Raymond Lesniak

There is speculation among key Democrats that Senate Judiciary Chairman Paul Sarlo (D-Wood-Ridge) will endorse Stephen Sweeney (D-West Deptford) for Senate President, possibly as early as this week.  Sarlo had previously refused to publicly state his preference, but late last week supporters of incumbent Richard Codey (D-Roseland) had listed the Bergen County Democrat as one of their likely votes in the upcoming leadership fight.  Sarlo would represent a major defection from the Codey camp.

Sarlo's relatively early endorsement of Sweeney extends an alliance with South Jersey Democrats that began when he backed U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews (D-Haddon Heights) over incumbent Frank Lautenberg (D-Cliffside Park) in the 2008 U.S. Senate primary.  That alliance could help him win a race for Majority Leader, with Sweeney's backing.  Sarlo was Codey's candidate for Majority Leader in 2007, but was defeated by Sweeney.

In a city that Jon Corzine carried 74%-22% four years ago, eight of the nine elected members of the Elizabeth Board of Education today endorsed Republican Christopher Christie for Governor.

"Many of the Board members endorsing Chris today are Democrats, but we all know that when it comes to providing a quality education and a hopeful future for our children, party and politics aren't a factor," said school board president Francisco Gonzalez.  "Governor Corzine has failed our kids in the last four years when it comes to education policy in our state and it is time for a change in leadership if we're going to ensure our children receive the quality education they deserve."

Joining Gonzalez in backing the Republican candidate are Carlos Trujillo Raul Burgos, Armando DaSilva, Rafael Fajardo, Marie Lynn Munn, Fernando Nazco and Elcy Castill-Ospina.  Joining the elected officials were former Union County Freeholder Donald Goncalves, former Elizabeth City Councilman Robert Jaspan, and former Board of Education member Tony Monteiro.  All three are Democrats.

In 2005, Corzine defeated Republican Douglas Forrester by 8,014 votes in Elizabeth, one of the state's largest Democratic strongholds. 

The Christie campaign says the mostly Democratic school board members are frustrated with Corzine's failure to assure funding for critical education programs as their reason for supporting the GOP candidate.   

"Corzine heavily favored stop-gap measures to fill the gaping holes in his FY 2010 budget, including funding roughly 10 percent of the education budget with one-time federal stimulus funds.  This reckless accounting puts New Jersey children's education at risk by funding the education budget with $1 billion that will not be there next year," the Christie campaign said in a statement.

State Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Elizabeth) says that Christie's new supporters are the "same Board Members were recently slapped around by the New Jersey Appellate Division for spending over $80,000 of tax dollars for political purposes"

"If they cared about education instead of politics, they wouldn't be supporting Christie who would turn down $2 billion of federal funds for education," Lesniak told PolitickerNJ.com.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Christopher Christie will be in Elizabeth this afternoon to accept endorsements from elected members of the Elizabeth Board of Education.  These are Democrats on the outs with State Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Elizabeth).

In the old days, State Senators either moved up (often to a judgeship) or out.  Of the Senators who have served since 1845, when a new State Constitution began elected one Senator from every county, only eleven men have spent more than twenty years in the Senate.  Of those eleven, four are there now, and another two left within the last decade.

New Jersey's longest-serving State Senators, since 1845:

State Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Elizabeth) thinks that Republicans will be looking for a new gubernatorial candidate before the ballots go to print in early October.  In a NJ Voices Op-Ed, Lesniak opines that First Assistant U.S. Attorney Michele Brown may have attended political meetings with the GOP candidate while Christopher Christie was still U.S. Attorney, suggests that a Justice Department probe of Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph Marra will conclude that "Christie mixed politics and law enforcement," and that Brown gave Christie "a heads up" on the July political arrests.

Just a month ago, there was considerable speculation that Gov. Jon Corzine would be the one to drop out - WNBC-TV's Brian Thompson reported that South Jersey Democratic leader George Norcross was urging the governor to end his re-election bid, and sources say that at least one other powerful Democratic leader had given Corzine until the end of the summer to repair his electoral woes.  Corzine made it clear he had no intention of dropping out, and Republicans close to Christie say he's not going anywhere either.

Yesterday was a tough day for some New Jersey Democrats and (and for Republicans in Ocean County) and State Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Elizabeth) is trying to refocus the energies of local elected officials and legislators in an e-mail entitled "Don't Let The Turkeys Get You Down."

