Acting Mayor/Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic): Politicker photo 

PASSAIC - To be in Trenton, or not to be in Trenton, that is the question for Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic), who became the acting mayor of Passaic in May when a federal judge found Mayor Sammy Rivera guilty of corruption.

Initially, Schaer, who received the chief executive’s job by virtue of his position as council president, figured he would serve long enough to hand off to whoever wins a Nov. 4th special election.

But about three weeks into his service as acting mayor - with no stunning personality on the city’s horizon line, by his reckoning - Schaer began mulling the idea of pursuing his own mayoral run. 

"We can’t afford to have a mayor who’s not going to build on some of the positive things we’re doing," said Schaer, who implemented local ethics reforms, imposed a 37% cut to the mayoral salary (from $117,000 to $72,000), and a municipal hiring freeze.

Assembly Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing)Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts (D-Camden) told PolitickerNJ.com he believes Gov. Jon Corzine would do well to select Assembly Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing) as his running mate in 2009.

Watson Coleman, a veteran of the Assembly and former state party chair, would be the state’s first lieutenant governor if Corzine were to run with her and win re-election.

"He’s got to pick someone who’s compatible with his style, of course," said Roberts. "I happen to be a big fan of Bonnie Watson Coleman’s. Her strengths are that she is highly respected, very well thought of in the legislature, where she was unanimously elected majority leader, and she is highly committed to the faith-based, African-American community."

Most incumbents are favored to win re-election in the 2009 State Assembly elections, which bodes well for Speaker Joe Roberts’ re-election prospects. At the most, ten seats are in play – eight Democrats and two Republicans – and it will take some recruitment homeruns to substantially alter the political playing field next year. For the Republicans to win control of the Assembly, they would have to oust incumbents in Districts 1, 7, 14 and 36 – these eight seats would mean a split 40-40 Assembly – and knock out one incumbent from the safe list.

Democrats Nelson Albano and Matthew Milam are slightly more vulnerable in the first district because State Sen. Jeff Van Drew won’t be on the ballot. But the absence of State Sens. Diane Allen and Bill Baroni, who have not had coattails in the past, makes incumbent Democratic Assembly members even safer. In District 36, where Democrats Frederick Scalera and Gary Schaer won surprisingly close re-election bids last year – Republicans could have an opportunity because there will be no Democrats from the Bergen County portion of the district on the ballot.

In the final of a series of video press releases provided exclusively to PolitickerNJ.com, Assembly Speaker Joseph J. Roberts Jr., proposes strengthening the state's newly-created consolidation commission.

As PolitickerNJ.com begins a subjective tournament to choose New Jersey's Smartest Legislator, state Sen. Leonard Lance could be the early front runner. Lance has faced some criticism from members of his own party for being more of a statesman than a politician, but several statehouse watchers and former legislators say he may be one of the brightest people in Trenton.

"Leonard Lance is the one guy who sits in the legislature today that could have sat in the Senate in the late 1960's and early 1970's," said lobbyist/public relations executive Alan Marcus, who served as Clerk of the General Assembly in 1969, at age 21. "Leonard is a throwback to that era of the noblesse oblige, of quiet brilliance -- of people who don't speak on every issue, but who become conversant on every issue."

Lance isn't the only name that comes up in discussions about smart legislators. In the Senate, the most repeated names were Raymond Lesniak, Nia Gill, Kevin O'Toole, Bill Baroni, John Adler, Dick Codey, and Barbara Buono.

In the Assembly, Joe Roberts, Michael Patrick Carroll, Joe Malone, David Russo, and John Wisniewski were frequently mentioned as among the brainiest.

SWEENEY - ROBERTS’ PROPERTY TAX CREDIT PLAN DESERVES FULL PUBLIC DEBATE

Senate Majority Leader Blasts Republicans for ‘Short-Sighted Partisanship’

TRENTON – Senate Majority Leader Steve Sweeney, D-Gloucester, Cumberland and Salem, a member of the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, issued the following statement regarding Senate Republican attacks on Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts’ plan to move from a property tax rebate check to a credit on the State income tax:

In the first of a series of video segments issued exclusively to PolitickerNJ.com,  Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts today, the tax filing deadline, outlined a plan for property tax relief to be provided through direct credits on income tax returns rather than rebates mailed during election season, calling them "gimmicks." 

ROBERTS TOURS NEW JERSEY AUTISM TREATMENT FACILITY
AS PART OF EFFORT TO INCREASE AUTISM AWARENESS
Speaker Tours New Jersey Children’s Specialized Hospital,
State’s Largest Autism Treatment Facility