House

If U.S. Rep. Steven Rothman (D-Fair Lawn) decides not to seek re-election next year, possible candidates for his seat include: State Sens. Robert Gordon (D-Fair Lawn) and Paul Sarlo (D-Wood-Ridge), retiring Englewood Mayor Michael Wildes, Assemblyman Gordon Johnson (D-Englewood), Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle (D-Englewood), and Bergen County Freeholder Bernadette McPherson.

If State Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck) loses her bid for Lt. Governor, she could emerge as a strong candidate for Congress.  If Weinberg wins, Huttle is the favorite to take her State Senate seat.  Sarlo, the Senate Judiciary Chairman, has not expressed a huge desire to go to Congress; he is a possible candidate for Senate Majority Leader next year, or to chair the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee. 

Wildes, who is not seeking re-election after two terms as mayor, has long been interested in Rothman's congressional seat.  A strong fundraiser, he has $642,983 sitting in a federal campaign account, just in case.

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.

Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch) has the biggest campaign war chest in New Jersey's thirteen member congressional delegation, with more than twice as much money in the bank as Steve Rothman (D-Fair Lawn).  Pallone has $4,012,918, while Rothman has $1,759,842.  Pallone raised $355,661 during the last quarter, while Rothman brought in just $25,212 - less than any other New Jersey Congressman from either party.

Christopher Smith (R-Hamilton) has the lowest cash on hand - just $120,480.  He is expected to face a Republican primary challenge, possibly from former Holmdel Deputy Mayor Alan Bateman.  Rob Andrews (D-Haddon Heights) has $195,210 in the bank, and still carries a debt from his challenge to Frank Lautenberg (D-Cliffside Park) in the 2008 Democratic U.S. Senate primary.

Freshman John Adler (D-Cherry Hill), who won a House seat last year with 52% in a district the Republicans had not lost since 1886, has $1,193,060 cash on hand.  He raised $404,405 during the last quarter - the  best in the New Jersey delegation.  Another freshman, Leonard Lance (R-Clinton), has $314,755.

State Party Chairman Joe Cryan (center) at last week's LG debate at Monmouth University.

Democratic State Chairman Joe Cryan today amplified news about next week's rally with President Barack Obama and a Monday appearance in Middlesex by Vice President Joe Biden by announcing an incoming procession of party leaders for Gov. Jon Corzine, including former President William J. Clinton, United States Congressional members Michael Honda (D-CA) and Loretta Sanchez (D-CA), Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, and Caroline Kennedy.

Clinton will attend a rally with state Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck) next Tuesday afternoon at the Collingswood Ballroom in Collingswood; and a rally with Corzine at Rutgers University in New Brunswick on Tuesday evening.

Honda is scheduled to bond with voters at a Saturday, Oct. 17 Filipino American Heritage Month Rally in Old Bridge, a Chinese Americans’ Moon Festival Rally in Princeton, and a Korean Americans’ Harvest Moon Festival Rally in Engelwood.

The newest recipient of the Neil Romano Award for scamming a Bergen County political organization goes to Carmen Pio Costa, who convinced Republicans to nominate him for State Assembly in the potentially competitive 36th district by promising to raise money from his wealthy family.  For the second consecutive cycle, Pio Costa, the son of a millionaire developer/philanthropist from Morris County, has not come through; his individual and joint accounts show about $7,500 raised.

The last winner of the Neil Romano Award was Democrat Paul Stuart Aronsohn in his 2006 campaign for Congress.

One of the legendary scams in Bergen County politics came in 1984, when Republicans were considering candidates to take on newly-elected Democratic Congressman Robert Torricelli. Torricelli had won the seat two years earlier, when he ousted three-term GOP incumbent Harold Hollenbeck by a 53%-46% margin. The political climate in 1982 (and congressional redistricting in the 9th) favored Democrats and Torricelli leveraged the national contacts he made working for Vice President Walter Mondale and running Jimmy Carter's 1980 re-election campaign in Illinois to help him raise $266,000 -- about $70,000 more than Hollenbeck had.

Ronald Reagan's popularity heading into the 1984 election, and a new congressional map (the '82 redistricting plan was tossed by federal judges), gave Republicans reason to believe Torricelli could be beaten. The 9th district went strongly for Reagan, giving him a 59%-41% win over Mondale -- a plurality of almost 47,000 votes.

For the second time in eight days, there are reports that U.S. Rep. Steven Rothman (D-Fair Lawn) is using his office to help out to campaign contributors.  Last week, the New York Times reported that Rothman and three other members of the New Jersey delegation asked the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve a medical device manufactured by one of his donors, even though science professionals at the agency felt the device was ineffective and dangerous.  Today, The Record reported that a witness in the federal corruption trial of former Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joseph Ferriero testified that Rothman wrote letters at the request of a grants writing firm owned by Ferriero and Dennis Oury, the former counsel to the Bergen County Democratic Organization.  Oury was to be Ferriero's co-defendant, but he pleaded guilty earlier this week.

Rothman was among the largest recipients of campaign contributions made personally by Oury to federal candidates - he took nearly $5,000 in recent years. His office has not responded to numerous inquiries seeking to determine if Rothman would return the money. 

