Steve DeMicco

Seema Singh's campaign for the New Jersey State Senate is not going well. A Trenton Times story details an ethics complaint against her -- seemingly at the suggestion of her former boss, Public Advocate Ronald Chen. Last week, a Gannett story revealed that she accepted campaign contributions from top utility company executives just weeks after leaving her job as state Ratepayer Advocate. And Gannett columnist Bob Ingle wrote about the potential conflict of Singh's decision to hire political consultant Steve DeMicco, the husband of Board of Public Utilities Commission President Jeanne Fox.

The ethics investigation lends credibility to comments from Corzine administration officials that Singh was on the verge of being asked to leave state government. Some Democrats say her willingness to challenge popular GOP State Senator Peter Inverso was a face-saving exits strategy.

But Singh has qualified for the first round of public financing -- the only one out of eighteen possible candidates to do that so far -- and her GOP opponent, Assemblyman Bill Baroni, hasn't said a word about Singh's bad press -- not exactly the uber aggressive campaign New Jersey watched in April when Inverso announced his retirement.

U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg has signed Steve DeMicco and Brad Lawrence of Message & Media to coordinate his 2008 re-election campaign.  DeMicco and Lawrence were on the winning sides of New Jersey gubernatorial races in 2001 and 2005, and U.S. Senate races in 2000, 2002 and 2006.

State Sen. Tom Kean, Jr., the GOP candidate for U.S. Senate, says that the U.S. Attorney's investigation into the state Board of Public Utilities' Clean Energy program "should be welcomed by anyone who is interested in getting to the truth of this growing scandal and restoring New Jersey to a higher standard of ethical conduct."

"The Governor should direct the BPU to cooperate and ensure that the stonewalling that occurred with the Treasury audit is not repeated again." Kean says that the BPU program is "rife with ethical problems that may well rise to the level of criminal conduct." The BPU President, Jeanne Fox, is married to Steve DeMicco, who is managing the campaign of Kean's opponent, Senator Robert Menendez.

State Senator Thomas Kean, Jr., the Republican candidate for United States Senate, will hold a 10AM news conference today "on the mismanagement" of the Board of Public Utilities' Clean Energy Program. Insiders expect Kean to tie his Democratic opponent, incumbent Robert Menendez, to the BPU issue because the Senator's Campaign Director, Steve DeMicco, is married to BPU President Jeanne Fox.

Outgoing Assembly Speaker Albio Sires has signed up two key Democratic consulting firms to help him win the 13th district House seat being vacated by Robert Menendez: Message & Media, headed by Brad Lawrence and Steve DeMicco, and Comprehenive Communications Group, run by Julie Roginsky and Bill Maer.

In an e-mail to supporters, Jon Corzine's campaign director, Steve DeMicco, says: "With public polls today reporting Senator Corzine’s lead of only 4-6 points, the Republicans will be emboldened to go fully into their dirty tricks mode. As a supporter on the ground, you are our best resource to uncover their under handed tactics. We need you to keep your eyes and ears open. Things to look out for include: push calls, unusual activity in base neighborhoods, last minute scurrilous rumors or literature, sign postings in urban areas, auto-dial phone calls, sleazy direct mail, new personal attacks on blogs, new radio or cable television ads with new attacks, church activity by the opposition, and so on."