Update: Senate Democrats say that Schundler's confirmation hearing will continue on Monday.

After interviewing acting Education Commissioner Bret Schundler for about an hour and a half, the Senate Judiciary Committee adjourned without voting on whether to send his nomination on for a full senate confirmation vote, putting off the remainder of the hearing for an unspecified future date.

Committee Chairman Nicholas Scutari (D-Linden) said that he had to close the meeting because Senate President Stephen Sweeney (West Deptford) had requested the Democratic senators to caucus at noon.

“I don’t anticipate it’s going to be finished today,” said Scutari.

Before Schundler's testimony, the committee unanimously approved Lee Solomon as head of the Board of Public Utiliies, sending his nomination on for a vote in the senate.

Who will run against Bob Menendez in 2012? Click here to view the PolitickerNJ.com Short List.

Two-term Assemblywoman Mary Pat Angelini (R-Ocean Twp.) says she might challenge U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch), the chairman of a key House subcommittee that approved President Obama’s health care plan.  

“This is all speculation.  It really is,” said Angelini, who acknowledged that she has been mulling a congressional bid.

When asked how she thought of Pallone’s job performance, Angelini sounded more like a candidate. 

“Unfortunately I think he really has kind of lost touch with who he’s representing,” she said.  “I think you do see that sometimes.  These folks stay in office too long and forget where they went in to begin with.”

That’s about all Angelini will say about Pallone right now.  On the prospect of running against the 21-year incumbent, she’s still noncommittal, insisting that she’s focusing on her work in the assembly, where she was just sworn in for a second term, and as executive director of the anti-drug organization Prevention First, which she’s run for 17 years. 

But the fact that Angelini, 55, is even considering running against Pallone indicates that the state GOP has taken an interest in this district, which they’ve basically ignored since then-political neophyte (and later congressman) Mike Ferguson ran against Pallone in 1998.  Democrats have a registration advantage over Republicans in the district of almost three-to-one.

And although Republicans tend to acknowledge in background conversations that defeating Pallone is a long shot, they would not mind giving him a run for his money -- all $4 million of it.

The reasons are many.

State Sen. Joseph Kyrillos (R-Middletown) said today that it’s premature to make an endorsement in the 12th District Republican congressional primary between Fair Haven Mayor Michael Halfacre and venture capitalist Scott Sipprelle. 

“There’s some strong candidates running, and that’s a good and healthy thing,” said Kyrillos, whose hometown is split between the 12th and 6th Congressional Districts.  “Mike [Halfacre] and I talked a little bit, and we’re going to talk some more.”

Halfacre has been campaigning for the party nomination for almost a year, but Sipprelle started expressing interest last month and formally announced last week.  Sipprelle plans a campaign kickoff event on Wednesday in Princeton.

Assemblyman Samuel Thompson’s (R-Old Bridge) hometown is also split between the 12th and 6th Districts.  He remains neutral as well, and said that a vigorous primary could actually help raise the profile of the eventual nominee, who will have an uphill battle against incumbent U.S. Rep. Rush Holt (D-Princeton).

Republican State Sen. Joseph Kyrillos (R-Middletown) is part of GOP gubernatorial candidate Christopher Christie's inner circle; some details of their friendship are apparent in a log of calls from Kyrillos to Christie between 2002 and 2008.  Kyrillos left messages for Christie at the U.S. Attorney's office 48 times between 2002 and 2008, including 19 times while Kyrillos was the Republican State Chairman, according to a log of Christie's incoming phone calls requested by the Corzine campaign as part of an extensive series of document requests under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

The Corzine campaign received the phone logs late Friday.

Most of the phone messages shed little information as to the topics Christie and Kyrillos were discussing.  Kyrillos tended to call after 5PM, and would usually leave a message that offered little detail.

Kyrillos did call Christie on April 22, 2002, the day Todd Christie wrote a $225,000 check to the Republican State Committee.

Former U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie's top campaign officials went after the New York Times today in response to a story that a former Justice Department official may have used her position to help Christie's campaign for governor.

"I think a story by unnamed sources two weeks out from the campaign making allegations which are untrue - I don't think there's a lot of credence to that story - and it was not something I was expecting two weeks out form the New York Times," said Christie strategist Mike DuHaime.

