Joseph Pennacchio

Morris Plains, NJ – State Senator Joe Pennacchio (R-Morris/Passaic) will issue an OPRA request to the state Treasurer and the State’s Higher Education Student Authority for details of the bidding process for the management and operation of NJBest program. The program manages 529 students’ college funds.

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Paybacks are often difficult, especially when Election Day is just around the corner. When he was seeking the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate last year, Ramapo College Professor Murray Sabrin was expecting the endorsement of Steve Lonegan.  But Lonegan instead backed State Sen. Joseph Pennacchio (R-Montville).  Now Lonegan is a candidate for the GOP gubernatorial nomination.  Pennacchio delivered an early endorsement to Lonegan's rival, Christopher Christie.  And Sabrin, in an Op-Ed for PolitickerNJ.com, is fairly critical of Lonegan's flat tax plan.

Sabrin has not endorsed any candidate in the race for Governor.

The renomination of the "Lehman Three" to the New Jersey State Investment Council (NJSIC) is moving slowly, since just one of the three former Lehman Brothers executives reappointed by Gov. Jon Corzine has cleared Senate signoff yet.  NJSIC has lost nearly $25 billion in 2008, with the state pension fund dropping from $82 billion last July to $57.7 billion as of last month.

Alleging fraud and misrepresentation, the Corzine administration filed a lawsuit against nine top executives of the now-bankrupt Lehman firm last month.  The State Investment Council bought $182 million in Lehman securities last April for the state pension fund - a move that has caused State Sen. Joseph Pennacchio (R-Montville) to demand an investigation.

But despite the losses, Corzine renominated Jose Claxton, Erika Irish-Brown and Montgomery Cerf to the NJSIC for new terms.  All three were executives at Lehman, although they are not parties to the state lawsuit.  The three are awaiting Senate confirmation, and the Judiciary Committee has not yet scheduled hearings on their nominations. The Judiciary Committee could hold vote on the Claxton nomination separately, but since the Lehman Three remain in holdover status, the Senate is likely to wait - they are in no rush - and consider all three as a package.

Morris County GOP Chairman John Sette, left, with Daily Record columnist Fred Snowflack during a GOP delegate sendoff party last summer

A lot can happen between now and June 2010, but one early contender has emerged to replace John Sette as Morris County GOP Chairman: Republican State Committeewoman Christina Ramirez. Sette has said he won't seek re-election next year. 

If she runs, Ramirez will have the support of State Sen. Joseph Pennacchio (R-Montville).

Senator Joseph Pennacchio, R-Passaic and Morris, is requesting that the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee agree to thoroughly question three members of the State Investment Council, which sets policy for state pension investments, before signing off on their reappointments by Governor Corzine..

Franklin Mayor Brian D. Levine, left, and Assemblyman Rick Merkt are polling at 5% and 2%, respectively, in the race for the Republican nomination for Governor.

Anything less than a win at Saturday's Union County Republican Convention and Chris Christie's campaign would hear echoes of Anne Evans Estabrook, whose 2008 U.S. Senate bid began to unravel after State Sen. Joseph Pennacchio beat her in Union County.

It would be similarly problematic if conservative Steve Lonegan, who has spent most of the last five years running for Governor, finishes below second place.

But then what happens appears less predictable, less solid, as Franklin Township Mayor Brian D. Levine and Assemblyman Richard Merkt (R-Mendham) battle in the real contest of the day: a contest for third place between two other contenders eager to break out of a field that has grown to seven candidates for the chance to take on Gov. Jon Corzine in November.

Already, the Merkt campaign is minimizing expectations. The candidate is leaving the state tonight for a business trip.

 "I actually have to work for a living," Merkt, a corporate attorney, told PolitickerNJ.com. "I have to feed my family."

GOP candidate for governor Chris Christie arrives at the party at the Marco Polo on Thursday evening.

SUMMIT –To the oft-muttered intra-party charge that Republicans plan to coronate former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie as their candidate for governor, Union County Republican Chairman Phil Morin said his organization stands on its record. 

Last year, millionaire businesswoman Anne Evans Estabrook was supposedly the money candidate for U.S. Senate. Then the county committee here awarded the line to erstwhile underdog state Sen. Joseph Pennacchio (R-Morris), dropping the jaws of not only Estabrook’s campaign infrastructure but the party establishment in all 21 counties.  

After Estabrook pulled the plug on her candidacy owing to health problems, Morin resisted pressure to hold another convention to dump Pennacchio and swap in the state GOP’s latest frontrunner, former U.S. Rep. Dick Zimmer, who would ultimately go on to secure the statewide nomination. 

Morin’s view was Jersey Joe earned it the hard way, he should have it.

The state Treasurer should release all documents on the state's reckless $178 million investment in Lehman Brothers, not nickel and dime senators who request information.

Hedge Fund millionaire Orin Kramer and Obama national finance director Julianna Smoot. A state pension fund headed by Kramer says they have lost $25 billion since July

A New Jersey pension fund run by one of Barack Obama’s earliest and biggest campaign fundraisers/bundlers has lost $25 billion -- including $9 billion in October, according to a report issued today by a state panel.  The New Jersey Investment Council, chaired by hedge fund manager Orin Kramer, says that the value of the state pension fund has shrunk from $82 billion in July to $57 billion.

Kramer, 63, a former White House aide in the Carter administration and a partner at Boston Provident, was named to head the state retirement benefits panel by then-Gov. James E. McGreevey in 2003.  The state Division of Investment is one of the ten largest public fund managers in the U.S., with a market value at of $70.7 billion as of the end of September, according to the Treasury Department website.  The fund provides retirement benefits for more than 700,000 current and future retirees.

U.S. News and World Report ranked Kramer as Obama's #3 bundler last August, just behind Lehman Brothers' Christine Forester.

CLICK HERE TO READ KRAMER'S SIDE

State Sen. Joseph Pennacchio (R-Montville) says that Republicans find themselves with "no message, no money and no direction" going into the 2009 gubernatorial election.

After reading newspaper accounts of New Jersey Republican leaders downplaying the seriousness of John McCain’s loss in New Jersey, the loss of a Congressional seat and the loss of Senate candidate Dick Zimmer to “an octogenarian who barely put up a fight,” Pennacchio says he had to take exception with a public statement.

“If our party publicly expressed satisfaction with New Jersey and National Republican results in Tuesday’s election, all they were doing was  reinforcing rank and file Republican cynicism for our party’s leadership,” he said.  “Once again Republicans find themselves with no message, no money and no direction going into next year’s gubernatorial election.  To say our Republicans 'Ship of State' was run aground by our captain, would imply that it had a direction.  That simply was not so.”