President

Republican gubernatorial nominee Chris Christie put out a web video this afternoon welcoming President Barack Obama to New Jersey.  

“I’d like to extend a warm New Jersey welcome to you, Mr. President.  Thanks for taking time out to come and visit our great state,” said Christie.  

Obama is coming to Monmouth County tomorrow to hold a rally with Gov. Corzine, who consistently lags behind Christie in the polls -- often by double digits.  

In the video, Christie equated the “change” that Obama ran on last year with his own candidacy.

“Last year, when you ran for president, your campaign gave people great hope that change could come to America, and people voted for that change.  But you know, your election didn’t end the peoples’ hunger for change here in New Jersey.  People understand that high taxes, high spending, overzealous regulation and lost jobs is not the way they want New Jersey’s future to be. They know that to get the change we need in New Jersey, we have to start by changing governors,” he said.

A new Quinnipiac University poll shows President Barack Obama with a 60%-34% approval rating among likely voters in New Jersey, a slight drop from where he was last month.  Obama has a 54%-38% approval rating among Independents, 53%-41% among White voters, 86%-7% among Black voters, 53%-41% among men, 66%-29% among women, 90%-7% among Democrats, and 2%-71% among Republicans. 

Obama will be in New Jersey on Thursday to campaign for Gov. Jon Corzine's re-election.

Obama as a presidential candidate with AFL-CIO workers at the War Memorial in May, 2007.

This time, he is the establishment.

Democratic Party dog-soldiers go back to 2006 with Barack Obama, who campaigned in the Garden State for Bob Menendez and made fast friends with Paterson Councilwoman Vera Ames - among others - when he addressed her personally from the stage at a Passaic County rally.

Since then, Obama came here for numerous private fundrasiers connected to his 2008 presidential campaign, among them an early Bergen County mixer with elected official supporters he could count on two hands at that stage of his career, including state Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck), Newark Mayor Cory Booker and West Ward Councilman Ronald C. Rice; and later a summer soiree at the Middletown manse of Jon Bon Jovi after he secured his party's nomination for the presidency and had the big money behind him. 

Now as Democrats hope to solder their champion to the still-standing but wobbling - if most of the polls are to be believed - candidacy of Gov. Jon Corzine in an attempt to create energy by proximity, President Obama's Thursday evening PNC Bank Center rally with the governor stands within a two-year campaign context.

Click here to view a memo from Frank Haines, the Assistant Legislative Budget and Finance Officer of the state Office of Legislative Services, providing details of the $4.949 billion New Jersey is receiving from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).  The memo identifies funding "received or to be received" in the state FY 2009 and 2010 "for which maintenance of state funding efforts or program eligibility continuation conditions."

CLICK HERE TO READ THE HAINES MEMO

The Hill is reporting that Josh Bolten, who served as George W. Bush's White House Chief of Staff from 2006 to 2009, will spend a year in New Jersey as a visiting professor at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.  Before joining the Bush administration, Bolten worked with Gov. Jon Corzine at Goldman Sachs.

Don’t expect to see Sarah Palin promoting Chris Christie in New Jersey any time soon.

CNN asked the Christie camp if they’re planning to have the soon-to-be-former Alaska Governor campaign for Christie here in New Jersey.

The response from Campaign Manager Bill Stepien: "There are no plans for Governor Palin to visit New Jersey at this time.”

The question arose after Palin’s resignation announcement last week, when Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said that, removed from her gubernatorial duties, Palin "will be very helpful to the Party this year as we wage critical campaigns in Virginia and New Jersey." Democrats immediately seized on that statement, relishing the idea of equating Christie with a polarizing figure like Palin.  

President Barack Obama will join Gov. Jon Corzine for a rally at Rutgers University in New Brunswick on July 16th, according to an email message the governor sent to supporters this morning.

"President Obama isn't just a close friend of mine; he's a great friend to our state," wrote the governor. "After eight long years, we finally have a partner in Washington who shares our values and vision for a more progressive New Jersey.

"Together, we are creating green jobs, providing universal access to healthcare for kids, protecting the most vulnerable among us, and ensuring all our children have access to a quality education -- regardless of where they live."

This is not the first time the governor, down by double digits in most polls, has turned to a top tier presence in this campaign cycle. Vice President Joe Biden joined Corzine for his general election launch on June 2nd.

After nearly six months as President, Barack Obama enjoys a 61%-29% approval rating among New Jersey voters, according to a new Fairleigh Dickinson University poll released this morning.  That is a slight drop from his 66%-22% approvals in an April poll.

In a rebuke to Judge Sotomayor, who found neither empathy nor justice for victims of obvious racial discrimination, the SCOTUS struck another blow for a color blind society.

Red Bank resident Philip Murphy, the Democratic National Committee Finance Chairman and a rival of Jon Corzine when they were in senior management at Goldman Sachs, is the "leading contender" to become the next U.S. Ambassador to Germany, according to a Washington Post report published today.  Murphy was a senior director and management committee member at Goldman and served as head of the firm's German division.  During a 1999 coup that led to Corzine's ouster as Chairman - and ultimately his decision to run for the U.S. Senate - Murphy was on the opposing side.  In 2005, Murphy tweaked Corzine a little when he became a policy advisor to then-Gov. Richard Codey, who was still mulling a bid for the 2005 Democratic nomination for Governor against Corzine.