Stuart Rabner

The Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court is using Governor Jon Corzine's playbook. "One case of a judge who is dismissing his or her own ticket, even if there is a problem with that ticket, is a case too many. We'll have zero tolerance for this," said Stuart Rabner, who was named to head the state's top court this year.

Does this mean Rabner will now suggest that he be held accountable for the judiciary?

So far, four out of ten Jersey City Municipal Court Judges have departed as part of a growing ticket fixing scandal.  Judge Victor Sisone took a leave of absence yesterday, joining Chief Judge Wanda Molina and two others.

While the Mayor of Jersey City appoints local Judges, with the advise and consent of the City Council, Municipal Court Judges are supervised by the Superior Court Assignment Judge.  It might be interesting to see if Chief Justice Stuart Rabner, the state Judiciary Boss, will hold the Assignnment Judge, Maurice Gallipoli, accountable for a scandal that happened on his watch.

New Jersey Public Officers Salary Review Commission was created in 2000 as a creative way of giving state legislators some cover when it came to granting pay hikes for the Governor, cabinet officials, judges and prosecutors. That way legislators wouldn't be held accountable to the voters -- or the Judges and Prosecutors -- because they could claim they were just following the guidance of the blue ribbon commission. Richard Codey sponsord the legislation in the Senate; Leonard Lance in the Assembly.

Yesterday, Governor Jon "Zero Tolerance" Corzine announced his two appointments: former state Supreme Court Justice James Coleman and lobbyist Hazel Gluck. This puts Gluck in the position of suggesting pay hikes for people she lobbies -- perhaps giving the appearance that this violates the intent of the Codey/Lance bill, which says no one should be appointed who "are in positions that would be affected by the commission's recommendations." The same thing could be said about Codey's appointment, Michael Critchley, a criminal defense attorney from Essex County who often represents allegedly corrupt public officials in court.

The Star-Ledger is reporting that Governor Jon Corzine's choice to be the first State Comptroller is Matthew "Ari" Boxer, a 36-year-old independent and protege of Chief Justice Stuart Rabner.  A former Assistant U.S. Attorney, Boxer as served as Director of the Authorities Unit in the Office of the Governor's Counsel.

Among the final acts of Stuart Rabner’s tenure as Attorney General of New Jersey: the Department of Law and Public Safety this week pulled press credentials for BlueJersey.com Statehouse correspondent Jay Lassiter.

Assistant Attorney General Michael Shipp is expected to be named to a federal judicial post, according to a congressional staffer with knowledge of federal appointments.  Shipp served as Assistant Attorney General in for Consumer Protection from 2003 to earlier this year, when he was named Counsel to Attorney General Stuart Rabner. 

Rabner confirmed, Milgram confirmed, budget passed, dual officeholding ban passed, Belleville official arrested, former Harrison official pleads guilty to theft and official misconduct, former Fairfield Township official indicted, stem cell measure passed, monetization shelved.

Editor's Note: On Monday, the Today's News feature will move to the NJPOLITICS IN THE NEWS section, located on the top left side of this site.

Sen. Nia Gill on Thursday remained the only senator to vote against Stuart Rabner, both in committee and in the senate as a whole, on a day when the rest of the senate enthusiastically embraced the outgoing attorney general as chief justice for the state Supreme Court.

The final vote was 35-1.