Paul Aronsohn

The newest recipient of the Neil Romano Award for scamming a Bergen County political organization goes to Carmen Pio Costa, who convinced Republicans to nominate him for State Assembly in the potentially competitive 36th district by promising to raise money from his wealthy family.  For the second consecutive cycle, Pio Costa, the son of a millionaire developer/philanthropist from Morris County, has not come through; his individual and joint accounts show about $7,500 raised.

The last winner of the Neil Romano Award was Democrat Paul Stuart Aronsohn in his 2006 campaign for Congress.

One of the legendary scams in Bergen County politics came in 1984, when Republicans were considering candidates to take on newly-elected Democratic Congressman Robert Torricelli. Torricelli had won the seat two years earlier, when he ousted three-term GOP incumbent Harold Hollenbeck by a 53%-46% margin. The political climate in 1982 (and congressional redistricting in the 9th) favored Democrats and Torricelli leveraged the national contacts he made working for Vice President Walter Mondale and running Jimmy Carter's 1980 re-election campaign in Illinois to help him raise $266,000 -- about $70,000 more than Hollenbeck had.

Ronald Reagan's popularity heading into the 1984 election, and a new congressional map (the '82 redistricting plan was tossed by federal judges), gave Republicans reason to believe Torricelli could be beaten. The 9th district went strongly for Reagan, giving him a 59%-41% win over Mondale -- a plurality of almost 47,000 votes.

If the federal corruption trial of Joseph Ferriero ends in an acquittal, many party leaders expect that he will run again for Bergen County Democratic Chairman next June, or earlier.  Ferriero was forced to resign that post following his 2008 indictment.  That could cause quite a civil war just as Democrats are gearing up for the re-election of County Executive Dennis C. McNerney.

The conventional wisdom is that Ferriero's successor, Michael Kasparian, has no plans to seek re-election.  The job is not what he imagined it would be, he has struggled to raise money, and sources say his interest in staying on is limited at best. 

While Ferriero had a lock on the County Committee before his indictment (he won his last race with 80% of the vote), Democratic sources say he would face a real fight to return.  His chances could be reduced is his rival, State Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck), is elected Lt. Governor.  Weinberg would almost certainly push Jon Corzine to intervene, as she did when she ran for Byron Baer's open State Senate seat against Ken Zisa, Ferriero's choice.

Stuart Rothenberg, the editor and publisher of The Rothenberg Political Report, wasn't impressed with Dennis Shulman's campaign for Congress

Worth noting are the comments of Stuart Rothenberg, the editor and publisher of The Rothenberg Political Report, a non-partisan political newsletter covering U.S. House, Senate and gubernatorial campaigns, Presidential politics and political developments, on the race for Congress in New Jersey's fifth district between Democrat Dennis Shulman and U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett (R-Wantage):

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has added New Jersey's fifth district to their "Red to Blue" fundaising program "once thought to be out of reach."  The Republican incumbent, Scott Garrett, faces Dennis Shulman, a blind Rabbi who has run an aggressive and surprisingly well-financed campaign in a district that hasn't elected a Democratic Congressman since 1978.  But the Red to Blue list is clearly not the DCCC's first-tier campaigns, and inclusion in the program doesn't assure any meaningful campaign dollars or substantial political support and includes over sixty House races nationally where Democrats aren't completely optimistic.  Josh Zeitz, who is challenging fifteen-term incumbent Christopher Smith in the fourth district, was added to the Red to Blue list in September.  Smith is still viewed as a safe bet for re-election.

Some Democratic insiders suggest that one casualty of yesterday's indictments of Joseph Ferriero and Dennis Oury will be Bergen County Executive Dennis McNerney, who has always been more popular with Ferriero than with local Democratic party leaders.  McNerney has two years left in his second term, and there's a good chance, sources say, that the post-Ferriero Bergen County Democratic Organization will seek a new candidate for County Executive in 2010.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer's PAC has contributed $5,000 to 5th district Democratic congressional candidate Dennis Shulman: Getty Images Photo
PARAMUS -- Sitting at a conference table at IBEW Local 164's headquarters with congressionalcandidate Dennis Shulman, several labor officials and two reporters this morning, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) was asked whether he planned to back up his visible support of Shulman with a significant amount of cash.

Hoyer, smiling, pulled an envelope out of his pocket and handed it to Shulman.

"Here's another $2,500. Talk is cheap, right?" said Hoyer. "It's not in the mail. It's in his pocket now."

It was the second $2,500 check that Hoyer's political action committee, AmeriPAC, had given to Schulman's campaign - something he said would be a taste of things to come if Shulman continues to run a vigorous campaign against three-term Rep. Scott Garrett in the fifth congressional district.

PolitickerNJ.com's Winners & Losers of the Week

Paul Aronsohn, the former press secretary to Gov. James E. McGreevey who lost a bid for Congress in 2006 by eleven percentage points, is now a Ridgewood Councilman-elect. He was among three challengers who ousted two incumbents in Tuesday’s non-partisan municipal races. Aronsohn’s election to public office makes it more likely that he’ll seek higher office again in the future; that could be as early as July, when the new five-member Council meets to elect a Mayor.

RIDGEWOOD - Anne Zusy recently registered as a Democrat to vote for Barack Obama. Paul Aronsohn likes Hillary Clinton. And Keith Killion, who’s registered as a Republican, is a John McCain supporter.

But the three stood outside of a post office in Ridgewood today to run as a team for three council seats, saying that the village needs new blood in its government. The fact that the three of them could run together, they say, is evidence how seriously this traditionally Republican town takes its non-partisan elections.

Their opponents are incumbent council members Betty Wiest, the town’s Deputy Mayor, and Jacques Harlow. Wiest spent most of the day at home calling supporters to get them out to the polls, while Harlow competed in a senior citizens’ tennis tournament, which he said would help take his mind off of the election.