Assemblywoman Sheila Oliver (D-East Orange) at her fundraiser tonight in Paterson.

PATERSON - The guests came and kept coming, happily bellying up to the bar and spilling into the overflow rooms here at the Brownstone for a Sheila Oliver fundraiser even as Essex County Democratic Party Chairman Phil Thigpen upped the confidence decibel level with a release that all of the Assembly people from his powerful county delegation would back the East Orange Assemblywoman for speaker.

The email missive carried the latest piece of bad news for Senate President Richard Codey (D-Roseland), who's fighting to remain in his chair of power without a majority of the majority in his Democratic caucus and now with the lower house members from his home county throwing in with Oliver.

Poised to become the first African American woman speaker, Oliver is generally seen as a North Jersey counterweight to South Jersey state Sen. Steve Sweeney (D-West Deptford), who has the Democratic Party votes in the senate to take Codey's job. The more support she builds, the tougher it becomes for Codey to justify sticking around as a double dose of Essex in both the speaker's and Senate president's chairs.

ATLANTIC CITY - Senate President Richard Codey (D-Roseland) walked out of the carpeted Trump Plaza Casino on Friday night leaving no doubt that he's ready for a fight, indeed in a fight.

"Take your best shot," a skeptic said to him and Codey good-naturedly did, playfully wrestling the challenger while telling his security escort, "It's all right, I can handle this."

The escort stood at parade rest.

"And I can handle Sweeney," Codey said moments later, referring to Senate Majority Leader Stephen Sweeney (D-West Deptford), who's challenging him for the Senate Presidency, who last week said, "I can take Codey with one hand tied behind my back." 

Designed to showcase base support for Gov Jon Corzine, the Democratic Convention in Atlantic City simultaneously served as a bicameral crucible for both Codey versus Sweeney intrigue and a brewing lower house leadership fight.

GOP gubernatorial nominee Chris Christie, far left, sits with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Paul Sarlo (D-Wood-Ridge) and Sen. Nia Gill (D-Montclair). U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) appears at far right.

WAYNE - Gov. Jon Corzine's ceremonial swearing-in of Camelia Mercedes Valdes as the new Passaic County prosecutor this evening featured the shared-stage presence of Republican gubernatorial rival Chris Christie, who smudged somewhat the Democrats' hopes of a singular Corzine imprimatur on the first Latina prosecutor in New Jersey.

Although Wayne's solid GOP, this is a Democratic base country county, and for Corzine to have to worry about a split-screen effect with Christie had Democratic Party operatives quietly fuming up and down the wings of the auditorium here at the Passaic County Technical Institute.

Both parties credit Passaic County Democratic Party Chairman John Currie - who sat next to the governor during the ceremony as the counterpoint to Christie, who settled into a chair beside Senate Judiciary Chairman Paul Sarlo - with kick-starting the Valdes as prosecutor concept on marching order's from the Governor's Office to find a Latino(a) candidate for the vacancy.

The good news for Democrats in this county where Latino registered voters form well over a fifth of the voting population and where registered D's outnumber R's 78,009 to 47,498? Currie tracked down a hard-nosed white collar crime and financial fraud prosecutor with courtroom experience who was also Dominican American. They checked out the resume and to a man/woman the conclusion was competence. And then there was the history-making factor. Valdes would be the first Dominican-American lead prosecutor in the country, creating an opportunity for Corzine to oversee a Sotomayor scenario two months before Election Day in a state with a big and growing Latino voting bloc.

GILL MEASURE TO REQUIRE HEALTH INSURERS TO MAKE INSTALLMENT PAYMENTS FOR MATERNITY SERVICES SIGNED INTO LAW

TRENTON – A bill sponsored by Senate Commerce Committee Chairwoman, Senator Nia H. Gill, which requires insurers regulated by the State of New Jersey to make installment payments for maternity services in the Garden State was signed into law today by Governor Corzine.

“The previous insurance reimbursement rules for maternity services performed in New Jersey were absurd, and forced medical professionals to administer care without any guarantee of ever being paid for their work,” said Senator Gill, D-Essex and Passaic. “Rather, health care professionals were only paid for their hard work after a baby was delivered. By going to a system of installment payments for maternity services, we are creating a far fairer system in the Garden State, and will hopefully make it easier for talented maternity care specialists to practice their medicine in New Jersey.”

Notching 8% in this week's Quinnipiac University poll, far behind former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie at 53% and Gov. Jon Corzine at 41%, Independent gubernatorial candidate Chris Daggett confirmed that his focus before this month was almost exclusively on trying to qualify for public matching funds, which he did.

"We're at 8% and that's before we've gone on TV and with no advertising," said Daggett, who last week filed to qualify for matching funds, which would land him $1 million for his campaign. "To this point it's been a race between Chris Christie and Jon Corzine, but people are moving in my direction. Independents will decide this election."

