JON CORZINE

U.S. Rep. Donald Payne (D-Newark): Politicker photo

DENVER - It was coming to an end in an Irish bar, only it wouldn’t actually end there. It would in another bar, a few blocks removed.

Two bars separated by one speech.

"It should be a walkover, of course," said U.S. Rep. Donald Payne (D-Newark). "These guys - Obama and McCain - are neck and neck. I think it’s perhaps the trepidation about race that makes it that way, but we'll see."

In a few hours, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) would take the stage and accept his party’s nomination.

Payne, and his elder brother former Assemblyman Bill Payne, mingled among a respectably large crowd of guests in this, the last big, pre-Obama speech bash in downtown Denver at the Celtic Tavern, thrown by U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch) and U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson).

The Celtic Tavern is located near the light rail line, and soon the delegates and superdelegates and other guests would pile aboard and head out to Invesco Field to see and hear Obama.

In the meantime, the hosts brought Speaker Joe Cryan up onto the stage with the folk band to take a bow. Just as they were stepping over the microphone cords and getting ready to launch into the Irish songs, the bar door swung open and Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy walked in, prompting Pascrell to make a special introduction.

It almost looked staged, as if a staffer had sent Healy a text message. Healy's a good Irish tenor with a rich, well-modulated voice.

But the mayor’s stride-in would astoundingly prove a premature entrance to the main event, for on this afternoon, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-Union City) went to the front of the room.

Gov. Jon Corzine at the convention.: Politicker photo 

DENVER - As he partied the night away at a downtown bar following Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) acceptance speech and the end of the Democratic National Convention, Gov. Jon. Corzine radiated happiness to everyone around him.

"I feel like a kid again," said a tie-less, beaming Corzine, inviting guests in to his celebration.

Energetic all week, getting up at 5 in the morning Rocky Mountain time for interviews, and all day networking, fundraising, speech-making and morale -boosting, the governor appeared more dynamic with each passing day, culminating with his appearance at this event.

The conflict-resolution New Jersey storyline of this convention involved whether or not the delegation could harness the undercurrent of hurt and anger among Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) holdouts and channel it to Obama.

By Thursday afternoon, after a week of parties and politics, most of the members of the delegation appeared to be significantly slowed. People’s answers to questions about speeches usually contained references to feelings of being tired.

Through the window of Johnny Rockets in Denver, Gov. Jon Corzine can be seen getting down to “Staying Alive” on Wednesday night. 

DENVER - The affable salesman from the Midwest landed on the outskirts of town here with a bright smile and anecdote-laden speaking style that even the most bleary-eyed early morning Democrats responded to through the haze.

If the junior senator from his home state is the glamorous superstar, Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) can claim the mantle of progressive, happy warrior work horse, and he kicked off his breakfast address to the New Jersey delegation today by noting how much he liked the deli cuisine that Sen. Bob Menendez (D-Ill.) introduced him to when Menendez hosted Durbin one day in Hoboken.

He would get a standing ovation here, this politician who looks like an actor who would insist on playing Willie Loman as the guy who plays out a happy ending, in what amounted to a nearly perfect set-up when Gov. Jon Corzine prepped the crowd for his onetime Senate colleague.

"If you want to know how we get through healthcare, it’s going to be through the leadership of Dick Durbin," Corzine said of Durbin. "If you want to know how we’re going to change our foreign policy, it’s going to be through the leadership of the majority whip."

Obama calls Durbin his mentor and the older legislator responds publicly in the role of witness to what he sells as American excellence. Tonight he will introduce his friend and the Democrats’ presidential nominee at Invesco Field.

To U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson), the lack of any primetime speakers at both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions is just another example of both parties using the Garden State cash machine before abandoning the state to its own devices.

“I think it was an insult to the state of New Jersey because a lot of money comes out of this state for both political parties, and a lot of support for both political parties. So there’s no excusing it,” he said.

Responding to a Star-Ledger report that Sen. Bob Menendez (D-Hoboken) was eventually offered a speaking spot but turned it down because it wasn’t primetime, Pascrell quickly responded that they only offered it “after the fact.”

DENVER - The perceived indignity of standing in a crush of bodies behind the Island of Guam in that gaping blue glow of the Pepsi Center, coupled with the ongoing grind of Sen. Hillary Clinton’s (D-NY) loss, didn’t do much to boost the spirits of the delegation, as coming in here they hung their last hopes on a podium appearance by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-Union City).

"No comment," state Party chairman Joseph Cryan said when poked about Menendez’s chances of speaking.

When it finally didn’t happen, the bulk of Garden State Democrats looked again for sustenance in Senator Clinton, who won by nearly ten points in New Jersey, whose presence on stage could keep the painful tensions of every silently suffering delegate alive for a few more hours - building to some end that was as yet unknown.

And yet when she spoke on Tuesday, Clinton put a larger political conflict in very stark terms, attempting to uplift to battle stations a mood that could easily go straight to a meltdown with the wrong tone.

Assemblyman Rick Merkt (R-Medham) is thinking about running for Governor in 2009.
DENVER - When people ask him if he’s a mountain man - one of those hard right warriors from Northwestern Jersey, Assemblyman Rick Merkt (R-Randolph) responds that he’s "more of a foothill guy."

Whatever the colloquialism, Merkt said today that he is very serious about trying to climb over the obstacles to challenge Gov. Jon Corzine. Tomorrow he will officially establish an exploratory committee toward that end.

How serious is he?

"I will not seek re-election to the Assembly," said the 11-year legislative veteran, a corporate attorney with TDI Power in Hackettstown.

"This is no trial balloon," Merkt said. "I’ve been considering this for a number of months, and I am convinced that New Jersey needs a governor who respects the people."

DENVER -- Essex County Executive Joe DiVencenzo may have said last week that he would consider running for Governor if Gov. Corzine left office early or decided not to seek reelection, but since arriving for the convention he’s been assured that won’t be the case.

“There’s no question Jon is going to be running for reelection. He’s been working this delegation very, very well.   He assured me that he’s going to be our candidate whether Obama wins our not.  He’s not interested in going to Washington,” said DiVincenzo. 

Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer: Politicker file photo

DENVER - The name of Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer often appears on people’s short lists for lieutenant governor in 2009.

Palmer doesn’t have a problem with that.

"I’m thinking about it," he told PoltiickerNJ.com, regarding attempting to land an under-card position on a ticket with Gov. Jon Corzine.

DENVER -- Hillary Clinton’s speech was over, but the night wasn’t done. New Jersey Democratic Party Chairman Joe Cryan and West New York Mayor Sal Vega led a scattered contingent of the New Jersey delegation to Invesco Field. Inside they were greeted by Bon Jovi’s "Living on a Prayer," and when the rest of the delegation finally arrived they found a stage overcrowded with Garden State Gov. Jon Corzine, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell and New York Gov. David Patterson. Joining the governors on stage were none other than the Clintons.