Editor's Note: Rothman is expected to make it clear today that he will run for re-election to an eighth term in 2010.

Is U.S. Rep. Steven Rothman (D-Fair Lawn) running for re-election in 2010?  The seven-term Bergen County Democrat has raised an anemic $25,212 over the last three months - his worst fundraising quarter in fourteen years - a point that will lead to speculation that he won't seek re-election next year. 

Weak fundraising is typically an indication that an incumbent is going to retire.  Rothman, the only New Jersey Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, is well-positioned to raise money. Indeed, he has been a fairly prolific fundraiser since he went to Congress in 1996. 

At age 57, and not likely the first choice of Democrats if a U.S. Senate seat were to open up, Rothman might be considering other options.  Another Democrat who entered Congress with Rothman in 1996, U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.), resigned this week to run the Center for Middle East Peace and Economic Cooperation.  Wexler had also mulled U.S. Senate runs in Florida.

Rothman could be looking at an Obama administration appointment, or another challenge in the non-profit arena.  He probably doesn't need the money, although his family real estate investments have likely taken a hit in a bad economy.

Rothman has a safe Democratic district - he won re-election in 2008 with 70% of the vote - and his $1.75 million war chest is more than adequate to carry him through next year.  But Rothman might also be looking at the uncertainties of congressional redistricting after the next census, when New Jersey might face losing a House seat.

The 100th Most Powerful Person in New Jersey politics is political satirist Stephen Colbert, a Montclair resident who hosts the popular Colbert Report on Comedy Central.  In a runoff election to capture the final spot on the prestigious list, which will be released this afternoon, Colbert defeated money manager Todd Christie, the brother of Republican gubernatorial candidate Christopher Christie, by a 36%-33% margin.  Tricia Mueller, a political operative who works for the carpenters union, finished third with 31%. 

PolitickerNJ.com allows our readers to vote for the final spot on the list.  Colbert was the top vote getter in the first round of voting, which featured a field of fifteen candidates.

Vote today to pick the final slot on the PolitickerNJ.com 2009 Power List, a runoff between the top three vote getters from last week's reader choice poll.  Competing for the #100 on our list of the 100 most politically powerful New Jerseyans are: Todd Christie, the brother of Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie; TV personality Stephen Colbert, a Montclair resident who hosts a popular news satire show on Comedy Central; and New Jersey Regional Council of Carpenters political director Tricia Mueller.  Over the last few years, this site has allowed our readers to pick the final slot on this prestigious list.

In a reader poll that began Thursday morning, Christie led Colbert by a 24%-22% margin, with Mueller close behind at 20%.  Twelve other candidates divided the remaining 34%.

CLICK HERE TO VOTE IN THE RUNOFF

In 2008, Atlantic City radio personality Harry Hurley was the Reader's Choice for #100.  In a two-day online poll that attracted nearly 2,900 voters, Hurley defeated Republican State Chairman Tom Wilson by a 35%-15% margin. Public Policy guru Jon Shure finished third with 12%, just narrowly leading Union County Manager George Devanney (12%). None of the other six candidates -- Cape May County GOP Chairman David Von Savage, attorney and Democratic fundraiser Victor Herlinsky, conservative political strategist Rick Shaftan, Burlington County GOP Chairman Mike Warner, and Jersey City political activists Bobby Jackson and Joe Cardwell -- finished in the double digits. Hurley also won a 2007 Reader's Choice poll.

The list, first released in March 2000, is an Insiders List that includes policy makers, party leaders, fundraisers, lobbyists, labor unions, businesses, and associations and have assembled the ultimate list of New Jerseyans with clout, with an impact on politics and government in the Garden State -- everyone but elected officials and Judges.  Stay tuned!

HOLMDEL - State Director for President Barack Obama's New Jersey campaign, Tricia Mueller started her job this week with the Corzine campaign, she told PolitickerNJ.com. 

"State director of the 2.0 program for victory 09," said Mueller.

Chief political operative for the New Jersey Regional Council of Carpenters, Mueller is a Camden native with close ties to Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts (D-Camden) and granddaughter of a Local 19 sheet metal worker who first started working campaigns for her father, a telephone installer who served as the youngest mayor of Oaklyn, New Jersey.

She received Corzine's personal imprimatur to serve as Obama's statewide director, and State Democratic Chairman Joe Cryan told her last year to get ready for part two this year: Corzine's re-election bid.

 PRINCETON – Tricia Mueller, state director for the Obama campaign, emerges from her office at headquarters here off Route 1 , threading her way between campaign workers to the front door.

“I’m really proud of what we’ve done, looking at the poll numbers, but we’re running as though we’re ten points behind,” says Mueller, nursing an early morning coffee.

The campaign has 6,000 people in the streets statewide, she says, and they’re in evidence here in the Princeton area, brandishing Obama for America signs and waving at commuters.

Volunteers take calls at a massive phone bank pushed against the front door. There’s evidently a problem in Montgomery Township. Three machines are down.

State Democratic Party Chairman Joseph Cryan address the crowd at Obama HQ on Saturday.: Politicker photo

WEST WINDSOR - The sense here on Saturday is the presidential race is no longer deadlocked nationally.

At this moment.

So when State Democratic Chairman Joseph Cryan asks the crowd of 260 Obama canvassers to demonstrate an upbeat mood, they respond with full-throated gusto in the packed headquarters of Obama’s campaign headquarters.

No one committed to a candidate in this cycle lets pass an opportunity to celebrate the good fortune of his or her presidential aspirant, be he Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) or Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).

To hear the media tell the story, the fortunes appear too transient.

If this event occurred a week ago, the mood would have been borderline gloomy. But today Washington is mulling a $700 billion bail-out package for a flat-lining Wall Street and Sen. John McCain - longtime champion of deregulation in the private sector - also lugs a five-day old burden of suggesting that America’s economy is fundamentally sound.

Seeking to avoid any connection to indicted Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joseph Ferriero, Barack Obama's New Jersey presidential campaign won't use the Bergen County Democratic headquarters this fall -- a high tech operation that includes over 100 telephone lines.  At a meeting of the party's Executive Committee earlier this week, U.S. Rep. Steven Rothman, the Chairman of Obama's state campaign, announced that fifth district congressional candidate Dennis Shulman's Wyckoff headquarters will be used instead.  That's a slightly different message than the one coming from Obama state campaign director Tricia Mueller, who has told Bergen Democrats that they would be based out of the Carpenter's Union hall in Hackensack.  Mueller was a political operative for the Carpenters before joining the Obama campaign.

DENVER - Joe Biden’s blue collar roots, support from police and firefighters, his regular guy commute to and from his job in Washington, and his foreign policy credentials all contribute to helping Barack Obama’s presidential campaign effort in New Jersey, according to spokesman Andrew Poag.

"He has a real connection to middle class voters," said Poag of the Delaware senator and presumptive vice presidential candidate, with whom Obama will stand today in Springfield, Illinois.

"He’s never lived in Washington, and he’s almost like a third senator in New Jersey," said Poag, who received a text message at 3 a.m. Saturday confirming Biden as Obama’s veep pick.

In a conversation with PolitickerNJ.com earlier this summer, Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts (D-Camden), noted Biden’s special connection to South Jersey, where his wife, Jill, has roots.