Kellyanne Conway

A survey released by pollster Kellyanne Conway says that 94% of New Jersey's registered voters cannot name a single State Supreme Court Justice, and that the public is largely ignorant of about most aspects of the court.

The number presents an interesting juxtaposition to the political fury around the renomination of Associate Justice Barry Albin, 56.  After serving his preliminary seven year term, he is up for tenure until mandatory retirement at age 70.

In a conference call with two conservative New Jersey attorneys, Conway said that the low level of familiarity with the court "should be regarded as an opportunity, not an obstacle. They do want to know more about the court."

The poll of 500 registered voters was conducted between January 9 and 10 -- long before the nomination of Sonya Sotomayor brought some aspects of the judicial debate into the public eye.  It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.38%.

Although the call was billed as a discussion of Albin's renomination, participants focused on broad judicial principles rather than Albin's specific decisions. Conway and the two others - Tom Gentile, who clerked for Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito when he sat on the United State Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit; and Cheryl Stanton, a former special assistant and associate White House counsel to President George W. Bush - reiterated Republican legislators' calls for a longer confirmation hearing.

A group of New Jerseyans with national connections will hold a news conference on Wednesday to talk about the upcoming Senate confirmation of Associate Justice Barry Albin's renomination to the New Jersey Supreme Court: pollster Kellyanne Conway, former Bush White House Associate Counsel Cheryl Stanton, former Alito law clerk Thomas Gentile, and Eric Jaso, who worked for Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr.

Likely to be overshadowed by the Newark mayoral election, the May race for Mayor of Ocean City is worth watching. Three candidates are in the race to succeed incumbent, Henry "Bud" Knight, who is retiring after fourteen years, and nearly forty in local government: Councilman Jody Alessandrine, who almost upset Knight in 2002; Councilman Frank McCall; and Salvatore Perillo, a former Atlantic County Counsel who was Newark's Corporation Counsel under Mayor Kenneth Gibson in the 1970's. While the race is technically non-partisan, McCall has the backing of the Cape May County Republican Organization; Alessandrine and Perillo are Democrats. (Perillo's law partner is Keith Davis, the newly-elected Atlantic County Republican Chairman.) A poll conducted by Kellyanne Conway for the Cape May GOP shows Alessandrine leading McCall by a 34%-15% margin, with Perillo running third with 10%. Conway, a South Jersey native who runs a Washington polling firm, says that the large number of undecided voters makes the race wide open.