Tom Wilson

Former New York Gov. George Pataki, moments after addressing N.J.'s GOP delegation at the Hilton.: Politicker photo 

MINNEAPOLIS - McCain as military protector provided the solemn motif former New York Gov. George Pataki used this morning to finally prompt a standing ovation from his New Jersey audience.

"There are no finer people in our country than those who put on the uniform for our country," said Pataki, and a pattering of hands started that grew steadily as the former governor added of McCain, "I pray he spends the next four years protecting our country."

Hitting another responsive chord in the crowd, Pataki told a story about a reporter - and there were some groans as he provided the setup - who asked him if the massive loss of oil in the Gulf as a consequence of Hurricane Gustav were not sufficient proof that America shouldn’t drill.

BLOOMINGTON, Minn.  – Former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee wondered out loud today why the New Jersey delegation had asked him to speak to their delegation this afternoon.”

“Why on earth would they invite a southern boy to speak to the folks of New Jersey today?  Must have been the novelty,” he said.

That was the extent of Huckabee’s remarks regarding New Jersey today.  Instead, he launched into an eight minute speech praising Sen. John McCain as an honorable man who’s ready to be president, along with the pick of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for Vice President.

“Today you’re going to hear us say wonderful things, but the good thing is we don’t have to make it up.  We genuinely believe John McCain is tested, prepared and ready to be president,” he said. 

MINNEAPOLIS - The elevator doors in the Hilton opened and a man stepped off and headed for the bar.

"It’s Chris Christie’s brother," said a veteran newspaperman, staring at the familiar facial features of the newcomer in a scene that all evening took in a steady flow of New Jersey Republicans.

The white-haired, Chris-Christie lookalike made his way over to GOP operative Bill Palatucci, who was seated at the bar, and they began talking. He took an extended handshake from a stranger and acknowledged, "Yes, "I’m Chris Christie’s brother."

The word out the there among GOP sources is that Todd Christie is here to keep the idea firmly fixed in people’s heads that his brother, the U.S. attorney in New Jersey, is going to be running for governor next year.

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. -- Just days after the Democrats’ celebratory bash in Denver, the New Jersey Republican delegation arrived at their hotel just outside Minneapolis today in a sober mood amid news that Hurricane Gustav was bearing down on the Gulf Coast.

State Sen. Bill Baroni (R-Hamilton), who’s heading up McCain’s New Jersey campaign, emceed the event’s first delegation meeting, a no-frills meeting where he acknowledged that this convention would be different than ones past.

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain “made it very explicit to all of us that this convention is about our country, and we’re going to put our country ahead of party,” said Baroni. “I know that sounds strange to say sometimes at a convention, but Sen. McCain today made that very clear, and for the entire length of his career, he’s meant it.”

Republican State Chairman Tom Wilson issued a statement today comparing John McCain’s new running mate to Gov. Jon Corzine.

“New Jersey is going to love Sarah Palin, She is everything that Jon Corzine isn’t. She is a straight talking fiscally conservative reformer who has fought corruption, attacked wasteful government and delivered real results. Like John McCain, she has a record of doing what’s right and working with those from both sides of the isle to deliver change and shake up the status quo,” he said. “When it comes to change the McCain Palin team hasn’t just talked the talk they’ve walked the walk.”

U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg’s attempt at humor – he told an ABC News reporter doing a story on lobbyists, corporations and labor unions spending $50 million at the Democratic National Convention that it’s his duty to check out their food and booze – has drawn the wrath of Republican State Chairman Tom Wilson. “Now it all makes sense. Lautenberg hasn’t gotten anything done as our US Senator because for the last 25 years, he’s believed his ‘duty’ was to be wined and dined by the special interests instead of creating jobs, lowering taxes, or tackling our dependence on foreign oil,” said Wilson.  “These kinds of statements are precisely why Senator Lautenberg is being sheltered away from the public view by his handlers.”  Click here to watch.

New Jersey Republican Chairman Tom Wilson released a statement Monday blasting Assemblywoman and Democratic congressional candidate Linda Stender (D-Union) on her own tax problems.

