Presidential candidate Barack Obama has picked up the support of a major New Jersey fundraiser: financier Orin Kramer. A former White House aide in the Carter administration, Kramer is viewed as a key player in the move to recruit Jon Corzine to run for the United States Senate in 2000.

Jon Corzine isn't the only Democrat to have problems with New Jersey labor unions. When R.J. Reynolds attempted to raise the price of a pack of cigarettes by 10% in 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson stepped in and imposed a 3.2% wage-price guideline on management and labor. But this ill-fated guideline seemed better at stopping industry from raising prices than labor from increasing wages.

Johnson's plan was in trouble when a New Jersey local of the International Union of Operating Engineers, already earning an hourly rate of $6.55, won a 10% pay hike from contractors. The White House used their national labor contacts to force the head of the New Jersey local, Peter Weber, to go to Washington and meet with Johnson's economic advisors. White House aides threatened to cut off about $200 million in federal aid for New Jersey transportation projects. Weber's response: he told the Johnson staff to "go to hell."

When Weber refused to back down, the Johnson administration knew they would have no luck imposing their wage-price guideline.

Footnote: Two years later, Johnson's Justice Department won a conviction against Weber. The federal prosecutor in that case was Herbert Stern, a former U.S. Attorney and U.S. District Court Judge who is now UMDNJ's federal monitor.

Look for State Senator (and former Republican) State Chairman Joseph Kyrillos to take a leading role in organizing New Jersey for Mitt Romney's 2008 presidential campaign. Kyrillos, who served in the Reagan Administration before winning a State Assembly seat in 1987, has already committed to backing the Massachusetts Governor's White House bid.

"The enemy from within is in the White House." -- Congressman Bill Pascrell, Jr., speaking at a Town Meeting with Pennsylvania's John Murtha. (Montclair Times)

STENDER: PORTS DEAL EXPOSES ADMINISTATION'S 'SELECTIVE AMNESIA' ABOUT LESSONS OF 9/11

(TRENTON) - Assemblywoman Linda Stender today addressed a special meeting of the Assembly Homeland Security and State Preparedness Committee, urging the panel to ensure that Washington hears loud and clear New Jersey's objections to the proposed sale of major port operations to a company owned by the United Arab Emirates.

SIRES: MEMORY OF 9/11
NECESSITATES REVERSAL OF PORTS DEAL

(TRENTON) -- Assembly Speaker Emeritus Albio Sires today addressed a special meeting of the Assembly Homeland Security and State Preparedness Committee, invoking his own personal memories of the 9/11 tragedy in urging the panel to take a firm stand against the proposed sale of some New Jersey port operations to a company owned by the United Arab Emirates.

"It is the memory of that awful day that compels us to discuss this deal that would place some of our port operations in the hands of a company owned by the United Arab Emirates," Sires said. "It is the memory of 9/11 that drives us. Not political pandering. Not ethnic bias. Not some irrational paranoia."

Sires is sponsoring legislation (AR-138) with Assemblywoman Linda Stender (D-Union) and Assemblyman John Burzichelli (D-Gloucester) that would put the General Assembly on the record in joining the wave of national sentiment against the Bush Administration's decision to outsource some East Coast port operations to Dubai Ports World.

-- A Copy of Assemblyman Sires' Remarks Are Attached --

The New Jersey Legislature passed the first absentee ballot law after President Woodrow Wilson missed the 1919 general election. Wilson had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage on a trip to Colorado the previous September and was unable to return to New Jersey to vote in the gubernatorial and legislative elections. Wilson voted by absentee ballot from the White House in 1920, and moved his official residence to Washington, D.C. after leaving office in March 1921.

Albio Sires Voices Opposition to Port Deal

White House Would Allow Sale of Port Operations in Newark and Elizabeth

(West New York) –Speaker Albio Sires today called on the White House to scrap its plans to allow the takeover of major American ports by a United Arab Emirates-owned company, citing security concerns and the UAE’s blemished record on terrorism.

Virginia Littell's defense of her husband, State Senator Robert Littell, seems eerily reminiscent of the way Woodrow Wilson's wife protected his interests following a massive stroke in 1919. First Lady Edith Galt Wilson hid the President's condition from the public and even most of the White House staff -- a period that she called her "stewardship." It was Mrs. Littell, a former Republican State Chairman, that spoke to the New Jersey Herald's John Brand about speculation that Assemblyman Guy Gregg would challenge her 70-year-old husband -- a legislator since 1967 -- in the 2007 Republican primary. Insiders say that these days Ginnie Littell does most of the talking for her husband, who she said walks with a slight hunch due to arthritis of the spine and has lost 75% of his hearing. She had harsh words for Gregg: It's disappointing when somebody who is a part of your team and you've run with for years goes behind your back and doesn't want to return to the work he's done ... He's been talking about this for ages. I think it's disappointing, actually, to have somebody serving in one capacity so unhappy in that capacity that he has to take a look at another seat ... "If you feel like saying something or doing something, just come out and say this is the story and this is how I want it written." On Senator Littell: "My husband doesn't operate under conjecture," she said. "There is no plotting. He just does the job of the people of the 24th District." Finally: "The difficult thing is there is a lot of unauthorized or unidentifiable people out there with these blogs and the Internet and they're pretty much saying what they want," Ginnie Littell said. "And that's just chicken. You don't play sneak-around-to-come-and-whisper campaigns."

STATEMENT FROM GOVERNOR CORZINE ON THE PRESIDENT’S NOMINATION OF FEDERAL JUDGES FOR NEW JERSEY

TRENTON – The White House today announced that President Bush nominated four federal judges for New Jersey. This announcement comes as a result of an agreement reached over the last several weeks with Senators Lautenberg and Corzine.