President

Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic), left, and Passaic Mayor Alex Blanco

Fighting for re-election in the 36th District, Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic) said an email blast today by a constiuent urging Orthodoz Jews to vote against Gov. Jon Corzine is not representative of the community's view of the incumbent Democratic Party governor.

"(Republican) Allen Shwartz's endorsement of Chris Christie is kind of like Richard Nixon endorsing the Republican candidate," said Schaer. "Our community is not in lockstep on the governor's race. Some rabbis are backing Christie, others are supporting Corzine. As a member of the Orthodoz Jewish community I've certainly made my overtures on behalf of the governor."

Shwartz in his email panned Corzine, in part using the governor's linkage to President Barack Obama as an argument against supporting the incumbent.

"Jon Corzine’s most visible proponent for the past month has been none other than President Barack Obama," Schwartz wrote on Passaic Today. "One doesn’t have to travel for long through Passaic, Lakewood, or Teaneck to see the signs of President Obama and Governor Corzine campaigning together, arm-in-arm.

Ward 6 Councilman Andre Sayegh, left, with Council President Jeffrey Jones.

PATERSON - Barack Obama first sprang the "cousin Pookie" line in New Jersey back in 2006, when he was campaigning for Sen. Bob Menendez (D-Hoboken) in Paterson.

"He said to me, 'Vera, we know about cousin Pookie, don't we?' and I told him, 'We sure do," recalled the 4th Ward councilwoman, who's served on the governing body for 24 years in this Passaic County anchor city where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans, 25,882 to 2802. 

Now incumbent Gov. Jon Corzine is hoping the campaign efforts of President Barack Obama will amp up his numbers in urban areas like Paterson.

"In a strictly Democratic community like this, many folks will be voting the Democratic line, and they know they have to get out and vote," said Ames. "There is a connection between Corzine and (Mayor Jose "Joey") Torres with the $30 million we get every year from this administration to keep the taxes down. There's a lot of work going on for Corzine. There's very good coordination between the Corzine people and local elected officials. We've been working with them for months. I can't speak for the rest of New Jersey, but I know he's going to take Paterson."

West Ward Councilman Ronald C. Rice

NEWARK - The crowd spilled out onto the pavement following the rally with President Barack Obama and just in case there was any doubt about why he was in town, a TV truck broadcasting flatscreen images of Gov. Jon Corzine in action started circling the arena blasting out the message, "Corzine, Corzine, Corzine."

The crowd, of course, was still talking about Obama.

"Awesome," said Assemblywoman L. Grace Spencer (D-Newark), who was positioned on the floor in front of the stage where the president spoke at the Prudential Center said in response to a PolitickerNJ.com question. "There is a humility to him - unmistakable. It's easy to see that he worked his way up the hard way."

"I'm writing a book called 'Obama Chicks,'" said Pam Jasper, a certified pilot, wearing a hat with "Obama Chicks" printed on it in pink letters.

But with less than 40 hours to go before Election Day, the president is delivering more than inspirational presence to Newark. 

Getty Images Photo

President Barack Obama campaigns at the Prudential Center in Newark with Gov. Jon Corzine, Lt. Gov. candidate Loretta Weinberg, and Mayor Cory Booker.

NEWARK - Wading through the "I love you's" as he stands at the microphone on a raised platform in the middle of the Rock, President Barack Obama derides the opposition as an outfit selling a failed economic model.

"That didn't start under Jon's watch's or under my watch," Obama says of the national recession. "I wasn't sworn in yet. There's a little selective memory going on; a little amnesia about how we got into this mess.

"We're in this because of the same trickle-dwn economics the other guy's party has been peddling for years," he adds, praising incumbent Gov. Jon Corzine as a "leader who's put ordinary folks ahead of politics.".

In the 2008 presidential contest in New Jersey, 900,000 more voters than the usual 1.2 million that catapult a statewide candidate to victory turned out for Obama. 

"We will not lose this election if all of you are as committed as you were last year," Obama tells the roaring crowd.

At the end of the speech, state Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck) and Newark Mayor Cory Booker join Obama and Corzine onstage.

