Robert Torricelli

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U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, with President-elect Barack Obama, wil be the new Chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee

Earlier this evening, U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez accepted Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's invitation to become the Chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.  Reid will officially announce Menendez's appointment tomorrow.   Menendez will replace Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), who announced today that he would step down after four years heading the DSCC.

An aide to U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) who used to work for former New Jersey U.S. Sen. Robert Torricelli was fired last week after he was arrested on child pornography-related charges, the Washington Post reports.

According to information available on the internet, the suspect, Jeff Rosato, worked as a staff assistant for Torricelli from 2001 until he left office in 2003. 

After another suspect led investigators to Rosato, after which they said that they found pornographic images and videos of children on his home computer.

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.

In a fundraising letter, former U.S. Sen. Bob Torricelli praises Dennis Shulman's integrity.: Getty Images Photo
Former U.S. Sen. Bob Torricelli has endorsed blind Rabbi Dennis Shulman in his race against three-term U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett (R-Wantage).  

"Dennis' integrity and unique background of identifying and solving problems leave him well-equpped to oppose Garrett -- and to serve in Congress honorably and effectively," Torricelli wrote in a letter seeking to raise money for Shulman's campaign.  "Garrett sat idly by in his seat on the House Financial Services Committee, while the housing bubble burst, all the while pocketing thousands of dollars in contributions from Countrywide Financial and leaving his day-to-day operations to his Chief of Staff, a former Countrywide lobbyist.  

Torricelli also slammed Garrett for claiming an erroneous exemption on his state tax return, "cheating his fellow citizens out of up to $40,000 a year."  He called Garrett an "extremist whose values are not those of his constituents, nor of the nation."

“Bob Torricelli has always been most comfortable wading around the sleaze and slime of the corrupt Bergen County Democrat machine.  Guess you take Torch out of the slime, but you can’t take sleaze out of the Torch.  Torricelli was forced to leave the United States Senate because his ethics and values told him to use his office to get himself a Rolex, a closet full of $5000 suits, a grandfather clock, an expensive oriental rug, a jumbo plasma screen TV, and thousands of dollars in illegal campaign contributions," said Republican State Chairman Tom Wilson.  "Now his ‘ethics and values’ tell him to slander, malign, and lie about Scott Garrett.  Asking Bob Torricelli to be your ethics watchdog is about as smart as asking Michael Vick to watch your dog. “

Mercer County Republicans missed yesterday's deadline to fill a vacancy on the Freeholder slate, and as Democrats see it, have given up their chance to replace Darren Chell on the ballot.  Asked why Republicans couldn't take advantage of the 2002 New Jersey Supreme Court's voter choice decision (the one the allowed Democrats to replace Bob Torricelli with Frank Lautenberg in the Senate race -- and affirmed a year later when Democrats replaced Joseph Suliga with Nicholas Scutari), one Merce Democratic leader said that the extended deadline to switch candidates only applies to vacancies that come before the deadline to drop out -- not after the deadline.

One of the reasons Burlington County Republicans picked Christopher Myers, the relatively obscure Mayor of Medford, to succeed Jim Saxton in Congress was his ability to raise money.  When the Lockheed-Martin Vice President entered the race, the buzz among GOP insiders was that he had the ability to compete with State Sen. John Adler in the fundraising department.  Adler has raised $1.9 million in a district where Democrats haven’t won since 1882, and Myers, after a tough primary, has just a little more than $150K on hand.

One of the legendary scams in Bergen County politics came in 1984, when Republicans were considering candidates to take on newly-elected Democratic Congressman Robert Torricelli. Torricelli had won the seat two years earlier, when he ousted three-term GOP incumbent Harold Hollenbeck by a 53%-46% margin. The political climate in 1982 (and congressional redistricting in the 9th) favored Democrats and Torricelli leveraged the national contacts he made working for Vice President Walter Mondale and running Jimmy Carter's 1980 re-election campaign in Illinois to help him raise $266,000 -- about $70,000 more than Hollenbeck had.

Republican political consultant Tom Blakely died this morning after collapsing during a 5k run in Bordentown. He was 47.

Blakely was the President of Jamestown Associates, a New Jersey-based GOP consulting firm. A U.S. Marine Corps veteran, he served as an aide to Rep. Dick Zimmer and was Campaign Manager of Zimmer’s 1996 U.S. Senate bid against Robert Torricelli. He also ran County Executive campaigns for James Treffinger and Robert Prunetti, and was Director of Appointments for Gov. Christine Todd Whitman.

Seen with New York Governor Eliot Spitzer this morning, just prior to his announcement that he will resign on March 17, was criminal defense attorney Ted Wells, a New Jersey resident who has played a key role in state Democratic politics for years. Wells has represented several prominent politicians as they faces legal battles, including U.S. Senator Robert Torricelli, Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy, and Scooter Libby, Vice President Richard Cheney’s former Chief of Staff.

New Jersey has become accustomed to statewide candidates dropping out of the race. Bob Torricelli dropped out twice in two years: he announced a bid for Governor in 2000 and then pulled out twelve days later, and he ended his own Senate re-election bid in 2002, five weeks before Election Day.

Very quietly, another challenger has emerged with the intention of doing what Democrats have found nearly impossible: ousting 14-term U.S. Rep. Chris Smith.

Josh Zeitz, 33, just got back to his hometown of Bordentown a few months ago from a four year teaching stint at Cambridge University in England. But he has already raised $43,000 under the radar, and hopes to get $100,000 before the year is up.