Loretta Weinberg

WHERE IS GOVERNOR CORZINE, SENATOR WEINBERG, DISTRICT 37 ASSEMBLY MEMBERS JOHNSON AND HUTTLE ON MTA (TUNNEL AND BRIDGE) INCREASES?

Jon Corzine and Joe Ferriero

GOP Lt. Gov. candidate Kim Guadagno says that Gov. Jon Corzine's attempt to disassociate himself with now-convicted ex-Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joseph Ferriero is a joke.

"Try as he might, Jon Corzine can't hide the fact that he and his family gave $441,600 to Joe Ferriero and his Bergen County Democratic Organization," said Guadagno, the Monmouth County Sheriff and a former federal prosecutor.  "Not only did he fuel the activities of a corrupt organization, Governor Corzine failed to take a tough stance when Ferriero was indicted.   For Jon Corzine to imply that his considerable and consistent contributions to Ferriero's political operation were simply to elect federal candidates is laughable and isn't fooling anyone."

Ferriero and Corzine were close political allies, although the disagreed from time to time.  Corzine backed his current running mate, Loretta Weinberg, for a State Senate seat in 2005, despite Ferriero's strong support for another candidate.  And Ferriero played a role in a lawsuit that sought to overturn Corzine's pay to play ban that hampered fundraising for the Bergen County Democratic Organization.

But Ferriero also endorsed Corzine when he ran against Jim Florio in the 2000 Democratic U.S. Senate primary, and his support for Corzine in the 2005 gubernatorial race was a pivotal moment in then-Acting Gov. Richard Codey's decision not to seek the Democratic nomination.

Ferriero also held a lucrative position at a state authority whose commissioners are appointed by the Governor: he was the general counsel to the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission.  In 2007, Weinberg said Ferriero had made about $4.5 million in legal fees from that post.

JERSEY CITY -- Both gubernatorial No. 2s were in New Jersey's second biggest city today, speaking to very different audiences.

Republican lieutenant governor candidate Kim Guadagno hosted Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele at the Christie campaign's canvassing headquarters on Martin Luther King Drive in the heart Ward F -- the most important cog to Jersey City Democratic turnout machine. 

It was, as one supporter noted, the first time Republicans had opened any kind of headquarters in that neighborhood since the Eisenhower era. 

"Jon Corzine has turned his back on you. Chris Christie will not and he has not," Guadagno told a group of about 20 - mostly local Republican activists and candidates - who packed the tiny room. 

Steele cut a ribbon to signify the headquarters' opening, although Hudson County Republican Chairman Jose Arango said it had been open for about one and a half months.

Steele said that, as the former lieutenant governor of Maryland, he appreciates Guadagno's.  He said Christie was "the only candidate on the ticket who's come to your communities, who's goin to do something for your community to make it safer."

Steele, who also planned to join Guadagno at a campaign stop at Bergen County Republican headquarters, did not take any questions from the press. 

For the Christie camp, it was another push to show that they're making a real effort in the inner-city - even if that backfired last month, when they opened a campaign headquarters in Newark with much fanfare.

Some Democrats think Joseph Ferriero's criminal conviction puts Bergen County Executive Dennis C. McNerney in danger of losing party support if he seeks re-election to a third term next year.  A Ferriero protégé, McNerney was handpicked by the powerful party leader to run in 2002 - now Democrats, protective of their control over county government, might gently nudge McNerney to retire.

Democrats will be more likely to dump McNerney if they lose Freeholder seats next month, and almost certain to replace him if Republicans win the race for governor.  But even a victory by Gov. Jon Corzine could push McNerney out; then State Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck), a Ferriero foe, would be Lt. Governor, and her clout among local Democrats would surely increase.  Look for Corzine and Weinberg to play a role in picking a new Democratic County Chairman after Michael Kasparian, who was picked by Ferriero as his replacement last year, steps down next June.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie struck a familiar tone today, trumpeting the conviction of a political figure indicted when he was U.S. Attorney – in this case former Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joe Ferriero. 

But the big difference between today’s press conference phone call and the seven years of pressers Christie held as the state’s top federal prosecutor was that he laid part of the blame for the state’s corrupt political culture on Gov. Jon Corzine.