NEWARK - If there were any doubts about turnout at the Prudential Center this afternoon, they ended about a half hour ago.

This is not Joe Biden at Middlesex County College.

The place is packed for President Barack Obama.

"Give us the energy we see here today, and we'll get it done, I promise you," state Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck) tells the crowd.

From left: U.S. Rep. Donald Payne (D-Newark), Bill Payne, and Corzine Deputy Campaign Manager James Gee.

Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo just introduced U.S. Rep. Donald Payne (D-Newark), who stands at the podium in the Prudential Center now.

"Joe DiVincenzo's done a great job in Essex County, putting Essex County first," Payne tells the crowd. "I'm fired up and ready to go."

Moments earlier, Payne wouldn't commit to DiVincenzo's re-election when asked by PolitickerNJ.com. 

"It's a little early for that, isn't it," he said.

At issue is DiVincenzo's participation in shoving Senate President Richard Codey (D-Roseland) out the door earlier this fall, offering thee argument that Codey didn't have the votes to withstand Senate Majority Leader Steve Sweeney (D-West Deptford).

NEWARK - As inspirational as President Barack Obama remains in Newark, politics in this city still hinges on local mechanics - and there are undeniably several factors contributing to a lack of good structural pre-conditions for this governor's race.

Take the Central Ward.

Last year at this time the city was blanketed with foot soldiers selling the local candidacies of Eddie Osborne and Charles Bell.

Each campaign had octopus arms around the presidential candidacy of Obama who, by the way, was on the ballot - for real.

Other Central Ward contenders were in the race, each one anxious to prove why he or she actually best encapsulated change in the mold of the presidential candidate, and each one embodying a key voter demographic.

That battle at the grassroots and ward level created the perfect atmospherics for top-down, bottom-up fusion and symbiosis.

From left: GOP nominee Chris Christie, Assemblyman John DiMaio (R-Hackettstown), Steve Lonegan.

FLEMINGTON - Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie this afternoon stood onstage with the man he conquered in the June Primary: former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan, leader of the conservative movement in New Jersey, who promptly bashed President Barack Obama.

"The people who crossed the Atlantic Ocean in ships didn't come here looking for security and a welfare check, they came here seeking freedom and liberty," Lonegan told an excited crowd packing the sidewalk in front of the Hunterdon County Courthouse. "Barack Obama doesn't understand that simple message.

"Those folks had learned a lesson that Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid do not understand," Lonegan said.

A day before Obama is scheduled to appear at rallies in Camden and Newark in support of Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine, the crowd cheered in the rain.

"Some of my friends said they were going to write Steve Lonegan in," added the former gubernatorial candidate. "But let me tell you, we have an opportunity to take back New Jersey, to make New Jersey the economic leader it once was. The best man did win. The best man will put an end to the advancement of the Corzine-Obama team."

**** UPDATED: Sen. Ronald Rice's staff today told PolitickerNJ.com that Rice will not attend the Obama rally tomorrow because his mother is gravely ill.  

NEWARK - Two big charter buses idle outside of headquarters off South Orange Avenue and state Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Newark) is just about ready to give the signal for the two of them to get going.

"Our people always march at night," he says in the face of the darkening streetscape. "They hit the doors between 4 and 8 p.m."

Onboard are 109 canvassers for Gov. Jon Corzine, with instructions to blanket the West Ward with door hangers and campaign literature for the incumbent Democratic governor two days in front of President Barack Obama's 11th hour Corzine rally in Newark followed by the election itself next Tuesday.

No one seems to know at this point exactly who's going to win: Corzine or his Republican opponent, Chris Christie; but the campaign wants to squeeze 40,000 votes out of Newark, and Rice has a goal to help get the governor 8,000 votes in the West Ward, a long-shot, he admits.

Four years ago, then-candidate Doug Forrester's campaign tore through the streets with a lot of hoopla and once the operatives here had recovered after being doubled over with laughter, they hit back with a vengeance against the interloper from the GOP and delivered nearly 9,000 votes for the Democrat.

Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy, right, with Assemblywoman Joan Quigley (D-Jersey City) and Assemblyman Vincent Prieto (D-Secaucus)

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.