Kevin O'Toole

State Sen. Tom Kean, Jr. (R-Union): Politicker photoSUMMIT - As far back as 2004, Sen. Tom Kean, Jr. (R-Union) recalls himself and others - state Sen. Leonard Lance (R-Hunterdon), then Assemblyman Kevin O'Toole (R-Cedar Grove) among them - complaining about the lack of transparency in the way legislators obtained money for projects in their respective districts.

Now on the heels of George LeBlanc’s testimony in the corruption trial of former Sen. Wayne Bryant (D-Camden) in which the Senate budget officer highlighted how legislators in 2004 and 2005 siphoned money from a dedicated $40 million property tax relief fund, Kean wants answers.

"The next step is to get our hands around what occurred," the senator told PolitickerNJ.com. "Who was spending and what was being spent? The most important thing now is to expose to the light of day what was happening - expose the process.

"We're talking about a system in which information was being held not just from the public but from other members of the Legislature, a system that resulted in massive overspending with no oversight, which made New Jersey more unaffordable, in which members of the (Codey) administration were complicit."

Two-and-a-half years before a state budget aide brought back to light a slush fund that gave key legislative leaders sole discretion over millions of dollars in state money, Assembly Republicans were suspicious of the program and sought to learn more about it.

They didn’t get very far, however, according to documents the Assembly Republicans provided to PolitickerNJ.

The Property Tax Assistance and Community Development grants program became the subject of controversy again yesterday when Democratic Senate budget staffer George LeBlanc, testifying at former State Sen. Wayne Bryant’s corruption trial, said that Bryant got $4 million from the fund to distribute at his own discretion. $200,000 went to his employer, UMDNJ. LeBlanc also testified that former Senate Majority Leader Bernard Kenny also was allocated $4 million.

The struggle of the late political consultant Tom Blakely’s widow to secure payment from the life insurance policy her husband signed just days before he died may lead to legislation in New Jersey. 

Last month, four state Senators wrote a letter to TransAmerica Life Insurance Corp. CEO Patrick S. Baird inviting him or a representative of the company to meet with them over legislation they plan to propose next month that would change the way life insurance companies operate in New Jersey.

TransAmerica has been assailed by prominent New Jersey Republicans ever since it challenged the validity of Blakely’s second policy with the company.  Blakely was a co-founder of Jamestown Associates, a top Republican consulting firm, and died in March after collapsing during a 5K race in Bordentown. 

Sen. Kevin O'Toole (R-Essex).: Politicker file photo 

MINNEAPOLIS - It’s several hours until Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) takes the stage downtown at the Xcel Center and one of his supporters sits in a hotel where the New Jersey delegation is housed, and he reflects on the years he’s spent in support of this man who would be president.

Soon he will again observe McCain in person.

State Sen. Kevin O’Toole (R-Essex), a state campaign co-chair for McCain, goes back to 2000 in his support. But it was during the 2008 Republican presidential primary that he deepened his respect for the Arizona senator and recognized up close what he sees as McCain’s particular leadership qualities.

"He came into Hamilton - and look, I’ve been in politics going back to 1984, I’ve been around presidents and the rest of it, it’s heady stuff - but we were sitting in the back of a bus that day in Hamilton: Baroni, and Sean Kean and others who have long supported McCain," O’Toole says. "Lindsay Graham and Joe Lieberman were there, and so was John McCain."

The presidential candidate talked strategy, and seated with him, O’Toole, the Essex County political insider who came up in politics the hard way, says unabashedly that he felt he was in the presence of greatness.

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MINNEAPOLIS - Three more Republican county chairs today affirmed their support for Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce (R-Parsippany-Troy Hills), who announced this week that he intends to pursue another term next year as party leader.

Rick Wright, executive director of the Assembly Republicans, said the following chairs indicated they want the 72-year old DeCroce to remain as minority leader: Essex Chairman\Sen. Kevin O’Toole (R-Essex), Monmouth Chairman Joe Oxley, and Passaic Chairman\Assemblyman Scott Rumana (R-Wayne).

Somerset County Chairman Dale Florio told PolitickerNJ.com that he wants to talk to conference leader Assemblyman Pete Biondi (R-Somerville).

"Whatever Pete decides to do, I'm going to support him," says Florio.

John Crowley is interviewed on the Mississippi river boat by NJN's Jim Hooker.: Politicker photo

MINNEAPOLIS - It started like a scene in a movie where guests receive a mysterious invitation from a powerful benefactor. On the bus trip out to the Mississippi River, a lot of Republicans were wondering, "Who is John Crowley?"

