Joseph Kyrillos

Joseph Azzolina, 83, who served in the Legislature for parts of five decades before losing the 2005 GOP primary to Amy Handlin, has sold the bayshore area newspaper his family had owned for nearly 25 years.  One of the state's most venerable politicians, he ran for office a total of seventeen times, including four State Senate bids abnd one campaign for Congress.

Monmouth County had gone Democratic in 1964, giving Lyndon Johnson a 33,933 vote plurality (61%) over Barry Goldwater.  Largely on Johnson's coattails, three Democrats under the age of forty won upset victories:  James Howard, 37, an elementary school principal, won a Congressional seat the Republicans had held for 22 years; Eugene Bedell, a 36-year-old labor leader from Keansburg, won a Freeholder seat (by 629 votes); and 37-year-old  Patrick McGann, a lawyer and former Deputy State Attorney General, won a Special Election for the State Assembly (the seat was vacated by Republican Clarkson Fisher, who resigned to become a Judge) by 6,673 votes over Republican Louis Aikens.  In the 1960's, Assembly seats were elected in countywide elections.

A supermarket owner and World War II Navy veteran, Azzolina was the 39-year-old Middletown Republican Municipal Chairman in the Democratic year of 1965 when he unseated McGann by 1,606 votes. Azzolina's ran on a ticket with Alfred Beadleston, the incumbent Assembly Speaker who had been in the Assembly since 1952, and former Asbury Park Councilman James Coleman; they defeated Red Bank Mayor Benedict Nicosia and Freehold Councilman Samuel Sagotsky.  Incumbent Irving Keith did not seek re-election.  The three Republicans won despite a 5,586 vote margin in Monmouth for the Democratic Governor, Richard Hughes.

Peter Shapiro was 23-years-old when he unseated Assemblyman Rocco Neri in 1975. He is the youngest person to win a State Assembly seat in New Jersey.

If 21-year-old Brian Hackett wins his bid for State Assembly in the politically competitive fourteen district this year, he will become the youngest legislator in state history.  The four youngest legislators each ousted incumbents who were not viewed to be in serious electoral trouble.

In 1975, Peter Shapiro, a 23-year-old Harvard graduate who had worked as an aide to the state Transportation Commissioner, ran against the Essex County Democratic Organization and defeated Assemblyman Rocco Neri (D-Irvington).  In 1991, 24-year-old Republican John Hartmann, a second year law student at Seton Hall, beat veteran Assemblyman Gerald Naples (D-Trenton). 

Edward Hynes was 25 when he ousted a Republican Assemblyman in 1971.  Stephen Adubato, Jr., the son of a powerful Newark political leader and a former aide to Shapiro, was 26 when he unseated GOP Assemblyman John Kelly (R-Nutley) in 1983.

From “Rendell Poaching Business From N.J.,” Newark Star-Ledger, July 6, 2008:

John Kaufman, chairman and CEO of International Battery, said he was looking to build a factory for lithium-ion batteries, which would create 240 jobs. With headquarters in northern Bergen County, he wanted to stay in New Jersey. “We got no support. We spoke to many state agencies. Nothing happened.” Kaufman said. “There’s no support here. Everybody’s too busy.” As his frustrations mounted, Kaufman said, one of his investors told him to check out Pennsylvania. “The state of Pennsylvania was terrific,” he said. “The governor’s action team is terrific. They work with you.” International Battery opened its plant in Allentown, PA in October. Kaufman also moved his corporate headquarters there, and kept only a small engineering operation in New Jersey. “New Jersey’s a great state,” he said. “But when government feels it’s bigger than its industry, government will fail.”

Senate Republican Leader Tom Kean of Union County and Senator Joseph Kyrillos of Monmouth voiced their deep concern today after the state reported that New Jersey’s unemployment rate rose to 8.2 percent in February from 7.3 percent in January. It is now higher than the national rate for the first time since October 2006, and is much higher than the rates posted recently by New York, Delaware and Pennsylvania. The Senators urged Governor Corzine to support long-delayed legislation that would help New Jersey create jobs and strengthen the state’s safety net for unemployed and underemployed workers.

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Pat Schuber, 61, now a college professor, served as Bergen County Executive, Assemblyman, and Mayor of Bogota between 1972 and 2002.

Gubernatorial candidate Christopher Christie dropped a major hint yesterday about his choice of a running mate if he wins the June primary: he said his Lieutenant Governor would chair the “New Jersey Partnership for Action,” leading an agency that will “create an effective infrastructure for economic growth.”  If Christie intends to have his LG play a key role in the state’s economic recovery – not necessarily a bad idea – then it could mean that he does not intend to pick an LG candidate based on geographical, gender, racial, or ideological balance.  Christie could be looking for someone out of the private sector, or someone with executive experience.