In the statement, Wilson said Stender's business accrued $90,000 in unpaid local, state and federal taxes over the last three years, paying only when faced with liens on her business.

Wilson said Stender has consistently voted to raise taxes in the state Assembly while neglecting to pay her own business taxes.

"Stender's raised taxes 64 times as a legislator, but when it comes to paying her own taxes, she routinely takes a pass," Wilson said in the statement. "The last thing Congress needs is another tax and spend liberal all too eager to raise everyone else's taxes because she doesn't want to pay hers."

Stender is facing off against state Sen. Leonard Lance (R-Hunterdon) in New Jersey's 7th Congressional District. She failed in a 2006 bid to take the seat from incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Ferguson (R-Ridgewood), who is not seeking reelection.

Republican State Chairman Tom Wilson said that an Obama/Biden ticket will seek to raise taxes, which will be “about as popular Corzine’s toll hike plan.”

Below is Wilson’s full statement.

“With his selection of Joe Biden, Senator Obama has made crystal clear his commitment to raising taxes. The Obama-Biden ticket has a long history of voting for and advocating tax increases on those making as little as $42,000 a year. New Jerseyans already pay more in state and local taxes than anyone else in the nation. Senators Obama and Biden want to make sure that we also pay more in federal taxes too. That idea will be about as popular as Corzine's toll hike plan and makes John McCain's no tax increase platform all that more attractive. This sets up a major contrast that we will drive home from now until Election Day: if voters want a President who will raise their taxes, vote for Obama. If you want a President who won't, support McCain.

Last week, the non-partisan Quinnipiac University Polling Institute showed a hypothetical 2009 gubernatorial race in a dead heat, with U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie leading Gov. Jon Corzine by just one point - 41%-40% -- well within that poll's plus or minus 2.5% margin of error. But a new Zogby International poll released today, conducted for Garden State Equality, shows Corzine with nine point lead over Christie.

Republican State Chairman Tom Wilson said the numbers show today's poll slightly skewered towards Democrats. As of June 3rd - after a huge influx of new Democratic registrants for the February presidential primary and, to a lesser extent, Republican ones -- New Jersey had 1.68 million registered Democrats, 1.03 million registered Republicans and 2.23 unaffiliated/independent voters. The poll's sample group was made up of 331 Democrats, 226 Republicans and only 246 independent/unaffiliated voters.

"We know in New Jersey that's not exactly how the makeup goes," said Wilson.

Still, Wilson said, the poll shows troubling numbers for Corzine.

Steve Adubato, Jr., presides over a meeting between Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo, center, and Sen. Joseph Kyrillos.: Politicker photo 

SPRING LAKE - They drove and were driven to the Irish Riviera from all corners of New Jersey, in cars with government plates on them and dark SUVs and sedans with tinted glass, sporting sunglasses and paunches covered with sports jackets, mostly Democrats and a handful of Republicans, converging on this mansion by the sea.

Congressmen and mayors and assembly people and state senators and opposition researchers and retainers.

Standing at the front of the Seashell Dining Room in the Breakers to greet them was Steve Adubato, wearing a Hawaiian shirt and welcoming smile - and casting an eye that invariably sharpens human activity into the lineaments of political theater.

"I believe in the luck of the Irish," said the executive director of Newark’s North Ward Center and head of the Democratic Party in the North Ward, facing a sun-filled room packed with rivals hunched over plates of eggs and bacon: Gov. Jon Corzine and Republican State Party Chairman Tom Wilson; former Assemblyman Wilfredo Caraballo, and Assemblyman Albert Coutinho and Assemblwoman Grace Spencer; Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo and Assemblyman Thomas Giblin (D-Montclair).

In this poor man’s Olympiad of Jersey ethnic groups gathered under one roof, Adubato highlighted - as he does annually at this North Ward Center-sponsored breakfast - the Irish, who now number 141,379 registered voters in New Jersey, or 47,514 Democrats, 36,063 Republicans and 57,802 independents.