There was another less flashy, more intimate New Jersey political meeting going on simultaneously in another corner of the sprawling Minnesota town where Republicans had converged for their national convention, but for the moment this boat covered with red, white and blue bunting was a captivating focal point for the New Jersey GOP procession answering their invitations to see Crowley.

Crowley. Princeton businessman. Owner of a biotech company engaged in finding a cure for a disease Crowley’s children have fought since birth. Millionaire. Navy intelligence officer. Presumptive GOP political star.

Republicans knew the lineaments of the story; still, everyone was speaking the name without knowing the why beyond the boat trip and the vague possibility that Crowley would challenge Gov. Jon Corzine for governor next year.

Coming off the bus, former Gov. Thomas Kean led the way down the gangplank as the jug band started in on a tune and a paranoid Jersey guy told the governor, "As long as you’re here, I know I’m not too far from home."

Sen. Kevin O'Toole (R-Essex).: Politicker photo

DENVER - Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz) selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin roused the fighting mood of state Sen. Kevin O’Toole, one of a handful of elected officials who has stood with McCain from the beginning of his presidential run.

"It’s a curve ball, which Democrats were not expecting, and it opens up a whole new constituency,"said O’Toole. "It is a stroke of brilliance."

Governor of the so-called Seward’s Folly since 2006, Palin is a pro-life fiscal hawk whose one-time Miss Alaska runner’s up face has been on the cover of Vogue.

McCain State Chair Sen. Bill Baroni (R-Mercer): Politicker file photo

DENVER - New Jersey Republicans jeered Barack Obama’s choice for vice president in a Saturday afternoon conference call today, with state Sen. Bill Baroni (R-Mercer) describing as "historic," presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Il.) decision to name Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) as his running mate.

"Yesterday, Sen. Obama picked someone who does not believe his own running mate is ready to be president of the United States," said Baroni, chair of the McCain campaign in New Jersey.

Citing a Democratic Primary debate exchange between ABC moderator George Stephanopoulos and then-presidential candidate Biden in which the latter said he does not believe the presidency is the proper venue for on-the-job training, Baroni focused on the freshman Senator Obama’s lack of experience.

"That’s not me saying it, it’s Joe Biden," said Baroni, echoing a McCain television ad that is now up and running in South Jersey.

Steve Adubato, Jr., presides over a meeting between Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo, center, and Sen. Joseph Kyrillos.: Politicker photo 

SPRING LAKE - They drove and were driven to the Irish Riviera from all corners of New Jersey, in cars with government plates on them and dark SUVs and sedans with tinted glass, sporting sunglasses and paunches covered with sports jackets, mostly Democrats and a handful of Republicans, converging on this mansion by the sea.

Congressmen and mayors and assembly people and state senators and opposition researchers and retainers.

Standing at the front of the Seashell Dining Room in the Breakers to greet them was Steve Adubato, wearing a Hawaiian shirt and welcoming smile - and casting an eye that invariably sharpens human activity into the lineaments of political theater.

"I believe in the luck of the Irish," said the executive director of Newark’s North Ward Center and head of the Democratic Party in the North Ward, facing a sun-filled room packed with rivals hunched over plates of eggs and bacon: Gov. Jon Corzine and Republican State Party Chairman Tom Wilson; former Assemblyman Wilfredo Caraballo, and Assemblyman Albert Coutinho and Assemblwoman Grace Spencer; Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo and Assemblyman Thomas Giblin (D-Montclair).

In this poor man’s Olympiad of Jersey ethnic groups gathered under one roof, Adubato highlighted - as he does annually at this North Ward Center-sponsored breakfast - the Irish, who now number 141,379 registered voters in New Jersey, or 47,514 Democrats, 36,063 Republicans and 57,802 independents.

U.S. Rep. Steve Rothman (D-Fair Lawn): Politicker photo 

TEANECK - Barack Obama may compromise on some issues, but John McCain is a straight-up foot soldier for the oil barons, according to U.S. Rep. Steve Rothman (D-Fair Lawn) and state Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck).

In anticipation of McCain’s landing Tuesday in Bergen County, Rothman and Weinberg criticized the presumptive Republican presidential nominee for accepting 33 oil and gas industry lobbyists as campaign advisors, laying out an energy plan that gives Exxon Mobil $1.2 billion in tax breaks, and accepting $2 million in contributions from Big Oil.

"‘Exxon John’s’ energy policy includes nearly $4 billion in tax cuts to the top five oil corporations, complained Rothman, who stood in the Teaneck Marriott beside a super-sized $2 million check made out to "Exxon John" and signed by Big Oil.

The amount is seven times what Obama received from people connected to the industry, said Rothman, the only member of the New Jersey congressional delegation who supported the Illinois senator for president during the Democratic primary.