Christie said Corzine "enabled" Ferriero  ecause Corzine gave Bergen County Democrats over $400,000 when Ferriero led the party.

“The Governor bears some degree of responsibility for this as well because, sadly, he gave over $400,000 of his own personal money to enable this felon to lead the Bergen County Democratic Organization— in fact to lord over the Bergen county political scene for  much of the last decade.”

State Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck) was one of Joe Ferriero’s biggest critics when he led the party that dominated state’s biggest county.  That boosted the reformist credentials that ultimately winning her the spot as Gov. Jon Corzine’s candidate for lieutenant governor.  

But Ferriero’s conviction on three corruption counts could give a boost to Corzine’s Republican opponent, former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie, whose indictment of the Bergen boss was the last in a storied seven year career of taking down corrupt public officials.  

“I am saddened that this took place in the county in which I live and work and represent, and I am heartened that it is all part of our past and not our present and future,” Weinberg said without a hint of schadenfreude.  “I didn’t need any vindication on anything.  I was vindicated – and that’s your word, not mine – when the voters elected me.”  

When asked if she thought the verdict would strengthen Christie’s position in the race, Weinberg said “I think Chris Christie has enough issues to explain about his own behavior.”

‘He’s the one who somehow forgot to file income on his income taxes and on his disclosure forms and somehow managed to always over-spend the government guidelines that he was given for travel,” said Weinberg, referring to interest from Christie’s $46,000 loan to former First Assistant U.S. Attorney Michele Brown and his stays at posh hotels during business travel.  

With eleven days until Election Day, District 36 Democrats Assemblyman Fred Scalera (D-Nutley) and Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic) took in stride the news from a federal courtroom this afternoon that jurors found former Bergen County Democratic Party Chairman Joseph Ferriero guilty on federal corruption charges."

"We answer to three county chairs," said Scalera, speaking to the confluence of counties in the 36th, which includes Passaic, Essex and Bergen.

"I was never funded by the Bergen party at all," the Democratic assemblyman added. "I was never one of their inner circle by any means. I'm seen as an Essex guy, not a Bergen guy. It doesn't play as an issue in the race at all. Those fights between him and (state Sen.) Loretta (Weinberg), I never got involved because it really isn't my county."

The Corzine campaign expects "that the margin will be tight" in the race for Bergen County Freeholder, and predicts that incumbent legislators from both parties will win re-election, according to a briefing memo prepared by the governor's re-election campaign. 

The Corzine campaign views District 36 as "reliably Democratic" and notes that the Republicans have targeted Assemblymen Gary Schaer (D-Passaic) and Frederick Scalera (D-Nutley) because "they think it will be more competitive without the popular Senator (Paul) Sarlo at the top of the ticket. 

"We do not expect the seats to change hands," the memo said.

The Democrats acknowledged the local 37th district split between State Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck), their candidate for Lt. Governor, and the Bergen County Democratic Organization, but said that Weinberg and Michael Kasparian, who became the County Chairman following Joseph Ferriero's indictment, "have been able to establish more harmony."

In District 38, "there was concern that the ticket would be held down by residual issues with former Senator Joe Coniglio's conviction on corruption charges," the memo said.  But "recent polling has been extremely positive, and we expect that both Assemblywomen will retain their seats."

In a blunt analysis, the Corzine campaign conceded that they will not win Republican Assembly seats in the 39th and 40th districts.  "Unfortunately, we expect the Republicans to win reelection this November," the memo said about District 39, and in District 40 said "we do not think they will be able to unseat the Republicans this fall."

PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON CAMPAIGNS IN SUPPORT
OF CORZINE/WEINBERG & DEMOCRATS ACROSS NJ

42nd President of the United States Headlined Rallies
in Collingswood & New Brunswick To Energize Voters
Prior to Election Day

(NEW BRUNSWICK) – President Bill Clinton, the 42nd President of the United States of America, today headlined two rallies in support of Governor Jon S. Corzine, Lieutenant Governor candidate Loretta Weinberg and Democrats running for office throughout New Jersey.

WHERE IS GOVERNOR CORZINE, SENATOR WEINBERG, DISTRICT 37 ASSEMBLY MEMBERS JOHNSON AND HUTTLE ON MTA (TUNNEL AND BRIDGE) INCREASES?