Nina Mitchell Wells

If Gov. Jon Corzine wins re-election, look for former reality TV star Dr. Randal Pinkett to be on the short list of candidates for Secretary of State.  Corzine came close to picking Pinkett to run for Lt. Governor last summer, and the Franklin business executive and Ph.D. has been working hard for the campaign as Chairman of Yes We Can 2.0, a GOTV operation of the state Democratic Party.  Nina Mitchell Wells is expected to leave her post in January.

Nina Mitchell Wells plans to leave her post as New Jersey's Secretary of State, even if Gov. Jon Corzine wins re-election, according to sources familiar with her status. 

Former three-term Princeton Regional School Board member Joshua Leinsdorf, one of ten independent candidates for Governor, has picked 69-year-old Newark public school teacher and Girl Scout leader Joanne Miller as his running mate.  Miller has made five unsuccessful bids as an independent candidate for State Assembly since 1999.

It will be interesting to see if New Jersey Secretary of State Nina Mitchell Wells, who now supervises the state Division of Elections, forces Miller to pick between a bid for Lt. Governor and her sixth campaign for the State Assembly; she filed petitions last month to run as an independent in District 29.  Last year, Wells missed the state law that prohibits candidates from running for President and for the United States Senate in the same election when certified Jeff Boss, who claims to have witnessed U.S. officials planning the 9/11 terrorist attack, as a candidate for both offices.

Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo, center, greets state Sen. Joe Kyrillos (R-Middletown), now chair of the Christie campaign, with Steve Adubato, Jr., left, and Christie confidante Bill Palatucci at last year's North Ward Center party at the Breakers.

Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo officially scratched himself off a shortening - and then lengthening - and now indeterminate lieutenant governor gossip sheet tonight, saying he wouldn't take the job if Gov. Jon Corzine offered. 

"I'm going to be running for Essex County Executive next year," said DiVincenzo, who is seeking his third term. "The more successful I am as county executive, people are interested in me wanting to run for lieutenant governor. But I'm not interested.

"I'm running for re-election," he added. "Jon knows I'm going to work very hard to get him re-elected."

DiVincenzo said he heard the LG rumors kick in about him on Friday, and he dismissed them. Today, The Inside Edge wrote a piece acknowledging the backchatter.

"I never talked to the governor, he never called me about this, I just want to put the rumor to rest," DiVincenzo told PolitickerNJ.com.

State Sen. Dana Redd (D-Camden)

Sources close to Gov. Jon Corzine have said for months now that he won't pick a white male for lieutenant governor.

Not enough balance.

A week ago three names seemed fairly solid in a firmament that nevertheless shifts daily: state Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck), state Sen. Barbara Buono (D-Metuchen) and Secretary of State Nina Mitchell Wells.

If the first two were white, they were women, at least. But the fact that they weren't males wasn't the only obvious jump-off-the-page quality they shared.

Both women had reputations as elected officials who wouldn't easily get pushed around. 

Weinberg earned a rep - and endeared herself in the process to Corzine - as an enemy of the Bergen County Democratic Organization, while Buono aggressively sought the budget chairmanship despite efforts by leadership to install somebody more pliant.

Two Mercer County women who had been viewed as potential Democratic Lt. Governor candidates say they are not under consideration: State Sen. Shirley Turner (D-Lawrence) and New Jersey Chamber of Commerce President Joan Verplanck both told PolitickerNJ.com that they have not been asked to fill out a questionnaire Gov. Jon Corzine is using in his running mate selection process.  Turner is one of three African American women who have been mentioned for LG, along with Assembly Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman and Secretary of State Nina Mitchell Wells.  Verplanck, a Republican, had been considered by Corzine earlier this month, but a trial balloon on her candidacy did not go over well with Democrats.

*UPDATE: The Governor's Office announced at 4:12pm today that Gov. Corzine signed the lieutenant governor legislation this afternoon.  Secretary of State Nina Mitchell Wells also certified the results after the publication of this story.  All gubernatorial candidates have 30 days from today to select a running mate.

The Secretary of State's office says that the deadline for picking a lieutenant governor has not yet been set, giving Governor Jon Corzine and Republican gubernatorial nominee Chris Christie almost a month longer than originally thought to pick their running mates.   

Since the primary, the buzz about who the major party candidates will pick for the number two spot has been based on the presumption that it will have to be done within 30 days of that election – on or before July 2.  After all, the 2006 amendment to the New Jersey State Constitution creating the new office reads that the selection “shall be made within 30 days following the nomination of the candidate for election to the office of Governor.”   

But when a candidate wins a primary – even by convincing margins, as both Corzine and Christie did – he or she is not automatically the nominee.  Before Corzine and Christie officially get that status, Secretary of State Nina Mitchell Wells has to certify the June 2 primary results.  That has not happened yet,  although she may certify them as early as today. 

A bill that won final passage in the legislature last night spells out the deadline more clearly.  According to the law, the candidate for lieutenant governor “shall be selected by the candidate of that party nominated for election to the office of Governor within 30 days following the certification of the candidate for election to the office of Governor.” 

“The clock has not started to run if [Wells] has not certified” said Department of State spokeswoman Susan Evans. 

Essex County Clerk Christopher J. Durkin

The writers of Seinfeld famously created a television sitcom about nothing. Well, the writers of the legislatively-driven public question that has given New Jersey a lieutenant governor have created an office that does nothing...except expand government.

This year, New Jersey will join the ranks of 42 other states with the election of our first lieutenant governor.  After the June 2nd primary, the gubernatorial nominees will have 30 days to select a lieutenant governor candidate as a running mate.

The duties and functions of the current lieutenant governors from around the United States are varied: The states of Hawaii and Utah amended their respective constitutions so that the lieutenant governor would assume the powers and office of the Secretary of State. Some lieutenant governors chair boards and committees. Texas Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst is America's most powerful, controlling the work of the Texas Senate and the budgeting process as the leader of the Legislative Budget Board.

Another name for the list of potential Democratic candidates for Lt. Governor, according to one party leader, is former state Commerce Secretary Virginia Bauer. She first appeared in the public eye as an advocate for 9/11 families after her husband was among the casualties of the attack on the World Trade Center.  She later became state Lottery Director and now serves as a Commissioner of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.  Bauer is a senior vice president at Covenant House, and in 2007 married Donald Steckroth, a federal bankruptcy judge.

There are some leaders among the Democratic base who are strongly pushing Gov. Jon Corzine to consider a woman as his running mate.  Other possible candidates often mentioned by Democratic insiders include Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Barbara Buono (D-Metuchen), Assembly Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing), State Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck), Assemblywoman Pamela Rosen Lampitt (D-Cherry Hill), Secretary of State Nina Mitchell Wells, and Perth Amboy Mayor Wilda Diaz.

Some polling places remain open as voters who were in line by 8PM await the chance to cast their vote. 

"New Jersey is experiencing what could very likely be record voter turnout statewide," said Secretary of State Nina Mitchell Wells in a statement released tonight. "This is expected to continue until the close of polls.  Election officials are working diligently to process the heavy volume as carefully and expeditiously as possible."