Ronald Rice

Sharpe James NEWARK - A lot of Democrats who worked with Sharpe James over the years had one word to describe what they felt today as they watched a federal jury deliver a guilty verdict in the former mayor’s corruption trial.

They felt sad.

"Sometimes we cooperated, sometimes we didn’t, but I really believe he cared about Newark," said North Ward Democratic leader Steve Adubato. "It’s a terrible tragedy."

Council President John SowellIRVINGTON - A political pragmatist who insists his insider knowledge of how government works does not diminish his closeness to the community, Council President John Sowell says an aggressive opponent in the West Ward doesn’t know enough about the process to serve.

An executive with the sheet metal workers union, Sowell originally thought he was only going to be running against 21-year old Keith White, political acolyte of North Ward Councilman David Lyons.

Now he’s also trying to stare down an old contemporary.

It’s a three-way race in Irvington’s West Ward with Sowell intending to fend off not just National Guardsman White but one-time ally turned vocal detractor, security guard Cedric Hunter.

Challenger Cedric HunterHunter and Sowell fell out after Hunter, a leader of the Irvington Alliance, failed to spirit the council president away from Team Irvington, a group founded and run by At-Large Councilman (and Freeholder) Bilal Beasley, who was wounded in an unsuccessful challenge last year of Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Essex).

"Bilal Beasley’s run of victories at the county level are over and soon the people who so openly supported him will besiege him to rid themselves of his disgrace," Hunter wrote to Sowell soon after Beasley’s loss. "As one of his most obedient cohorts, your name is closely aligned with his. Hopefully, you will see that the handwriting is on the wall and Bilal Beasley’s career in politics will (not) last for too much longer."

After failing to secure party line, Terrance Bankston bows out of freeholder raceVanquished by the Essex County Democratic Party machine this week, Terrance Bankston said he regards the leadership’s rejection of his freeholder at-large candidacy as a direct snub of Mayor Cory Booker, and a failure to reward hard campaign work.

But no matter, he says now that his candidacy is over - he means to return to Newark’s South Ward to labor on behalf of district leader candidates as part of an effort to provide an alternative to the machine of U.S. Rep. Donald Payne (D-12) and Payne ally Essex County Chairman Phil Thigpen.

“It was disrespectful to the mayor, and what was even more insulting about the situation was we didn’t just go to the table expecting to get put on the slate, we went out and worked for it,” said the 25-year old employee of the Booker administration.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker 

NEWARK - Since Mayor Cory Booker beat Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Essex) for mayor, he has gone 0-2 against the maverick West Ward lawmaker.

First there was Rice’s re-election victory last year over Freeholder Bilal Beasely. Over the weekend, it was Rice staffer Rufus Johnson who won the party’s endorsement for a vacant freeholder seat over Booker staffer Terrance Bankston.

The retirement this year of Johnny Jones from the Essex County Board of Chosen Freeholders left a vacancy, which Newark Mayor Cory Booker wanted to fill with long time South Ward ally Terrance Bankston. 

On Saturday, however, the party selected Rufus Johnson - chief of staff to Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Essex), the man Booker defeated for mayor in 2006.

Johnson will run on the line with incumbent freeholders Ralph Caputo, Linda Cavanaugh, Carol Clark, Blonnie Watson, Bilal Beasley, Patricia Sebold, Samuel Gonzalez and Donald Payne, Jr.

U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg addresses the crowd as Gov. Jon Corzine looks on.

TRENTON -- Burnishing his blue collar roots and seniority in Washington, U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg today launched his re-election bid at the Trenton Marriott, promising to lead the fight for New Jersey's working families.

"I will build on my work of the last few years, to stand strong against those who attack our values that short change our state and to deliver the results that improve people's lives," said Lautenberg, who was first elected to the Senate in 1982.

Councilman David LyonsIRVINGTON - North Ward Councilman David Lyons and Gene Etchison started out as friends and political allies, with Etchison drawn to the older man’s fireball activism.

As president of the local tenants association, Lyons didn’t care who he offended in his drive for better housing, and he took that attitude into a run for City Council in 1996.

"We used to go door to door together," recalled Etchison of Lyons’ first campaign. "I was like his little brother."

That didn’t last.

Lyons won. But though he successfully backed Etchison for district leader, Etchison then ran against Lyons with the muscle of South Ward boss D. Bilal Beasley and Team Irvington behind him.Challenger Gene Etchison

The councilman took the challenge as a betrayal.

"When I see him around, we don’t talk, said Lyons. "I lost respect for him after that."

A police officer and Marine Corps veteran who is the godson of Assemblywoman Cleopatra Tucker, Etchison said it was only political inevitability that propelled him into the arena against a man he once admired, but whom he came to see as a chronic naysayer.

When the state Senate pasAFL-CIO President Charles Wowkanechsed paid family leave today by a vote of 22-16, AFL-CIO President Charles Wowkanech admitted he felt a particular sense of satisfaction after a hard, 12-year trudge.

"We're exhausted, but we're very happy," said Wowkanech, whose outfit numbers 1 million strong in New Jersey, and who remembers first trying to float the idea of paid family leave over a decade ago.

What the Senate passed today was a bill that enables employees to pay into a fund that would allow them to receive compensation while taking up to six weeks off from work to care for their own health or the health of a relative. According to the bill, "an amount not to exceed $25 million may be transferred from the state's temporary disability fund to the new account to support start-up costs." The program is designed to run on the monies employees pay into the funds, which amounts to about $33 apiece annually.

He's not one of the legislative black caucus’s “Nubian queens” that state Sen. Ronald Rice referred to last week, but Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer is said to be highly interested in becoming the state’s first Lieutenant Governor in 2010.

Standing at the poll watch party for Hillary Clinton last night in Edison, Palmer was careful with his choice of words when asked whether he was interested in the position.

• In New Jersey’s February 5 primary, John McCain is the front runner, while Barack Obama has closed the gap on Hillary Clinton.  Obama and McCain are both in New Jersey on Monday, and Bill Clinton was here this week.  Dick Codey endorsed Obama. 
• Essex County Clerk Chris Durkin says he’ll allow people who voted for a candidate who dropped out to vote again.
• Rob Andrews and Jon Corzine like Bob Menendez for Vice President.
• Tom Kean, Jr. endorsed Leonard Lance for Congress, while Jon Bramnick and Eric Munoz are for Kelly Hatfield.  And this is a strange one: Michael Illions is backing Kate Whitman.
• Burlington Democrats say John Comegno should resign as Chairman of the Bridge Commission after being arrested for DWI.
• In case you missed it, Matt Friedman had a great story on Jim Saxton’s first run for Congress in 1984. And Max Pizaro’s story on the similarities between 1968 and 2008 is a must-read.
• Quote of the Week: “Bonnie Watson Coleman’s a good choice. So is Nia Gill. So is Shirley Turner. So are all the other Legislative Black Caucus Nubian queens.” – State Sen. Ronald Rice, on who Jon Corzine should pick for Lieutenant Governor in 2009.
• And PolitickerNJ.com celebrated our 8th birthday on February 1.