John Edwards

Senate President Richard Codey at the Wilshire Grand Hotel todayAfter getting one question cleared up in the affirmative with Sen. Barack Obama, Senate President and former Governor Richard Codey today officially endorsed Obama for president at a press conference in his hometown of West Orange.

"What’s the skinny on the fact that you’re part Irish?" Codey said he asked Obama in a 10 minute conversation with the presidential candidate this morning, six days before the Feb. 5 primary.

"I am," Obama told him.

"Is that on your father’s side?" Codey cracked.

"It’s O’bama," Senator Loretta Weinberg informed the Senate President.

Barack Obama may have gotten the support of Dick Codey today, the most popular politician in New Jersey, but two other prominent Edwards supporters have gone the Clinton route.

Senate Majority Leader Stephen Sweeney and State Sen. Joseph Vitale announced their support for Clinton in a conference call today, burnishing their respective organized labor and health care credentials. They were joined by Mike Beson, the Edwards campaign state director

Vitale, who chairs the Health and Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee, said that Clinton has the best plan to provide universal health care.

“I find her approach to helping solve this issue not just inspired but informed. I’m pleased to join her campaign,” said Vitale.

Dick Codey, who may be New Jersey's most popular politician, will endorse Barack Obama for President
Senate President Richard Codey is expected to endorse Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination, sources close to Codey told PolitickerNJ.com. Codey, who served as Governor from 2004 to 2006, had served as New Jersey Chairman of John Edwards’ campaign.

Warren County Democratic Party Chairman Mike Sedita said if the news is true about former Sen. John Edwards giving up his presidential aspirations, Sedita would back Sen. Barack Obama over Sen. Hillary Clinton.

"I would definitely be supporting Obama because he’s the more progressive candidate," said Sedita, who is a delegate candidate for Edwards on the Feb. 5 ballot.

With less than two weeks to go before the Feb. 5th presidential primary in New Jersey, Essex County Clerk Chris Durkin explains the Democrats' primary process here, as distinct from the Republicans' winner-take-all contest in New Jersey.

John McCain and Rudy Giuliani are in a statistical dead heat in New Jersey, and Hillary Clinton holds a 17 point lead for the February 5 presidential primary, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll released this morning. McCain leads Giuliani 29%-26%, with Mitt Romney at 14% and Mike Huckabee at 9%. Fred Thompson had 9%.

Clinton, who will make stops in Hackensack and North Bergen today, leads Barack Obama, 49%-32%. John Edwards gets 10% of the likely Democratic vote. Among Black voters, Obama leads 62%-27%, while Clinton leads among women 44%0-36%.

Two polls show John McCain leading Rudy Giuliani in New Jersey’s February 5 presidential primary: a Neighborhood Research poll has McCain leading 31%-26%, with 18% for Mitt Romney, 9% for Mike Huckabee, and 4% for Ron Paul; and a Fairleigh Dickinson University poll has McCain ahead of Giuliani by a 23%-29% margin, with 10% for Romney and 7% for Huckabee.

On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton leads Barack Obama, 41%-27%, with 8% for John Edwards in the FDU poll.

Quinnipiac University will release their poll this morning.

Assemblywoman Nellie PouAfter watching the CNN debate in South Carolina on Monday night, Assemblywoman Nellie Pou applauded the performance of her presidential candidate, Sen. Hillary Clinton, who during the Democratic Primary tussle bashed what she described as Bush's too little too late economic stimulus package.  

"The most important change we can bring to the  country is a change in the policies and priorities that have governed from the  White House and I believe the best Democrat to deliver that change is Hillary  Clinton," said Pou. "The economic  injustices of the past eight years need to be reversed and Hillary has the  experience and ability to produce the type of change that offers economic  opportunity to all."

Obama likewise targeted what he sees as the failed economic policies of the Bush administration but took an additional poke at the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) championed by Clinton's husband when he was president, in a debate that largely saw frontrunners Clinton and Obama gunning for each other.

A poll released today by Rasmussen Reports confirms what a Monmouth University/Gannett poll showed earlier this week: that John McCain and Rudy Giuliani are in a dead heat in New Jersey.