Tom Wilson

State Sen. Joe Pennacchio (R-Montville)

Citing the need for the state party to follow the national party’s lead and start renewing itself, state Sen. Joe Pennacchio (R-Montville) today called on Republican State Chairman Tom Wilson to resign.

“Soon we will have a new spokesperson leading our RNC. It is imperative that New Jersey Republicans waste no time in following suit,” he said in a press release this morning. “Our recent overwhelming losses reinforce the urgent need to change leadership and create a new direction with a purpose and direction for our party.”

Pennacchio, a dentist by trade, has been publicly critical of his party’s leadership ever since they refused to back his U.S. senate bid, instead running through a series of potential choices before settling on Goya heir Andy Unanue and ultimately former Rep. Dick Zimmer. Pennacchio has publicly seethed about the perceived slight, giving up his delegate spot at the Republican National Convention because he didn’t want to “party with the party leaders” who he felt pushed him aside. But up to this point Pennacchio has kept his criticism vague, refusing to single anyone out by name.

"One can argue that Mr. Wilson has put forth his best effort. I disagree. Regardless, it is not efforts but results that we must hold our State Chairman to,” said Pennacchio “Continued losses over his tenure and lack of a unified message of purpose and direction leads to the reasonable conclusion that immediate leadership change is warranted and necessary."

Politicians spin for a living, but they're rarely held accountable for what they say after the fact. So today I'm taking a look back on what they were saying about Alaska Governor Sarah Palin when she was announced as John McCain's vice presidential running mate.

State Sen. Bill Baroni predicted that Palin would appeal to "a broad spectrum of New Jersey voters," especially the state's "vast independent voting bloc." Asked about accusations that she pressured the former Commissioner of Public Safety to fire a state trooper, Baroni replied: "There's no evidence of it. It will be completely vetted [in] the next 48 hours."

In fact a bipartisan legislative panel found that Palin violated the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act when she "abused her power in pushing for the firing of an Alaska state trooper."

Baroni wasn't as far off on the other point, though. In the latest Survey USA poll, McCain leads among independents in New Jersey by 45 to 40 percent, although voters who identify as "moderate" break for Obama by 58 to 36 percent. Still, Obama has a 15 point lead in the poll.

State Sen. Kevin O'Toole called the Palin pick "a stroke of brilliance." If this is his idea of brilliance, I don't want to know what other good ideas O'Toole has in store.

Nobody can accuse Gov. Jon Corzine of not being politically active this election cycle.

He's become one of Barack Obama's point men on the economy, campaigning for him in Philadelphia and Florida and just yesterday appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press" as a surrogate. But when it comes to the campaigns of New Jersey Democrats who are engaged in tight federal races, Corzine has largely played a background role, having made only a couple brief campaign appearances with 7th District congressional candidate Linda Stender and none with 3rd District candidate John Adler.

Nationally, Obama can use Corzine's image as the economically savvy Goldman Sachs CEO. That idea no longer applies in New Jersey. Throughout the campaign, Corzine has been to Republicans what President Bush has been to Democrats: a public figure to rally the troops against, though to a lesser than Bush.

Tonight, Corzine will attend Sen. Hillary Clinton's fundraiser for Stender, but it's not open to the press or general public. Monmouth University pollster Patrick Murray thinks the Democrats want to keep it that way.

"Neither George Bush nor Jon Corzine helps any candidates in those races," said Murray. "So the more Jon Corzine stays out, the better it is. George Bush is the lesser popular of the two figures, so the Democrats want to keep that focus on George Bush and they don't want it muted or neutralized by bringing Jon Corzine into the picture."

With less than a month before voters go to the polls in the hyper-competitive 3rd and 7th congressional districts, Republicans unleashed what is likely to be their theme for the remainder of the campaign: tying Democratic State Sen. John Adler and Assemblywoman Linda Stender to a controversial program that they characterize as a slush fund.

Medford Mayor Chris Myers, who's running against Adler in the 3rd District, stood with Republican State Chairman Tom Wilson and provided documentation that Adler and Stender both helped municipalities in their districts apply for the Property Tax Assistance and Community Developments grants program - known to insiders as the "MAC account" - that were not publicized beforehand, and were allegedly handed out in a non-transparent way.

