Steve Adubato

Booker today in the Central Ward.

NEWARK - Many a cupped hand over the phone conversation has gone on in the Central Ward about who Mayor Cory Booker plans to run next year in that sprawling fifth of the city where he once served as councilman.

Today, at a ribbon cutting ceremony in the Central Ward for Steve Adubato's new Robert Treat Academy-Central on William Street, Booker all but affixed his imprimatur to the reelection of Councilman Charles Bell.

"The stars have aligned from Charlie Bell all the way to Barack Obama," crooned Booker.

Decked in a gold suit and matching hat, Bell beamed in the front row of a packed auditorium.

"Like Councilman Bell said, 'It's just about getting it done,'" Booker added to the issue of education.

Council President Mildred Crump, left, with her ally, School Board member Nakea White.

NEWARK- Along with the South Ward, where organizer Ras Baraka is building to mount an aggressive challenge of South Ward Councilman Oscar James II, the central ward again looms as a battleground in the Newark 2010 municipal race, with one candidate a definite go and two others hovering near the starting gate.

The Booker Team's filing report shows the mayor listing freshman School Board member Nakea White as his ticket mate for central ward council, but White won't comment about whether that means she's a lock to run next year.

That may be in no small part because Central Ward Councilman Charles Bell says he's ready to run to secure a full term after defeating Booker's candidate last year in a special election war.

His decision is not definitive, but very close.

State Senate candidate At-Large Councilman Luis Quintana (center, with microphone) stumps for his ally, Assemblyman Wilfredo Caraballo, in 2007.

If Hudson Democrats have chewed up most of the headlines lately, Essex County Dems are trying to gut through their own troubles, as sources say investigators with the state Attorney General's Office today continued their probe of absentee ballot fraud in connection with the 2007 race of state Sen. Teresa Ruiz (D-Newark).

The unrest cuts at the heart of Newark's most reliable Democratic Party GOTV operation: the North Ward.  

Sources say investigators conducted a search at the offices of Carmine Casciano, commissioner for voter registration in Essex County, part of a comb-through they've undertaken in there for weeks.

Four people have already been charged with ballot fraud as a result of a complaint filed by state Senate candidate Luis Quintana, the at-large councilman, who was crushed by Ruiz in their 2007 contest.

Despite the backdrop of bad news for Essex Democrats who are already looking at depleted machinery in neighboring Hudson, North Ward Democratic Party political operative Phil Alagia, who ran Ruiz's campaign, is set to begin his job as political director for the Corzine '09 campaign on Monday.

Newark Councilman Anibal Ramos

North Ward Democratic leader Steve Adubato, Newark North Ward Councilman Anibal Ramos, attorney Elnardo Webster and others are set to host a fundraiser for Hoboken mayoral candidate Peter Cammarano in Newark on May 27th at the Maize Restaurant.

It is at least the second such fundraiser Ramos has spearheaded on behalf of Cammarano, who first became friends when the latter did some work for Ramos as an elections lawyer. Newark West Ward Councilman Ronald C. Rice has also backed Cammarano from the start of his campaign for mayor of the mile-square city.

Moreover, at his annual Italian-Irish awards ceremony this year, Ramos-backer, North Ward Democratic leader Steve Adubato honored Cammarano’s boss, elections lawyer Angelo Genova.

Cammarano is waging a contest against 4th Ward Councilwoman Dawn Zimmer in Hoboken’s June 9th runoff election.

Steve Adubato and Jeanne Fox on the set of "Caucus: New Jersey"

Independent gubernatorial candidate Chris Daggett will be “On the Record” this weekend with host Jim Hooker, airing Sunday at 9 a.m. and 11 a.m., and on Monday at 6:30 a.m.

On Reporters Roundtable, hosted by State House correspondent Zachary Fink, the AP’s Angela Delli Santi, The Record’s Charles Stile, The Atlantic City Press’s Derek Harper and The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jonathan Tamari will discuss the Governor’s furlough plan, the state budget and the Republican gubernatorial primary.

Steve Adubato hosts Senate President Dick Codey and Board of Public Utilities President Jeanne Fox on his two shows this weekend.

Codey will join Adubato and co-host Pi Roman on “Inside Trenton” to talk about ethics and Democratic legislators’ take on the Gov. Corzine’s budget, airing Saturday at 8:30 a.m.

Fox will appear on NJN’s “Caucus: New Jersey” to discuss how the Governor’s Energy Master Plan will provide economic growth and "green collar" jobs, after which Adubato will discuss renewable energy with PSE&G President and COO Ralph Larossa, airing Sunday at 8:30 a.m. on WNET.  

