ROB ANDREWS

If Rob Andrews resigns his seat in Congress before September 17 to take a job at Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street investment bank, Gov. Jon Corzine would have the option of calling a special election on November 4.  The winner of that race would complete the final two months of Andrews’ term.

South Jersey Democratic leaders would have two options: they could simply nominate their still undisclosed candidate for the full two-year term and give their new Member of Congress a jump on seniority over the Freshman Class of 2008; or reward another party loyalist with a two-month career in the U.S. House of Representatives. 

Roll Call is reporting today that U.S. Rep. Robert Andrews (D-Haddon Heights) told the House Ethics Committee that he is in talks with Goldman Sachs about taking a job with the Wall Street investment firm. 

According to Roll Call, "Andrews filed his paperwork with the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, as the ethics committee is formally known, late last week. Pursuant to House rules, Andrews is now required to recuse himself from any official business involving Goldman Sachs that might cause or appear to cause a conflict of interest."

In a conversaqtion with Roll Call, Andrews’ chief of staff, Bill Caruso, would not comment on whether Andrews  plans to leave Congress before the end of his term.

United States Rep. Rob Andrews is in job discussions with the financial firm Goldman Sachs, according to the Washington D.C.-based Roll Call. 

According to the paper, Andrews filed paperwork with the House Committee on Standards and Official Conduct notifying them of the talks, and recused himself from any House business having to do with the firm.

Andrews, an attorney by trade, did not reveal the nature of the job he’s interviewing for. 

Andrews faced a stinging defeat in the June primary against U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg.  While running for that seat, his wife, Camille, jumped on the ballot for his congressional seat, where she remains as a placeholder.  That brought about speculation about whether Andrews intended to jump back into the seat, and many South Jersey Democrats called on him to stay. 

Union City Mayor/Senator Brian P. Stack (D-Hudson): Politicker photo 

UNION CITY - They call him "24-7," and on a brutally hot summer Friday when several other Hudson County public buildings look like the fixtures of a ghost town, Union City’s Brian P. Stack bounds down the steps of City Hall and keeps on the move.

"Yo, BPS," a kid wearing a headband cries in greeting, and he gives the mayor a fist pump as he cruises up 49th Street leading a contingent of the under 15 crowd.

"Go, Brian!" the kid shouts over his shoulder.

As he does every Friday, Stack presided over wedding ceremonies in the morning. Now he oversees mobile constituent services ten blocks away from City Hall in the concrete center of this Hudson County city of 60,000 densely packed people - mostly Latinos - where City Hall sports dual busts of George Washington and Cuban hero Jose Marti.

Police barricades stand at either end of the street, at Hudson and Palisade. A hot dog vendor gives out free dogs and sodas, courtesy of Stack - and under a tent in the middle of the block, the mayor in a tie with his suit jacket slung over the back of his chair, calls out the next name on a long list of names.

The word among South Jersey Democrats is that Donald Norcross, the brother of one of the state’s most powerful political insiders, will replace Rob Andrews in the U.S. House of Representatives.  Sources say that the decision to send Norcross, the South Jersey AFL-CIO President and the Camden County Democratic Co-Chairman, to Congress appears nearly final – but that party leaders have little incentive to call a vote to ratify that choice anytime soon.

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.

Despite a competitive and sometimes nasty primary fight, U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg seems to have had little trouble uniting the Democratic Party behind his re-election campaign.  There are no real signs that party leaders who backed Rob Andrews for the nomination are denying any support to the four-term Senator, and a poll released today by Monmouth University/Gannett New Jersey shows Democratic voters solidly behind the Lautenberg.  The Republican candidate, former Rep. Dick Zimmer, seems to be having a little trouble getting the GOP behind his candidacy after defeating conservative State Sen. Joseph Pennacchio and Ron Paul supporter Murray Sabrin in his primary.  The poll shows that Zimmer, with 64% of the GOP vote, has not yet closed the deal on his own party.

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

Nothing’s ever rock solid in politics, but the top of the Trenton power heap may contain more potential for movement than usual in the lead-up to Statehouse reorganization come January.

Two possible factors include Speaker Joseph Roberts’s (D-Camden) imminent departure from the Assembly, and the possibility that a newly crowned Obama administration would haul former Wall Street guru Gov. Jon Corzine out of New Jersey to crunch numbers in Washington.

In the thicket of this political drama, it’s difficult not to identify Senate President and former Governor Richard Codey (D-Essex) as a protagonist.

"I’m just a kid from Orange," Codey told a packed auditorium in his native Essex County town last month - but he’s also a former governor, who by all appearances liked the job and enjoyed great popularity.

Some Democratic leaders are talking, again, about the possibility that Gov. Jon Corzine might be interested in a federal post if Barack Obama wins the presidency.  Rumors of Corzine’s interest in a cabinet post came more frequently when it looked as though his favored candidate, Hillary Clinton, might be the nominee.  It’s not likely that Obama would load up his cabinet with Clinton supporters, although the presidential candidate does enjoy a good relationship with Corzine, who was Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman in 2004 when Obama was a first-time statewide candidate.

Lautenberg heads back to the phones for money: Politicker photo 

Now the cash rebuilding effort begins for Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ).

Coming off of a blowout victory over South Jersey challenger U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews (D-1) in the Democratic Primary, Lautenberg is starting with $1.3 million in the bank in mid-summer as he heads toward his November mano-a-mano with Republican candidate and former U.S. Rep. Dick Zimmer.

The Lautenberg campaign spent $5 million against the upstart Andrews, according to sources close to the U.S. senator.

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), chair of the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee (DSCC) had feared a Lautenberg dollar drain, and quickly went to the phones to try to take the steam out of Andrews when the congressman pawed the turf in the late days of April.