Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D-East Orange) has named Peter Barnes III (D-Edison) as the new Assembly Majority Whip, replacing John McKeon (D-West Orange), who is now one of nine Deputy Speakers.  Jerry Green (D-Plainfield) will remain as Assembly Speaker Pro Tempore and that Joan Quigley (D-Jersey City) will serve another term as the Majority Conference Leader. 

Linda Stender (D-Fanwood) was not reappointed to serve as Deputy Speaker.  Reed Gusciora (D-Princeton), who lost his committee chairmanship as part of the change of Assembly leadership, retained his post as one of five Deputy Majority Leaders.  In picking Barnes, a new member of the Assembly leadership team, Oliver passed over Vincent Prieto (D-Secaucus), who had been the Deputy Majority Whip.  Prieto will keep his old post.

SPEAKER OLIVER ANNOUNCES ASSEMBLY DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP POSTS

(TRENTON) – Assembly Speaker Sheila Y. Oliver on Monday announced the Assembly Democratic leadership team for the 2010-11 legislative session.

“I’m confident this leadership team will be a tremendous asset as the Assembly Democratic caucus works to make New Jersey more affordable,” said Oliver (D-Essex). “This leadership group has the expertise and skills to help push our agenda of creating jobs, boosting our economy and tackling property taxes and I look forward to working with them.”

SCALERA & PRIETO BILL TO ENCOURAGE VOLUNTEERISM SIGNED INTO LAW

(TRENTON) - Legislation Assemblymen Fred Scalera and Vincent Prieto sponsored to permit  fire company, ambulance, first aid, hazardous materials or rescue squad volunteers to serve as elected officials was signed into law Friday by acting Gov. Stephen Sweeney.

HARRISON - Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy agrees that North Hudson will be selfishly motivated to land decent numbers for Gov. Jon Corzine next Tuesday. 
 
But South Hudson?
 
"Corzine will be fine," said the Jersey City mayor, refusing to go into detail. "I think he wins the election by two points."
 
At the heart of North Hudson Democratic Party turnout is a fierce warlord rivalry between state Sen. Nicholas Sacco (D-North Bergen) and state Sen. Brian P. Stack (D-Union City) for northern bragging rights.
 
In addition, operatives are confident that a mayoral race in Hoboken will drive numbers up in that overwhelmingly Democratic town and help the incumbent governor.

But broken local infrastructure in South Hudson (Jersey City and Bayonne), owing to summertime corruption busts; and political standoffs taking the heart out of intraparty rivalry mere months after local elections in Jersey City, dog the party, despite county coordinator Jason O'Donnell's best attempts to revitalize those towns for the governor and despite Obama hoopla.

HARRISON - Shoved into the swamps of Hudson and for years all but forgotten except to post-industrial artifact watchers on passing trains, disgruntled people whose cars got towed from Newark to the impound lots, and the clutch of blue collar workers who live between bridges, Harrison welcomed Gov. Jon Corzine tonight to the Polish National Hall.

"What's he doing here?" wondered a hard-nosed party insider observing the governor as Corzine pressed into the packed crowd with Mayor Ray J. .McDonough and a band of Hudson diehards, including Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy, County Executive Tom DeGise, Assemblyman Vincent Prieto (D-Secaucus), and Assemblywoman Joan Quigley (D-Jersey City).

After distributing 1,000 pumpkins to North Bergenites, state Sen. Nick Sacco (D-North Bergen) arrived at the event when Corzine, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine, McDonough and attendant dignitaries were already onstage.

He offered an explanation.

Referring to the disparity between Democrats and Republicans in the town (2,835 to 276), Sacco told the cheering crowd, "You know, I've always said the best organization is in Harrison, which continually turns out the largest plurality of Democrats in the state."

WISNIEWSKI / PRIETO / RAMOS BILL TO PROTECT MOTORISTS BY REQUIRING ICE OR SNOW BE REMOVED FROM VEHICLE NOW LAW

(TRENTON) – Legislation sponsored by Assemblymen John Wisniewski, Vincent Prieto and Ruben J. Ramos Jr. to protect motorists by making it a violation to not remove accumulated ice or snow from a motor vehicle has been signed into law by Gov. Jon S. Corzine.

Assemblyman Vincent Prieto (D-Secaucus) explained the local Democratic Party's absence of a mayoral candidate in his hometown as conscious response to a political crisis.

"We're trying to take a strategic look here and we have decided the best thing to do is to focus on electing our council candidates," said Prieto of a team that was assembled to run with incumbent Mayor Dennis Elwell.

After getting hit with federal corruption charges in late July, Elwell resigned, leaving the independent candidate, Mike Gonnelli, to now run unopposed, as Republicans also did not submit petitions for a mayoral candidate in front of this afternoon's deadline.

 "I'm running for re-election as the assemblyman and as the leader of the party in Secaucus I want to bring the council candidates together and move forward," Prieto told PolitickerNJ.com today in North Bergen. "I'm leading the party and we're running an aggressive, positive campaign, starting with a rally tomorrow." 

NORTH BERGEN - When Gov. Jon Corzine goes to the front of the packed room at the annual senior picnic in Scheutzen Park, he embraces state Sen./Mayor Nicholas Sacco (D-North Bergen) and then turns to the crowd and calls Sacco the "best mayor in the State of New Jersey."  

"I love working in North Bergen because he delivers," Corzine shouts.

Sacco grins.

Although they live just a town apart here in Hudson County - which, of course, Corzine made certain to point out - there's more than concrete between Hoboken on the Hudson River side of the county with its Lipton Tea view of Manhattan - and North Bergen, which juts above Secaucus and the swamps of North Jersey.

U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-Hoboken) is playing a key role in a statewide effort to increase voter turnout among Latino voters for Gov. Jon Corzine's re-election campaign.  This weekend, Menendez presided over a meeting in New Brunswick that was attended by over 200 statewide Latino leaders, including U.S. Rep. Albio Sires (D-West New York), State Sen. Teresa Ruiz (D-Newark), Assemblywomen Nilsa Cruz-Perez (D-Camden) and Annette Quijano (D-Elizabeth), Assemblyman Albert Coutinho (D-Newark) and Vincent Prieto (D-Secaucus), Perth Amboy Mayor Wilda Diaz, Paterson Mayor Joey Torres, and Passaic Mayor Alex Blanco.