Jr.

Dispelling rumors that have persisted since he came into office, West Ward Councilman Ron Rice, Jr., on Wednesday said he would not challenge 10-term U.S. Rep. Donald Payne in 2008.

"I have a great deal of respect for U.S. Rep. Payne and I think he’s an outstanding congressman," said Rice, who has served a year and a half in office on the Newark City Council.

Orange Mayor Mims HackettOrange Mayor Mims Hackett appeared in council chambers, among the first public officials to arrive, smiling broadly at the young baseball players and haggard clutch of City Hall gadflies alike.

"Happy New Year," he said, and proceeded to wade into the small crowd with a polished politician’s outstretched hand. A month away from standing trial to answer to corruption charges and already deposed from his office as 27th district assemblyman, Hackett carried no aura of the disgraced Roman senator on Wednesday evening. He was all dapper southern sweetness and light.

More bundled bodies floated in from the cold and by now Hackett was at the front of the room.

There would be a special presentation of the recreation league baseball team and the mayor smiled with the news and straightened in his chair. "These talented youngsters are an inspiration to everyone," he beamed, and proceeded to slowly read a full roster of the team’s players.

The word came down from Sen. Thomas Kean, Jr., on Tuesday.

Trying to change the look of the GOP Upper House team, the incoming Senate Minority Leader fired Rick England, a political operative who was director of constituent relations, in addition to several members of the minority office's support staff, Republican staff sources say.

While there is speculation that Director of Research John Hutchison is also slated to lose his job, he was absent from work on Tuesday and his status is unknown, according to sources.

Averting a firing, Communications Director Mike Jennings told PolitickerNj.com that he has accepted a communications job with PSE&G.

They hear it on the streets of Newark.

But on the first and third Wednesdays of each month, members of the City Council can be sure to receive a barrage of complaints from residents who are worried not only about the murders and gangs but about the cost of living and the threat of corporate interests upending local concerns.

"You're supposed to be standing up and fighting for us," the poet Amiri Baraka cried during the public comment forum of a meeting. "Until I see you fighting, then you're not a good council."

"You're giving tax abatements to developers," cried resident Frank Hertz. "You'd better justify this tax abatement."

And always there is the complaint about the scarcity of jobs.

Addressing 150 people at an Obama campaign event Saturday in Newark's Masonic Temple, Councilman Ron Rice, Jr., says the naysayers have dismissed his presidential candidate at each juncture of Obama's campaign - only to be proved wrong.

Longtime Obama supporter Newark Councilman Ron Rice, Jr., says good performances in early primary states will expand the interest of New Jersey voters to another level.

Kyrillos: New Jersey Continues to Lag in Job Creation

Economic Agenda Should Be Focus of New Legislature

Senator Joseph Kyrillos (R-Monmouth/Middlesex) issued the following statement in response to the Department of Labor and Workforce Development’s report which showed that 86 percent of new jobs added in October came from the public sector, further proving that New Jersey continues to lag in the creation of private sector jobs.

Hillary Clinton's New Jersey campaign co-chair, John F.X. GrahamI walked into Pal's Cabin, that West Orange watering hole where the Irishmen who run the state go when they want to tie one on.

On this particular summer night, John F. X. Graham was at the front of a room full of heavyweight Hillary Clinton supporters, some of whom, however weighed down with gold bars, were evidently still in the throes of John Kerry fatigue.

"Hillary's a winner," Graham assured the group. "She's a centrist, and the Democratic Party wins with centrists."

kyrillos: hearing needed on fate of arts center

Urges Legislative Oversight Committee to conduct hearing between Turnpike Authority, Live Nation

Mayor Cory BookerSen. Ronald Rice