Kevin O'Toole

**UPDATED

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.

Bergen County Republican Chairman Bob Yudin has named Assembly Majority Leader Paul DiGaetano as the coordinator for the 2008 Republican ticket headed by John McCain. That’s an interesting choice since DiGaetano lives in Essex County, although he represented part of South Bergen in the Legislature for sixteen years. By naming DiGaetano, who left the Legislature in 2005 to run unsuccessfully for Governor, Yudin is taking a real shot at Kevin O’Toole, the Essex County Republican Chairman and a State Senator who represents Yudin’s own district. O’Toole and DiGaetano are bitter rivals.

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.

Senate Minority Leader Ton Kean, Jr. (R-Union), and Sen. Leonard Lance (R-Hunterdon).: Politicker photo

State Sen. Thomas Kean, Jr., (R-Union) became minority leader just as a new band of hungry Republican legislators came up from the General Assembly to assume their Senate seats.

Another under 40 senator with statewide aspirations might send out at least back channel messages of panic in the face of a baseball roster's worth of new GOP talent.

And indeed there have been some nose-to-nose moments in the last few months since Kean made caucus boss, notably between the patrician leader and the headstrong state Sen. Kevin O'Toole (R-Essex).

But according to his colleagues, the stoic Kean has generally met the onrush by embracing it; and has assumed a statesmanlike stance while tapping the scrappy skills honed by his freshmen senators in the lower house.

A week before former Newark Mayor (and state senator) Sharpe James is scheduled to to be sentenced in federal court, five state senators are requesting the maximum sentencing.

"We implore you," state senators Bill Baroni (R-Mercer), Jennifer Beck (R-Monmouth), Gerald Cardinale (R-Begen), Joe Kyrillos (R-Monmouth), and Kevin O'Toole (R-Essex), said in a co-authored letter sent this morning to U.S. District Judge William Martini.

"I was surprised to see Sharpe James's attorney advocating for lesser sentencing," said Beck. "This is a mayor who openly abused his power in office. We are at a low point in terms of public trust, and if citizens don't believe in their public officials it erodes our ability to administer our democracy."

According to the Star-Ledger, James's attorneys plan to meet with Martini on Wednesday to urge him to impose far less than a decade in prison on the 72-year old former mayor, who was convicted earlier this year on corruption charges.

Nkosi RemyNkosi Remy is the new chief of staff for state Sen. Kevin O’Toole (R-Essex).

A member of Rutger's University's first bowl victory team, Remy was a wide receiver and defensive back during his four years as a Scarlet Knight. He has two Bowl Championship rings, including one from the historic Texas Bowl.

"With former chief-of-staff, Dominick Fiorilli, leaving to become John McCain’s deputy northeast regional campaign manager, I needed an energetic, intellectual leader to be my chief of staff," O’Toole said. "Nkosi more than fits the bill."

According to O'Toole's office, Kosi has received numerous awards, including the outstanding delegate award at UC Berkeley, a model United Nations conference held at UC Berkeley in San Francisco, and the "Honorable Delegate" award at Worldmun.