John Currie

Passaic County Clerk Karen Brown, left, announced today that she won't seek re-election to a second term. One possible replacement is West Paterson Council President Keith Kazmark.

Not surprising party brass and rank-and-filers who were preparing for a battle - just in case, Passaic County Clerk Karen Brown announced she will not run for reelection to a second term, informing Democratic Party supporters in a letter this morning.

“Serving as County Clerk has been a great privilege, and I thank all of my supporters for their confidence in my abilities.  Nonetheless, it is with mixed emotions that I announce my intention not to seek re-election as Passaic County Clerk,” wrote Brown, a Clifton lawyer who's originally from Paterson.

Passaic County Clerk Karen Brown could face West Paterson Councilman Keith Kazmark in a contest for the Democratic nomination.

Passaic County Democrats will have a lot on their plate over the next few months as they decide who to run for two Freeholder seats and if they'll back embattled County Clerk Karen Brown for re-election.  Democrats expect two Freeholders, Sonia Rosado and James Gallagher, not to run again - at least in the case of Gallagher, not as a Democrat. 

Brown won the post five years ago when she ousted two-term incumbent Ronni Nochimson by a 54%-46% margin.  Nochimson, who was the last Republican to hold countywide office in Passaic County, switched parties in 2006 and has said he wants to run for her old job as a Democrat.  Brown has a strong ally in U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, but will have a tough time convincing Democratic County Chairman John Currie and some of the Democratic Freeholders to support her.

Woodland Park Councilman Keith Kazmark, who is the Elmwood Park Municipal Clerk, is also reportedly interested in running for County Clerk.  Kazmark is a former Democratic political operative with strong ties to party leaders across the county.

John Currie supervising the provisional ballot count.

PATERSON - Passaic County Chairman of the Board of Elections John Currie - who also serves as chairman of the Democratic Party -  supervises the provisional ballot count here in a third floor jury room at the Passaic County offices in downtown Paterson.

Head-to-head in this Passaic City Council contest are Vice Principal Angel Laboy and former School Board member Kenneth Lucianan.

At last count, Lucianin led Laboy by 103 votes.

Laboy observes the ballot count while Lucianin waits in a secure location for the results.

As soon as this count is done and the winner certified, the results of the mayor’s race will also get the county’s official imprimatur.

County Chairman John Currie: Politicker file photo 

As five candidates for mayor continue to slug it out in Passaic City, John Currie, chairman of the Passaic County Democratic Party, said he doesn't want to get in the middle of the action.

"I'm keeping out of that one," the chairman told PolitickerNJ.com moments before joining elected officials at an Obama rally in Paterson on Monday.

He's mostly focused on presidential politics and on his freeholder candidates, not the county's biggest local battle, he insisted. 

"I'm spending more money than I'd like on the freeholders' race, but that's all right," said Currie. "Registration's through the roof."

Party Chairman John Currie and Assemblywoman Nellie Pou (D-Paterson): Politicker photo 

DENVER - Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) romped in Passaic County in the Democratic Primary, essentially blowing up the candidacy of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Il.) there with a 59-38% victory.

"He didn’t win a single town in Passaic," said Democratic Party Chairman John Currie, and that includes the county’s biggest city.

"In my ward, he lost handily," recalled Sixth Ward Paterson Councilman Andre Sayegh, a longtime Obama supporter. "A lot of Latinos in my ward told me, ‘We’ll vote for you, but not Obama.’ It wasn’t a landslide, but he lost Paterson, and got trounced in my ward."

Now old school Democrat Currie, a onetime Clinton backer, wants to mobilize his troops behind Obama for the general election, where Democrats number 47,807 to the Republicans 38,662 registered voters.

Bill Layton was re-elected Burlington County GOP Chairman without opposition tonight. Dottie Spellman was elected Vice Chair, replacing Dawn Lacy.

The Rev. Dr. James Kuykendall, Sen. Frank Lautenberg, the Rev. David Rios, and U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell pray on Monday. 

PATERSON - On the Monday before Election Day, Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) came to his native city to stand with a coalition of Latino and African-American ministers in a onetime gentleman’s club for the managers who operated the silk mills.

"When I was a kid, I used to walk on the street out there and wonder what was in that dark place," said Lautenberg, son of Jewish immigrants. "Then someone told me, ‘your kind is not welcome.’"

"Speak, Frank, speak," exhorted U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-8), standing with the Rev. Dr. James Kuykendall, the Rev. David Rios and other ministers.

Robert Kennedy, Jr. in Passaic on Monday night, flanked by U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, left, and Assemblyman Thomas Giblin.

Arguing that his presidential candidate possesses a unique combination of toughness and persuasive power, Robert Kennedy, Jr. electrified a tent-ful of fellow Hillary Clinton supporters on Monday night at a private home in Passaic.

"I was very skeptical at first because I knew she was coming in under the same charges as my father did, which were that she was a carpetbagger," Kennedy, a Westchester, N.Y. resident, said of Clinton’s appeal to him when she first prepared to run for his father’s old Senate seat.

Kennedy said Clinton faced tremendous hostility, especially in traditionally Republican upstate New York - where a Senate candidate must win if he or she is to win the state, in Kennedy’s words.

State Senator Joseph Coniglio, the target of a federal corruption probe, has dropped out of sight since he dropped his bid for re-election to a third term.  With Assemblyman Robert Gordon now slated as the Senate candidate, there hasn’t been a whole lot of talk about Coniglio.

In case you missed it: New Jersey's three newest Assembly candidates were effectively annointed by individual party leaders, unencumbered by the need to present themselves to voters -- in this case, elected members of the County Committee.  Elease Evans, a Passaic County Freeholder who was elected to fill Alfred Steele's unexpired term, was picked by County Chairman John Currie; Bergen County Freeholder Connie Wagner, who will be the Democratic candidate for Assemblywoman in the 38th district (replacing Bob Gordon, who is running for Joseph Coniglio's Senate seat) was selected by County Chairman Joseph Ferriero; and Mila Jasey, a South Orange Board of Education member, was handpicked by Senate President Richard Codey to replace Mims Hackett in the Legislature.