Could former Bergen County Executive William "Pat" Schuber come out of retirement to run for Lt. Governor?  Schuber is a friend of the former U.S. Attorney and of his top advisor, William Palatucci.  And while Schuber has been out of office for seven years -- something that could be turned into a positive -- he is likely to still have a following among independent voters in Bergen County that could be criticial to Christie's general election success.

State Sen. Joe Kyrillos, a former GOP State Chairman, will serve as chairman of Chris Christie's campaign for Governor.

State Sen. Joseph Kyrillos will serve as Chairman of Christopher Christie's campaign for the Republican nomination for Governor, and four of the five Republicans in the state congressional delegation will serve as Co-Chairmen.

U.S. Reps. Christopher Smith (R-Hamilton), Frank LoBiondo (R-Vineland), Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-Harding) and Leonard Lance (R-Clinton) are also part of Christie's statewide leadership team.

"I am honored to stand with Chris Christie in his noble fight to bring genuine reform to New Jersey," said Kyrillos, who served as GOP State Chairman from 2001 to 2004.   "There is no doubt that Chris Christie will unify not only our party, but all New Jerseyans.  This team speaks to his regional and ideological appeal all across the state." 

Smith called Christie "a man of honor, integrity, and backbone."

"He has the skills and ability to lead our state during this time of turmoil and economic struggle," said Smith, a Congressman since 1981.

State Sen. Kip Bateman (R-Somerset) helped the former Somerset County Democratic Chairman win Senate confirmation as an Administrative Law Judge.

Ethics complaints he filed against seven Republican legislators in 2007 – all subsequently dismissed – came back to haunt former Somerset County Democratic Chairman Elia Pelios today, but with the help of a home county Republican it didn’t matter and the State Senate today confirmed his nomination as a state Administrative Law Judge.   Despite strong opposition from several key Republicans, including Joseph Kyrillos and Kevin O’Toole, Christopher Bateman, a Republican Senator from Somerset County, signed off on Pelios’ nomination and voted for his confirmation.

Bill Palatucci, Chris Christie's former law partner, managed campaigns for Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Tom Kean.

Democrats seem determined to tie former U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie to President Bush if he becomes the Republican nominee for Governor, but Christie’s allies say that it was the ex-Prosecutor’s friend and top strategist, William Palatucci, who avidly championed Bush when he began running for President in the late 1990’s.

Christie, who was Palatucci’s law partner, raised money for George W. Bush’s 2000 presidential campaign as part of a bigger effort coordinated by Palatucci, a veteran Republican operative who ran campaigns for Ronald Reagan, Thomas Kean and George H.W. Bush.

“It’s hard to imagine the Democrats not using every opportunity possible to highlight the fact that Chris Christie was part of an effort that raised significant money for George W. Bush, one of the most unpopular politicians in a generation” said Ben Dworkin, director of the David Rebovich Institute of New Jersey Politics at Rider University. “He’s had an outstanding career as U.S. Attorney. But the connection is different from the one the Democrats tried to use against U.S. Rep. Leonard Lance.”

Assemblywoman Linda Stender (D-Fanwood), the Democratic candidate for Congress against Lance, ran repeated TV ads of Lance’s face interposed with that of Bush.  Lance won by nine percentage points.

“But Christie’s different than Lance because Lance didn’t become an assemblyman and senator because George Bush picked him,” said Dworkin. “Christie became U.S. Attorney because George Bush did.”

The main strand of the Bush-Christie connection hinges on what for Palatucci was a fortuitous encounter with the younger Bush as the then-Texas governor geared up for his 2000 presidential campaign.

At that point, Palatucci’s relationship with the Bushes was already long and recurring, and it was in his role as the New Jersey chief of the presidential campaigns of Bush’s father that he developed a relationship with the younger Bush.

State Sen. Joseph Kyrillos (R-Monmouth)

An old ally today sent up a trumpet blast of support for former U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie. 

State Sen. Joseph Kyrillos (R-Monmouth), who swore Christie into office when he served as a Morris County Freeholder, says Christie looks and sounds like a Republican candidate for governor. 

“I spent time over the weekend with my good friend… and I am very encouraged by what I heard,” Kyrillos said in an email he sent today to friends. 

“Chris is being urged to run for governor by Republicans, Independents, and even some prominent Democrats,” Kyrillos wrote. “They've read what the newspapers wrote about what Chris achieved as our state's U.S. Attorney, and they're telling Chris that he can provide the leadership and make the tough decisions needed to fix our broken state."