From Lesniak:

No matter what Republicans say, there's nothing wrong with being deliberative about choosing a running mate, according to state Sen. Joseph Vitale (D-Woodbridge).

"If Chris Christie took 10% of the amount of time that Governor Corzine has taken for selecting a lieutenant governor to try to come up with ideas to fix this state, maybe he'd be a credible candidate.  But he hasn't, and he's not," said Vitale.

Vitale's comments came after entrepreneur Randal Pinkett, a former Rhodes Scholar and winner of "The Apprentice," kept himself in the running for lieutenant governor at a press conference today despite pushback from some fellow Democrats and newspaper editorials.

After weeks of speculation, Jon Corzine has apparently come to a decision and is expected to hold a press conference on Saturday.

Assemblyman Jay Webber (R-Morris Plains), the Republican State Chairman, poked fun at Vitale's comment.

"Did Joe Vitale just say that a man who today was fifteen points ahead in the polls wasn't a credible candidate?" he said.

Some Democrats may wish Attorney General Anne Milgram would take the summer off, especially since it's an election year.  Instead, Milgram has been going after Democrats in Essex, Middlesex and Union counties.

The Star-Ledger reported tonight that investigators from Milgram's office seized a computer last week from the office of the Essex County Superintendent of Elections in connection to their indictment of Antonio Santana, a volunteer on the 2007 campaign of State Sen. Teresa Ruiz (D-Newark).  Santana is accused of changing an absentee ballot in Ruiz's favor - a tactic that had no effect on the final results of the election.  But an investigation into the Ruiz campaign is an annoyance to her political mentor, Newark Democratic leader Stephen Adubato, and to Essex County, where Ruiz works as Deputy Chief of Staff to the County Executive. 

Milgram has also won an indictment against Assemblyman Joseph Vas (D-Perth Amboy), and has been conducting a probe of Union County Democratic Chair Charlotte DeFilippo.  State Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Elizabeth) and Democratic State Chairman Joseph Cryan have formed a legal defense fund to help pay for DeFilippo's lawyers.

Lesniak and State Sen. Nicholas Scutari (D-Linden), both members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, are battling with Milgram over her pick to run the state Division of Civil Rights, Chinh Le.  Lesniak and Scutari sent a letter to Gov. Jon Corzine complaining that Le is not licensed to practice law in New Jersey, according to a Star-Ledger report

Word on the "internet street" has it that all the "King Street Men" supposedly are busy gathering cash for Union County Democratic Committee Chairwoman Charlotte DeFilippo's legal defense fund. Served with subpoenas in October 2007 to produce documents pertaining to both her personal business dealings and those of the Union County Improvement Authority; Charlotte the Director, crowed that in no time flat everyone would be apologizing to her for the inconvenience of the investigation.. "I've been involved in politics for 35 years, and I do it in the most aboveboard and transparent manner," she was quoted in the Star Ledger as having said. "I just want to know who's going to say, 'Sorry, Charlotte' when this is all over."

Two Democratic Senators seemed a bit piqued yesterday when the Hudson County Assignment Judge implied that the Senate Judiciary Committee was dragging a Superior Court Judge through the mud as they questioned him during a confirmation hearing that would give Frederick Theemling tenure until he reaches the mandatory retirement age of seventy.  The reaction of State Sens. Raymond Lesniak (D-Elizabeth) and Nicholas Scutari (D-Linden) sends a signal that the Judiciary Committee, in a change of direction, is prepared to question judicial nominees about their records.

Theemling, a former Hudson County Prosecutor and a candidate for Congress against Robert Menendez (D-Hoboken) in 1992, seemed incredibly unprepared for any questions from Senators regarding his nearly seven years on the bench.  Scutari was seeking an explanation for what appeared to be an unusually large number of appeals to his decisions - 114 of his cases were appealed since becoming a Superior Court Judge.

In Trenton to support and defend Theemling, Assignment Judge Maurice Gallipoli accused the Senators of treating Theemling harshly.  "I earnestly suggest to you that this is a good man who should not be dragged through the mud," Gallipoli told the panel.

That bothered Lesniak, who told Gallipoli that the role of the Judiciary Committee was to question nominees about their "qualification, character, ability and record." 

"Asking legitimate questions about that record has nothing to do with dragging a person through the mud," Lesniak said.