energy by proximity, President Obama's Thursday evening PNC Bank Center rally with the governor stands within a two-year campaign context.

CRYAN INTRODUCES LEGISLATION TO IMPROVE CONSUMER HEALTH CARE TRANSPARENCY

(TRENTON) – Assemblyman Joseph Cryan today announced he’s introduced legislation to improve consumer health care transparency and knowledge by, among other things, regulating doctor profiling programs and establishing a health care patient ombudsperson.

“Health care has long been a leading concern for many, and these bills will help consumers make better choices as New Jersey Democrats work in partnership with President Obama and our Congressional delegation to ensure quality health care is available to everyone,” said Cryan (D-Union). "Increased transparency and public knowledge will create competition and lead to cheaper health insurance rates in the long run. That's our goal with these bills."

QUIGLEY / CRYAN BILL TO IMPOSE ELECTORAL & CAMPAIGN FINANCE RULES ON LT. GOVERNOR CANDIDATES NOW LAW

(TRENTON) – Legislation Assemblywoman Joan M. Quigley and Assemblyman Joseph Cryan sponsored to impose electoral and campaign finance requirements upon Lieutenant Governor candidates was signed into law today by Gov. Jon S. Corzine.

The new Lieutenant Governor post will become effective in January when the state swears-in in its first lieutenant governor. Voters in 2005 approved a state constitutional amendment creating the new post.

“While creating this post was backed by voters and will help keep in line the historic checks and balances so valued in American democracy, we also must make sure candidates for this new position are held to high standards and expectations,” said Quigley (D-Hudson). “This law will impose the same tough reporting, debating and disclosure requirements the public has come to expect from their gubernatorial candidates.”

Democratic State Chairman Joe Cryan with state Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck) left, and Assembly Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing).

TRENTON - Democrats gave Chris Christie no room to savor his day-old GOP gubernatorial primary triumph, smothering him today with a flurry of examples of why they believe he's too conservative for New Jersey, the country's most diverse state.

Christie strode out in front of a raucous Republican crowd at the Marriott last night, accompanied by the big, grinding chords of Bruce Springsteen and a speech overladen with underdog symbolism in the face of the big money re-election bid of Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine.

But this triumverate of Democratic Party leadership consisting of State Chairman Joe Cryan, state Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck) and Assembly Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing) said Christie hardly embodies the populist values of most New Jerseyans as he now saddles up at the front of a GOP whose national leader appears to be Rush Limbaugh, while dragging the baggage of his own Bush allegiance.

"The voters of New Jersey sent George Bush and his platform into retirement," Weinberg said of the president Christie supported early, prior to Bush's 2000 presidental run, and who awarded Christie the U.S. Attorney's post after Christie, his brother and other allies fundraised for him.

DEMOCRATIC LEADERS SAY CHRISTIE IS TOO CONSERVATIVE FOR NEW JERSEY

“Why would we want a George Bush clone in New Jersey after we finally got rid of him?”

TRENTON – Democratic state chairman Joe Cryan, Senator Loretta Weinberg and Assembly Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman today said that the Republican primary voters have yet again chosen a gubernatorial candidate too conservative for New Jersey and out of touch with the mainstream values of the Garden State.

ASSEMBLY APPROVES QUIGLEY / CRYAN BILL TO IMPOSE ELECTORAL & CAMPAIGN FINANCE RULES ON LT. GOVERNOR CANDIDATES

(TRENTON) – Legislation Assemblywoman Joan M. Quigley and Assemblyman Joseph Cryan sponsored to impose electoral and campaign finance requirements upon Lieutenant Governor candidates was approved today by the Assembly.

The new post that will become effective in January when the state swears-in in its first lieutenant governor. Voters in 2005 approved a state constitutional amendment creating the new post.

“While creating this post was backed by voters and will help keep in line the historic checks and balances so valued in American democracy, we also must make sure candidates for this new position are held to high standards and expectations,” said Quigley (D-Hudson). “This bill will impose the same tough reporting, debating and disclosure requirements the public has come to expect from their gubernatorial candidates.”

As provided by the constitution, candidates

TRENTON – Democratic State Chairman Joseph Cryan released this statement following tonight’s GOP Gubernatorial Candidate Debate:

"Both men showed tonight that they would bring more of the same George Bush policies that got us here in the first place.  In their zeal to win the votes of the extreme right wing of their party, these two Republicans are out of touch with the mainstream voters of New Jersey.  They offered no new ideas and no new solutions, just the same repeat loop of political sound bites that bring no hope and no new leadership to the people of New Jersey.  We don't need someone that is going to run from making the right choices to protect our kids education, our healthcare, our seniors and our most vulnerable.
 
All I heard tonight are bad ideas. These are two men that don't have the right answers for New Jersey. These are two men that are re-circulating the same bad policies and same destructive ideas we saw from national Republicans out of Washington the past eight years."

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