Kevin O'Toole

VERONA - Already state Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean, Jr.'s (R-Westfield) appointee to the congressional redistricting commission and more than a forward observer in the legislative redistricting process, state Sen. Kevin O'Toole (R-Cedar Grove) catapulted into a place where he can now speak candidly in the ears of power, both of the incoming governor and the incoming senate president, with Gov.-elect Chris Christie's victory last week and Senate Majority Leader Steve Sweeney's (D-West Deptford) imminent ascendency on Nov. 23rd.

It has been a slow turn-about and rapid ascent for a politician who on more than one occasion clung to what appeared to be the last shreds of his political career.

"When (James) Treffinger went down, it looked bleak," admittted the former chief of staff to the fallen Essex County executive. "2001 redistricting was bleak."

Elected to local government office in Cedar Grove at 25, the pugnacious political animal spent a career toiling as the dedicated minority in the engine room of the Democratic Party behemoth here in Essex, learning for the sake of survival how to nurture close ties to the other side even as he proudly hanged framed portraits of Ronald Reagan and Sean Hannity in his law office. 

He'd show up at an event in the North Ward, the guest of North Ward Democratic leader Steve Adubato. He had his friends there. There were high fives, for example, from Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo. But those Democrats not among Adubato's inner circle looked on O'Toole as an interloper, a castaway from the other party treading into enemy territory.

Spinning back at news accounts of Chris Christie’s spending on hotel rooms while U.S. Attorney, Republicans today pointed to the state’s latest unemployment report.

“I think it’s a silly distraction from what people really care about, like the unemployment report that says New Jersey hemorrhaged jobs,” said Republican State Chairman Jay Webber (R-Morris Plains), who is also an assemblyman.  

According to numbers released this morning by the Department of Labor and Workforce Development, the state’s unemployment rate ticked up a bit to match the national rate of 9.8%.  The state lost 12,000 private sector jobs that month, more than canceling out the touted 5,600 private sector job gain in July and 2,900 gain in August (the July gain had been revised down from 12,000).  

“That’s what we care about.  Not FOIA requests on travel expenses,” said Webber.

The hotel story was based on documents obtained by the Corzine campaign through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to the U.S. Attorneys Office.

The Senate Republican caucus is meeting at 9AM this morning in Trenton.  On the agenda: the upcoming lame duck legislative session, and the battle for Senate President between Democrats Richard Codey (D-Roseland) and Stephen Sweeney (D-West Deptford).  Senate Minority Leader Thomas Kean, Jr. (R-Westfield) said last Friday that he has not closed the door on a deal to keep Codey in power; he has said that he wants the seventeen Republican Senators to vote as a block.  Kean is expected to hear from at least six GOP Senators that a deal to re-elect Codey is not an option.  Senate Minority Whip Kevin O'Toole (R-Cedar Grove), Sweeney's unofficial emissary to the Republican caucus, is expected to oppose any effort by Republicans to interfere with the Democratic leadership contests.

Former TV reality star Randal Pinkett says that GOP gubernatorial candidate Christopher Christie is tied to the economic policies of former President George W. Bush.

"As tonight's debate showed, the stakes of this election could not be higher for New Jersey voters," said Pinkett, who was under consideration for Lt. Governor earlier this year.  "While Chris Christie would move the state backward by promoting the same, failed Bush economic policies that got us into this economic mess, Governor Corzine will continue to fight for what matters."

The Republicans offered no comment from former reality TV stars, but State Sen. Kevin O'Toole (R-Cedar Grove) took Christie's side.

400+ Pack Passaic County Regular Republican Organization F-R for County Candidates Corrado, Marotta, O'Connell, and Ciambrone

Senate President Richard Codey (D-Roseland) says a well-known Republican research consultant has requested his financial disclosures.

Senate President Richard Codey (D-Roseland) took the preemptive step today of announcing that he is the target of an opposition researcher. 

Christopher Lyon, who typically works for Republican candidates, filed an OPRA request for Codey's financial disclosure forms going back to 1974 - his first year in the legislature.  In a press release, Codey - while not naming anyone - insinuated that Lyon is connected to rival Democrats who are challenging him for the senate presidency. 

Senate Majority Leader Stephen Sweeney (D-West Deptford), who is backed by South Jersey power broker George Norcross, is taking on Codey in an intra-party battle that has played out in the media for the last month.   

"This is typical of what you go through when you oppose certain people in New Jersey.  It's despicable," said Codey.  "I'm not a candidate for public office, so who would have a motive to do this?  It also begs the question of whether anyone who would choose to associate themselves with such a morally reprehensible figure is cut from the same cloth."

Codey has in the past explicitly charged Norcross with being behind opposition research against him.  After attorney Mark Sheridan - who is general counsel to the Republican State Committee - filed dozens of OPRA requests regarding Codey's former insurance company's contract with various municipalities, Codey told the Star-Ledger that he suspected Sheridan was working at the behest of Norcross.  Sheridan denied it, telling the paper they were made on behalf of an unrelated client.

