Karl Rove

New Jerseyan Nicholas Katzenbach, right, then the Deputy U.S. Attorney General, confronts Alabama Gov. George Wallace, who blocked the door of the University of Alabama to prevent the enrollment of Black students in 1963

Former U.S. Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach says he can't imagine Robert F. Kennedy didn't talk to Democratic leaders about running for the U.S. Senate while he was still Attorney General, but says that it's a different situation than Chris Christie talking to Karl Rove.

"The Attorney General doesn't do the investigations of cases or determine what cases should be brought in any event," said Katzenbach, a Princeton resident who served as the Justice Department's No. 2 under Kennedy and currently lives in Princeton.  "I think if a U.S. Attorney had called anybody political in the White House without first consulting the Attorney General, whether it was me or Bobby Kennedy, he would have been asked for his resignation."

Katzenbach, 87, became Attorney General under President Lyndon B. Johnson after Kennedy was sworn in as a Senator from New York in 1965.  Katzenbach served in that position for almost two years, from early 1965 to late 1966, before being appointed Under Secretary of State.

A registered Democrat, Katzenbach said that he has not taken an active political role in anything since he testified against impeaching President Bill Clinton in front of Congress in 1998.  In an interview with PolitickerNJ.com last year, he called Christie's appointment of former Attorney General John Ashcroft to a no-bid federal monitoring contract "inappropriate" and "as wrong as it can be."

Gov. Corzine's campaign pounced on this month's revelation that Christie spoke with former Rove - President George W. Bush's political point man - about a potential gubernatorial run while he was still U.S. Attorney.  Christie dismissed the conversations as "social," but Corzine, other Democrats and an outside ethics watchdog group think have called it a potential violation of the Hatch Act

Katzenbach said that, given the alleged politicization of the Justice Department that took place under former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Rove's involvement in it, Christie should have avoided any conversations with Rove.

"Things have changed, and there was a great deal of effort to politicize the department of justice in the Bush Administration," he said.  "I thought that would have made it even clearer that it would be a very bad judgment to talk to somebody like Karl Rove if you were the U.S. Attorney."

But Katzenbach said that he did not see anything wrong with Christie's $46,000 loan to former First Assistant U.S. Attorney Michele Brown two years ago, when he was still U.S. Attorney.  Brown resigned yesterday, writing in her resignation letter that she did not want to be a "distraction."

Republicans are hoping that a new Appellate Court ruling that towns which already have satisfied their Mount Laurel and Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) obligations may still be required to consider affordable housing zoning applications will move the focus off of Karl Rove and Michele Brown.  Mount Laurel has always been a great Republican issue, as long as Republicans don't step on their own feet. 

Senate Minority Leader Thomas Kean, Jr. (R-Westfield) wants the Legislature to come back into session to overhaul COAH - a move that might annoy at least one of his top supporters.  The Council on Affordable Housing was created in 1985 by his father, who was then on his way to winning 70% of the statewide vote in his bid for re-election as governor.  A year later, Gov. Thomas Kean ignited a firestorm among Republicans by naming the author of the Mount Laurel decision, Chief Justice Robert Wilentz, for a tenured term on the top court.  Earlier this summer, Kean Jr. caught heat from conservatives by being only one of four Senate Republicans to vote for lifetime tenure for Associate Justice Barry Albin, a former partner at Wilentz's old law firm.

Gov. Jon Corzine

Depending on who you talk to out there, the gubernatorial election comes down to either independent strength in the suburbs with proverbial lunch bucket conservative Democrats compelled to cross over to join Republican challenger Christopher Christie, or a show of force by Democrats in the urban areas who, despite feeling less than inspired by Gov. Jon Corzine, are sufficiently roused to battle down the Republican Party.

In this commonly designated blue state, Democrats outnumber Republicans 1,655,815 to 1,004,746. Independent voters (2,086,647) form the biggest block, and lean Democratic.

A 12-year veteran of the legislature who lost his 2007 reelection bid when he ran afoul of the local Democratic Party machine, former Assemblyman Wilfredo Caraballo (D-Newark) said he believes the Republican Party brand is too damaged to sell here in New Jersey.

