Teresa Ruiz

Gov. Jon Corzine is optimistic about New Jersey's futureSeated at a back table in an Ironbound restaurant on Wednesday afternoon, Gov. Jon Corzine listened as he heard the leadership of his party described as a three-headed hydra; an image used by Republicans on the campaign trail to characterize Senate President Richard Codey, Speaker Joseph Roberts - and Corzine.

The governor thinks it's ridiculous.

"We have a Constitution that separates power for a reason," said Corzine: to prevent one branch of government from usurping the authority that individuals have in each branch.

The appointment of former Attorney General Stuart Rabner to the office of state Supreme Court Justice is one of his proudest accomplishments as governor, given the quality and preparedness of the man, Corzine said. However, the judiciary is not the troubled branch of government by the reckoning of Corzine's fiercest critics - maybe philosophically with decisions such as Abbott - but at least not immediately.

Donald Payne will have Joe DiVincenzo's backing in 2008 Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo says he will back Donald Payne for re-election to an 11th term in Congress next year.

Some Democrats say that 74-year-old Payne could face a challenge in the 2008 primary after his refusal to support the Democratic nominee for State Senate in Newark's 29th district this year.

Payne supported his brother, Assemblyman William Payne, who ran unsuccessfully as an Independent candidate for Senate against the party choice, Teresa Ruiz. Ruiz works for DiVincenzo and has the backing of power broker Steve Adubato and Newark Mayor Cory Booker.

Luis QuintanaWhen Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo found out this morning that the name "Luis Quintana"' was on a Senate Judiciary to-do list, he angrily reached for a telephone and called the governor's office.

DiVincenzo wanted to know what Quintana was doing on the list months after he thought he made it clear to Gov. Jon Corzine that the at-large Newark councilman should not be considered for an appointment to the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission.

The fight of the day was between Governor Jon Corzine and Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo.  DiVincenzo wasn’t happy with Corzine over Luis Quintana’s appointment to the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission, and let the Governor know it in fairly strong terms today.  DiVincenzo made it clear that Quintana shouldn’t be rewarded for mounting an Independent bid for State Senate against the Democratic nominee, Teresa Ruiz.

When Teresa Ruiz takes her Senate seat in January, she will become the first Latina to serve in the New Jersey State Senate.  Ruiz will replace Sharpe James, the former Mayor of Newark and Senator since 1999; James did not seek re-election and is currently facing federal corruption charges.

In the 29th district, independent state Senate candidates Assemblyman William Payne and At-Large Councilman Luis Quintana this afternoon were making the most of their ground games against the favorite, M. Teresa Ruiz, who enjoys the mammoth machinery of the North Ward Democratic Organization.

Ruiz and her team have the line up here in Newark in an overwhelmingly Democratic district, which they're hoping will prove a key difference-maker in putting down the Payne-Quintana insurrection.

The Star-Ledger has weighed in with their second endorsement of the 2007 campaign, supporting Independent William Payne for State Senate in the 29th district.  READ

Steve Adubato, executive director of the North Ward Cultural Center and one of New Jersey's most powerful political insiders

When his political foes deride Steve Adubato as a Renaissance overlord who controls his fiefdom through a bruising combination of ego and Machiavellian panache, Adubato offers as a counter-argument the work of the North Ward Center.

They may argue with the man, but no one argues with his life’s work - at least not here in Newark where the effects of poverty are up close and all too personal.

Tuesday was special for Adubato. The 74-year old political boss and executive director of the center welcomed child advocate Marian Wright Edelman to Newark to officially open the Casa Israel Child Development Center, and Roseville Child Development Center. These buildings are two of four schools that compose the North Ward Child Development Center, which serves 600 students and is the single largest Abbott School-funded provider of pre-school education in the state.

Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzoRunning in a crouch familiar to old-timey Newark sports fans, Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo, Jr., heads out onto the grass - and this time approaches a half circle of women who have stationed themselves outside his press conference at the Turtle Back Zoo. They’re protesting his decision to allow a deer hunt early next year in the South Mountain Reservation.

"I don’t like guns, but I have no choice," he tells them. "We’ve tried trap and transfer. We’ve tried birth control. Nothing works. We have to reduce the deer population."

Assemblyman William Payne has played the race card, suggesting that Democratic State Chairman Joseph Cryan's call for Sharpe James' resignation from the State Senate was an insult to African Americans may be a little unfair.  Cryan, who has a strong record of supporting minority candidates for public office, also asked that indicted State Senator Wayne Bryant step down, and that he be replaced by the Democratic nominee, Dana Redd. Bryant and Redd are African-American. 

And in the 29th district, Cryan wants James to be replaced by the winner of the Democratic primary, Teresa Ruiz, who would become the first Latina in the Senate, and just the second Hispanic in state history.  Payne's problem is that he is running against Ruiz as an Independent and would prefer that she not gain the advantages of incumbency.