JON CORZINE

Mercer County Executive Brian M. Hughes said he fully supports Gov. Jon Corzine’s re-election and would not run for governor if Corzine went to an Obama administration or abruptly pulled out of his re-election bid.

"I’ve been successful in Mercer, but to move up to governor in a 2009 run would take a lot of work, and I don’t have the recognition to go statewide," said Hughes, son of the late Gov. Richard J. Hughes, who served from 1962 to 1970.

Himself re-elected last year, Hughes said Corzine definitely deserves re-election.

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 conversation 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.

On the heels of a poll commissioned by a LGBT rights organization that said the majority of New Jersey voters favor allowing gay marriage, Assemblyman Michael Doherty (R-Washington Township) pushed for his own legislation that would call for an amendment to the state constitution that would allow New Jerseyans to vote on the issue.

“The people of New Jersey should have the final say on this fundamental issue and it’s time to allow their voices to be heard so that we can put this diversion behind us and move forward on real issues that are affecting our residents,” said Doherty in a press release.

Meanwhile, Steven Goldstein – chair of Garden State Equality, which paid for the Zogby poll – took the opportunity to invite Doherty to his own wedding next year.

“He’s entitled to his view and I look forward to welcoming him to my wedding in New Jersey in 2009,” said Goldstein. “Honestly, if he’d like to be in the wedding party, he’s more than welcome. I’ll personally buy him any tuxedo of his choosing.”

The Rev. Reginald Jackson of Orange was one of six Group fundraisers who went to Chicago on Monday.: Politicker file photo 

Six members of the New Jersey fundraising outfit formerly known as "the Group" toured the Obama mothership in Chicago on Monday and interfaced with some of the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee’s top staffers.

Zenon Christodoulou, Al DeCotiis, Hugh DeFazio, John Graham, Bill Harla, and the Rev. Reginald Jackson spent three hours in Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Il.) main campaign headquarters, which houses the political activity of some 450 people, according to DeCotiis.

"We told them we’re going to work with our existing operations and that we intend to bring in all of the Clinton finance supporters for full impact," said DeCotiis.

U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-8), right, with U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ).: Politicker file photo 

On a regular basis now, Gov. Jon Corzine reminds audiences that he’s running for re-election. If he doesn’t end up running for whatever reason, U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) says he wouldn’t mind personally stepping into the breach.

But whoever ends up out there on the barricade facing the GOP in a statewide race, Pascrell said his party should not fear likely Republican candidate U.S. Attorney Chris Christie, whom Quinnipiac University last week listed one point above the governor in a statistical tie - 41% to 40%.

Of his own gubernatorial run, "I would think about it very seriously," Pascrell said. "Right now I’m supporting the governor and I would urge him to run for re-election.

Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo: Politicker photo

NEWARK - Joseph DiVincenzo knows the joke is coming, and he fields it with a grin - the one broadcaster Steve Adubato, Jr., has delivered for years about how DiVincenzo tried out for more than a half dozen NFL teams and got cut by every one of them.

The fact that Brett Favre is now taking snaps for the Jets sets up Adubato’s new punch line.

"He’s even older than Joe D," Adubato cracks and the roomful of politicians at the Breakers laughs, and DiVincenzo a moment later stands at the microphone, giving a nod to Essex County Democratic Chairman Phil Thigpen, who’s out there in the audience somewhere.

"I’m with Phil Thigpen, not Steve Adubato," DiVincenzo says, a playful poke at his leader, the junior Adubato’s father, who tried to oust Thigpen as chairman earlier this year but ran into a public objection by DiVincenzo, who wanted Thigpen to remain as chair.

DiVincenzo prevailed.

WEST ORANGE - Essex County Democratic Party Chairman Phil Thigpen, Gov. Jon Corzine and fellow party members huddled up in Pal’s Cabin this morning in a show of party unity as Team Essex heads into Denver in support of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Il).

This is the second time in as many weeks that Corzine has gone to Pal’s to help focus party members on getting Obama elected president. Last week the governor met with members of the Group, the chief fundraising arm for Sen. Hillary Clinton, which is now committed to Obama.

"This one was much more about elected officials and the county party apparatus," said Mark Alexander, senior advisor for the Obama campaign. "There were town chairmen and women, all showing the unity of Obama and Clinton. This was about creating a unified force in the party."

Gov. Jon Corzine: Politicker file photoNEWARK - Hit with reporters’ questions here today about the business connections of his former chief of economic development, Gov. Jon Corzine said he did not know when he selected him that Gary D. Rose had a financial stake in the Xanadu Meadowlands project.

Corzine himself had close ties to a private firm behind the large-scale East Rutherford development - envisioned as a $2 billion pleasure dome of shops and entertainment hot-spots and slated to open next year.

In his capacity as economic chief, Rose helped facilitate a privately funded bailout of the once-floundering project, even as he owned stock in a company that stood to lose over a billion dollars, according to The Record reporters Jeff Pilletts and John Reitmeyer.

Rose left the Corzine administration in June.

Gov. Jon Corzine, former Gov. Brendan T. Byrne, Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo, and Senate President Richard Codey: Politicker photo

NEWARK - On a ridiculously hot day in which many other public speakers might have sent the brow-mopping audience on a premature beeline for the nearest watering hole, former Gov. Brendan T. Byrne regaled his willing audience with charm and one-liners.

"Everything else I asked for, but I didn’t ask for this," said Byrne, before officially accepting the honor bestowed by the Essex County Freeholders and Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo, and before he pulled the American flag off a stone fixture in a plaza named after him.

"When my kids used to visit me here, I used to put them in jail, and that taught them to stay on the straight and narrow," he cracked.

Gov. Jon Corzine, left, and former Gov. Brendan T. Byrne today in Newark.: Politicker photo

NEWARK - The presence of a beloved former anything in the world of politics invariably intensifies public scrutiny where it concerns that person’s successor, especially when that successor is currently in office.

So an Essex County favorite son, the 84-year old former Gov. Brendan Byrne standing beside Gov. Jon Corzine before a packed audience of county diehards today, created myriad opportunities for parallels.

On this day, Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo’s unveiled the Gov. Brendan T. Byrne Plaza, honoring the former county prosecutor and governor with his own local monument.

"Because of everything he stood for," DiVincenzo said of Byrne, who served as governor from 1974-1982. "Because he stood for doing the right thing. Whether it was with (raising) the income tax or the Meadowlands, he always did the right thing."

Then DiVincenzo introduced Corzine, who would introduce Byrne.