Assemblyman Albert Coutinho (D-Newark)

NEWARK – The creeping disillusion Fred Linhares felt with the East Ward Democratic Party reached its denouement two weeks ago when the Ironbound attorney, Kean University professor and former municipal judge changed his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican and filed to run for the Assembly in the 29th Legislative District. 

“I’ve been a registered Democrat my whole life,” said Linhares, 40, who served on the local bench from 1999 to 2002, when he hung up his robes to run for freeholder on a ticket with then-county executive candidate Tom Giblin.

That ticket famously lost to Joe DiVincenzo and his team, and when it comes to assessing the self-styled progressive Linhares, who admits he feels no heartfelt tug from the GOP and says he voted for Ralph Nader in the last three presidential elections, members of his former party generally point to 2002 as Linhares’s real turning point in politics.

“I’ve known Fred Linhares since we were kids, and I think he should have stayed as a judge. I respect everyone’s right to run, but he was a good municipal judge,” said Assemblyman Albert Coutinho (D-Newark).

The Governor in Essex on Wednesday evening.

WEST ORANGE – The Governor of New Jersey usually doesn’t wait long to address a collective of his own party, but this being Essex in a gubernatorial election year, the governor stayed on ice during a drum roll ceremony that was as much a buildup of Essex as it was a buildup to Gov. Jon Corzine.

Corzine didn’t appear to mind – and with reason.

“Barack Obama won nearly 250,000 votes in Essex last year,” the governor roared when he finally took the microphone. “If you give me 250,000 votes, this election’s signed, sealed and delivered” – a reference to the Stevie Wonder anthem a deejay played to introduce Corzine, subliminally strengthening the governor’s linkage to Obama, who  favored the song last year on the campaign trail.

The all-day buzz was that this Essex County Democratic Convention would present the unmistakable photo op of former Gov./Senate President Richard Codey (D-West Orange) and Corzine onstage together, arms raised in a ceremonial show of solidarity as the blockbuster credits rolled. 

U.S. Rep. Donald Payne (D-Newark), left, and Councilman Donald Payne, Jr.

NEWARK – In what is more than a one-man crusade, even if its most significant political implication may be a test of the fighting shape of a respected political dynasty, and the future of an aging congressman, former 28th District Assemblyman Craig A. Stanley intends to launch his off-the-line election campaign tomorrow at noon at the corner of South Orange Avenue near the Garden State Parkway.

The nephew of U.S. Rep. Donald Payne (D-Newark), Stanley served for six consecutive terms before the alliance of Mayor Cory Booker and North Ward Democratic Party leader Steve Adubato backed an alternative district slate that included Assemblyman Ralph Caputo (D-Belleville) and Cleopatra Tucker (D-Newark), both of whom are now seeking reelection with Booker’s and Adubato’s backing.

Gov. Jon Corzine, North Ward Center founder Steve Adubato and GOP gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie

NEWARK – Gov. Jon Corzine and former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie traded punchlines and tweaked each other’s gravitas reflexes tonight at the North Ward Center’s annual Irish-Italian Awards Ceremony and the automatic question is who won?

They could pass each other in a darkened movie theater or in the stands of a ballpark, and still the public demands to know who in an encounter between powerful men appeared cowed and who dominant, who seemed ill-at-ease and who was comfortable in close proximity to the other?

Given the stakes here in a roomful of political animals, every rush of laughter came with an attendant undercurrent of expectation as Corzine and Christie occupied the same small space on either side of North Ward Democratic leader Steve Adubato, Sr., in a vestibule packed with about 100 mostly Democratic Party insiders in the early days of what most believe will be a brutal general election contest between two men who have already passed the low growl stage.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker

NEWARK – If Chris Christie wants to get in Gov. Jon Corzine’s face on the issue of urban renewal, he will have to first get through Mayor Cory Booker, who claimed bragging rights to New Jersey's incumbent governor tonight in his annual state of the city address.

“We stand with you, Jon Corzine, because Jon Corzine stands with Newark,” said Booker, waiting while the packed audience here at historic Symphony Hall, first slowly, then nearly uniformly, stood to applaud the unpopular governor who faces reelection this year and the prospect of battling GOP frontrunner Christie.

The latter’s from Newark originally, and last week he launched his campaign for governor at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center downtown with the promise that he would create tax incentives in New Jersey’s largest urban center as a means of enticing businesses.

While conceding that the times aren’t the best nationally – even globally – Booker adopted a been-there-done-that Democratic response to the energized former U.S. Attorney.