While acknowledging his party's longtime statewide troubles, veteran Republican strategist David Murray meanwhile sees Corzine as essentially DOA among independents and bulk suburban voters, and finally incapable of ginning up enough base support to win.

It's brand versus man.

"The Black and Latino vote will decide this race," argued Caraballo, referring to the 807,558 registered voters from those ethnic groups among the state's 4,702,833 registered voters. "The more the Democratic Party links Christie to the Republican Party, whether people like Chris or not, even if they think he's good guy, if Corzine's campaign hits home that Christie is a Republican, and underscores what that means in 2009, they will have implemented one of the most potent arguments they could use against Christie."

GOP gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie in between state Sen. Kevin O'Toole (R-Cedar Grove), left, and state Sen. Brian P. Stack (D-Union City).

News about GOP gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie's failure to disclose a loan to a former employee and report the income on his federal income tax and fallout from his pre-campaign discussions with Karl Rove have Democrats alert to shifting terrain in the gubernatorial election even if they remain guarded about the outcome.

Ahead by double digits through the bulk of the summer, Republicans say the headlines are inevitable campaign turbulence, and not even close to death spiral spasms.

"We'll continue to work contrasts between Jon Corzine and Chris Christie," said Democratic State Chairman Joseph Cryan, who wouldn't identify this week as the first time in the cycle that Gov. Jon Corzine has appeared to have climbed off the political cold slab, a condition some polls have shown the governor to be in since he and Christie officially started their head-to-head rivalry back in June.

State Sen. Barbara Buono (D-Metuchen) today stepped up the optimism.

"At this point it's a horse race, but I'm feeling very confident the governor will be successful," said the chair of the Senate Budget Committee and a prospective candidate for lieutenant governor until Corzine picked her colleague, state Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck).

Buono toured Indian-American businesses with Corzine today on Oak Tree Road in Edison in her first campaign appearance with the governor since failing to lock up the LG spot.

Gov. Jon Corzine today with Mayor James Kennedy in Rahway.

RAHWAY - Gov. Jon Corzine says that a personal loan given by GOP gubernatorial candidate Christopher Christie to the second in command at the U.S. Attorney's office calls into question the politicization of the federal prosecutor's office.

"Just as did the conversations he had with Karl Rove," the governor added, referring to testimony by the former Deputy White House Chief of Staff, who said he talked to Christie about prospective political aspirations while Christie served as U.S. Attorney.

Corzine admitted he has loaned money to people who worked for him  -- "of course," he said -- but stressed that has nothing to do with his rival's $46,000 mortgage loan to Michele Brown, the First Assistant U.S. Attorney.

"My opponent has an ad, 'Watch what he does, not what he says,' critical of me, but by not reporting the income from this loan, my opponent is not doing what he says," Corzine said.

Revelations yesterday that Christopher Christie did not report a personal loan he made to a former top deputy at the U.S. Attorney's office is the latest in a series of self-inflicted wounds that could cost him the race for governor.  Christie had solid lead over Gov. Jon Corzine in last week's Quinnipiac poll (51%), but his own mistakes are helping the Democrats regain some lost ground.  The conventional wisdom among many political insiders is that Corzine, enormously unpopular with voters, cannot win the election, but he can make Christie lose by spending enough to raise the negatives of his Republican rival.

Making a personal loan to a close family friend is not a political liability; indeed, Corzine has made plenty of financial gifts -- sometimes to people he doesn't even like.  Christie's problem here is that he did not report that loan on personal financial disclosure statements required by the Department of Justice.  News last week that Christie discussed his upcoming campaign for governor with former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove helps Corzine paint Christie as a conservative Republican close to an unpopular former president.  Christie's decisions - apparently legal - to award no-bid public monitor contracts to: former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft; David Kelley, who was the U.S. Attorney in New York who decided not to prosecute Christie's brother for illegal trading violations; and to close political allies Herbert Stern and John Inglesino, who later made major contributions to Christie's campaign, are all self-inflicted wounds.  Christie's greatest attribute is his record taking down corrupt politicians.  His greatest problem, at least right now, is that Corzine can afford to turn each of these issues into 30-second TV ads. 