According to Quinnipiac, Christie leads Corzine among Independents, 64%-28%, but that lead shrinks to 54%-24% in a contest among Christie, Corzine and Daggett. The latter receives 13% of the Independent vote, 6% of the Democratic vote, and 4% of the Republican vote. 

Ninety-two percent of state voters don't know him.

As Gov. Jon Corzine continues his search for a Democratic Lt. Governor candidate, it seems that he is ruling out more potential running mates than he considers.  Part of the problem is that every legitimate contender comes with a group of Democrats opposed to his or her candidacy.  That appears especially true for State Senators Barbara Buono (D-Metuchen) and Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck), who for a time looked like the front runners.  Corzine also faces considerable pressure to pick an African American for the post, although Assembly Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing), Newark Mayor Cory Booker, State Senators Shirley Turner (D-Lawrence), Nia Gill (D-Montclair), Ronald Rice (D-Newark) and Sandra Cunningham (D-Jersey City), Secretary of State Nina Mitchell Wells, Trenton Mayor Douglas Palmer, Assemblywoman Sheila Oliver (D-East Orange), and Assemblyman Herbert Conaway (D-Delanco) are, for a variety of reasons, not under serious consideration.

Corzine might be missing one LG candidate with enormous gravitas and few political enemies: U.S. District Court Judge Anne Thompson, who was the first woman and the first African American to serve as a federal judge in New Jersey.  She became the first Black to serve as a county prosecutor when Gov. Brendan Byrne appointed her in 1975 (after a stint as a public defender and as the Trenton Municipal Court Judge), and has spent the last thirty years as a federal judge.   Thompson is 75, slightly older than Weinberg and a decade younger than U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg.  Attorney General Anne Milgram was Thompson's law clerk.

GILL MEASURE TO REQUIRE HEALTH INSURERS TO MAKE INSTALLMENT PAYMENTS FOR MATERNITY SERVICES APPROVED IN SENATE

TRENTON – A bill sponsored by Senate Commerce Committee Chairwoman, Senator Nia H. Gill, which would require insurers regulated by the State of New Jersey to make installment payments for maternity services in the Garden State was approved by the Senate today by a vote of 39-0.

“The current insurance reimbursement rules for maternity services in New Jersey allow medical professionals to administer services without ever being paid for those services,” said Senator Gill, D-Essex and Passaic. “Rather, under the current rules, health care professional who perform maternity services are only paid by the patient’s health insurance after the baby is delivered. That seems absolutely unfair to the professionals who do everything in their power to ensure a healthy delivery, and through this legislation, we would make sure that insurers reimburse ob-gyns and midwives throughout the course of a patient’s pregnancy.”

GILL MEASURE TO REQUIRE HEALTH INSURERS TO MAKE INSTALLMENT PAYMENTS FOR MATERNITY SERVICES ADVANCES

TRENTON – A bill sponsored by Senate Commerce Committee Chairwoman, Senator Nia H. Gill, which would require insurers regulated by the State of New Jersey to make installment payments for maternity services in the Garden State was unanimously approved by the Commerce Committee today.

“Under the current payment rules, ob-gyns are the only medical professionals I know of in New Jersey, who are not paid for the services they provide,” said Senator Gill, D-Essex and Passaic. “Rather, these health care professionals are only paid by the patient’s health insurance after the baby is delivered. This bill would change that system, and would make sure that licensed ob-gyns and midwives could receive payment for services provided throughout a patient’s pregnancy.”

Rosemary McClave the campaign treasurer was indicted yesterday on charges that she used Neil Cohen's campaign account to pay for clothing and toys from QVC.  The indictment, which carries a mandatory prison sentence if she's convicted, doesn't seem to bother the Borough of Teterboro, the Bergen County municipality with a population of eighteen that employs her as municipal treasurer.  The Borough Manager told PolitickerNJ.com today that the allegations against McClave are unrelated to her job as the official custodian of taxpayer funds, so she can continue to hold her local government post as she awaits trial.  State law does not require public officials who handle taxpayer dollars to step down while accused of corrupt activities.

Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer

TRENTON – There was Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal on a television set and Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer listening with deepening skepticism. Palmer, a short-list candidate for lieutenant governor, thought Jindal’s Tuesday night GOP bite-back at President Barack Obama’s federal stimulus speech was especially poor. 

“I think he’s being panned a lot,” Palmer said of the Republican governor who in his remarks likened an aid package to federal bureaucrats haplessly attempting to micromanage Hurricane Katrina relief, and who would refuse a profusion of new federal funds to his state.

“Bobby Jindal’s either hypocritical or he’s putting politics ahead of his responsibility as governor of Louisiana,” said Trenton’s mayor since 1990. “Louisiana especially should welcome aid, and it’s his job to make sure that money is used effectively. Look, we tried the governor’s approach and it’s not going anywhere.”