LESNIAK STATEMENT ON COURT DECISION ON DELAWARE SPORTS BETTING

TRENTON – State Senator Raymond J. Lesniak, D-Union, who is leading the charge to overturn a federal ban on sports betting in all but a handful of states as an unconstitutional and unfair infringement on states’ rights, issued the following statement regarding a federal appeals court’s decision today to declare Delaware’s attempt to establish sports betting as illegal:

“The Delaware case was determined on a statutory interpretation of the PASPA (Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act) federal ban on sports betting and not on the constitutional issues raised by New Jersey’s challenge. Therefore, we plan on proceeding with the challenge as planned, and this latest development does not deter us from challenging PAPSA as unconstitutional.

LESNIAK ECONOMIC STIMULUS BILL SIGNED INTO LAW

TRENTON – A bill sponsored by Senator Raymond J. Lesniak which will jump-start New Jersey’s economy and create new economic and job opportunities was signed into law today by Governor Corzine.

“New Jersey’s economic problems didn’t begin with the global economic crisis affecting the rest of the world, and it wouldn't end when the national economy rebounds” said Senator Lesniak, D-Union. “For the first time ever, we’re going to see less private-sector jobs at the end of the decade than we had in the beginning of the decade. Alarm bells should be going off that we need new economic policies and job retention and growth incentives, not the same-old, tired policies that have helped push us to the brink of economic collapse.

“This bill charts a new course for the State – one in which we’re a willing partner to economic expansion and private sector investment,” added Senator Lesniak. “It gives New Jersey the needed shot in the arm to turn the corner and be a job creator.”

CODEY APPLAUDS CORZINE SIGNING OF NEW JERSEY ECONOMIC STIMULUS ACT

NEWARK – Senate President Richard J. Codey, D-Essex, issued the following statement today regarding Governor Corzine’s signing of S-2299, the “New Jersey Economic Stimulus Act of 2009”:

“During the worst economic crisis in generations, Governor Corzine and his partners in the New Jersey Legislature have consistently shown the leadership needed to make true economic recovery and stimulus a reality.

Newark West Ward Councilman Ronald C. Rice campaigns for Barack Obama in 2007.

NEWARK - President Barack Obama lands on a stage today against the backdrop of a party frantically trying to figure out what to do about Gov. Jon Corzine's apparent number one choice for lieutenant governor, an African-American reality TV star with degrees from MIT, Oxford University and Rutgers University and CEO of a successful technology consulting firm in Newark who nonetheless has never held public office.

Corzine confidantes kept kicking other names around on Wednesday even as Pinkett's supporters argued in favor of his selection.

"The establishment is always wary of change and something new," said state Sen. Ray Lesniak (D-Elizabeth). "The establishment lined up behind Hillary, not Obama, even the black establishment. They also backed Dick Leone over another Rhodes scholar who did well, Bill Bradley."

By contrast, when state Sen. Ronald L. Rice (D-Newark) peeked at Pinkett's resume - heavy on corporate cred and thin on grassroots  - he received an early negative vibe.

His son, Newark West Ward Councilman Ronald C. Rice, a Joshua generation leader who was one of Obama's first impassioned  supporters among New Jersey elected officials, celebrates Pinkett's decision to open his firm in Newark where he participates in a business incubator program with the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT).

State Sen. Ray Lesniak (D-Elizabeth)

Power broker state Sen. Ray Lesniak (D-Elizabeth) likes technology consultant Randal Pinkett as a running mate for Gov. Jon Corzine and dismissed speculation that the Rhodes scholar TV star was a doppelganger pushed into the public sphere to haunt Newark Mayor Cory Booker into running with Corzine. 

"Irrelevant and immaterial," said Lesniak when PolitickerNJ.com asked him about the nudge effect, designed to move Booker off his commitment to running for re-election to the mayor's office next year.

"Obviously Cory was the first choice," he admitted. "But Dr. Pinkett brings a lot to the table on his own in terms of educational background and experience. He says a lot about the governor's vision for the people of New Jersey."

Lesniak wouldn't talk about how he advised the governor.

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.

Sen. Majority Leader Steve Sweeney (D-Gloucester)

Insiders say recurring signs indicate state Sen. Majority Leader Steve Sweeney's (D-West Deptford) ready to challenge state Senate President Richard Codey (D-Roseland) for leadership in November, although Sweeney insists he doesn't know for sure at present.

"Discussions will take place in November," said the South Jersey lawmaker, whose remarks this morning in a 101.5 FM interview that he wants to be senate president "someday" instantly sent reporters' into fullbore Sweeney-seeking mode.

Sources close to Sweeney say there's a strong chance he will challenge the former governor for control of the caucus this year, and political animals add up the following as proof that he's inches away from that battle:  

He threw a bash in Atlantic City at the same time Codey partied with supporters;

He spoke at Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo's fundraiser;

He hauled up to Jersey City for a state Sen. Sandra Cunningham (D-Jersey City) fundraiser;

Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic) welcomes Gov. Jon Corzine to Passaic Wednesday evening

PASSAIC - The backroom wrangling on EnCap ain't over.

"We're studying it," Gov. Jon Corzine said of a reform bill on the subject that passed overwhelmingly in the legislature a week ago.

Senate President Richard Codey (D-Roseland) called a vote last Thursday evening on the reform bill authored by Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck), Sen. Bob Gordon (D-Paramus) and Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic), overriding Sen. Ray Lesniak's (D-Elizabeth) 11th-hour worries as Lesniak and Schaer sat in Corzine's office.

Lesniak fretted that some of the bill's sharper edges might undercut his economic stimulus bill, and he told Schaer he had the votes to kill a piece of legislation Schaer's worked for two and a half years.

Schaer called his bluff, and demanded a machine vote in the Assembly.

Codey, meanwhile, went ahead and opened the machines on the Senate side.

"This is a bill that demands accountability and transparency so that we avoid another Encap," said Weinberg, referring to the State of New Jersey's infamous attempt to resusitate a Bergen garbage dump into a golf course, which resulted in a more than $300 million killzone for taxpayers.  

LESNIAK ECONOMIC STIMULUS BILL APPROVED IN SENATE

TRENTON – A bill sponsored by Senator Raymond J. Lesniak which would jump-start New Jersey’s economy was approved by the Senate today by a vote of 23-14, receiving final legislative approval.

“Even before the national recession, New Jersey’s economy has lagged behind the national economy for nearly a decade, with in-State private-sector job growth underperforming national statistics in even the rosiest economic times,” said Senator Lesniak, D-Union. “In the four year period from 2003 to 2007, private sector employment grew nationally by 6.5 percent. By comparison, during that same time period in New Jersey, the private sector job base grew by only 2.3 percent.

Sen. Ray Lesniak (D-Elizabeth)

TRENTON - If Senate President Richard Codey (D-Roseland) has dominated some early moments of this senate budget session, the Democratic Party's other power center rises late in the evening here and sells his economic stimulus bill.

"It will spur billions of dollars in economic development," Lesniak says of the tough times document he fashioned, which, among other things, channels $15 million into affordable housing projects.

While quibbling with some of the bill's provisions, Sen. Joe Kyrillos (R-Middletown) mostly likes this stimulus, including the provision which gives developers two-decades worth of substantial tax revenue created by their projects.

But there are more strenuous objectors.