Another Bergen County Democrat, State Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck), announced that she would contribute the $1,000 she received from Oury to a local charity.  Weinberg did that on the day Oury pleaded guilty.

If you are a New Jersey State Senator, you are more likely to die in office than to win higher elective office. Under the current State Constitution, 49 sitting State Senators have asked voters to promote them to a new office, but only eleven have won.  

That might be bad news for Loretta Weinberg, the Democratic nominee for Lt. Governor, and the 50th State Senator to run for another office.

Nearly half of the State Senators seeking higher office have run for Governor and all 21 have lost: Malcolm Forbes (1957), Wayne Dumont (1965), Raymond Bateman (1977) and James E. McGreevey (1997) won major party nominations but lost the general election -- each time to an incumbent; William Schluter ran as an Independent in 2001; and Walter Jones (1961), Charles Sandman (1965), William Kelly (1969), Frank McDermott (1969), William Ozzard (1969), Harry Sears (1969), Ralph DeRose (1973), Raymond Garramone (1977), Frank Dodd (1981), William Hamilton (1981), Joseph Merlino (1981), James Wallwork (1981), Bill Gormley (1989) and Gerald Cardinale (1989).

Edward Crabiel gave up his Senate seat to run in 1973 but withdrew when some party leaders decided to back Brendan Byrne. In 2001, Donald DiFrancesco dropped his bid for the Republican gubernatorial nomination.

All seven State Senators who have run for the United States Senate have lost: Frank Guarini, in 1970 Democratic primary against Harrison Williams; Richard LaRossa (1996), Bill Gormley (2000), Diane Allen (2002), John Matheussen (2002), Thomas Kean, Jr. (2006) and Joseph Pennacchio (2008).  Only Kean won a primary.  (The last time a sitting State Senator went to the U.S. Senate was in 1934, when William Smathers beat Kean's great-grandfather.)

Eleven of the fourteen sitting State Senators who have run for Congress have won: John Hunt (1966), Edwin Forsythe (1970), Joseph Maraziti (1972), Matthew Rinaldo (1992), Bernard Dwyer (1980), James Saxton (1984), Frank Pallone (1988), Richard Zimmer (1990), Robert Menendez (1992), John Adler (2008) and Leonard Lance (2008).  Five have lost House bids: Richard Stout (1968), Joseph Kyrillos (1992), Gormley (1994), John Bennett (1996), and Cardinale (2002).

Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce (R-Parsippany) says that federal prosecutors should probe whether four New Jersey legislators violated any laws when they pushed the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve a medical device marketed by campaign contributors.

A New York Times story this morning alleged that U.S. Senators Robert Menendez (D-Hoboken) and Frank Lautenberg (D-Cliffside Park), and U.S. Reps. Steven Rothman (D-Fair Lawn) and Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch), asked the FDA to reverse the recommendation of their scientists and approve a patch for injured knees that had been found to be unsafe.  The manufacturer, ReGen Biologics, Inc., made what the Times called "significant" contributions to their campaigns a few months before they intervened with the FDA.

DeCroce, citing OpenSecrets.org, a website that tracks campaign contributions, the four Democrats received a total of $26,00 from ReGen executives.  He wants the incoming U.S. Attorney, Paul Fishman, to make a probe of the congressional Democrats his first priority.

"This could be one of the worst cases of ‘pay-to-play' perpetrated by any public official in New Jersey," said DeCroce.

Today's must-read story comes from the New York Times, which reports that after scientists for the Food and Drug Administration ruled that a medical device was unsafe and often failed, U.S. Senators Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez, and U.S. Reps. Frank Pallone and Steven Rothman successfully exerted pressure on the FDA to change their decision.  The manufacturer of Menaflex, a patch for injured knees, ReGen Biologics, Inc., made what the Times called "significant" contributions to their campaigns a few months before they intervened with the FDA.

Stack tonight.

UNION CITY - No stranger to political theater, renegade state Sen./Mayor Brian P. Stack played the unlikely role of Hamlet this summer as he projected indecision about who to support in the race between Gov. Jon Corzine and GOP challenger Chris Christie.

Tonight, Stack formally backs the governor - in his own way. He says the right things, but is brief in his assessment of Corzine while mostly - and heavily - promoting himself and his battle-tested organization.

"There's someone here who needs our support and we're going to work extremely hard for him. When I went to this gentleman as your senator or mayor, whatever town it was for, he was always there for us and now he's in a political fight and we need to be there for him," Stacks yells. "He doesn't put his interests first, he puts the people's interests first."

Targeted as part of a corruption probe that never resulted in charges while Christie was U.S. Attorney, Stack played footsy with Christie just long enough to create some insider buzz before U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-Hoboken) sat him down and told him bluntly it's time to back the Democratic governor.

So here he is this evening, backing him - in a jam-packed production at Scheutzen Park almost worthy of Apollo Creed's build-up in Rocky IV just before he fights Ivan Drago.

Although there are some Corzine/Weinberg signs tacked to the walls and the governor is on the schedule to formally accept Stack's endorsement, this Union City First event hardly radiates a Corzine-centric universe in a district where as a 2007 state senate candidate running against the powerful Hudson County Democratic Organization (HCDO), Stack crushed his opponent, 18,213 to 5,582 votes.