John Edwards

The daughter of Scooter Libby's lawyer is going to work for John Edwards. Teresa Wells will leave her job as traveling press secretary to Governor Jon Corzine to become deputy press secretary of Edwards' bid for the 2008 presidential nomination. The highly-regarded 28-year-old worked on Corzine's campaign in 2005, and on the '04 Kerry/Edwards race.

Her father is Theodore Wells, a prominent white collar criminal defense attorney, is currently representing Libby. His former clients include Senator Robert Torricelli, Secretary of Labor Raymond Donovan, and Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy. He was Treasurer of Bill Bradley's 2000 presidential campaign, and is the General Counsel to the New Jersey Democratic Party.

Her mother, Nina Mitchell Wells, is the New Jersey Secretary of State.

John Edwards needs to start from scratch if he wants to build a new campaign organization in New Jersey for the February 2008 Democratic presidential primary: his top supporter is in prison (former Senate President John Lynch began serving a 39 month sentence in federal prison last month) and the four state legislators who backed him in 2004 (when most of the state Democratic establishment was for Howard Dean or John Kerry) are not with him again. Edwards is the first choice of just 8% of the state's Democratic voters, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released last week. That's not much better than the 3% he was at in a June 2003 poll, before he ran for President and Vice President.

Edwards does have some talent on his side: former stated Human Services Commissioner (and 2002 congressional candidate) Timothy Carden is taking a leading role in organizing New Jersey for Edwards, as he did in the last election. And Edwards has recruited a very able operative in Michael Beson, who directed Howard Dean's 2004 campaign in New Jersey. A former aide to Congressman Frank Pallone and the ex-Mayor of Neptune, Beson was named PoliticsNJ.com's Politician of the Year in 2003, in recognition of his success in building a substantial campaign organization for Dean in New Jersey.

State Senator Barbara Buono says she will endorse Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination, while Senators Joseph Vitale and Stephen Sweeney, and Assemblyman/Perth Amboy Mayor Joseph Vas, remain undecided.

Julie Roginsky, a Democratic strategist who appears regularly on Fox News and MSNBC as a commentator, has still not picked a candidate. She played a key role in helping Edwards build a New Jersey organization in 2004.

Edwards has picked up the support of Nathan Rudy, a former North Plainfield Council President and a leading activist among progressive Democrats.

Edwards annoyed more than a few Democrats when he arrived nearly 2.5 hours late for a campaign rally in September 2004, especially when party leaders found out he kept more than 1,000 supporters waiting in a Newark ballroom so that he could go to his hotel and work out first.

Edwards is not the only presidential candidate who needed to rebuild his state organization because his campaign chairman went to prison: former Essex County Executive James Treffinger was Co-Chairman of John McCain's New Jersey campaign in 2000. He spent thirteen months in a federal prison following his corruption conviction.

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When John Edwards made a long-awaited visit to New Jersey during the 2004 presidential campaign, he was over two hours late for a rally in Newark. It didn't help later when news spread that Edwards kept a crowd of over 1,000 Democrats waiting in an extraordinarily humid ballroom while he went for a run, followed by a shower at his hotel. Edwards' return to New Jersey in June was cancelled when a rainstorm prevented his plane from landing. The likely '08 presidential candidate is scheduled to be in New Jersey next week at a fundraiser for Assembly Democrats at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, leaving one Democratic activist to suggest that Edwards "be on time this time."