Robert Gordon

If U.S. Rep. Steven Rothman (D-Fair Lawn) decides not to seek re-election next year, possible candidates for his seat include: State Sens. Robert Gordon (D-Fair Lawn) and Paul Sarlo (D-Wood-Ridge), retiring Englewood Mayor Michael Wildes, Assemblyman Gordon Johnson (D-Englewood), Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle (D-Englewood), and Bergen County Freeholder Bernadette McPherson.

If State Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck) loses her bid for Lt. Governor, she could emerge as a strong candidate for Congress.  If Weinberg wins, Huttle is the favorite to take her State Senate seat.  Sarlo, the Senate Judiciary Chairman, has not expressed a huge desire to go to Congress; he is a possible candidate for Senate Majority Leader next year, or to chair the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee. 

Wildes, who is not seeking re-election after two terms as mayor, has long been interested in Rothman's congressional seat.  A strong fundraiser, he has $642,983 sitting in a federal campaign account, just in case.

The Bergen County Republican and Democratic chairmen both have a lot riding on the November 3rd election.

Not only is Bergen - the most populous of the state's 21 counties - expected to be hotly contested between Democratic Governor Jon Corzine and Republican gubernatorial nominee Christopher Christie, but that race will likely have down-ballot implications that could change the course of the county's politics, put control of its government at stake in 2010 and shape the reputations of its two relatively new party chairs. 

The political fortunes of both men - and both parties -- are pegged to the gubernatorial race. 

For GOP chairman Robert Yudin, having Christie at the top of the ticket opposing an unpopular Democratic governor gives his minority party its best shot at picking up a freeholder seat since Lisa Randall won one in 2003.  It's a county that Christie's campaign has paid a lot of attention to, aware that they are not exempt from the New Jersey political wisdom that Republicans cannot win statewide without it.  The flip side for Yudin is that, if Christie wins Bergen but neither of the freeholder candidates win, he will get the blame for a missed opportunity and potentially suffer the consequences when his first term is up in June, 2010. 

Democratic Chairman Michael Kasparian, a developer, has an entirely different but equally difficult situation.  Last winter he took over control of a party that holds all but one county-wide office.  But it has seen its share of problems since the indictment of its powerful former chairman, Joe Ferriero, on corruption charges that he will have to fight in court in October - the peak of the campaign season.  Fundraising - Ferriero's specialty - is more difficult with the economy in shambles, and the party's debt picture is not yet clear, since Kasparian has not yet released an audit he commissioned.  If Republicans pull off a victory, Kasparian risks being saddled with the blame for the party's decline. 

If Republicans win even one seat on the freeholder board this year, they'll have a shot at control next year, when three Democratic freeholders, Sheriff Leo McGuire and County Executive Dennis McNerney are up for reelection.  If Christie is in office, Yudin said, Bergen Republicans will feel a sense of momentum. 

"New Jersey is considered a blue state. Bergen is considered a blue county.  And this is really considered a meaningful election," said Yudin, who said that a victory for his two freeholder candidates and maybe even some assembly candidates would mean that "the Republican Party in the state and the Republican Party in Bergen County is back." 

Yudin knows the pain of losing.  He ran for freeholder unsuccessfully three times before he wrested the party's chairmanship from Rob Ortiz in June of last year.  His 2008 freeholder candidates - Chris Calabrese, Jeff Heller and Paul Duggan -- all lost, but by narrower margins than recent races and in a year when Democrats benefited immensely from the Obama wave (Republican County Clerk Kathleen Donovan, who ran a campaign separate from the freeholders, still managed to be the county candidates' top vote getter). 

Now, Republicans are running Mahwah Councilman Rob Hermansen and Paramus activist John Driscoll against Democratic incumbents Julie O'Brien and Vernon Walton.

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.  

Former Republican state Sen. Louis Kosco said that he occasionally gets calls from his friends who follow politics asking if he feels happy to see the Democrat who beat him in 2001 in legal trouble.

With Coniglio convicted today of six counts of mail fraud and extortion, Kosco, who moved to Lacey Township from Paramus four years ago, said he's just sad.

"People call me and say ‘aren't you happy about this,' I say ‘absolutely not,'" he said.  "It's not something that I'm gloating over, believe me," he said.

Kosco spent eighteen years in the Assembly and state Senate representing District 38, which was then a swing district.  Like Coniglio, he served on the Paramus Borough Council before the moving up to the Legislature.  He even lived ten doors down from Coniglio, though he said he did not know him well.

