Leonard Lance

Nobody can accuse Gov. Jon Corzine of not being politically active this election cycle.

He's become one of Barack Obama's point men on the economy, campaigning for him in Philadelphia and Florida and just yesterday appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press" as a surrogate. But when it comes to the campaigns of New Jersey Democrats who are engaged in tight federal races, Corzine has largely played a background role, having made only a couple brief campaign appearances with 7th District congressional candidate Linda Stender and none with 3rd District candidate John Adler.

Nationally, Obama can use Corzine's image as the economically savvy Goldman Sachs CEO. That idea no longer applies in New Jersey. Throughout the campaign, Corzine has been to Republicans what President Bush has been to Democrats: a public figure to rally the troops against, though to a lesser than Bush.

Tonight, Corzine will attend Sen. Hillary Clinton's fundraiser for Stender, but it's not open to the press or general public. Monmouth University pollster Patrick Murray thinks the Democrats want to keep it that way.

"Neither George Bush nor Jon Corzine helps any candidates in those races," said Murray. "So the more Jon Corzine stays out, the better it is. George Bush is the lesser popular of the two figures, so the Democrats want to keep that focus on George Bush and they don't want it muted or neutralized by bringing Jon Corzine into the picture."

Former Massachusetts governor and presidential candidate Mitt Romney will hold a press conference with 3rd District Republican Congressional candidate Chris Myers tomorrow night.

The event will take place in downtown Medford at 5:30p.m., where Myers is the mayor. 
Romney is also holding a fundraiser for 7th District Congressional candidate Leonard Lance tomorrow.

Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney will both be making fundraising appearances in New Jersey this week, according to a report in the Star-Ledger.

Clinton will be here today to raise money for Assemblywoman Linda Stender’s (D-Fanwood) congressional bid, while Romney is coming sometime later this week to help her opponent, state Sen. Leonard Lance (R-Flemington) with his campaign, according to a report in the Star-Ledger.

The report does not say whether Clinton or Romney will make any public campaign stops for the candidates.

The 7th Congressional Campaign of Assemblywoman Linda Stender (D-Fanwood) has raised over $2.2 million to date, according to a release issued today by the campaign.

In the third quarter, Stender raised $681,000 and currently has almost $600,000 cash on hand, the release said.

“I am gratified by the continued support for my campaign,” said the candidate. “Everywhere I go in the 7th District, I hear from voters who are hungry for change and a new direction after the failed policies of President Bush and Republicans in Washington.”

Leonard Lance says Linda Stender is dodging more debates: Politicker photo
Frustrated by what he sees as his opponent’s unwillingness to debate in multiple forums, State Sen. Leonard Lance (R-Hunterdon) today chided his 7th Congressional District opponent, Assemblywoman Linda Stender (D-Fanwood), for canceling or refusing three district-wide debates.

“During this economic crisis, voters across Central New Jersey deserve to hear the candidates talk face-to-face about the future of New Jersey,” Lance said in a statement. “We should be having more debates, not fewer. I call on Assemblywoman Stender to stop hiding behind her false and negative advertising and join me on the stage in front of voters in addressing the important issues of the day.”

Lance said he is particularly disappointed with Stender’s decision to cancel their Oct. 24 AARP debate, where he hoped to clarify his views on Social Security. The Lance campaign also noted Stender’s no thanks to debate invitations by the Westfield Leader newspaper and the Gateway Union County Chamber of Commerce.

In July, 2005, Acting Gov. Dick Codey appointed Assemblywoman Linda Stender to the New Jersey State Employment and Training Commission.

Since then, the commission has held 13 meetings at Rutgers University’s Piscataway campus -- 12 miles from Stender’s hometown of Fanwood.  Stender, who’s still a member of the commission, has not attended a single one of them. 

The position is unpaid, and other board members sometimes skipped meetings as well, although few as consistently as Stender.  But her opponent for the 7^th Congressional District seat, State Sen. Leonard Lance (R-Flemington), argues that she didn’t do the job that was asked of her – especially in light of the nation’s economic crisis. 

“When elected officials commit to doing a job, they are expected to do it.  Clearly Assemblywoman Stender failed to show up and do the job asked of her,” he said.  “With our economy in crisis and unemployment rising, the work of the State Employment and Training Commission is more important that ever, so it’s extremely unfortunate that Linda Stender failed to attend a single Commission meeting.”

