Phil Thigpen

Essex County Corzine Campaign Coordinator Leroy Jones, left, and Assemblyman Albert Coutinho (D-Newark) Thursday in the East Ward.

NEWARK - After months of mostly unobservable underground movements and five days in front of President Barack Obama's appearance at the Rock, there is evidence of effort on behalf of Gov. Jon Corzine in a city the governor needs to win amply in order to land another four years in office.
 
Of course, Democrats are leaning heavily on Corzine-Obama linkage.

In 2005, Corzine defeated Republican challenger Doug Forrester in Newark, 39,573 to 3,336, while carrying Essex County overall, 131,312 to 45,789 on his way to statewide victory.
 
By comparison, Obama punished Republican Sen. John McCain in Newark by a vote of 77,112 to 5,957 last year, as he carried Essex County, 240,127 to 73,975, recording a larger number of votes here than in any other county on his way to winning New Jersey by a 15% margin. 

"Certainly for Obama, people had a clear and distinguishable reason for coming out," says Essex County Democratic Party chairman Phil Thigpen. "Now, it's not as visible when you talk about quality of education or property taxes and you're a renter, for example. So we've got to jazz it up."

South Orange resident Terriann Moore-Abrams at the opening of Chris Christie's Newark headquarters.

Orange Council President Ed Marable, Jr., is crossing party lines to endorse the Republican candidate for register, Terriann Moore-Abrams, who's on the ballot with GOP gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie.

"She's everything I would want in a register," said the council president, a supporter of Gov. Jon Corzine and other Democrats on the ballot this year. "The register oversees deeds and mortgage records, and is one of the biggest sources of fees in the county. Terriann is the ideal person to do that job."

Moore-Abrams was a good Democrat who toiled dutifully for the party, she says, and worked hard in her job as one of Essex County's chief attorneys.

When Essex County register Carole Graves said she wasn't seeking another five-year term for the $91,650-a-year position, Moore-Abrams, a former assistant prosecutor and county counsel, put in for the job.

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.

All nine Essex County Democrats in the State Assembly have endorsed Sheila Oliver (D-East Orange) for Speaker.  Oliver now has endorsements from 35 Democratic legislators and likely winners of open seats, giving her a seemingly overwhelming lead in the race to succeed retiring Speaker Joseph Roberts (D-Camden).

Oliver's rival, Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing) has just two votes, her own and Reed Gusciora (D-Princeton), her running mate.

Among Oliver's supporters are John McKeon (D-West Orange) and Mila Jasey (D-South Orange), who are running mates and political allies of Senate President Richard Codey (D-Roseland).

Also backing Oliver are Ralph Caputo (D-Belleville), Albert Coutinho (D-Newark), Thomas Giblin (D-Montclair), Frederick Scalera (D-Nutley), Grace Spencer (D-Newark), and Cleopatra Tucker (D-Essex).

"I am honored that our entire delegation is supporting Sheila Oliver for Speaker," said Essex County Democratic Chairman Phil Thigpen, "she will be a fighter for the taxpayers in New Jersey; her dedication to human services will insure that the individuals so often overlooked in government will now have a strong voice in Trenton.  I am so proud that Essex County is part of this historic election."

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.

Essex County Democratic Chairman Philip Thigpen is getting ready to run for office: he says he expected to become his party's candidate for Register of Deeds and Mortgages.  The organization supported Newark Central Ward Democratic Chairman Dwight Brown for Register in the June primary after incumbent Carole Graves declined to seek re-election.  But Brown died unexpectedly over the summer, leaving Democrats without a candidate to face Republican Terriann Moore Abrams, a former South Orange Village Trustee.

The post has a $91,650 annual salary and is a five-year term.

Essex and Hudson are the last counties to have an elected Register of Deeds and Mortgages.  In the other nineteen counties, the County Clerk performs their duties.  Camden eliminated the position after Republican Susan Rose won the post in 1990.  Union got rid of the post in 1995 when the incumbent, Joanne Rajoppi, ran for County Clerk. 

Four years after Democrat Gerard DeStefano ousted longtime GOP Passaic County Register Frank Sylvester in 1996, the Republican-controlled Legislature eliminated his job.  They did it with the ultimate political cover: Passaic voters had passed a non-binding referendum urging the post be absorbed into the Office of the County Clerk (then held by Republican Ronnie Nochimson).