Myers alleged that Adler - contrary to his denial that he had any influence over the way the funds were used - was belied by letters written by the Haddonfield borough administrator, the Haddon Township police chief and the Cherry Hill mayor, who all wrote that they were made aware of available grant money from the program through Adler's office.

"Welcome to John Adler's Trenton. It's a culture of corruption," said Myers. "I was just appalled - I'm not a creature of Trenton. I'm a small town mayor."

er union leader and gubernatorial ex-girlfriend Carla Katz has filed a legal brief saying that the emails she exchanged with Gov. Corzine should be kept private because they touched on union negotiations, reports the Associated Press.  

Katz attorney Paul Fishman argued that the some of the emails made “in connection with” contract negotiations don’t have to be disclosed, while the rest of the correspondence is private.

Republican State Chairman Tom Wilson is suing to make the emails public, believing that they should be public information.  Corzine cited executive privilege.  Wilson won the initial phase of the lawsuit, but Corzine appealed. 

If he's re-elected, Frank Lautenberg would be 90 at the end of his next term: Getty Images Photo
Three months after former U.S. Rep. Dick Zimmer held a press conference and said he would not make age an issue in his U.S. Senate run against incumbent Democrat Frank Lautenberg, Republican State Chairman Tom Wilson stood in the same State House conference room and brought the issue front and center, making repeated references to the 84-year-old Senator’s senior status.

“If you’re too afraid, too incompetent or too old to campaign, then you’re surely not fit for six more years in the U.S. Senate,” said Wilson. “It’s time to let voters decide whether you’re up to serving in the United States Senate until you’re 90 years old.”

Wilson called the press conference to attack Lautenberg for the way he’s run his campaign – or rather, his lack of a campaign.

Lautenberg, said Wilson, has been missing on the campaign trail, making only a public appearance here and there while giving the media little time for questions and refusing to accept one of the roughly 20 debate invitations that have been issued so far.

By not engaging his opponent or the voters on the issues, Wilson said, Lautenberg has brought attention to his age by raising the question of whether he really is up to the task of serving another six year term, at the end of which he’ll have just turned 91. He contrasted Lautenberg’s public schedule with U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Penn.), 78, who although not up for reelection has been holding town hall meetings on behalf of John McCain in every one of his state’s counties.

From the Democratic side, there are calls for GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin to release e-mails sent to her husband from her private e-mail account.  These demands are part of a state probe of Palin's firing of Alaska's Public Safety Commissioner.  This is not dissimilar to ongoing litigation in New Jersey, where Republicans want Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine to release his personal e-mails to Carla Katz, who was the head of the state’s largest public employee union and the Governor’s girlfriend.

Corzine has refused to release the e-mails, arguing that they are personal and would violate his right to privacy.  His spokesmen say that the lawsuit was politically motivated and dismissed it as a Republican tactic to embarrass the Governor for political gain.

Republican State Chairman Tom Wilson challenged Gov. Corzine and Democratic State Chairman Joe Cryan to drop all support for Bergen County Democratic candidates unless or until Bergen Democratic Chairman Joe Ferriero resigns. 

Corzine and Cryan have both said that Ferriero, who was indicted last week on eight counts of corruption, should resign.  But at a meeting this morning, leaders of the Democratic organization, including U.S. Rep. Steve Rothman, said they would not seek Ferriero’s resignation.

“The true test of their commitment to rooting out corruption within the Democratic Party is whether their actions reflect their words.  Corzine and Cryan should make it clear to the Democratic candidates in Bergen that there will be no financial support for a slate that supports corrupt party leadership,” said Wilson in a statement.

Responding to a column Carla Katz published on PolitickerNJ and The Star-Ledger that was skeptical of Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s reform credentials, Republican State Chairman Tom Wilson shot back, accusing the former union leader and Corzine companion of being a hypocritical “special interest peddler.” 

”Carla Katz’s op-ed yesterday is just what we’ve come to expect from her: half-truths, smears, and the politics of greed and self interest.  John McCain and Sarah Palin represent a threat to Ms. Katz’s special interest influence peddling and her op-ed should be taken for what it is – the pained wails of a special interest leader who’s way of doing business will come to a much needed and abrupt end when John McCain and Sarah Palin move into the White House,” he said.