In response to Republican criticism of the way Democrats ran theSenate President Richard Codey (D-Essex): Politicker file photo state Property Tax Assistance and Community Development account, Democratic Party Chairman Joe Cryan and state Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex) tonight tried to staunch the bleeding.

The Democrats took a series of GOP hits this week in the aftermath of state budget officer George LeBlanc’s courtroom testimony that former Gov. Codey’s administration applied no oversight to the way the state distributed $40 million supposedly dedicated to property tax relief.

The Democrats argue that Republicans want to act holier than thou, while they were knee-deep in the same slush fund that Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce (R-Troy Hills-Parsippany) said was not a "merit-based, competitive grant awards system as claimed by the McGreevey and Codey administrations."

"Every grant from the program was approved by the Joint Budget and Oversight Committee (JBOC), which included Republican Senator Leonard Lance (R-Hunterdon) and Republican Assemblyman Joe Malone (R-Bordentown)," objected Cryan in a prepared statement. "Each member of JBOC had to approve the grants, a process that included notification and approval by Sen. Lance and Assemblyman Malone."

Assessing what they say was a fund that over two years added up to $128 million, Republicans say they wanted and requested JBOC meetings, however, the meetings did not take place after the majority party waited out the ten-day period deadline.

WESTFIELD -- Assemblywoman Linda Stender today charged that her congressional opponent, State Sen. Leonard Lance, is less pro-choice than he lets on.

Stender held a pres conference in front of a pharmacy, telling about 10 supporters that Lance voted against a bill she authored that barred pharmacists from refusing to fill birth control prescriptions based on their religious or personal beliefs.

“My opponent was one of only six State Senators that voted against this law. You can’t be pro-choice and vote for a bill that will allow a pharmacy to not fill a birth control prescription,” she said. “That’s the essence of what this is about.”

Sen. Leonard Lance (R-Hunterdon) in Summit on Friday.: Politicker photoSUMMIT - Coming off a train station rally here for presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), former U.S. Rep. Dick Zimmer and state Sen. Leonard Lance (R-Hunterdon) convened a town hall meeting at the high school, where they brandished their fiscally conservative credentials in a room of about 50 voters.

Now in a race with Assemblywoman Linda Stender (D-Fanwood) to represent the 7th Congressional District, Lance the veteran legislator underscored his tenacity fighting bloated government, including the administration of disgraced former Gov. Jim McGreevey.Former U.S. Rep. Dick Zimmer addresses voters in the Summit High School Library as GOP organizer Kelly Hatfield looks on: Politicker photo

"I am the ‘Lance’ of Lance versus McGreevey," the senator said of his suit against the former administration to curb borrowing to balance the state budget.

The New Jersey Supreme Court in 2004 allowed McGreevey to borrow $1.9 billion, or nearly 7 percent of what was then a $28 billion budget, but forbade the governor from borrowing in the future.

Talking to Summit voters Friday evening in the high school library, Lance took pride too in noting how his proposed Constitutional amendment to ban borrowing without voter approval will appear on the Nov. 4th ballot.

State Sen. Tom Kean, Jr. (R-Union): Politicker photoSUMMIT - As far back as 2004, Sen. Tom Kean, Jr. (R-Union) recalls himself and others - state Sen. Leonard Lance (R-Hunterdon), then Assemblyman Kevin O'Toole (R-Cedar Grove) among them - complaining about the lack of transparency in the way legislators obtained money for projects in their respective districts.

Now on the heels of George LeBlanc’s testimony in the corruption trial of former Sen. Wayne Bryant (D-Camden) in which the Senate budget officer highlighted how legislators in 2004 and 2005 siphoned money from a dedicated $40 million property tax relief fund, Kean wants answers.

"The next step is to get our hands around what occurred," the senator told PolitickerNJ.com. "Who was spending and what was being spent? The most important thing now is to expose to the light of day what was happening - expose the process.

"We're talking about a system in which information was being held not just from the public but from other members of the Legislature, a system that resulted in massive overspending with no oversight, which made New Jersey more unaffordable, in which members of the (Codey) administration were complicit."