Grace Spencer

Gov. Jon Corzine on Monday evening in Essex with freeholders Blonnie Watson, left, and Carol Clark.: Politicker photo 

The paneled surroundings of Pal’s Cabin have turned rancor to languor in the case of many an Essex County political rivalry, enabling the likes of North Ward Democratic leader Steve Adubato, for example, to occupy the same friendly booth as his old political foe, Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex).

So it’s unsurprising that neither Democratic Party fundraiser John Graham, a former Hillary Clinton supporter, nor Obama Campaign policy director Mark Alexander decided to convene in Pal’s for their continuing discussions about statewide campaign fundraising.

On Tuesday, they intend to meet in the West Orange watering hole with Gov. Jon Corzine between them. Alexander’s hoping the history Corzine has with Obama (they go back to Obama’s Senate primary campaign) will help him focus Graham and Graham’s allies.

Assemblyman Albert Coutinho (D-Newark) on Adams Street in the Ironbound: Politicker photo 

NEWARK - Standing outside East Ward Democratic Party headquarters on Adams Street, Assemblyman Albert Coutinho (D-Newark) occupies that central part of the 29th Legislative District that encompasses north and south Newark.

Coutinho’s running mates, state sen. Teresa Ruiz (D-Essex) and Assemblywoman Grace Spencer (D-Newark) come out of the north and south wards Newark respectively.

The East Ward, which is made up Portugese and Italians, and fits into the Ironbound neighborhood, is Coutinho’s home.

"We’ve always been an independent ward," says Joseph Parlavecchio, the assemblyman’s mentor, who on this day sits inside party HQ, giving an interview to a young woman who’s writing a book about city politics.

Assemblywoman Grace Spencer (D-Newark): Politicker photo 

Assemblywoman Grace Spencer (D-Newark) officially opened her district office on Hawthorne Avenue in the South Ward on Friday in a well-attended event.

Essex county Party chairman Phil Thigpen, Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Essex), Assemblyman Thomas Giblin (D-Montclair), Assemblywoman Cleopatra Tucker (D-Newark), and local elected officials joined Spencer for the kick-off.

"I plan to have a larger event in September," said Spencer.

The office opening comes in the wake of a suggestion by former Assemblyman William Payne (D-Newark) that he wouldn't rule out a primary run against Spencer. Although he bucked the system last year and ran off the line, Payne remains in a powerful inner sanctum. He serves as deputy chief of staff to Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo, a job title shared by Sen. M. Teresa Ruiz, who in 2007 topped the ticket with Spencer. 

Assemblyman Neil Cohen, who is expected to resign his seat in the Legislature amidst an investigation of child pornography on his office computer, will also give up one of the most powerful committee chairmanships in the Assembly: Financial Institutions and Insurance.  Speaker Joseph Roberts will decide who succeeds Cohen; possible candidates include Jack Conners, a Camden County Democrat (like Roberts) and a retired banker; and John Wisniewski, who now heads the also powerful Assembly Transportation Committee. Lower down on the list are John McKeon, who is a close political ally of Senate President Richard Codey; and current Vice Chair Grace Spencer, a freshman from Newark who served as Mayor Cory Booker’s Deputy Campaign Manager.

Former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan said he is finalizing the lawsuit he intends to file in Bergen County Superior Court against the State of New Jersey next week, attacking Gov. Jon Corzine’s decision to borrow $3.9 billion to build new schools.

"We’re going into court and we’re attacking the facts," said the Republican. "First, the schools are not crumbling. The Oliver School (in the Ironbound, where Corzine signed the borrowing bill) is a beautiful building.

"Second," he said, "we’re going after the assertion that these towns can't afford to pay anything for schools. They can afford taxes."

The lawsuit would be Lonegan’s fourth against the State of New Jersey since 2000.

Freshman Assemblywoman Grace Spencer, a protégé of Newark Mayor Cory Booker, is suddenly #1 on the list of most vulnerable legislators for 2009.  There is considerable speculation that the Essex County Democratic organization will dump Spencer and back incumbent Albert Coutinho and former Assemblyman William Payne in the Newark-based 29th district.  In turn, Payne, his brother, Congressman Donald Payne, his nephew, Newark City Councilman/Essex County Freeholder Donald Payne, Jr., State Sens. Ronald Rice and Teresa Ruiz, and North Ward Democratic leader Stephen Adubato will back a challenger to Booker – possibly North Ward Councilman Anibal Ramos, Jr. – for Mayor in 2010.

Gov. Jon Corzine signs the new schools construction bill at the Oliver Street School: Politicker photo 

NEWARK - Gov. Jon Corzine returned to the Ironbound this afternoon to sign a bill authorizing $3.9 billion in borrowing for new schools construction, which he said would fulfill the state’s constitutional duty to provide a thorough and efficient education, and create construction and other jobs.
    
Of an estimated 27 school projects statewide, six of the targeted schools are in the East Ward Ironbound, where the governor in late May announced his commitment to the legislation.

The six Ironbound schools were built before 1900 and are all overcrowded, according to the governor.

“We are doing what is right under the law and doing what is right for the state,” said Corzine, who praised the work of Assemblyman Albert Coutinho (D-Newark), Assemblywoman L. Grace Spencer (D-Newark), and others who banded together to pass the borrowing measure, which passed by one vote above the threshold in the Senate and three votes in the Assembly.

Former Assemblyman William Payne (D-Newark), right, with Gov. Jon Corzine today in the Ironbound 

NEWARK - Former Assemblyman William Payne (D-Newark) today wouldn’t rule out a return run for his old Assembly seat.

"If I ran, it would be for the Assembly," said Payne, who was in attendance at Governor Jon Corzine’s schools construction bill signing at the Oliver Street School in the Ironbound.

"But right now, I don’t have any intentions of running," Payne added.

Thrown off the line last year when he insisted on challenging for Sharpe James’s vacated Senate seat in the 29th District against establishment choice and eventual winner M. Teresa Ruiz, Payne would have to run against Assemblyman Albert Coutinho or Assemblywoman L. Grace Spencer.

Obama Campaign State Director Mark Alexander. 

The campaign was about to change.

On Oct, 9, 2007, an announcement came down from Chicago regarding New Jersey operations. 

Mark Alexander, a Seton Hall University law professor and Obama’s senior policy advisor, would be the campaign’s official state director.

"I am grateful that he is going to carry the fight forward to and through the Feb. 5 contests," Obama said of Alexander. "He is a valued and trusted advisor, and at the same time has deep ties in his home of New Jersey that will be invaluable to our efforts. 

"I am proud of the policy work we have done on this campaign and through Mark’s leadership we have built a team of key advisors from the ground up that will continue to offer new and innovative approaches to the challenges this country faces," added the presidential candidate.

A personal friend of Barack and Michelle Obama’s going back a dozen years, Alexander as a child worked on the 1974 Washington, D.C. mayoral campaign of his father, Clifford Alexander, former chairman of the Equal Opportunity Commission. Later, he ran Sen. Bill Bradley’s 2000 presidential campaign and served as counsel to Cory Booker.

A four-hour impasse over public employee benefits reform legislation Monday night in the General Assembly left a number of top Assembly Democrats fuming after several Hudson Democrats held out their votes on the measure causing the delay.  The boycott -- apparently orchestrated by State Senator Nicholas Sacco, who holds three public jobs in addition to his wife's employment with the Hudson County School of Technology, forced Democrats to rely on Republicans to pass the measure, a common occurrence in the Senate but a rarity in the lower House which infuriated veteran Democrats.