Jon Bramnick

Gov. Jon Corzine campaigns in Atlantic City for Team Whelan on Sunday.

The Absecon Channel separates Brigantine from Atlantic City in this world of salt water and low-slung housing broken up by tragicomic human silos with names like Taj and Showboat.

But it’s all the same battlefield here in the 2nd district, where forces are mobilizing for Sen. (and Egg Harbor Township Mayor) James "Sonny" McCullough or Assemblyman James Whelan.

In Atlantic City, a second tall and bearded politician joins Team Whelan today in a senior citizens complex on Atlantic Avenue. It’s Gov. Jon Corzine, who knows seniors are a critical voting block, particularly in an off-election year like this, and he’s working the older crowd overtime with his best up-close-and-personal demeanor.

 

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Anne Evans Estabrook’s announcement that she’s running for U.S. Senate may not come as a surprise to anybody who follows New Jersey politics, but its timing irritated one of her potential Republican primary opponents.

“I would have hoped that Anne would have put the interest of our party and the people of New Jersey ahead of her own political interests, and waited until after this election cycle,” said Assemblyman Joseph Pennacchio, who set up a U.S. Senate exploratory committee in September and is running for a state Senate seat.

Pennacchio said that Estabrook should have waited at last a few weeks to “pull the trigger” – that her focus should not be on her Senate campaign, but on helping candidates enmeshed in legislative, county and municipal races.

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Anne Evans Estabrook will challenge Frank Lautenberg in the 2008 U.S. Senate raceIt’s official. Anne Evans Estabrook is running for U.S. Senate.

Although she has not yet issued a formal announcement, Estabrook put out a press release today saying that she has filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission, transforming her exploratory committee into a senatorial campaign. That makes her the first Republican to officially announce against Democratic incumbent Frank Lautenberg in 2008.

Other potential Republican candidates include state Sen. Joe Pennacchio and Assemblyman Jon Bramnick.

In a press release, Estabrook touted her experience as CEO of Elberon Development Co. and as chair of the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce to show that, although she’s a political newcomer, she’s ready for the job.

 

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Amodeo & Polistina To Campaign With Assemblyman Jon Bramnick In Margate

         (Atlantic County, NJ) Republican Assemblyman Jon M. Bramnick of Union County, a leader in the effort to reform government and save taxpayers’ money, will campaign with the Second District Republican Assembly candidates on Sunday in Margate.

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Three Republicans are considering bids for the United States Senate – millionaire developer Anne Evans Estabrook, and Assemblymen Joseph Pennacchio and Jon Bramnick – but some GOP leaders aren’t convinced that any of them can beat 83 ¾-year-old Democrat Frank Lautenberg.  As a result, some Republican activists appear interested in broadening their search for another candidate.

The name that comes up the most often: former major league baseball player Al Leiter, a Toms River native who played for the Yankees and the Mets.  The Leiter for Senate talk continues even after the retired ballplayer declined to express interest in running for office next year. Read More >

Several months ago, there were suggestions that Genovese might get support -- mostly financial -- from a group of key Democratic insiders who wanted to use the 21st district State Senate campaign as a form of retaliation for Kean's U.S. Senate race against Robert Menendez last year. But Democrats now concede that Genovese has turned out to be a weak and largely unfocused candidate with little chance to score an upset in a legislative district where Menendez won 46% one year ago. Genovese's failure to mount an effective campaign has allowed Kean to spend money in other districts. Kean will likely be re-elected, probably by his usual margins, and seems well positioned to become the next Senate Minority Leader.

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It’s another day in Trenton, that substitute city for Sodom and Gomorrah in the storybooks Republicans read to their children.

There’s a kindly-looking, self-deprecating man presiding in the upper house. Senate President Richard Codey tells a boy entrusted as the day’s gavel pounder that they’ll get out of the Senate chamber earlier than the boy’s schoolmates, who are still stranded in a classroom somewhere. Later, he’s posing for pictures with what look to be the female, senior citizen contents of a bus that was bound for Atlantic City, since detoured to Trenton to see the former governor.

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Union County GOP Chairman Phil Morin and U.S. Senate candidate Anne Evans Estabrook stand in the middle of a controversial real estate development deal in Cranford that has become an issue in the race for Township Committee.

The County Chairman can’t give money to help at least one GOP candidate, because if he did, the candidate says he believes the money would leave him open to an attack of being a sell out -- and crush him politically.

That’s because Morin also serves as the attorney for Woodmont Properties, LLC. Woodmont wants to alter the zoning for two properties on Birchwood Avenue from low density office to residential, so that the Parsippany developer can buy nearly 16 acres from Elberon Development, which is owned by Estabrook, a Republican who wants to run against Frank R. Lautenberg next year.

Morin serves on Estabrook’s campaign exploratory committee – his early support surprised some Republicans because Union County Assemblyman Jon Bramnick is mulling a U.S. Senate bid -- but the fledgling candidate said Morin’s presence as the applicant’s attorney does not constitute a conflict.

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Anne Evans Estabrook and Assemblyman Joseph Pennacchio  Today's Middlesex County Republican fundraiser in Woodbridge was not a large event, with only about 40 donors attending.  But the interesting thing about it was who showed up -- all three potential Republican U. S. Senate candidates.

Invited to speak at the fundraiser were Assemblyman (and State Senate candidate Joseph Pennacchio, who just formed an exploratory committee this month, and Spring Lake businesswoman Anne Evans Estabrook, the first candidate to show signs of interest in Frank Lautenberg’s seat.  Also in attendance -- not speaking but listening from the other side of the relatively small room -- was Assembly Minority Whip Jon Bramnick, who is mulling a U.S. Senate bid but has not yet formally declared any intentions. 

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Assemblyman Joseph Pennacchio defeated businesswoman Anne Evans Estabrook in a U.S. Senate ’08 straw poll conducted by PoliticsNJ.com at a Middlesex County Republican breakfast on Sunday.  It was the first joint speaking appearance for the two candidates seeking the GOP nod to challenge incumbent Frank Lautenberg.

Pennacchio received 14 votes (74%), while four votes (21%) went for Estabrook.  One Republican cast a write-in vote for Assemblyman Jon Bramnick, who is also mulling a Senate bid.

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