Joe Roberts

Not surprisingly, the New Jersey delegation was thrilled with Joe Biden’s speech tonight.  But among three delegates, the most powerful moment was Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden’s introduction of his father. 

Beau Biden’s recounting of the family’s tragic narrative, when he and his brother survived a car wreck that killed his mother and infant sister, struck State Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck) particularly hard.

Listening to his son speak and seeing him come out, that was very powerful,” she said.  “You could see the son’s eyes welled up with tears, appropriately so.”

Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts (D-Camden): Politicker photo 

DENVER - Foreign policy: advantage Republicans. Domestic policy: advantage Democrats.

It’s the old dichotomy Democrats have accepted ever since the assassination of Cold Warrior John Fitzgerald and the party’s implosion in the jungles of South East Asia.

For Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts (D-Camden), that old, dependable FDR battle cry of economic justice for all is what will bind the Dems in common cause coming out of this Democratic National Convention.

DENVER -- Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts (D-Camden) said that members of the unofficial legislative committee figuring out how to salvage the Clean Elections program have met at least once and are “rolling up their sleeves to do everything they can to keep the program.”

Clean Elections faces a potential constitutional hurdle and the fierce opposition of conservatives, who went looking for what they called a “secret” committee meeting. Conservative activist Steve Lonegan’s Americans for Prosperity even made a video documenting their search for the committee’s meeting.

Although Roberts convened the committee, he doesn’t know where they met either (he’s not actually a member).

“It might have been somewhere in the statehouse.”

It’s tough to get anything on the record about Rep. Rob Andrews’s replacement from Camden County Democrats. 

Sitting in the New Jersey delegation’s front row at the Pepsi Center tonight, Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts (D-Camden) cautioned that the news that Andrews is interviewing with Goldman Sachs still doesn’t mean he’s definitely not running again, despite his own repeated refusal to do so.

“I’m not aware that Congressman Andrews has made a decision.”

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.

Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts (D-Camden): Politicker file photo 

Few will declare it outright, but off the record people talk about soft versus solid support, and when it comes to Hillary Clinton conqueror Sen. Barack Obama (D-Il), some of his party support in New Jersey remains soft.  

With that in mind, and heading into the Democratic National Convention, Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts (D-Camden) today called on his fellow Democrats to jettison the angst and hurt feelings and focus on getting Obama elected president.

In a state where she triumphed by 10 points, "there are a number of people still frustrated that Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) got a bad deal this year," acknowledged Roberts. "But the reality is the Democratic Party should be proud that we had two history-making candidates colliding."

The Senate and Assembly both passed laws disbanding and reforming the Joint Legislative Committee on Ethical Standards earlier this year.  But so far, only two of the new committee’s eight seats have been filled.

That’s because it’s hard to find people interested or eligible to serve, according to Rick Wright, executive director of the Assembly Republicans.

“We are going to make appointments, but like everyone else we’re having a hard time finding people,” he said.

The Joint Legislative Committee on Ethical Standards has been widely considered a joke for most of its existence.  It averaged one sanction against a legislator every 10 years during its nearly four decade lifespan.  Meanwhile, filing toothless complaints with the committee became standard fare during the legislative campaign season, when candidates or their allies would file a complaint against an opponent and then issue press releases trumpeting it.

Acting Mayor/Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic): Politicker photo 

PASSAIC - To be in Trenton, or not to be in Trenton, that is the question for Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic), who became the acting mayor of Passaic in May when a federal judge found Mayor Sammy Rivera guilty of corruption.

Initially, Schaer, who received the chief executive’s job by virtue of his position as council president, figured he would serve long enough to hand off to whoever wins a Nov. 4th special election.

But about three weeks into his service as acting mayor, with no stunning personality on the city’s horizon line, by his reckoning, Schaer began mulling the idea of pursuing his own mayoral run. 

"We can’t afford to have a mayor who’s not going to build on some of the positive things we’re doing," said Schaer, who implemented local ethics reforms, imposed a 37% cut to the mayoral salary (from $117,000 to $72,000), and a municipal hiring freeze.

Assembly Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing)Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts (D-Camden) told PolitickerNJ.com he believes Gov. Jon Corzine would do well to select Assembly Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing) as his running mate in 2009.

Watson Coleman, a veteran of the Assembly and former state party chair, would be the state’s first lieutenant governor if Corzine were to run with her and win re-election.

"He’s got to pick someone who’s compatible with his style, of course," said Roberts. "I happen to be a big fan of Bonnie Watson Coleman’s. Her strengths are that she is highly respected, very well thought of in the legislature, where she was unanimously elected majority leader, and she is highly committed to the faith-based, African-American community."

Most incumbents are favored to win re-election in the 2009 State Assembly elections, which bodes well for Speaker Joe Roberts’ re-election prospects.  At the most, ten seats are in play – eight Democrats and two Republicans – and it will take some recruitment homeruns to substantially alter the political playing field next year.  For the Republicans to win control of the Assembly, they would have to oust incumbents in Districts 1, 7, 14 and 36 – these eight seats would mean a split 40-40 Assembly – and knock out one incumbent from the safe list.

Democrats Nicholas Albano and Matthew Milam are slightly more vulnerable in the first district because State Sen. Jeff Van Drew won’t be on the ballot.  But the absence of State Sens. Diane Allen and Bill Baroni, who have not had coattails in the past, makes incumbent Democratic Assembly members even safer.  In District 36, where Democrats Frederick Scalera and Gary Schaer won surprisingly close re-election bids last year – Republicans could have an opportunity because there will be no Democrats from the Bergen County portion of the district on the ballot.