The Hudson County Register is Willie Flood, who is also a Jersey City Councilwoman.

Thigpen, a former Freeholder and fixture in local politics since the 1960's, would be under no obligation to give up his chairmanship.  Eight other County Chairs are elected officials.

But some Democrats say Thigpen might give up the party post.  Phil Alagia, the Chief of Staff to Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo and the political director of Gov. Jon Corzine's re-election campaign, is a potential candidate for Essex County Democratic Chairman.

Alagia says he supports Thigpen.

"There is no one in Essex County who can do a better job of moving the Essex County Democratic Party forward then Chairman Thigpen," Alagia told PolitickerNJ.com.  It is my understanding that he will stay as chairman and he has my support 100 percent. 

Essex County Democratic Chairman Phil Thigpen, left, with State Party Chairman Joe Cryan and Corzine Statewide Political Director Phil Alagia, right.

Essex County Democratic Party Chairman Phil Thigpen had a message for the Republican opposition that moved in on Democratic Party turf this afternoon.

"Welcome to the neighborhood," said the chairman, who said he recalls former Gov. Tom Kean having a campaign headquarters in Newark.

Local operatives say former Gov. Christie Todd Whitman had a Newark HQ in her 1997 race.

Democrats are scheduled to open their official headquarters to reelect Gov. Jon Corzine in West Orange. Thigpen said the governor will have headquarters throughout the city, in different wards.

Thigpen, a former Freeholder, confirmed scuttlebutt that he will probably be a candidate for Essex County Register of Deeds and Mortgages before the end of the week. 

"They're asking me to do it," he said of the party. "If there's support, I'd be interested. If that brings the party together, fine, I'll do it."

Thigpen, who would take the place as the Democrats' candidate for Newark Central Ward Chairman Dwight Brown, who died this past summer, would run against Republican Terriann Moore Abrams of South Orange.

Thigpen confirmed scuttlebutt that he will probably be a candidate for register before the end of the week. 

Former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie and Monmouth County Sheriff Kim Guadagno

NEWARK - Staged as an act of audacity meant to send Democrats into home turf high alert and energize residents weary of one-party rule, Chris Christie this afternoon opened a campaign headquarters in Newark where Democrats outnumber Republicans, 65,000 to 3,400.

"I was born here 47 years ago this past weekend," said the former U.S. Attorney, who stood with his running mate, Monmouth County Sheriff Kim Guadagno, in a storefront at 60 Park Place, a double tweak to Democrats in and of itself, as the majority party occupied this spot last year as their Essex County base of operations for Barack Obama.

"This isn't about opening a headquarters in terms of symbolism," added Christie, speaking to a packed room of cheering supporters from Newark and the environs. "We're opening this headquarters because we have a demand to open it. We will staff it, we will have volunteers to work it."

State Party Chairman/Assemblyman Jay Webber and State Sen. Minority Whip Kevin O'Toole (R-Cedar Grove), chair of the Essex County Republican Party, joined Christie and Guadagno and Assembly and county candidates at the front of the room.

State Sen. Ronald L. Rice (D-Newark), foreground, campaigning for Obama with his son, West Ward Councilman Ronald C. Rice.

The early establishment reaction out of Democratic Party stronghold Essex County to LG prospect Randal Pinkett ranged from off-the-record outrage to on-the-record bewilderment to polite resignation.

Staring at a 12-point deficit in the governor's race and saddled with the responsbility of driving big Essex numbers in November for Gov. Jon Corzine, name Democrats here gaped at Corzine's rumored impending selection of a private sector African-American running mate. At least intially they question Pinkett's presence beside an incumbent schooled on Wall Street whose strong point was never his old-hand knowledge of politics and government.

"I don't know him, so I wouldn't have any comment about him," Essex County Democratic Party Chairman Phil Thigpen said of Pinkett. "The skills required to get elected and to get people to vote are not necessarily the same as the skills you need to make money. He hasn't been active in politics, to my knowledge."

State Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Newark) doesn't know Pinkett, but doesn't have a good feeling about him.

"People have relationships in business, and when they do, frankly, I get a little nervous when it comes to grassroots issues," said Rice of the 38-year old technology consultant from Franklin Township who's never held elected office. "Some of these business people should remain business people. Their trouble when they get into politics is they personalize what's good for them and they reach that point where they cross that line and can't see the people anymore."