Richard Codey

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.”

A bottomed-out President George W. Bush and losses in New Jersey presidential elections extending to the late 1980s invariably prompt Republicans to designate the Reagan era as a modern touchstone for their party.

The fact that he won here in back-to-back elections still sparks the GOP to pepper their fighting words with Reagan invocations, evidenced by McCain surrogates specifically targeting “Reagan Democrats” at the opening of their headquarters in Woodbridge this summer.

The Gipper remains the man among GOP, going up the top of their ticket, where Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) repeatedly refers to Reagan as his hero and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin hits a raise the roof crescendo every time she utters the late president’s name on the stump.

The campaign of 5th District Congressional candidate Dennis Shulman is bringing in state Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex) to campaign on Monday during evening rush hour in Hoboken.

Codey and Shulman will work the platforms of those trains bound for 5th District destinations, according to Shulman spokesman Jeffrey Hauser.

"NJ-5 lacks a lot of the prototypical retail opportunities, that's why we're big on football games, soccer tourneys and Halloween parades," Hauser said.

Shulman is running against U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett (R-Wantage).

They may face each other in a gubernatorial primary election next year, but for now Assemblyman Richard Merkt (R-Mendham) wants U.S. Attorney Chris Christie activated for a common purpose.

Tired of lobbying state channels and getting no results, Merkt today called on Christie to investigate a grant program that appears to have been "nothing more than a political pork slush fund for certain Democratic legislators," in Merkt’s words.

"We need to know what legislators, in addition to (former state Sen. Wayne Bryant D-Camden) had control of these funds, where they directed those funds, and whether they benefitted from the recipients," said Merkt, who’s probing a run for governor next year. "The U.S. Attorney now needs to look into the entire scope of this program to see whether there is wrongdoing that extends beyond Mr. Bryant’s actions."

Sources familiar with legislative vote counting say that Gov. Jon Corzine has the votes to pass his proposals for sweeping campaign finance reform in the State Senate and General Assembly.  In the Assembly, where his plan has the endorsement of Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts, the Governor has bi-partisan support that guarantees swift passage.  But in the Senate, where Republicans will give him plenty of votes, Corzine's problem is Senate President Richard Codey.  Codey, sources say, is strongly opposed to the proposed reforms and off-the-charts mad at Corzine. While the Assembly is expected to move quickly, Codey could offer considerable delays in the Senate.

Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex): Politicker photoState Sen. Richard Codey (D-Essex) said he strongly agrees with the provision in Gov. Jon Corzine’s executive order that would ban the practice of wheeling, but he wants to look at the fine print in basically every other aspect of the ethics package.

"I would go further; I would make the anti-wheeling measure stronger," said Codey, who said he did not attend today’s press conference with the governor because of a scheduling conflict.

Not only does Codey support a ban on wheeling across county lines - but across state lines.

"I would say ‘you can’t wheel money in, and you can’t wheel out," the former governor said.

With just over a year to go before he’s up for reelection, Gov. Jon Corzine today released a comprehensive package that he said is the final piece of ethics reform that he outlined during his 2005 gubernatorial campaign.

Corzine promised that the plan -- parts of which he’s already enacted through executive order and parts of which will require legislation-- will “end pay-to-play once and for all, at all levels of government.”

“We have reached a point where New Jerseyans have come to believe that instead of government of, by and for the people, we have a government of, by and for political contributors, lobbyists and those who are at every level of pay to play,” said Corzine at an outdoor ceremony in front of the state house.  “Today, that era ends.”

To prove his point, Corzine stood next to a checklist of his nine-point reform plan from his first campaign for governor.  Assuming that the reforms outlined today were passed, each one was checked off.

“All this is about accountability – not just about laying down new rules. It’s also about enforcing,” he said.

If you care: with Gov. Jon Corzine, Senate President Richard Codey and Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts in Denver attending the Democratic National Convention this week, Anne Milgram is manning the ship at home.  The Attorney General, fourth in the line of gubernatorial succession, is serving as Acting Governor.

Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex): Politicker file photo 

DENVER - Gorged on a buffet dinner, the delegation now heads for the light rail that hugs the side of I-25, and that will shuttle the Jersey politicians northward into the bowels of downtown Denver for the convention, and a few scattered souls remain behind in the otherwise desolate Columbine Room at the Inverness Hotel.

Some stragglers head for the exits.

"I told Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Sayreville) we need this in Jersey," said Michael Greenstein, husband of Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein (D-Monroe), moments before he trots up the stairs to the light rail station.

The bar awaits.

Another round of drinks arrives in the basement-level Spotted Dog - cranberry juice in honor of Jersey - and vodka - as a baseball-capped Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine appears on the large-screen television screen and tries to stifle a lump in his throat acknowledging Obama’s wisdom in selecting Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) as his veep. It doesn’t sound altogether sincere. Kaine was on the short list for second banana and now it’s over and he manages a smile for anchor Wolf Blitzer but he doesn’t radiate eye of the tiger.