Most of New Jersey's Democratic party leadership backed Hillary Clinton for the presidential nomination: Getty Images Photo
Democratic National Committeewoman Christine “Roz” Samuels said today that she was dumped from the New Jersey delegation last night because she flipped her support from Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama back in February.

Samuels said she was called yesterday morning at 8:00 a.m. by Democratic State Chairman Joseph Cryan, who told her that Essex County Democratic Chairman Phil Thigpen wanted her off the ticket.

“One day notice,” she said. “They called me yesterday morning and told me I was off the ticket. And I said ‘You mean for what I did way in February? This is retaliation for February?’”

Samuels said that she was told she was thrown off the ticket because of her switch. Samuels officially switched to Obama on February 14th – less than one week before two South Jersey super delegates switched – but long before most north Jersey party leaders left the Clinton camp.

Samuels’s replacement will be former Assemblywoman Stephanie Bush-Baskette, who’s also from Essex County.

“I really have to find out what is the time limitation for pulling someone off a ticket. You can’t tell someone that morning the morning of the meeting. Usually you give a two week notice to someone if you’re going to fire them from the job,” she said, adding that she has run two recent successful Obama events in Montclair. “It’s just a vindictive thing because I had a couple good meetings, and I think (Thigpen) feels that way because he didn’t do it first.”

Superdelegate Roz Samuels, who switched from Clinton to Obama, lost re-election as a Democratic National Committeewoman tonight
A Democratic National Committeewoman who was one of the first superdelegates to switch from Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama was defeated for re-election tonight. The New Jersey Democratic State Committee replaced Christine "Roz" Samuels with Stephanie Bush-Baskette, a former Assemblywoman from Essex County.

A Democratic official says that Samuels' defeat was unrelated to her defection to Obama in a state where most of the party leadership lined up behind Clinton. Sources say that the DNC seat traditionally goes to Essex, and Democratic County Chairman Phil Thigpen decided today to replace Samuels with Bush-Baskette.

Citing comments former President Bill Clinton made about Obama, Samuels dropped her support of Clinton just after she won the February 5 New Jersey primary. A week later, she endorsed Obama. Samuels, a state NAACP Executive Board member, is a former Newark Teachers' Union, Local 481 official.

Another Clinton supporter, attorney Joseph DeCotiis, did not seek reelection as a National Committeeman. He was replaced by Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Middlesex), who had endorsed Clinton. Two other incumbents who backed Clinton, June Fisher and Tonio Burgos, were re-elected.

Barack Obama has won the support of the final uncommitted superdelegate from New Jersey: Philip Murphy, a former Goldman Sachs partner from Red Bank who serves as Finance Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, announced today that he was endorsing Obama for President. 

U.S. Senator/superdelegate Frank Lautenberg will announce that he’ll support Barack Obama, according to sources close to the four-term Senator – not that it really matters at this point. 

In addition to being a United States Senator, Frank Lautenberg also holds a higher office: he’s an uncommitted superdelegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention. Lautenberg has been careful to avoid stating his preference between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama – hoping to evade having to offend anyone in his own party, especially as he faces Rep. Rob Andrews, a Hillary Clinton supporter, in the Democratic primary. But New Jersey Democratic leaders are expected to push Lautenberg to disclose who he wants to be the next President before the June 3 primary – and that’s something Lautenberg does not want to do.

One uncommitted superdelegate from New Jersey appears to be leaning toward Hillary Clinton, according to recent comments he made to close friends who have communicated his position to PolitickerNJ.com. Red Bank resident Philip Murphy, the Democratic National Committee Finance Chairman and a former Managing Director at Goldman Sachs (where he was aligned with the faction that essentially tossed Jon Corzine as Chairman in 1999), has reportedly told at least three individuals that he would likely vote for Clinton over Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention – if the nomination comes down to a contest in Denver. 

Superdelegate Frank Lautenberg hasn't decided who he wants to be the next President of the United States, but he's sure he doesn't want Susan Collins back in the United States Senate. Lautenberg traveled to Maine today to support Congressman Tom Allen, alleging that Collins allowed war profiteering to occur when she denied his request to investigate Halliburton in her role as chairwoman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

George Norcross, one of New Jersey's most powerful Democratic insiders, has endorsed Barack ObamaBarack Obama today picked up the support of two super delegates from New Jersey as several major Democratic leaders in South Jersey announced that they would switch their endorsements from Hillary Clinton to Obama. Super delegates Donald Norcross, who had previously been uncommitted, and State Sen. Dana Redd, who had backed Clinton, are now for Obama. This is a net pickup of two super delegates for Obama and a loss of one for Clinton.

Obama also won the backing of one of the state’s most powerful political insiders, George Norcross, and was endorsed by Clinton backers, including Senate Majority Leader Steve Sweeney, Democratic County Chairmen James Beach (Camden), Rick Perr (Burlington) and Michael Angelini (Gloucester), Camden Mayor Gwendolyn Faison, State Sen. Frederick Madden, and Assemblyman Paul Moriarty