Lyon's last known foray into New Jersey politics was on behalf of state Sen. Tom Kean, Jr.'s (R-Westfield) 2006 U.S. Senate campaign against Bob Menendez (D-Hoboken), when he tracked down a taped recording of Menendez ally Donald Scarinci asking a Hudson County contractor to hire someone as a "favor" to Menendez. 

Reached by phone, Lyon responded generally to Codey's release and would not say who hired him.  

"I'm not going to dignify it with a comment other than it's just plain silly," he said.

Two members of the Republican legislative leadership are calling for the appointment of a special investigator to decide if Gov. Jon Corzine's investment in a hedge fund creates a conflict of interest.

"It is completely unacceptable that Governor Corzine's hedge fund should be able to directly profit in any way, shape or form from government business or that the governor's actions and those of his political appointees can be called into question because of these personal investments," said Senate Minority Whip Kevin O'Toole (R-Cedar Grove) and Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce (R-Parsippany). "A special investigator will put this issue to rest and ensure existing conflicts are properly corrected."

Corzine has a stake in TPG-Axon, a hedge fund that has a relationship with a private investment fund, Texas Pacific Group (TPG).  A spokesman for TPG told the Star-Ledger last week that a firewall exists between the two companies and that they do not share investment information.  The governor has declined to disclose the amount of his investment in the hedge fund, but his staff says it is in the one percent range.  That means Corzine's personal stake could be as high as $90 million.

O'Toole and DeCroce say they want to "put to rest any lingering questions about Governor Jon Corzine's finances and what appears to be several serious instances where the governor's finances are in direct conflict with state business."

GOP gubernatorial nominee Chris Christie at the mic with, from left, State GOP PArty Chairman Jay Webber, state Sen. Minority Whip Kevin O'Toole (R-Cedar Grove), and Monmouth County Sheriff Kim Guadagno

NEWARK - Republicans Chris Christie and Kim Guadagno today presented themselves as lunch bucket Newarkers, who know the city well enough to walk in it - and enough to be familiar with its tensions.

"I know what it's like to be afraid to walk across the street," Guadagno, the sheriff of Monmouth County who teaches classes twice a week at Rutgers Newark, told a small and enthusiastic crowd at the opening of Christie/Guadagno's Newark campaign HQ.

"My wife will tell you that over the last seven years I spent more time here in Newark than in Morris County," said the GOP nominee for governor, who resides in Mendham Township.

Christie lived the first five years of his life here, and as he did at the start of this campaign when he formally announced his candidacy at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, he reiterated his commitment to urban New Jersey.

Former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie and Monmouth County Sheriff Kim Guadagno

NEWARK - Staged as an act of audacity meant to send Democrats into home turf high alert and energize residents weary of one-party rule, Chris Christie this afternoon opened a campaign headquarters in Newark where Democrats outnumber Republicans, 65,000 to 3,400.

"I was born here 47 years ago this past weekend," said the former U.S. Attorney, who stood with his running mate, Monmouth County Sheriff Kim Guadagno, in a storefront at 60 Park Place, a double tweak to Democrats in and of itself, as the majority party occupied this spot last year as their Essex County base of operations for Barack Obama.

"This isn't about opening a headquarters in terms of symbolism," added Christie, speaking to a packed room of cheering supporters from Newark and the environs. "We're opening this headquarters because we have a demand to open it. We will staff it, we will have volunteers to work it."

State Party Chairman/Assemblyman Jay Webber and State Sen. Minority Whip Kevin O'Toole (R-Cedar Grove), chair of the Essex County Republican Party, joined Christie and Guadagno and Assembly and county candidates at the front of the room.

Senate President Richard Codey (D-Roseland) greets Newark South Ward Councilman Oscar James II at President Barack Obama's rally this summer.

Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts' retirement announcement means the north-south civil war just intensified, as veteran Senate President Richard Codey (D-Roseland) looks to defend his chair at the head of the rostrum against Senate Majority Leader Steve Sweeney (D-West Deptford).
 
These two Democratic Party leaders come from different places, and not just geographically.
 
Ironworker Sweeney operates within the structure of the same South Jersey organization developed in part by Roberts and South Jersey Democratic Leader George Norcross III, which numbers 18 legislators strong. Roberts's departure at the end of the year places the burden on Sweeney - the next highest ranked South Jersey lawmaker - to wrest control of the upper house from the North Jersey-based Codey.
 
A insurance broker by trade with 35 years of legislative experience, Codey survives because of his ability to embody the solitary lawmaker who keeps his own counsel, who doesn't get bullied, and who relies on public appeal developed during his service as interim governor from 2004-2006 to counter the perception of statewide rule by machine politics.
 
If Sweeney's status as a dual office holder (he serves as freeholder director of Gloucester County in addition to senator) and machine product weaken his ability to stand convincingly on the Democratic Party's new era pedestal, Codey's image suffers as the former holder of multiple public sector insurance contracts, which made him a bundle of money during the course of his career in public service.