Updated: Christie did not report income from the loan on his federal tax return, according to a New York Times story.

Corzine's chutzpah is clear, although in blue New Jersey that might not matter.  The governor has not exactly been the poster child for full transparency.  Starting back in 2000, he lost ground when he refused to release his income taxes (he hid behind a Goldman Sachs partnership agreement that was less important a few years later when his ex-partner, Henry Paulsen, became U.S. Secretary of the Treasury.  He has declined to release his personal e-mail correspondence with Carla Katz, who was both his girlfriend and the president of the state's largest public employee union.  He even posted bail for a lobbyist who was accused to stalking one of his closest political allies.

A Washington, DC-based ethics watchdog group has asked the Office of the Special Counsel to investigate whether Republican gubernatorial nominee Chris Christie violated the Hatch Act by talking about a potential gubernatorial run with Karl Rove when he was still U.S. Attorney.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) based the request on last week’s revelation that Rove had two conversations with Christie about the prospect, possibly both before and after he left his roles as a senior advisor to the president and deputy chief of staff in 2007.  Christie left his post as U.S. Attorney on December 1, 2008.

“Mr. Rove’s statements demonstrate that while Mr. Christie was the U.S. Attorney, he met with individuals to plan the logistics and strategy of a campaign and to seek support in his efforts to secure the Republican nomination for governor in violation of the Hatch Act,” said CREW in a press release.  

“The Hatch Act is intended to ensure federal employees do their jobs without regard to partisan politics,” said CREW executive director Melanie Sloan.  “Mr. Christie’s actions call into question whether the New Jersey U.S. Attorney’s Office investigated and prosecuted cases based on application of the law to the facts, or because certain prosecutions might have enhanced his prospects of securing the Republican nomination for governor.”

The story of the day is that U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-Hoboken) wants the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee to extend the scope of Congress' probe of former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, and that the U.S. Attorney in New Jersey needs to make public the results of their subpoena of his own records during the 2006 campaign.

Menendez, the Chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, says that the House Judiciary Committee's agreement with Rove's attorneys were "limiting in nature."

"I understand that there's an investigation going on by the Justice Department and I believe that investigation needs to be vigorous and I also believe that in light of the information that's come out that maybe the Senate Judiciary Committee should be looking at a continuation of what that information reveals," Menendez told PolitickerNJ.com's Max Pizarro.

If Democrats think Christopher Christie was wrong when he discussed his interest in running for Governor with Karl Rove, how will they react when Superior Court Judge Mathias Rodriguez enters the race for State Assembly in the nineteenth district?   Rodriguez notified the Administrative Office of the Courts yesterday of his intention to retire today; he is expected to seek  the Democratic Assembly nod after South Amboy Mayor Jack O'Leary drops out of the race - something that could happen within the next five days.  Middlesex County Democratic Chairman Joseph Spicuzzo told the Home News Tribune last month that he had discussed the Assembly post with the Judge.

"I have already spoken with Judge Rodriguez and he is definitely interested in the position, but only after Jack O'Leary decides what he is going to do," the HNT reported Spicuzzo as saying.

This puts Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine in a potential bind: can he back Rodriguez for the Assembly while making an issue of career discussions between old friends?  For Corzine, the timing of this is unfortunate, and could push him into a position of slapping Spicuzzo and Rodriguez.

While the Code of Judicial Conduct prohibits a judge from engaging in any political activity, it might be up to the appropriate ethics panel to decide if private conservations about a prospective candidacy constitutes political activity.

An interesting week in New Jersey politics:  Democrats are buoyed over news that may or may not be helpful to them - a Quinnipiac poll showing Republican Christopher Christie leading Gov. Jon Corzine by nine percentage points (better than the 12-point lead Christie had in July), and disclosure that Christie discussed his interest in running for Governor with White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove while still serving as U.S. Attorney.  Republicans are pleased with their poll numbers - a nine point lead is substantial, especially since Christie passed the magic 50% number -- and think reports detailing mismanagement at the Waterfront Commission and the state Division of Developmental Disabilities bolsters their claim that Corzine should not get re-elected.   There were no arrests or indictments of political note, and only one former legislator was sentenced to prison this week.