Paul Sarlo

State Sen. John Adler’s (D-Camden) win last week in the 3rd Congressional District leaves vacant the chairman’s seat on the state Senate Judiciary Committee, and right now at least three senators serving on the committee have quietly expressed interest in the job.

Sources say state Sen. Nicholas Scutari (D-Union), Sen. Nia Gill (D-Essex), and Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-Bergen), want to succeed Adler, while two other senators with legal cred say they’re satisfied with their present chairmanships and don’t want to make a play for judiciary chair.

“It would be an interesting chairmanship,” admitted state Sen. Barbara Buono (D-Middlesex). “But I can’t imagine a more challenging chairmanship than the budget committee, and right now with the economy what it is, I would like to stay focused.”

One important battleground in the election of 2008 is in South Bergen, an assortment of blue collar, politically competitive municipalities with a long history of ticket splitting.  The towns south of Route 4 are critical for John McCain (Republicans have never won statewide in New Jersey without carrying Bergen County) and for the Republicans seeking to break the 7-0 Democratic majority on the Board of Freeholders.  South Bergen is also the political base of the lone Republican remaining in county government, County Clerk Kathleen Donovan. 

In a section of Bergen County where EnCap and the Meadowlands have dominated local politics in recent years, there are also key municipal races -- with control at stake -- in Rutherford, North Arlington, East Rutherford, Hasbrouck Heights, and Elmwood Park; and important contests in Bogota and South Hackensack.

Rutherford (pop. 18,110) has a Republican mayor and a Borough Council that has three Republicans and three Democrats.  Last year, John Hipp ousted incumbent Bernadette McPherson by a massive 69%-31% margin, and the GOP ousted two incumbent councilmembers.  In 2008, Democratic Councilmen Joseph Sommer and George Fencanin are not seeking re-election.  Democrats Jack Boyle and Kimberly Birdsall will try to stop the Republicans from taking control of the Council.  A split among local Republicans caused a contested primary; Hipp's candidates, Joseph DeSalvo and Frank Wilson, handily defeated two candidates backed by GOP Municpal Chairman John Daub in the primary.  McPherson is also on the ballot, as a candidate for re-election to the Bergen County Board of Freeholders. In 2007, Democratic State Sen. Paul Sarlo won 43% in Rutherford.  In 2004, John Kerry carried the borough by 509 votes (53%-47%).

Labor leader Buzz Dressel wants to be the next Bergen Democratic ChairmanJoseph Ferriero still hasn’t resigned as chairman of the Bergen County Democratic Organization, but after he was indicted on eight counts of corruption yesterday, the race to replace him has begun.

Already, potential candidates acknowledge that they’ll need to tackle two major issues in the upcoming weeks.

One is bridging the divide between the Ferriero loyalists and State Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck).

The other is fundraising.  That’s never been a problem for the BCDO under the leadership of Ferriero, who foes feared as a fundraising juggernaut.  But now, without Ferriero at the helm, the party could find it difficult to raise cash fast.  And they’ll need it – as of the last ELEC report, filed on July 15th, the party’s cash on hand is in the red.  While the party’s finances were similar at this point one year ago, they had Ferriero’s money-raising prowess to ramp it up.

Three names are still floated as potential replacements, while other names are likely to be added to the mix later on.  There’s former Leonia Mayor Robert Pacicco, a jewelry store owner and Democratic Municipal Chairman; Richard “Buzz” Dressel, the business manager of IBEW Local 164; and former Bergen County Superior Court Judge Daniel Mecca.

Some good news for State Sen. Paul Sarlo, who is also the Mayor of Wood-Ridge: the borough has been touted by real estate experts “as a prime location for long-term property investment.”  Wood-Ridge, according to a report in The Record, is one of a small number of New Jersey municipalities likely to see property values “remain sustainable.”

If Gary Schaer runs for Mayor of Passaic and wins, he would need to resign from the State Assembly seat he’s held since 2006.  District 36 Democrats would hold a special election convention in November to fill the remaining fourteen months of his term.   This would not be a seamless transition:  Passaic County Democrats will view this as their seat; indeed Schaer would likely weigh in on the selection of a successor – probably someone from his own local political organization or even (in an effort to unite the city behind his new administration) pick one of the unsuccessful mayoral candidates.

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.

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There is little doubt that Congressman Steve Rothman has become a major guy in Barack Obama’s campaign.  So if Obama were to win the presidency, it’s not crazy to view Rothman as a possible candidate for appointment to a major executive branch post  -- eight of the last nine presidents (Lyndon Johnson was the exception) named sitting Members of Congress to cabinet posts. 

The two Democrats running for the U.S. Senate spent Memorial Day on the campaign trail, marching in parades in northern New Jersey.

Democratic Senate candidate Rep. Rob Andrews today described the small Memorial Day parade in the tiny working class town of Wood-Ridge today as reminiscent of a Norman Rockwell painting.

About 20 miles north, in Bergenfield, Lautenberg spent part of his day in a town that much less resembles a Norman Rockwell painting: Bergenfield, where the 84-year-old World War II veteran energetically marched in a much larger, more ethnically diverse crowd at its Memorial Day Parade.