Rob Corrales

The New Jersey Republican State Committee is seeking public documents related to the alleged political activities of senior administration officials, and filed several requests under the Open Public Records Act (OPRA) today.

The GOP wants all communications between Gov. Jon Corzine's Deputy Chief of Staff, Mark Matzen, and other senior aides, concerning private sector job creation numbers for the last two months.  An e-mail sent by Matzen to cabinet members asking them to come up with creative ways to spin the governor's record on job creation were obtained by several media organizations, including PolitickerNJ.com, yesterday.

"The Corzine Administration memo released yesterday now confirms that administration officials have been pressured to bolster the Governor's re-election efforts by not playing it straight with their official duties," said Assemblyman Jay Webber (R-Morris Plains), the Republican State Chairman.  "The Governor is telling them to get 'creative' and 'stretch' the truth. We know the Governor can't create jobs, now it looks like he had his staff cook the books to create them out of thin air."

Rob Corrales, a spokesman for the governor's office, accused Republican legislators of using public funds to coordinate a political message with GOP gubernatorial candidate Christopher Christie.

State environmental leaders hint that their endorsements in the 2009 gubernatorial campaign could go to Gov. Jon Corzine (D), former U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie (R), or former Environental Protection Commissioner Christopher Daggett (I).

In his 2005 gubernatorial bid, then-U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine had the whole-hearted support of New Jersey's biggest environmental groups, who called his campaign platform "one of the most comprehensive" ever outlined by a gubernatorial candidate.   

"We were the first to publicly endorse him," said New Jersey Sierra Club Director Jeff Tittel. 

This time around, that is far from certain.

"I think Corzine has aggravated and frustrated the environmental community at large," said Tittel. "I think that in a lot of ways, peoples' patience has kind of run out, partially because a lot of things that he committed to doing really haven't gotten done. Part of it has also been that a lot of little bad things have happened."

With the national and state economy in shambles, residents concerned with their property taxes and state workers' unions rebelling against money-saving measures, the environment will almost certainly not be the foremost issue this election cycle.  Tittel acknowledges that, but doesn't think that it relegates his cause to the back burner, especially since it's tied into the economy by President Obama's green jobs plan. 

The announcement this week that former Commissioner of Environmental Protection Christopher Daggett, who held posts in the Kean and Reagan administrations, will run for Governor as an independent could force the two major party candidates to spend more time talking about the environment than they otherwise would.

Environmentalists put the Governor's lack of commitment to open space funding among the worst parts of his record.  Corzine favors once again funding open space through a ballot question, which annoys environmentalists who believe the issue is too important to depend on the whim of the electorate.