DuHaime and state Sen. Joseph Kyrillos (R-Middletown), who chairs Christie's campaign, put together a press conference call this morning to talk about $87,000 in donations from Gov. Jon Corzine and his charitable foundation last year to the church of Rev. Reginald Jackson, who was courted by Christie but endorsed Corzine this month. 

Kyrillos criticized Corzine for delaying filing his philanthropic foundation's tax returns, arguing that "There must be a reason why the information is not forthcoming. We have 14 days left before an election."

A Star-Ledger report that Gov. Jon Corzine contributed $87,000 to Rev. Reginald Jackson's church is more evidence that the governor is trying to buy endorsements, said State Sen. Joseph Kyrillos (R-Middletown), the chairman of Republican Christopher Christie's campaign.

"For the past ten years, Jon Corzine has used his personal wealth to influence elections and voters across our state and, now, it appears he is using contributions from his charitable foundation to continue this excessive influence," Kyrillos said.  "It is improper for Governor Corzine to contribute such large sums to organizations with a vested interest in the governor's race and with significant political sway during an election year."

Corzine's charitable foundation has applied for an extension on the filing of their 2008 tax return with the Internal Revenue Service, a move that can delay disclosure of their contributions until after Election Day.

A hedge fund Gov. Jon Corzine invests in has a financial stake in two companies that are regulated by the state, public records show.

Corzine has a stake of less than one percent in TPG-Axon, which holds $26.6 million of stock in Comcast.  The company, which has 1.3 million subscribers, is the largest cable provider in the state.  The fund also has $25.8 million of stock in Time Warner Cable, which has a small share of the New Jersey market, with 54,000 subscribers in Bergen and Hudson Counties. 

Cable television companies are regulated by the Board of Public Utilities, whose members are appointed by the governor.

Corzine's investment with TPG-Axon has become a political headache for his campaign, as Republicans have used it to tie him to casino investments made by Texas Pacific Group (TPG), which shares a founder with TPG-Axon.  Spokesmen from both TPG and TPG-Axon told newspapers this week that the two companies are separately run, although Republicans pointed to shared corporate addresses and several business publications that drew a connection between the two. 

No such separation exists in this case, since TPG-Axon itself made the investments sometime between March 30 and June 30 of this year.  Corzine has not disclosed the exact size of his investment in the hedge fund, but a one percent share would equate to about $260,000 in Comcast stock - a small amount relative to Corzine's personal wealth. 

Corzine aides argue that investors would be hard pressed to find major companies that are not regulated by the state in one way or another.  He is one of 250 passive investors in the hedge fund, meaning he does not dictate the investment decisions of its manager, Dinakhar Singh.  And the two cable companies, at about $50 million combined, make up barely more than one half of one percent of the $9 billion fund.  A one percent investment in that fund would be worth about $90 million.

"Governor Corzine has no input or control over the investments TPG-Axon has made," said Sean Darcy, a spokesman for the campaign. "Factually, he has no discretion over the fund's investments." 

Still, despite its small size, the investment creates at least the appearance of conflict, according Seton Hall University political science professor Joseph Marbach.

"It points to a larger issue that I think the Governor has to explain: why does he insist on managing his portfolio when nearly every other politician in that situation would have turned it over to a blind trust?" he said.

A tax proposed by unions and liberal Democrats could prolong the recession in New Jersey. Governor Corzine should do the right thing and speak up against this job-killing tax, Senator Joe Kyrillos says. 

Linda Greenstein first entered politics in 1992 when she ran for an open seat on the West Windsor-Plainsboro Board of Education.  She was a staff attorney for the Community Health Law Project; her opponent, Barry Weisberg, was a lawyer active in his synagogue and with the local Little League.  Greenstein beat Weisberg in that race.  She went on to win two races for the Plainsboro Township Committee and ousted Republican incumbents Barbara Wright and Paul Kramer in a 1999 State Assembly race.  In all, Greenstein is 8-0 as a candidate.

But life turned out ok for Weisberg too.  His made enough friends in Middlesex County politics to get Gov. Jon Corzine to make him a Superior Court Judge, a job he started less than two weeks ago.  Greenstein let bygones be bygones; she didn't make any move to oppose Weisberg's nomination.

Another new Superior Court Judge in Middlesex County is Colleen Flynn, the 44-year-old daughter of Middlesex County Clerk Elaine Flynn and former six-term Assemblyman William Flynn.  State Sen. Joseph Kyrillos (R-Middletown) supported Colleen Flynn's nomination, even though he and Bill Flynn have been political opponents for twenty years.