Kevin O'Toole

NEWARK – Among Newark elected officials, the election of Barack Obama last week sparked hope for healthcare reform, more federal aid, a re-invigorated sense of American leadership - and a special place on the president’s to-do list for the Brick City.

Inevitably, the Democratic victory also opened up questions about the future of Mayor Cory Booker, a supporter of Obama’s from the beginning of his campaign, who now serves on the president-elect’s transition team as it relates specifically to urban affairs.

As mayor of one of New Jersey’s biggest and one of America’s oldest cities with a battered infrastructure, Booker will join over 20 other New Jersey mayors in New Brunswick on Wednesday for a conference to redefine urban needs for the new administration.

Sen. Kevin O'Toole (R-Essex).: Politicker photo

DENVER - Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz) selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin roused the fighting mood of state Sen. Kevin O’Toole, one of a handful of elected officials who has stood with McCain from the beginning of his presidential run.

"It’s a curve ball, which Democrats were not expecting, and it opens up a whole new constituency,"said O’Toole. "It is a stroke of brilliance."

Governor of the so-called Seward’s Folly since 2006, Palin is a pro-life fiscal hawk whose one-time Miss Alaska runner’s up face has been on the cover of Vogue.

McCain State Chair Sen. Bill Baroni (R-Mercer): Politicker file photo 

DENVER - New Jersey Republicans jeered Barack Obama’s choice for vice president in a Saturday afternoon conference call today, with state Sen. Bill Baroni (R-Mercer) describing as "historic," presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Il.) decision to name Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) as his running mate.

"Yesterday, Sen. Obama picked someone who does not believe his own running mate is ready to be president of the United States," said Baroni, chair of the McCain campaign in New Jersey.

Citing a Democratic Primary debate exchange between ABC moderator George Stephanopoulos and then-presidential candidate Biden in which the latter said he does not believe the presidency is the proper venue for on-the-job training, Baroni focused on the freshman Senator Obama’s lack of experience.

"That’s not me saying it, it’s Joe Biden," said Baroni, echoing a McCain television ad that is now up and running in South Jersey.

Bergen County Republican Chairman Bob Yudin has named Assembly Majority Leader Paul DiGaetano as the coordinator for the 2008 Republican ticket headed by John McCain. That’s an interesting choice since DiGaetano lives in Essex County, although he represented part of South Bergen in the Legislature for sixteen years. By naming DiGaetano, who left the Legislature in 2005 to run unsuccessfully for Governor, Yudin is taking a real shot at Kevin O’Toole, the Essex County Republican Chairman and a State Senator who represents Yudin’s own district. O’Toole and DiGaetano are bitter rivals.

Steve Adubato, Jr., presides over a meeting between Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo, center, and Sen. Joseph Kyrillos.: Politicker photo 

SPRING LAKE - They drove and were driven to the Irish Riviera from all corners of New Jersey, in cars with government plates on them and dark SUVs and sedans with tinted glass, sporting sunglasses and paunches covered with sports jackets, mostly Democrats and a handful of Republicans, converging on this mansion by the sea.

Congressmen and mayors and assembly people and state senators and opposition researchers and retainers.

Standing at the front of the Seashell Dining Room in the Breakers to greet them was Steve Adubato, wearing a Hawaiian shirt and welcoming smile - and casting an eye that invariably sharpens human activity into the lineaments of political theater.

"I believe in the luck of the Irish," said the executive director of Newark’s North Ward Center and head of the Democratic Party in the North Ward, facing a sun-filled room packed with rivals hunched over plates of eggs and bacon: Gov. Jon Corzine and Republican State Party Chairman Tom Wilson; former Assemblyman Wilfredo Caraballo and Assemblyman Albert Coutinho; Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo and Assemblyman Thomas Giblin (D-Montclair).

In this poor man’s Olympiad of Jersey ethnic groups gathered under one roof, Adubato highlighted - as he does annually at this North Ward Center-sponsored breakfast - the Irish, who now number 141,379 registered voters in New Jersey, or 47,514 Democrats, 36,063 Republicans and 57,802 independents.

U.S. Rep. Steve Rothman (D-Fair Lawn): Politicker photo 

TEANECK - Barack Obama may compromise on some issues, but John McCain is a straight-up foot soldier for the oil barons, according to U.S. Rep. Steve Rothman (D-Fair Lawn) and state Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck).

In anticipation of McCain’s landing Tuesday in Bergen County, Rothman and Weinberg criticized the presumptive Republican presidential nominee for accepting 33 oil and gas industry lobbyists as campaign advisors, laying out an energy plan that gives Exxon Mobil $1.2 billion in tax breaks, and accepting $2 million in contributions from Big Oil.

"‘Exxon John’s’ energy policy includes nearly $4 billion in tax cuts to the top five oil corporations, complained Rothman, who stood in the Teaneck Marriott beside a super-sized $2 million check made out to "Exxon John" and signed by Big Oil.

The amount is seven times what Obama received from people connected to the industry, said Rothman, the only member of the New Jersey congressional delegation who supported the Illinois senator for president during the Democratic primary.

Senate Minority Leader Ton Kean, Jr. (R-Union), and Sen. Leonard Lance (R-Hunterdon).: Politicker photo 

State Sen. Thomas Kean, Jr., (R-Union) became minority leader just as a new band of hungry Republican legislators came up from the General Assembly to assume their state Senate seats.

Another under 40 state senator with statewide aspirations might send out at least back channel messages of panic in the face of a baseball roster's worth of new GOP talent.

And indeed there have been some nose-to-nose moments in the last few months since Kean made caucus boss, notably between the patrician leader and the headstrong state Sen. Kevin O'Toole (R-Essex).

But according to his colleagues, the stoic Kean has generally met the onrush by embracing it; and has assumed a statesmanlike stance while tapping the scrappy skills honed by his freshmen senators in the lower house.

A week before former Newark Mayor (and state senator) Sharpe James is scheduled to to be sentenced in federal court, five state senators are requesting the maximum sentencing.

Senators Bill Baroni (R-Mercer), Jennifer Beck (R-Monmouth), Gerald Cardinale (R-Begen), Joe Kyrillos (R-Monmouth), and Kevin O'Toole (R-Essex), intend this morning to issue a co-authored letter to U.S. District Judge William Martini.

According to the Star-Ledger, James's attorneys plan to meet with Martini on Wednesday to urge him to impose far less than a decade in prison on the 72-year old former mayor, who was convicted earlier this year on corruption charges.

Nkosi Remy is the new chief of staff for state Sen. Kevin O’Toole (R-Essex).

A member of Rutger's University's first bowl victory team, Remy was a wide receiver and defensive back during his four years as a Scarlet Knight. He has two Bowl Championship rings, including one from the historic Texas Bowl.

"With former chief-of-staff, Dominick Fiorilli, leaving to become John McCain’s deputy northeast regional campaign manager, I needed an energetic, intellectual leader to be my chief of staff," O’Toole said. "Nkosi more than fits the bill."

Sen. Kevin O'Toole (R-Essex) 

Republicans on Wednesday night at the Princeton Hyatt unanimously elected Essex County Republican Chairman Sen. Kevin O'Toole (R-Essex) as leader of the GOP county chair people. 

The chairs also unanimously elected Warren County Chair Doug Steinhardt as vice chair; Atlantic Chairman Keith Davis as treasurer, and Camden Chair Rick DeMichele as secretary.

"The meeting was all about setting a good tone for the year," said Davis. "He's got huge shoes to fill after Chairman (George) Gilmore, but Kevin's up to the task."

In his acceptance speech beofre his fellow chairmen, O'Toole said he wants better coordination and better communication among chairs.