The GOP seems to be gearing up for a real Senate confirmation hearing if Governor Jon Corzine reappoints Barry Albin to the New Jersey Supreme Court later this year.  The Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee have asked Chairman Paul Sarlo to set aside "at least three days" for hearing on Albin's potential nomination.  This would be a huge change for a committee that typically spends just a few hours reviewing Supreme Court nominees.

Some insiders say Albin could have a problem if two unrelated constituencies wind up opposing his renomination. Albin angered progressive Democrats when he wrote the Supreme Court decision opposing same sex marriage.  And he has a potential problem with conservatives over his votes in support of Abbot school district funding.  Republicans and liberal Democrats could forge an interesting coalition. 

Under the current State Constitution, no sitting Justice has been denied reappointment or confirmation.  Chief Justice Robert Wilentz barely survived in 1986, winning Senate confirmation by a narrow 21-19 margin.  Peter Verniero, whose renomination was viewed as potentially problematic, saw the handwriting on the wall and resigned before the end of his first seven-year term.

Albin, 56, was appointed to the top court by Gov. James E. McGreevey in 2002.  If he is renominated and confirmed by the Senate in 2009, he can serve until he turns seventy in 2023.

The Washington Post is reporting that Bruce Springsteen will perform a free concert in Washington, D.C. on January 18 in celebration of Barack Obama’s inauguration as the 44th President of the United States.  The Asbury Park native is also set to perform at the Super Bowl XLIII halftime show next month.

If Chris Christie wins the 2009 gubernatorial election, he’ll become the first former U.S. Attorney from New Jersey to win public office since Garret Wall was elected to the United States Senate in 1835.  Wall was an Assemblyman from Middletown when he was named federal prosecutor in 1828; he was elected Governor the following year but declined to serve.

Thorn Lord, who was U.S. Attorney from 1943 to 1945, was the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in 1960.  He lost to the Republican incumbent, Clifford Case.  (For extreme political junkies, Lord’s law partner was Richard Hughes, a former Assistant U.S. Attorney who was elected Governor in 1961.)

Robert DelTufo, the U.S. Attorney from 1977 to 1980, sought the Democratic nomination for Governor in 1985.  He finished fifth in a field of six primary candidates with 4% of the vote.

It's hardly a surprise that former U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie announced today that he will enter the race for the Republican nomination for Governor.

Here's the text of his e-mail announcement:

Another member of the Star-Ledger buyout group has moved over to the partisan side: Diane Walsh, a veteran reporter who covered Middlesex County, is the new press secretary to Assembly Minority Whip Jon Bramnick.  Walsh, who started as a Hudson Dispatch reporter, was part of the team that won the Pulitzer Prize in 2005 for their coverage of Gov. James E. McGreevey.

Bill Palatucci, Chris Christie's former law partner, managed campaigns for Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Tom Kean.

Democrats seem determined to tie former U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie to President Bush if he becomes the Republican nominee for Governor, but Christie’s allies say that it was the ex-Prosecutor’s friend and top strategist, William Palatucci, who avidly championed Bush when he began running for President in the late 1990’s.

Christie, who was Palatucci’s law partner, raised money for George W. Bush’s 2000 presidential campaign as part of a bigger effort coordinated by Palatucci, a veteran Republican operative who ran campaigns for Ronald Reagan, Thomas Kean and George H.W. Bush.

“It’s hard to imagine the Democrats not using every opportunity possible to highlight the fact that Chris Christie was part of an effort that raised significant money for George W. Bush, one of the most unpopular politicians in a generation” said Ben Dworkin, director of the David Rebovich Institute of New Jersey Politics at Rider University. “He’s had an outstanding career as U.S. Attorney. But the connection is different from the one the Democrats tried to use against U.S. Rep. Leonard Lance.”

Assemblywoman Linda Stender (D-Fanwood), the Democratic candidate for Congress against Lance, ran repeated TV ads of Lance’s face interposed with that of Bush.  Lance won by nine percentage points.

“But Christie’s different than Lance because Lance didn’t become an assemblyman and senator because George Bush picked him,” said Dworkin. “Christie became U.S. Attorney because George Bush did.”

The main strand of the Bush-Christie connection hinges on what for Palatucci was a fortuitous encounter with the younger Bush as the then-Texas governor geared up for his 2000 presidential campaign.

At that point, Palatucci’s relationship with the Bushes was already long and recurring, and it was in his role as the New Jersey chief of the presidential campaigns of Bush’s father that he developed a relationship with the younger Bush.

The fate of Assemblyman Anthony Chiappone (D-Bayonne) is in the hands of Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy and State Sen. Sandra Cunningham.

Twelve New Jersey legislators, all from districts that are not especially competitive in general election contests, face potential obstacles in their bid to win party support for another term.

Click here to view the slideshow

The feud between Republican State Senator Gerald Cardinale and Democratic Bergen County Executive Dennis McNerney continues.   Today, McNerney wrote a Letter to the Editor published in The Record that slams the nine-term Senator for his opposition to regionalization of local government.  “If ignorance of constituents’ concerns paid dividends,” McNerney wrote, then Cardinale “would be a billionaire.”

Cardinale is using senatorial courtesy to block McNerney’s appointment to the Local Unit Alignment, Reorganization and Consolidation Commission.  Governor Jon Corzine has named McNerney to the panel twice, but Cardinale refuses to allow his confirmation.  According to The Record’s Charles Stile, Cardinale thinks McNerney will “simply rubber stamp… recommendations to merge smaller towns with larger ones.”  McNerney wants to merge as many as 35 Bergen municipalities that have less than 10,000 residents.

Matt Reilly, the former deputy chief of the Star-Ledger statehouse bureau, will be the new communications director for the Senate Democrats. An award-winning journalist, Reilly replaces Jim Manion, a former Associated Press statehouse reporter who is retiring after a long career in the Senate Democratic office.

There is some speculation that Barack Obama's choice to serve as Democratic National Chairman is Tim Kaine, the Governor of Virginia and a runner-up to Joe Biden in the summer vice presidential sweepstakes.  If Kaine gets the DNC post, it might drive traffic to www.timkaine.com - something that might help Steve Lonegan, the conservative Republican running for Governor of New Jersey this year.  The timkaine.com domain forwards to Lonegan's campaign site.