"I spent all those years in the legislature keeping that district as clean as it could possibly be. It just makes it look bad for all the honest politicians that are there, and there are a lot of them that do the right thing," said Kosco.

The last six Senators from the 38th district, including Democrat Joseph Coniglio (above), didn't win their last re-election bids. Coniglio dropped out after the disclosure that he was the target of a federal corruption probe. The others lost.

Since the Bergen County-based 38th legislative district was created, every State Senator has eventually failed to win re-election. Republican Frederick Wendel, elected in 1971, lost to Democrat John Skevin in 1973. Skevin was defeated by Republican John Paolella in 1981, and Paolella was ousted by Democrat Paul Contillo in 1983. Contillo was unseated by Republican Louis Kosco in 1991, and Kosco lost in 2001 to Democrat Joseph Coniglio. Coniglio dropped his bid for a third term after the 2007 primary after published reports that he was the target of a federal criminal probe.  He was replaced by Democrat Bob Gordon.

The announcement that U.S. Rep. Steven Rothman will spend Election Day in Chicago with Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama fuels speculation that the Congressman from Bergen County may be up for a post in the new administration.  Rothman has said he has no interest, but then again, that's what they all say just before they take the job.

Rothman has been interested in moving up to the United States Senate, and he clearly has his eye on the seat of 84-year-old Democrat Frank Lautenberg, who is expected to win re-election to a record fifth term tomorrow.  Rothman and other Democrats are already planning as if the Senate seat will open up in 2014, and the harsh reality is that many of the potential candidates get that it might not take that long.  An Obama administration post doesn't necessarily take Rothman out of contention for a U.S. Senate seat (indeed, it could actually propel him past other Democratic Congressmen), unless the seat opens up within the next year or two.  

If Rothman leaves, the front runner to replace him was supposed to be State Sen. Paul Sarlo.  But recent health issues for the 40-year-old Bergen County Democrat are considered serious, and that could take Sarlo out of the race if there is a special election early next year.

There is some chatter among Passaic County Democrats attending the Democratic National Convention in Denver that veteran State Sen. John Girgenti could be in his last term.  Girgenti, a legislator since 1977, is the last white male to represent a district where minority voters represent the majority of the district.  Two years ago, Assemblywoman Nellie Pou went as far as to present her name to the Passaic Democratic screening committee as a Senate candidate, but Girgenti—rather easily – secured party support for another term.  Pou, by the way, says she’s not interested in challenging the popular Girgenti in 2011. 

Democratic State Chairman Joseph Cryan in Newark on Tuesday night. 

NEWARK - They came together in Newark tonight in a public display of unity, the forces of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, all lining up behind Gov. Jon Corzine, who proclaimed his support for Obama in this governor’s fund-raiser for the Democratic State Committee.

"Yes, we can, and he will be the next president," shouted Corzine, echoing the campaign slogan of the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

The Democrats raised over $500,000 tonight at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, according to party spokesman Richard McGrath, as part of a $5,000 VIP ticket, $1,500 per-person kick-start for what Corzine hopes will be blue state heaven for these Democrats come Nov. 4.

Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joseph Ferriero must be relieved that he broke up with attorney Dennis Oury last year, after published reports today suggest that federal prosecutors subpoenaed records relating to Oury’s legal service in several Bergen towns. Oury had been a close Ferriero ally and Counsel to the Bergen County Democratic Committee, but their relationship deteriorated in 2007 after Oury made a series of mistakes: he invited then-State Sen. Joseph Coniglio – himself the target of a federal criminal probe -- on a trip to Italy; he counseled Coniglio to stay in the Senate race during a time when Ferriero was pushing to get him out; and took considerable heat for his election season comments about a lawsuit he was filing to overturn state pay to play regulations. When Coniglio finally did drop, Oury’s close relationship with Paramus Mayor James Tedesco was the main reason Ferriero and Bergen Democrats opted to go with Bob Gordon for Senate.

Since the Bergen County-based 38th legislative district was created, every State Senator has eventually failed to win re-election. Republican Frederick Wendel, elected in 1971, lost to Democrat John Skevin in 1973. Skevin was defeated by Republican John Paolella in 1981, and Paolella was ousted by Democrat Paul Contillo in 1983. Contillo was unseated by Republican Louis Kosco in 1991, and Kosco lost in 2001 to Democrat Joseph Coniglio. Coniglio dropped his bid for a third term after the 2007 primary after published reports that he was the target of a federal criminal probe.  He was indicted last week.