Steve Rothman

Obama Campaign State Director Mark Alexander. 

The campaign was about to change.

On Oct, 9, 2007, an announcement came down from Chicago regarding New Jersey operations. 

Mark Alexander, a Seton Hall University law professor and Obama’s senior policy advisor, would be the campaign’s official state director.

"I am grateful that he is going to carry the fight forward to and through the Feb. 5 contests," Obama said of Alexander. "He is a valued and trusted advisor, and at the same time has deep ties in his home of New Jersey that will be invaluable to our efforts. 

"I am proud of the policy work we have done on this campaign and through Mark’s leadership we have built a team of key advisors from the ground up that will continue to offer new and innovative approaches to the challenges this country faces," added the presidential candidate.

A personal friend of Barack and Michelle Obama’s going back a dozen years, Alexander as a child worked on the 1974 Washington, D.C. mayoral campaign of his father, Clifford Alexander, former chairman of the Equal Opportunity Commission. Later, he ran Sen. Bill Bradley’s 2000 presidential campaign and served as counsel to Cory Booker.

NJ for Obama organizers Julie Diaz and Keith Hovey.

The Obama campaign started small here, with handfuls of coffee house organizers lining up behind a grassroots operation called NJ for Obama in the face of a big party machine backing Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY), and an unpopular war in Iraq.

Founded in an Edison coffee shop in December of 2006, the group’s leader was Damian Bednarz, 25, a Master’s student in international relations with Seton Hall University’s Whitehead School of Diplomacy.

"Obama has something that Hillary Clinton can’t buy or reproduce, and that’s a sense of inspiration," Bednarz said at the time. "If anything, I’m encouraged by Clinton’s frontrunner status because I know our work is so special."

In the months following, some elected offiicials endorsed the Illinois senator, among them Assemblyman Neil Cohen (D-Union), who came out in favor of Obama in April of 2007, followed by state Sen. John Adler (D-Camden) a couple of weeks later.

"At this time we need someone special... someone who is going to build a bridge brick by brick to peace through negotiation," said Cohen, a graduate of Howard University who arrived at politics through the Civil Rights era.

The McCain campaign played down a Fairleigh Dickinson University poll released today that shows their candidate with a double digit deficit against Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.

Democrats, meanwhile, stayed on message about how a belly up Bush administration has left the GOP in tatters.

Looking at today’s poll, Peter Feldman, spokesman for the McCain campaign in New Jersey, noted that Obama recently beat Sen. Hillary Clinton to become the presumptive Democratic Party nominee.

"That obviously gave him a bump in the poll," Feldman said.

U.S. Rep. Steve RothmanWhen most of his Democratic colleagues endorsed backyard darling Hillary Clinton for president over a year ago, U.S. Rep. Steve Rothman (D-9) cut from the pack and picked Illinoisan underdog Barack Obama.

The Obama campaign rewarded Rothman with a position as northeast regional co-chair and through a long-slog primary he played a leading and aggressive role on behalf of his presidential candidate.

Now that Obama has beaten Clinton, Rothman enjoys a point position in the general election campaign here in New Jersey as former Clinton travelers realign behind Obama and acknowledge Rothman’s win.

"To the victor go the spoils," a congressional staffer said with a shrug in his voice.

In that vein, the Bergen lawmaker told Obama’s people in Chicago that he wants his chief of staff, Bob Decheine, running the New Jersey-based campaign headquarters in advance of the Nov. 4th showdown with presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain.

The strategy of going after Sen. Hillary Clinton on her proposal to suspend the gas tax proved useful for Sen. Barack Obama, as he weakened his Democratic Primary rival’s standing in Indiana while deriding as gimmickry her call for a gas tax suspension.

With Clinton out of the way now, Obama’s most senior original ally in New Jersey, U.S. Rep. Steve Rothman (D-9), denounced presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain's position on the gas tax, which mirrors Clinton’s.

On stage Friday at a town hall meeting in Pemberton, McCain summoned applause from the crowd for Clinton, noting how she ran a good race.

Meanwhile, in a conference call with reporters, Rothman targeted the Arizonan on what had been an important primary issue. 

Ninth District Rep. Steve Rothman said today that the Barack Obama presidential campaign has not decided who will head up Obama’s efforts in New Jersey.

Rothman, an early Obama supporter who has been the candidate’s point man in New Jersey, wouldn’t say whether Obama would bring in someone new or whether the charge of running a coordinated state campaign would fall to former Clinton backers like Gov. Jon Corzine and Democratic State Chairman Joe Cryan.

“We’ve had wonderful discussions with the Clinton people in New Jersey and all the leaders, including the Governor and our state director who supported Sen. Clinton and all of the Obama leaders,” said Rothman. “We’re united and we’re working with the Obama campaign in putting together the right team for our state."

Rothman said that he met with Obama National Campaign Manager David Plouffe to discuss the situation yesterday.

When everyone else in the Congressional delegation went with backyardU.S. Rep. Steve Rothman (D-9) pick Sen. Hillary Clinton, U.S. Rep. Steve Rothman (D-9) instead stood with Chicago newcomer U.S. Sen. Barack Obama for president.

"If you’re the only one to endorse a candidate like that, you could stand to be in line for a cabinet position or something else," said Ray Durkin, party elder and former State Party chairman, who went way out of the box and against the establishment grain when he endorsed New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson last year.

"You never know, Durkin said.

Unlike Richardson, who belly-flopped early in his presidential bid, Obama ascended to become his party’s presumptive nominee. Now, as the exodus of Clintonistas makes its way over to Obama, they already find Rothman among the handful of New Jersey for Obama diehards.

U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) basks in victory on Election Night in Newark.

The trouncing Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) gave U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews (D-1) last week sends the South Jersey congressman to the back of the line among those Democratic members of the congressional delegation intent on succeeding the 84-year old senator.

It depends on the region where the question is asked, of course, but among those eyeballing Lautenberg’s seat, the names of U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-6), U.S. Rush Holt (D-12), and U.S. Rep. Steve Rothman (D-9) surface more frequently than U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-8), U.S. Rep. Donald Payne (D-10), and U.S. Rep. Albio Sires (D- 13).

NEWARK - The warmup acts are underway here at the Gateway Hilton, with congressmen Steve Rothman, Bill Pascrell and Frank Pallone leading the chants of "six more years."

Stepping through the hoopla, State Party Chairman Joseph Cryan announces that it’s a blowout for U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), and the supporters sprinkled among the sizeable press corps unleash some whoops.

"We are going to be back with you with our winner and Gov. Corzine and Sen. Menendez in just a moment," shouts Cryan.