State Sen. John Girgenti (D-Hawthorne) is no push-over.  After The Inside Edge reported last week that there was speculation that Girgenti could face retirement in two years as Latinos eye his Senate seat.  Girgenti is a white man in a district where Latinos and African Americans outnumber whites. 

"Any suggestion that the Passaic County Democratic Party does not stand fully in support of Senator Girgenti is ridiculous," Currie told PolitickerNJ.com.

But Passaic County Democratic Chairman John Currie says that Girgenti is a lock on re-election, and went on to announce that Girgenti will also enjoy the support of Assemblywomen Nellie Pou (D-North Haledon) and Elease Evans (D-Paterson), as well as all seven Democratic Municipal chairs in the 35th district:  Anthony DeNova of North Haledon; Barbara O'Byrne of Totowa; Irene Brown of Glen Rock; Delores Sykes Williams and Rev.  James Kuykendall of Paterson; Jerry Volpe of Haledon, and Mayor Mohamed Khairullah of Prospect Park.

Two State Senators who have remained loyal to Richard Codey (D-Roseland) are likely nearing the end of the legislative careers, according to several Democratic insiders.  As a white man representing a district where Latinos and African Americans outnumber whites, John Girgenti (D-Hawthorne) has been at risk of losing party support for the last few years.  Assemblywoman Nellie Pou (D-Paterson) asked Passaic County Democrats to consider her for the Senate in 2007, but party leaders backed the re-election of the 62-year-old Hawthorne Democrat who has been in the Legislature since 1977.  Latino leaders have been eyeing the 35th district Senate seat as their best opportunity to double their representation in the upper house – from one to two.

Girgenti could either lose party support for another term in the Senate, or mapmakers – if Democrats were to dominate legislative redistricting – could offer him the chance run in a new district, perhaps against Senate Minority Whip Kevin O’Toole (R-Cedar Grove).

Some Democrats say the retirement of Senate President Pro-Tempore Shirley Turner (D-Lawrence) could come sooner rather than later.  If Gov. Jon Corzine wins a second term, Turner – no favorite of the front office – could be offered another post in an effort to clear a path for Assembly Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing) to go to the Senate.  Watson Coleman, popular with Democrats, appears to have gotten the short end of the stick in a legislative leadership deal that will make Sheila Oliver (D-Ewing) the next Assembly Speaker and Joseph Cryan (D-Union) the new Majority Leader.  Watson Coleman is also a contender for a cabinet post in a second Corzine administration. 

If Turner completes her turn and Watson Coleman remains in the Assembly, there is a good chance that Turner will get nudged into retirement in two years so that Watson Coleman can move up to the Senate then.

Gov. John Corzine, left, campaigns in Paterson with state Sen. John Girgenti (D-Hawthrone)

PATERSON - Appearing at the Brownstone at a beefsteak dinner hosted by state Sen. John Girgenti (D-Hawthorne), Gov. Jon Corzine this evening swatted aside news of the New Jersey Environmental Federation's endorsement of GOP challenger Chris Christie.

"President Barack Obama selected my DEP (Department of Environmental Protection) commissioner to head the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and Al Gore, one of the foremost environmentalists in America, came here to endorse me and knows how we have promoted clean energy alternatives," Corzine told PolitickerNJ.com. "On an objective basis, environmentalists know we have no intention of despoiling the environment."

A Fairleigh Dickinson University poll Tuesday showed Corzine leading Christie for the first time since February, 44-43%.

"I'll say the same thing I have always said, which is that the only poll that matters is the one on Nov. 3rd," said the governor.

Senate President Richard Codey (D-Roseland), right, with legendary Main Events trainer Lou Duva and state Sen. John Girgenti (D-Hawthorne), left.

PATERSON - If Senate President Richard Codey (D-Roseland) endorses Assemblywoman Sheila Oliver (D-East Orange) for speaker, he wouldn't see the move as a self-destruct button on his own leadership chair.
 
"I'm saying it's not the end of the world if we had a senate president and a speaker from Essex County," said Codey, to stories suggesting Essex County fracture between Codey, who's trying to protect his senate presidency; and County Executive Joe Divincenzo, who supports Oliver for speaker and South Jersey Senate Majority Steve Sweeney (D-West Deptford) as part of a North-South Jersey leadership trade-off.
 
Trying to succeed retiring Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts (D-Camden) as the face of South Jersey leadership in Trenton, Sweeney has enough (14 of 23) votes in the Democratic caucus to extract Codey from the rostrum roost Codey has owned for six years. But Codey still hopes to build cross-the-aisle support in the Republican caucus to block his South Jersey rival and hold onto the senate presidency.
 
And he doesn't believe he needs to fight Oliver in the process, as he envisions an all-Essex leadership team - for two years.
 
"Who's the Speaker of the House?"
 
"Nancy Pelosi," was the answer.
 
"Who leads the U.S. Senate?"
 
A mind blurred over with Jersey political personages failed to immediately dredge the name of Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada), but Codey made his point anyway.

GOP gubernatorial nominee Chris Christie, far left, sits with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Paul Sarlo (D-Wood-Ridge) and Sen. Nia Gill (D-Montclair). U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) appears at far right.

WAYNE - Gov. Jon Corzine's ceremonial swearing-in of Camelia Mercedes Valdes as the new Passaic County prosecutor this evening featured the shared-stage presence of Republican gubernatorial rival Chris Christie, who smudged somewhat the Democrats' hopes of a singular Corzine imprimatur on the first Latina prosecutor in New Jersey.

Although Wayne's solid GOP, this is a Democratic base country county, and for Corzine to have to worry about a split-screen effect with Christie had Democratic Party operatives quietly fuming up and down the wings of the auditorium here at the Passaic County Technical Institute.

