Raymond Lesniak

Follow up on the Star-Ledger’s The Auditor report on Democratic Senate President Richard Codey picking Republican Leonard Lance as the Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman: would that still happen if Lance decides to run for Congress?  And would Raymond Lesniak still say “that’s not a bad idea?”

Key South Jersey Democrats believe that they could emerge from the fall midterm elections with seven State Senate seats, giving them a formidable block if there leadership contests.  Four seats are locks: incumbents Stephen Sweeney, Frederick Madden, and John Adler, and Dana Redd, who is seeking Wayne Bryant’s seat in Camden County.   Democrats are very high on their chances to oust Republicans Nicholas Asselta and James “Sonny” McCullough, and see a possible pickup in the open eighth district, where their Senate candidate is Francis Bodine, a Republican Assemblyman until he switched parties last spring.

Assemblywoman Linda Stender, who came within one percentage point of ousting Republican Congressman Michael Ferguson in 2006, has lined up two key fundraisers to help her in next year’s rematch.  John F. X. Graham, who is Hillary Clinton’s New Jersey finance chairman and played the same role for John Kerry four years ago, will serve as Co-Chair of Stender’s ’08 Finance Committee, along with Highland Park Mayor Meryl Frank.  State Senator Raymond Lesniak has agreed to serve as Honorary Chairman.  Stender raised $239,000 for her federal campaign between June and September of this year.

Several months ago, there were suggestions that Genovese might get support -- mostly financial -- from a group of key Democratic insiders who wanted to use the 21st district State Senate campaign as a form of retaliation for Kean's U.S. Senate race against Robert Menendez last year. But Democrats now concede that Genovese has turned out to be a weak and largely unfocused candidate with little chance to score an upset in a legislative district where Menendez won 46% one year ago. Genovese's failure to mount an effective campaign has allowed Kean to spend money in other districts. Kean will likely be re-elected, probably by his usual margins, and seems well positioned to become the next Senate Minority Leader.

State Sen. Gerald Cardinale’s move to hold up the nomination of Matthew Boxer as New Jersey’s State Comptroller might be considered a good political move by Republicans interesting in keeping Gov. Jon Corzine’s ties to his former girlfriend in the news, but his colleagues in the Senate minority aren’t rushing to help him out.

Cardinale’s idea is to tie up the nomination of Boxer for the newly created office until Corzine appoints an independent prosecutor to look into the matter of Rocco Riccio, a brother-in-law of Corzine’s ex-girlfriend/paramour/companion Carla Katz, who he gave $15,000 after pressuring him out of his accounting job at the Turnpike Authority. Boxer was reportedly present at a meeting in which Riccio was asked to leave his job.

Mildred Barry Hughes, a Democrat from Union County, was the first woman to win election to the New Jersey State Senate when she won in 1965. She previously served three terms in the State Assembly.: Rutgers University Libraries PhotoIt's a minor correction at best: speaking at a meeting of Women Advocating for Good Governmen (WAGG), a division of the Women's Political Caucus of New Jersey, State Senator Diane Allen she was the eighth woman in New Jersey history to be sworn in to the State Senate. "It still upsets me," Allen said. "Hundreds of years -- eight women."

But actually, Allen was the ninth woman to serve in the State Senate. She was preceeded by Mildred Barry Hughes (D-Union) in 1966, Jerry English (D-Union) in 1971, Wynona Lipman (D-Essex) in 1972, Anne Martindell (D-Mercer) and Alene Ammond (D-Camden) in 1974, Leanna Brown (R-Morris) and Catherine Costa (D-Burlington) in 1984, and Martha Bark (R-Burlington) in 1997. Allen and Shirley Turner (D-Mercer) took office in January 1998.

LESNIAK: TRUE COMMUNICATION WOULD HELP ON TOLL ROAD TOPIC

TRENTON - Senator Raymond J. Lesniak, today made the following comments regarding the issue of toll roads, reducing state debt and implementing change.

Did you know that the law allows legislative districts to jump a body of water in order to remain geographically contiguous?  For example, Bayonne and Elizabeth could be in the same district.  That would be a possible solution for soon-to-be Senator Sandra Bolden Cunningham, who might want to drop Bayonne, and for Assemblyman and Democratic State Chairman Joseph Cryan, who might like to move up to the Senate without disturbing the balance of Democratic districts for Senators Raymond Lesniak of Elizabeth and Nicholas Scutari of Linden.

Among the Republican State Senators that New Jersey Democrats would have a special interest in defeating after the 2011 legislative redistricting is Thomas Kean, Jr., the 2006 GOP candidate for United States Senate. And if Kean is successful in ousting Senate Minority Leader Leonard Lance in November, Democrats may have an even greater incentive to force Kean to battle for his own re-election next time.

So, just for fun, PoliticsNJ.com has drawn eight new legislative districts that could, hypothetically, place the former Governor’s son -- a resident of Westfield -- in harms way after reapportionment. For the purposes of these maps, we used the U.S. Census Bureau’s

**MEDIA ADVISORY**

ANTI-SMOKING MEASURES SCHEDULED FOR VOTE IN SENATE TOMORROW

TRENTON - Two measures which would limit New Jerseyans involuntary exposure to second-hand smoke are scheduled for Senate consideration tomorrow, with a media availability with State lawmakers and representatives of NJ GASP (Group Against Smoking Pollution) following the vote.