Ronald Chen

Attorney General Anne Milgram plans to leave her post early next year, regardless of the outcome of the gubernatorial election, sources say.  If Gov. Jon Corzine wins re-election, Democratic sources say that Edward McBride, the Governor's Chief of Staff, will be on the short list to replace Milgram.  Other possible candidates include: Corzine's Chief Counsel, William Castner; Seton Hall Law School Dean Patrick Hobbs; Kris Kolluri, the Executive Director of the state Schools Development Authority; state Comptroller Matthew Boxer; Public Advocate Ronald Chen; and Glenn Grant, the Acting Administrative Director of the state courts.

Gov. Jon Corzine, right, with senior policy advisor (and former 4th Congressional District candidate) Josh Zeitz

TRENTON – It’s very early, of course. 

But Gov. Jon Corzine at his full-fledged press conference on the fourth floor of the Hughes Justice Center this afternoon, where he was flanked by Chief Justice Stuart Rabner and Attorney General Anne Milgram, suggested the déjà all over again feel of Gerry Ford’s defensive posture campaign against Jimmy Carter one day after Corzine’s presumptive chief rival entered the race for governor.  

In that 1976 presidential contest between Carter and Ford, Carter was out in the hinterlands while Ford tracked the sedate and somber steps of good government, immersed in all the symbolic trappings of his office. 

In this case, in the face of repeated Republican put-downs that Democrats with their overt culture of political patronage and government first ask questions afterwards approach, Corzine projected the image of an executive committed to making the engine run as he announced in the midst of a national recession the creation of a new state-supported mortgage foreclosure mediation program.

Senator Diane Allen praises Public Advocate Ronald Chen's efforts to reform laws governing the relocation and redevelopment assistance, and urges that bills she has advocated for three years are allowed to move forward in the Legislature.

A report issued by state Public Advocate Ronald Chen says that there have been fifteen New Jersey electoral contests in the last two years that were decided by just one vote, and that the margin of victory was less than one percent in 51 other elections over the last two years.

Page Six in today's New York Post details an incident between two reporters for The Record and a Manhattan billionaire on a beach in Bay Head last weekend. Pulitzer Prize nominee Jeff Pillets and his girlfriend, Elise Young, called local police after Patrick Denihan started "bullying" them when they set up an umbrella on a public beach near his home. Young has asked New Jersey Public Advocate Ronald Chen to investigate. Click here to read the story.

Public Advocate Ronald Chen has filed a brief in state appeals court case challenging Attorney General Anne Milgram’s directive limiting the ability of nonpartisan groups to assist voters at the polls on Election Day.  The directive stops the distribution of printed information within 100 feet of the entrance to polling places on Election Day – the only exception is for exit polling, permitted if pollsters register with election officials at least two weeks before the election. 

ALLEN: ASKS CHEN TO SUPPORT RELEASE OF SECRET TURNPIKE REPORT
Letter Requests Public Advocate File Amicus Brief In Support Of Beck/ Kean Lawsuit
 

            Senator Diane Allen, (R-7), sent a letter today to New Jersey’s Public Advocate Ronald Chen asking that he reconsider his refusal to examine Governor Corzine’s secret plan to sell New Jersey’s toll roads.  In the letter Senator Allen asks the Public Advocate to file an Amicus brief in support of Assemblywoman Jennifer Beck’s and Assemblyman Sean Kean’s lawsuit in Mercer County superior court to release the Steer Davies and Gleave report. Copies of the letters are attached.

Stanley Van Ness, who died on Friday, served in the administrations of Governors Richard Hughes and Brendan ByrneStanley C. Van Ness, New Jersey's first Public Advocate, died on Friday. He was 73.

Van Ness, who lived in Brielle, also worked as a public defender and counsel to Gov. Richard J. Hughes. He was a partner at the law firm Herbert, Van Ness, Cayci & Goodell.

Public Advocate Ronald Chen issued a statement today praising Van Ness as the model of what a public advocate should be.

Public Advocate Ronald Chen today announced the appointment of Stefanie Brand as the new state Rate Counsel.  Brand replaces Seema Singh, who resigned earlier this year to seek the Democratic nomination for State Senator.

It was the perfect setting for an immigration related press conference: an old train terminal in Jersey City’s Liberty State Park, within view of the Statue of Liberty, where countless immigrants poured off ferries from nearby Ellis Island to board trains for points West.

It was here that Gov. Jon Corzine signed an executive order creating a new blue ribbon panel on immigration during a well-choreographed, well-attended event. But there was a less jubilant undertone as well -- it was clear that the Governor did not want the tension that characterized the recent Morristown anti-immigration rally to replicate across the state.

The panel will have 27 members – two state legislators chosen from the black and Hispanic caucus, seven commissioners from state agencies, and 18 members appointed by the Governor. It will be led by Public Advocate Ron Chen for a period of 15 months, with a mission to recommend how to integrate the state’s immigrant population – both legal and illegal – in matters ranging from civil rights, naturalization, healthcare, employment, job training, housing, education and language.