Kevin O'Toole

There is some talk that Assemblyman Michael Doherty (R-Oxford) would emerge as the leading candidate for Lt. Governor, if Steven Lonegan wins the GOP gubernatorial primary and if Doherty fails to beat State Sen. Marcia Karrow (R-Raritan) in the District 23 State Senate primary.  Doherty won't give up a State Senate nomination to run statewide.

If Lonegan and Doherty both win on June 2, look at former Assembly Majority Leader Paul DiGaetano (R-Nutley) to emerge as a strong contender to be Lonegan's running mate.  DiGaetano was an early supporter of Lonegan, and could help unite the state GOP if the former Mayor of Bogota beats Christopher Christie for the Republican nod.  

The 55-year-old DiGaetano has a strong resume: businessman, naval reservist, nine-term Assemblyman, four-term Passaic City Councilman, and former Assembly Majority and Minority Leader.  He's also been through a statewide campaign as a candidate for the 2005 Republican nomination for Governor.  But DiGaetano might struggle to prove his conservative credentials to Lonegan supporters.  Despite his endorsement of Christie, State Sen. Kevin O'Toole (R-Cedar Grove), the Essex County GOP Chairman, actually enjoys a strong relationship with Lonegan and his top strategist, Rick Shaftan.  And O'Toole, who as Chairman of the Republican County Chairmen would play a pivotal role in uniting the party after the primary, can't stand DiGaetano.

Senate Majority Leader Steve Sweeney (D-Bridgeton), right, and state Sen. Kevin O'Toole (R-Cedar Grove)

With South Jersey’s rolling ten-year headline to finally take over the state diminished somewhat by U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews’s (D-Haddon Heights) doomed run for the Senate, then redeemed when U.S. Rep. John Adler (D-Cherry Hill) won later the same year, a lot of establishment eyes turned to state Sen. Majority Leader Steve Sweeney (D-Bridgeton) as the most likely South Jersey Democrat to make a statement this year, and in the process, further embolden the South Jersey Democratic Organization. 

Amid ongoing cloakroom chatter about Sweeney – who also serves as Gloucester County freeholder director - and his South Jersey colleagues teaming across the aisle with state Sen. Kevin O’Toole (R-Cedar Grove) to banish Senate President Richard Codey (D-West Orange), Sweeney today said he wouldn’t rule out running for lieutenant governor, if Gov. Jon Corzine offered him the job.     

“I would never say never,” Sweeney told PolitickerNJ.com. “I would have to consider it if it was offered. I’m not pursuing it.” 

The six Republican members of the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee said today's testimony shows Governor Corzine has created a breathtakingly irresponsible budget that will inevitably result in crippling tax increases on New Jersey's middle class if he wins re-election.

Democrats do not view the race for State Assembly in the 21st district as winnable even with the death of popular Assemblyman Eric Munoz (R-Summit) and are unlikely to put up much of a fight in November against the winner of a special election convention to fill the vacant State Assembly seat.  Munoz and Assembly Minority Whip Jon Bramnick won re-election by more than 10,000 votes in 2007.

Eric Munoz, M.D. (1947-2009)

There will be no announcements regarding the scheduling of a special election convention until after Assemblyman Eric Munoz's funeral on Friday, but Republican leaders in the 21st district were busy yesterday talking politics and considering options for the upcoming Assembly race.  The early speculation is that there are two contenders for the Assembly seat: former Summit Council President Kelly Hatfield and Phil Morin, the Union County GOP Chairman and a former Mayor of Cranford.  Hatfield appears to be locking up some key endorsements in a campaign that won't officially begin until Friday, but Morin may have the backing of Nancy Munoz, the wife of the late Assemblyman.

Assemblyman Eric Munoz (R-Summit) passed away on Monday at the age of 61.

Eric Munoz first went to the Legislature in 2001 amidst a game of political musical chairs in the old 21st district, which was about equally divided between Essex and Union counties.  The six -term State Senator, Republican Louis Bassano, resigned to take a job at the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority.  The district had already been chopped up, with Bassano's home town, Union, being placed in the heavily-Democratic 20th district, where Raymond Lesniak was the Senator.

Assemblyman Kevin O'Toole won a special election for Bassano's State Senate seat, knowing that he would return to the Assembly eight months later.  His hometown, Cedar Grove, had already been redistricted into District 40, which was represented in the Senate by Henry "Tapioca" McNamara. 

Munoz defeated former Cranford Mayor Thomas Denny in a special election convention to fill O'Toole's Assembly seat.  At this point, four incumbent Assemblymen lived in the new 21st district: Richard Bagger, Thomas Kean, Jr. (who had won a special election convention earlier that year after Alan Augustine died in office), and Joel Weingarten, an Essex County Republican who had beaten Kean and Michael Ferguson to win the Union County GOP Convention in his 2000 campaign for Congress.  Bagger was unopposed for the GOP State Senate nomination; the incumbent, Senate President and Acting Governor Donald DiFrancesco, was not running for the Legislature.

Following the departure of Kevin Collins, above, Steve Lonegan's campaign staffers will no longer have official titles.

Kevin Collins has been let go as campaign manager of Steve Lonegan's bid for the Republican gubernatorial nomination.  Collins will not be replaced, at least not formally.  As of today, the Lonegan campaign has eliminated titles for staffers.

Collins told PolitickerNJ.com that he viewed the direction of the campaign differently than Lonegan and his strategist, Rick Shaftan, and that the decision to leave the campaign was his. 

Collins declined to say if he would still back Lonegan for the GOP nomination.  "There are several fine candidates competing in the GOP primary and I wish each of them well.  Steve's decision to attempt to compete in a statewide primary without a campaign manager speaks for itself," Collins said.

State Sen. Diane Allen (R-Burlington) said today that she is probably not interested in a seat on the soon-to-be-expanded Senate Judiciary Committee.

“When you change committees you have to give up one, and while I think Judiciary would be an excellent committee, I would be hard pressed to give up one of the two I have,” said Allen, who is the ranking Republican on the Education Committee and the second ranking minority party member of the Health Committee.  

Under a rules change proposed by Senate President Richard Codey (D-Roseland) and agreed to by Republicans, the Judiciary Committee will add two new senators, one Republican and one Democrat, to expand its membership from 11 to 13.

Senate Republicans have agreed to a rules change that will expand the size of two Senate committees.  The Judiciary Committee will go for eleven to thirteen (eight Democrats and five Republicans), and the Labor Committee will increase from five to seven (four Democrats and three Republicans).  Brian Stack (D-Union City) will get the Judiciary post, and James Beach (D-Voorhees) will get the Labor seat. 

On the Republican side, things are a little more complicated.  Sean Kean (R-Wall), a pro-Labor Republican, is expected to get the new Labor Committee seat.  For the Judiciary seat, Senate Minority Leader Thomas Kean, Jr. might be forced to choose between two Senators who want the assignment:  Christopher Bateman (R-Branchburg) and Kevin O'Toole (R-Cedar Grove).  This puts Kean in the uncomfortable position of possibly passing over O'Toole, the Essex County Republican Chairman and the Chairman of the GOP County Chairmen, for the second time this year.  Kean picked Anthony Bucco (R-Boonton) to serve as the ranking Republican on the Appropriations Committee after Leonard Lance resigned to take his seat in Congress.

Senate Republican Whip Kevin O'Toole of Cedar Grove wonders if Governor Jon Corzine has ever totaled the cost of the burdens he has loaded onto the backs of New Jersey's middle class during his three years in office.