Barack Obama

PATERSON - Since North Ward Democratic leader Steve Adubato brought New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson to the Flamboyan on the weekend after the Democratic National Convention, major Latino leaders have to this point hardly shown overwhelming enthusiasm in their endorsement of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Il.).

Hillary Clinton beat Obama in the Democratic Primary by almost ten percent or roughly the equivalent of the Latino vote, which is heavily Democratic in New Jersey and which was energized for Feb. 5th by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-Hoboken), Adubato and U.S. Rep. Albio Sires (D-West New York).

Now heading for the general election in three weeks and mindful - but not fearful - of that primary falloff in Latino numbers for Obama, party leaders held a Spanish and Spanglish-heavy rally here today, in a city that's over 50 percent Latino, in a county where Latinos number 44,849, or well over a fifth of all registered voters in Passaic.

Joe Biden’s sister, Valerie Biden Owens, and her daughter Missy Owens, are scheduled to co-host an Obama campaign rally at Rider University on Tuesday, Oct. 14, according to campaign spokesman Andrew Poag.

The Biden family members will be joined by Assembly Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman, Poag said.

Lautenberg rallies with Bikers for Obama: Politicker photoWEST ORANGE - The leather-clad bikers roared into the parking lot, revving overtime - and they kept coming, motley in motion, mufflers drowning out the after effects of rhetoric, the noise near to deafening - as a senatorial figure with a shock of white hair practically broke from his handlers and strode down among them.

He looked so senatorial, in fact, that - was it actually...

Yes, it was definitely 84-year old U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-Cliffside Park) emerging from the opening of the Obama campaign’s West Orange headquarters and personally welcoming a newly formed Essex County club, Bikers for Obama, which this morning numbered about 200 strong.

U.S. Rep. Donald Payne (D-Newark) joined the senator, jumping aboard a Harley as one of the bikers outfitted Lautenberg with a leather vest.

When George Cook went to the local barbershop in Hillside last Saturday morning he found a roomful of guys talking politics. A lot of them were already registered, so the grassroots organizer didn’t have to worry about signing anyone up - he just enjoyed the conversation, even filmed some of it for CNN.

“Most politics in this town is local,” Cook said. “You usually don’t go into a barbershop here and hear guys talking about global warming, but it’s different this year.”

The volunteer said he has registered about 40 or 50 people in Hillside in advance of the Oct. 14th voter registration deadline. That’s happening in a lot of places, in what this weekend will be a final push before next Tuesday with phone and foot-soldiers both official and unofficial.

Former New York City Mayor Ed Koch will campaign for Barack Obama in Paramus this weekend: Getty Images Photo
Obama supporter U.S. Rep. Steve Rothman (D-Fair Lawn) plans to welcome former Mayor of New York City Ed Koch, and former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Kurtzer to Paramus on Sunday evening to participate in a town hall forum. Rothman will lead a discussion about why he believes his presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Il.) is the right choice for President. The congressman said he and the two other speakers, all prominent supporters of Israel and of Obama, will discuss how an Obama presidency would also improve Israel's security.

Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Il.) New Jersey operations employ 25 full-time staffers to man the ground game here and harness volunteers in the lead-up to and in the hours of Election Day.

But with the Democratic presidential candidate now leading Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) by 13 points in the latest Fairleigh Dickinson University poll and Pennsylvania still a battleground, N.J. for Obama plans to dispatch volunteers across the state’s western border this weekend as part of a coordinated voter registration drive.

“This weekend the Obama New Jersey Campaign for Change will test the strength of our ground operation in preparation for Election Day by launching a Countdown to Change Voter Contact Weekend,” said Obama campaign spokesman Andrew Poag. "The operation will unleash two separate teams of New Jersey volunteers. Team Fired Up and Team Ready to Go.

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-Hoboken) is scheduled to board a flight to Florida today and will be there until tomorrow campaigning for presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D-Il.), according to Democratic sources.

Menendez was in Nashville on Tuesday and took part in multiple nationally televised interviews at the second presidential debate.

The race for New Jersey's fifteen electoral votes is no longer close, with Barack Obama leading John McCain 50%-37%, according to a new Fairleigh Dickinson University poll released today.  A September FDU poll showed Obama with a six point lead.

“To be competitive in New Jersey, McCain needed to make a strong play for voters dissatisfied with the results of the Democratic primary.  That simply has not happened.” ” said Dan Cassino, a professor of political science at Fairleigh Dickinson and a survey analyst for the PublicMind poll. "(Vice presidential candidate Sarah) Palin, rather than providing either reassurance or consistency for the Republican message, has provided the political equivalent of a roller coaster ride. It’s a lot of excitement but not something you want to experience all the time.”

The poll shows that Democrats who backed Hillary Clinton over Obama in the February 5 New Jersey primary are just as likely as other Democrats to be voting for Obama. Voters who said Palin is a good choice for vice-president declined to 34% from 47% in early September. Those saying Palin is not a good choice increased to 54% from 34% in early September.

Obama has a double-digit lead even though voters are  almost twice as likely to say that McCain (53%) rather than Obama (27%) has the background and experience necessary to be president. Obama trumps McCain by a two-to-one margin on the question of which candidate understands the needs of average people.

County Chairman Phil Thigpen: Politicker photo 

NEWARK - It was appropriate that their office should stand across the street from the War Memorial. Sized up as a group, they were the veterans of a lot of Essex County wars.

The office setting, too, underscored tough times, like a set-piece out of "Glengarry Glen Ross.".

A former Countrywide home loan office that went belly up in a bad economy, this storefront a few doors down from the Robert Treat Hotel now houses the county’s Obama campaign headquarters, which officially opened Monday.

"You could say we’re one good thing to come out of them going out of business," said West Ward Councilman Ronald C. Rice, county campaign coordinator, standing in the split level, nearly wallpapered over now with Obama campaign signs.

If the McCain campaign’s decision to end operations in Michigan doesn’t exactly produce a rush of new resource opportunities in New Jersey, McCain at least does not intend to fold up his Garden State headquarters, according to spokesman Peter Feldman.

"Obviously as we move closer to Election Day, the campaign is making strategic decisions about limited resources and taking a closer look at the electoral map," said the Woodbridge-based Feldman. "The McCain campaign continues to fight for New Jersey’s 15 electoral votes, which are still up for grabs.

"With resources coming out of Michigan, we expect more attention on the traditional battleground states like Pennsylvania and Ohio, but also other states like Maine and New Jersey," the spokesman added.

This weekend, McCain campaign volunteers focused their phone-banking efforts on the town of Bayonne, where a fiercely contested mayoral election features two Democratic candidates who repeatedly remind people it’s a nonpartisan municipal election, after all, and who won’t publicly endorse Sen. Barack Obama (D-Il.).