Mike Muller

PolitickerNJ.com will release our 2009 Power List of New Jersey's 100 most politically influential personalities on Tuesday, August 4. The list, first released in March 2000, is an Insiders List that includes policy makers, party leaders, fundraisers, lobbyists, labor unions, businesses, and associations and have assembled the ultimate list of New Jerseyans with clout, with an impact on politics and government in the Garden State -- everyone but elected officials and Judges.  Stay tuned!

In 2008, Atlantic City radio personality Harry Hurley was the Reader's Choice for #100.  In a two-day online poll that attracted nearly 2,900 voters, Hurley defeated Republican State Chairman Tom Wilson by a 35%-15% margin. Public Policy guru Jon Shure finished third with 12%, just narrowly leading Union County Manager George Devanney (12%). None of the other six candidates -- Cape May County GOP Chairman David Von Savage, attorney and Democratic fundraiser Victor Herlinsky, conservative political strategist Rick Shaftan, Burlington County GOP Chairman Mike Warner, and Jersey City political activists Bobby Jackson and Joe Cardwell -- finished in the double digits.

Hurley also won a 2007 Reader's Choice poll.

CLICK HERE TO VOTE!

Five New Jersey Electoral College members who were elected on November 4th on a slate pledged to Barack Obama have resigned.  The five - Mike Muller, Kelly Stewart Maer, Carmen Brown, Margaret Martin-Brown, and Elizabeth Duthie - have been replaced by Ken Saunders,  Jose Colon, Shavonda Sumter, Wilma Grey and Stacy Lubrecht.  There is no legal obstacle about filling Electoral College vacancies, but there is some confusion as to the process.

According to the Democratic State Committee, a three-person committee on vacancies - State Chairman Joseph Cryan, Executive Director Rob Asaro-Angelo, and lobbyist Josh Hodes - met to pick the new electors.  But state law gives the power to fill Electoral College vacancies to the other electors. 

So as long as the other ten electors vote to ratify the picks of the unofficial COV, Barack Obama shouldn't have any trouble getting fifteen votes out of New Jersey when the Electoral College meets in Trenton on Monday.

Read the state law:

Getty Images Photo

New Jersey's fifteen electoral votes are expected to be cast for Democrats Barack Obama and Joseph Biden when the Electoral College meets in Trenton next Monday.

The fifteen members of the Electoral College elected last month to cast their ballots for Democrat Barack Obama will meet in Trenton next Monday. While each of the electors has the legal right to vote for the individual of their choice, there is no reason to believe Obama won't get fifteen votes from New Jersey. The electoral college members are: Carmen Brown, Elizabeth Duthie, William Fontanez, Gina Genovese, Kevin Halpern, Victor Herlinksy, Kelly Stewart Maer, Margaret Martin-Brown, Mike Muller, Salaheddin Mustafa, Peter Nichols, Bill Northgrave, Ginger Gold Schnitzer, Carl Styles and Stephen Weinstein.

All eighty seats in the New Jersey General Assembly are up next year, with Democrats in strong shape to keep their majority under a legislative map that creates relatively few competitive races.

Republicans feel that they have a good chance to go on the offensive this year, even if taking control of the Assembly, where Democrats have a 48-32 majority, is an unlikely prospect. Assembly Republican Executive Director Rick Wright thinks the gubernatorial candidacy of U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie, one of four Republicans actively exploring a statewide bid, would boost his party’s chances to pick up Assembly seats.

“It all depends on who our gubernatorial candidate is. I know there’s a lot of excitement out there about Chris Christie. If and when he makes his decision, that will help us in our recruiting. We have people out there sitting and saying I want to see what Chris Christie does,” Wright said. “A lot of county chairmen think we have a much better chance of success in gubernatorial and legislative races if Chris Christie is at the top of the ticket.”

State Democratic Party Chairman Joseph Cryan address the crowd at Obama HQ on Saturday.: Politicker photo

WEST WINDSOR - The sense here on Saturday is the presidential race is no longer deadlocked nationally.

At this moment.

So when State Democratic Chairman Joseph Cryan asks the crowd of 260 Obama canvassers to demonstrate an upbeat mood, they respond with full-throated gusto in the packed headquarters of Obama’s campaign headquarters.

No one committed to a candidate in this cycle lets pass an opportunity to celebrate the good fortune of his or her presidential aspirant, be he Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) or Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).

To hear the media tell the story, the fortunes appear too transient.

If this event occurred a week ago, the mood would have been borderline gloomy. But today Washington is mulling a $700 billion bail-out package for a flat-lining Wall Street and Sen. John McCain - longtime champion of deregulation in the private sector - also lugs a five-day old burden of suggesting that America’s economy is fundamentally sound.

WEST ORANGE - Essex County Democratic Party Chairman Phil Thigpen, Gov. Jon Corzine and fellow party members huddled up in Pal’s Cabin this morning in a show of party unity as Team Essex heads into Denver in support of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Il).

This is the second time in as many weeks that Corzine has gone to Pal’s to help focus party members on getting Obama elected president. Last week the governor met with members of the Group, the chief fundraising arm for Sen. Hillary Clinton, which is now committed to Obama.

"This one was much more about elected officials and the county party apparatus," said Mark Alexander, senior advisor for the Obama campaign. "There were town chairmen and women, all showing the unity of Obama and Clinton. This was about creating a unified force in the party."

Tom Hester, Jr. has joined the Assembly Majority Staff as Associate Executive Director.Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts has picked Tom Hester, Jr., a veteran state house reporter, to serve as the new Associate Executive Director for Communications in the Assembly Majority Office. Hester replaces Mike Muller, who left this month to run the coordinated Democratic campaign. Hester has covered the Legislature and the Governor’s office for the Associated Press and the Trenton Times, and worked for the Express Times and the Hunterdon County Democrat. His father, Tom Hester, Sr., was also a well-known statehouse reporter.

Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts (D-Camden): Politicker photo

BROOKLAWN - South of Camden in a shopping center parking lot on Route 130, under a water tower with the name "Brooklawn" stenciled on it in big letters, amid the donut and pizza shops, stands a lone legislative office.

It’s the headquarters of Speaker Joe Roberts (D-Camden), who, coming off one of the biggest wins of his 21-year career in the Assembly, told PolitickerNJ.com he has no intention of leaving Trenton when he’s up for re-election in 2009.

A veteran of ten legislative cycles and Assembly Speaker since 2006, he insists he’s running again.

"Absolutely, I’m ready to go," said Roberts, specifically expressing his desire to seek the Assembly’s top leadership position, for which he had his caucus’s unanimous support when his party reorganized in January.

South Jersey Democrats were unable to send their longtime Congressman to the United States Senate, but they have taken two key statewide party posts this month.  Tricia Mueller, a top political operative for the Carpenters Union, will run Barack Obama’s New Jersey presidential campaign, and Mike Muller, who works for Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts as the head of the Assembly Democratic campaign committee, has been tapped to run the coordinated campaign.