Joe Kyrillos

The Political Prince Of Darkness Strikes Again

Senate President Richard Codey (D-West Orange) builds up Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy at Healy's campaign kick-off

Senate Judiciary Chairman Paul Sarlo (D-Wood-Ridge) said he intends to post Senate President Richard Codey’s (D-Roseland) bill that would bar the state attorney general, first assistant attorney general and county prosecutors from running for elected office for two years after leaving their respective positions. 

But he would also like to look into expanding the legislation to include federal prosecutors.

“I would support this measure and post it for a hearing but I also want to get an opinion on whether we can apply this to U.S. Attorneys and therefore include all those who can prosecute,” Sarlo told PolitickerNJ.com. 

From left; Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan, state Sen. Joe Kyrillos (R-Middletown), and Assemblyman Richard Merkt (R-Mendham)

MILLBURN – The Lonegan campaign thought they finally had their opponent where they wanted this afternoon: within striking distance in the polls and by turns sufficiently defensive, pugnacious and softened up for a take down in the plush surroundings of the Short Hills Hilton at a forum sponsored by the New Jersey Federation of Republican Women. 

But presumptive GOP gubernatorial frontrunner Chris Christie never showed, opting out of the forum to attend one of his children’s First Holy Communion, and leaving Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan and Assemblyman Richard Merkt (R-Mendham) with the unhappy task of trying to beat up Christie’s surrogate, state Sen. Joseph Kyrillos (R-Middletown), who wore a friendly smile and came out of his chair with an even friendlier handshake.

Lonegan was the picture of mortification on one side of Kyrillos, as Merkt on the other side tried to keep his own irritation in check in front of the most sedate of sedate audiences anchored by Federation President Gailanne Barth.

Gov. Jon Corzine, right, and Democratic Party State Chairman Joe Cryan

TRENTON – The specter of a reviled former president revisited the Statehouse today in the budget speech delivered by Gov. Jon Corzine, who oratorically pushed the Bush button at least once when he said Democrats saved SCHIP (State Children’s Health Insurance Program) health care benefits for 10,000 New Jersey children.

The remark received applause among the chamber’s Democratic members.

But the budget address this afternoon before a joint session of the legislature unleashed a Republican army of critics, one of the most vocal of whom was state Sen. Joseph Kyrillos (R-Middletown), rumored to be a short list candidate for lieutenant governor with GOP gubernatorial frontrunner Chris Christie.

“I think it’s delusional,” Kyrillos said of Corzine’s speech, who re-emphasized Christie’s essential argument that the state budget crisis and the national economic crisis, which Democrats say was intensified by former President George W. Bush’s bumbling two-term tenure, are two issues.

Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer

TRENTON – There was Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal on a television set and Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer listening with deepening skepticism. Palmer, a short-list candidate for lieutenant governor, thought Jindal’s Tuesday night GOP bite-back at President Barack Obama’s federal stimulus speech was especially poor. 

“I think he’s being panned a lot,” Palmer said of the Republican governor who in his remarks likened an aid package to federal bureaucrats haplessly attempting to micromanage Hurricane Katrina relief, and who would refuse a profusion of new federal funds to his state.

“Bobby Jindal’s either hypocritical or he’s putting politics ahead of his responsibility as governor of Louisiana,” said Trenton’s mayor since 1990. “Louisiana especially should welcome aid, and it’s his job to make sure that money is used effectively. Look, we tried the governor’s approach and it’s not going anywhere.” 

Senator Calls for Special Session to Bring Budget into Balance

Senator Joseph Kyrillos (R-13) gave his support today to a lawsuit filed December 31 by members of the Senate Republican Caucus against the Corzine administration and is calling for a special session of the Legislature to put New Jersey's budget back into balance.

Unlike Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Lonegan, Marlboro Mayor Jonathan Hornik doesn’t want Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) obligations scrapped.

But like a lot of other mayors who found it hard to generate a party mood at the League of Municipalities conference in the face of a deadline at the end of this month to submit finished plans in concert with the new rules, the mayor does want lawmakers to review COAH – and at the very least make some exceptions.

Specifically, Hornik wants Gov. Jon Corzine and the Legislature to consider amending the new regs so years-long, painstaking work Marlboro officials undertook to transfer some of the Monmouth County town’s affordable housing stock to Trenton won’t be rendered invalid.  

In Monmouth County, every town comes intriguingly into play on some level, several more critically than others.

Republicans have owned the Freeholder Board for over 20 years, but in the last two elections Democrats picked up two seats to bring them to within one of county control.

A profusion of newly registered Democratic voters have boosted the party’s confidence heading into Nov. 4th, and now Democrats Amy Mallet and Glenn Mason are ready for that 11th hour jolt of cash from the Democratic State Committee.

State Party Chairman Joseph Cryan wants to win here.

He wants it more than he would like to pick up additional warm bodies in the Assembly next year, where his party’s already built a comfortable majority.

A victory by either Mallet or Mason would make a Democratic Party statement.  But neither is a name candidate running against incumbent Freeholder Director Lillian Burry and auto dealer vice president John Curley, an intensely focused campaigner who served as a Red Bank Councilman and has close political connections to state Sen. Jennifer Beck (R-Monmouth).

MARLBORO – Mayor Jon Hornik and his Republican guests from the 12th Legislative District look like old pals at this charity ball the mayor throws on a Saturday night, as revelers groove on the dance floor at the Battleground Country Club.

The cover band strains of “You’re just too good to be true” sweep through the ballroom and the mayor floats happily among guests, including state Sen. Jennifer Beck (R-Monmouth), Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon (R-Little Silver) and Assemblywoman Caroline Casagrande (R-Colts Neck).

“Come on, that’s over,” a smiling Hornik ribs O’Scanlon about the Nov. 4th presidential election between Democratic frontrunner Sen. Barack Obama and Republican Sen. John McCain.

MEDFORD -- Expect to see more of Mitt Romney in New Jersey.

In May, he founded the Free & Strong America PAC. He was here today to raise money for the congressional campaigns of Chris Myers, after doing the same for Leonard Lance. And he thinks he’ll probably be here next year to help whoever the Republican gubernatorial candidate will be.

When asked if he expects to be here next year, Romney said “My guess is yes.”