Both parties credit Passaic County Democratic Party Chairman John Currie - who sat next to the governor during the ceremony as the counterpoint to Christie, who settled into a chair beside Senate Judiciary Chairman Paul Sarlo - with kick-starting the Valdes as prosecutor concept on marching order's from the Governor's Office to find a Latino(a) candidate for the vacancy.

The good news for Democrats in this county where Latino registered voters form well over a fifth of the voting population and where registered D's outnumber R's 78,009 to 47,498? Currie tracked down a hard-nosed white collar crime and financial fraud prosecutor with courtroom experience who was also Dominican American. They checked out the resume and to a man/woman the conclusion was competence. And then there was the history-making factor. Valdes would be the first Dominican-American lead prosecutor in the country, creating an opportunity for Corzine to oversee a Sotomayor scenario two months before Election Day in a state with a big and growing Latino voting bloc.

Regardless of the outcome of the game of political musical chairs in the 28th legislative district, where two incumbents and a former Assemblyman are posturing for two spots on the Democratic line, look for the mostly white, blue collar towns of Belleville and Bloomfield to be split away from Newark and Irvington when a new map is drawn after next year's census.

The 28th was supposed to be one of the voting rights districts that protected minority representation in the Legislature when it was drawn in 2001.  The incumbents at the time were three African Americans: State Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Newark) and Assemblymen Donald Tucker (D-Newark) and Craig Stanley (D-Irvington). 

If Caputo holds his seat this year, it makes a defense of the current district under the Voting Rights Act more difficult.

Belleville, which was in the old 36th district, and Bloomfield, part of the old 34th district, were mostly represented by Republican legislators before the towns were moved in to the new 28th.  Rice beat GOP Assemblywoman Marion Crecco (R-Bloomfield) by a 69%-30% margin in 2001.

But Belleville and Bloomfield, which was estimated to have a combined population of 79,816 last year, have proven to be a greater force in Essex County politics than the redistricting commission imagined.  In 2007, Essex Democrats backed Ralph Caputo, a white Freeholder who served as a Republican Assemblyman from 1968 to 1972, to run for the Assembly.  Caputo and Cleopatra Tucker, whose late husband held the seat until his death in 2005, unseated two incumbents, Stanley and Oadline Truitt (D-Newark). 

CUNNINGHAM-GIRGENTI ‘SILVER ALERT’ BILL ADVANCES

TRENTON – A bill that would establish a statewide system for quickly sending out to the public information on a missing person believed to be suffering from dementia or some other cognitive impairment was approved 5-0 today by the Senate Law and Public Safety and Veterans’ Affairs Committee.

Sponsored by Senator John Girgenti, D-Passaic, the chairman of the committee, and Senator Sandra Bolden Cunningham, D-Hudson, the committee substitute for their bill (S-1844) would be a voluntary, cooperative effort between state and local law enforcement agencies and the media, similar to the existing Amber Alert program for missing children.

Raymond Lesniak moved up to the Senate in 1983 after John Gregorio's criminal conviction.

After today's special election convention in District 23, a full one-quarter of the Senate will have entered the upper house by way of a special election: Raymond Lesniak (1983), Ronald Rice (1986), John Girgenti (1990), Robert Singer (1993), Thomas Kean, Jr. (2003), Paul Sarlo (2003), Loretta Weinberg (2005), Sandra Cunningham (2007), and James Beach (2009).  An eleventh Senator, Kevin O'Toole, initially served in the Senate in 2001 after winning a special election convention; he later returned to the Assembly and won a Senate seat in November 2007.

Lesniak replaced John Gregorio, who left the Senate following his criminal conviction.  Rice, Girgenti and Singer were elected following the deaths of Senators John Caufield, Frank Graves and John Dimon, respectively.  Kean took the seat of Richard Bagger, who resigned to concentrate on his career at Pfizer.  Sarlo became a Senator when the incumbent, Garry Furnari, was appointed to serve as a Superior Court Judge.  Weinberg won the seat of Byron Baer, who resigned for health reasons.  Cunningham replaced Joseph Doria, who resigned to become state Community Affairs Commissioner.  Beach, the most recent addition to the Senate won a special election convention after John Adler was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.

PREVIEW - SENATE COMMITTEES TO REVIEW COAH, UNDERAGE DRINKING MONDAY

Committees Will Also Look at ‘Silver Alert’ for Missing Persons; Public Reporting of Hospital Errors

TRENTON – On Monday, Senate Committees will meet to review current issues impacting affordable housing in New Jersey, including efforts to reform the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH), and the Governor’s calls to delay a 2.5% commercial developer’s fee in light of the current national economic crisis.

SARLO-TURNER-GIRGENTI ‘MAIN STREET BUSINESS ASSISTANCE PROGRAM’ SIGNED INTO LAW

TRENTON – A bill sponsored by Senators Paul A. Sarlo and Shirley K. Turner and co-sponsored by Senator John A. Girgenti which will establish the “Main Street Business Assistance Program” to support local small and mid-sized businesses in the State was signed into law today by Governor Corzine.

“The economic success of New Jersey lies in the thriving small and mid-sized businesses found along local throughways throughout the State,” said Senator Sarlo, D-Bergen, Essex and Passaic, and Vice Chairman of the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee. “However, as the economy gets worse, consumers have less expendable income to spend, meaning that many of these businesses do not have the resources to survive the current national crisis. Through this new law, New Jersey is doing its part to protect businesses that have long-standing roots in the State, and in so doing, we’re preserving the economic engine that drives so many local communities.”