State Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex).: Politicker photo 

Nothing’s ever rock solid in politics, but the top of the Trenton power heap may contain more potential for movement than usual in the lead-up to Statehouse reorganization come January.

Two possible factors include Speaker Joseph Roberts’s (D-Camden) imminent departure from the Assembly, and the possibility that a newly crowned Obama administration would haul former Wall Street guru Gov. Jon Corzine out of New Jersey to crunch numbers in Washington.

In the thicket of this political drama, it’s difficult not to identify Senate President and former Governor Richard Codey (D-Essex) as a protagonist.

"I’m just a kid from Orange," Codey told a packed auditorium in his native Essex County town last month - but he’s also a former governor, who by all appearances liked the job and enjoyed great popularity.

LESNIAK TESTIMONY ON SPORTS BETTING IN NEW JERSEY

TRENTON – Senator Raymond J. Lesniak, D-Union, the sponsor of legislation to pave the way for sports betting as a revenue source for New Jersey, issued the following testimony in support of his proposal, which was discussed in the Senate Wagering, Tourism and Historic Preservation Committee today:

“In 1992 Congress passed a law that made residents in New Jersey and 45 other states second class citizens. And when it allowed sports betting in Nevada and three other states, while giving New Jersey a one year window to adopt sports betting or forever be banned from permitting it, Congress did more than make us second class citizens. It violated the Constitution of the United States of America.

Sharpe James NEWARK - A lot of Democrats who worked with Sharpe James over the years had one word to describe what they felt today as they watched a federal jury deliver a guilty verdict in the former mayor’s corruption trial.

They felt sad.

"Sometimes we cooperated, sometimes we didn’t, but I really believe he cared about Newark," said North Ward Democratic leader Steve Adubato. "It’s a terrible tragedy."

Calling homeland security the most important issue of these times, former state Sen. Brian T. Kennedy of Wall would like to challenge Sen. Frank Lautenberg, and said he plans to discuss the matter with GOP State Chairman Tom Wilson and Monmouth County GOP Chief Adam Puharic.

"I am very, very seriously thinking about this," said Kennedy, 73, who served in the state Senate from 1977 to 1983, before losing to Democrat Frank Pallone.

Clinton supporter from left, U.S. Rep. Donald Payne, U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, and U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone

Mark Alexander assumed the familiar posture this week of a man with a phone in his hand making calls for presidential candidate Barack Obama. This time, however, the scenery was different, as he occupied unfamiliar territory on the other side of the Delaware River somewhere in a mid-western American state called Ohio, a rust-belt cousin of New Jersey.

"It’s raining," the former Jersey state director for the Obama campaign told PoltickerNJ.com in a 30-second conversation between calls, where Obama and his Democratic Party rival Sen. Hillary Clinton are competing today as well as in three other primary states: Texas, Rhode Island and Vermont.

Robert F. Kennedy campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1968

Working guard duty at Fort Dix in 1968, 22-year-old government issue Ray Lesniak counted himself a fortunate one because he didn't get shipped off to Vietnam.

"Even though I ain't no senator's son," said the senator, 40 years later now, quoting the Creedence Clearwater Revivial song lyrics from the older era.

He was into politics even then, and he liked Sen. Robert Kennedy for president.

"I was a huge supporter," he said.

For insiders like Lesniak who have been immersed in Democratic Party stand-offs for decades, the primary rumble between senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama bears traces of that 1968 match-up between establishment warhorse Hubert Humphrey and tousle-headed rock star Kennedy.

In 1977, Thomas Dunn was a State Senator and the Mayor of Elizabeth, while John Gregorio was an Assemblyman and the Mayor of Linden. Union County Democrats dumped Dunn from the organization line and ran Gregorio for the Senate; Dunn sought re-election as an Independent.

"Mayor Gregorio said that while the (Union Democratic) County Committee had adopted a rule against holding dual public offices he and Mayor Dunn had been 'grandathered in" because they had held the two positions prior to the adoption of the rule."
-- Alfonso A. Navarez, New York Times, 10/16/77.

CODEY/LESNIAK BILL AIMS TO PROTECT NJ STUDENTS FROM BURGEONING LOAN SCANDAL

TRENTON - Senate President Richard J. Codey (D-Essex) and Senator Raymond J. Lesniak (D-Union) introduced a bill this week to safeguard New Jersey college students from the predatory pitfalls emerging from the growing national student loan scandal. Bill S2729 would establish tough new restrictions on the relationship between higher education and student lending institutions.

LESNIAK STATEMENT ON HATRED AND BIGOTRY ON NJ 101.5

TRENTON - State Senator Raymond J. Lesniak, D-Union, issued the following statement today at a State House news conference regarding hatred and bigotry broadcast on New Jersey talk radio station 101.5 during their afternoon radio program:

** MEDIA ADVISORY**

COALITION AGAINST BIGOTRY AND HATE TO DISCUSS SLURS BY 101.5 TALK RADIO TOMORROW

TRENTON - The "Coalition Against Bigotry and Hate on NJ101.5 Radio" will hold a news conference at NOON tomorrow, Thursday, April 5, in Room 109 of the State House to unveil an information program to condemn the ethnic slurs, anti-gay comments and religious hate broadcast daily by the station's afternoon hosts.