January 2, 2009 - 10:18am
Inside Edge

Will Menendez and Lautenberg go to war with Schumer over EPA post?

For the last sixteen years, the Region 2 Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been a New Jerseyan.  While New Jersey Democrats are preparing to nominate a candidate for that post, sources say that New York Democrats are insisting that this appointment go to them - especially since a New Jerseyan, Lisa Jackson, will head the EPA in Barack Obama's administration.  It's possible that New Jersey's two Democratic U.S. Senators will choose not to go to battle with Charles Schumer, the Senator from New York, over a regional EPA appointment.

One name being mentioned out of New York as a successor to Republican Alan Steinberg, the current EPA Regional Administrator, is Richard Kassel, a senior attorney with the National Resources Defense Council.

The last New Yorker to serve as Regional Administrator was Constantine Sidamon-Eristoff, a veteran New York City political insider who held the post under President George H.W. Bush.

Wally Edge can be reached via email at politicsnj@aol.com.