Gordon Johnson

Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Sayreville) and his wife, Debbie.: Politicker photo 

DENVER - The crowd crams into the Spotted Dog for Assemblyman John Wisniewski’s (D-Sayreville) convention watch party, which includes three other recognizable elected officials packed cheek by jowl into this low-ceilinged underground Inverness Hotel hangout: Assemblyman Gordon Johnson of Bergen and West New York Mayor Sal Vega and Plainfield Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs.

Wisniewski’s been attending conventions going all the way back to 1976, when his father served as a member of the New Jersey delegation. Now he has his own daughters here and they’ve already been on the floor of the Pepsi Center.

"It’s a relaxing atmosphere down here, in a way even better than getting on and off the bus to go out there to the Pepsi Center," says Wisniewski, chair of the state Assembly Transportation Committee.

"At least I know New Jersey’s not the only place with gridlock," he says.

With a primary challenge from Joe Ferriero’s Bergen County Democratic Organization (BCDO) always looming for Assemblyman Gordon Johnson, he announced earlier this week that he would resign from the Englewood City Council in March.

Although Johnson belongs to a slate of Democrats that has protested the practice of dual office-holding and voted to ban it, he has held an Englewood City Council since defeating a Ferriero ally, Rev. Vernon Walton, in a primary in 2006 (Walton is now a freeholder).

Ferriero allies have called Johnson’s hold on two offices hypocrisy, even if Johnson pledged not to seek another term.

Tonight at 6:30 and Sunday at 10:00 a.m., catch The Bergen Record’s Charles Stile, Trish Graber of the Gloucester County Times, and PolitickerNJ.com’s own Matt Friedman on Reporters Roundtable, hosted by Michael Aron. The reporters will discuss the state budget, Gary Rose’s departure and county chairman contests.

On the Record, airing Sunday at 9:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m., will feature NJEA President Joyce Powell and Assemblymen Declan O’Scanlon (R-Monmouth) and Gordon Johnson (D-Bergen) discussing the budget.

If you can’t get enough Stile and Friedman, tune in to My9’s New Jersey Now, airing at 12:00 on Sunday, where the two will discuss political rumors. Also appearing on the show are Assemblymen Jon Bramnick (R-Union) and Ralph Caputo (D-Essex), who will debate what’s causing residents to flee New Jersey.

Senate President Richard Codey at the Wilshire Grand Hotel todayAfter getting one question cleared up in the affirmative with Sen. Barack Obama, Senate President and former Governor Richard Codey today officially endorsed Obama for president at a press conference in his hometown of West Orange.

"What’s the skinny on the fact that you’re part Irish?" Codey said he asked Obama in a 10 minute conversation with the presidential candidate this morning, six days before the Feb. 5 primary.

"I am," Obama told him.

"Is that on your father’s side?" Codey cracked.

"It’s O’bama," Senator Loretta Weinberg informed the Senate President.

The Obama campaign will hold a rally for their presidential candidate in Bergen County tonight. U.S. Rep. Steve Rothman, a Northeast Regional Co-Chair of Obama for America, Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy, State Senator Loretta Weinberg, and Assemblyman Gordon Johnson will headline the event.

The rally is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Hackensack Civic Center, 215 State Street. 

As the dust settles in Bergen County and the political parties spin the election results, you can expect to hear the Republicans talking a lot about Rutherford.

It’s where Republican challenger John Hipp trampled Democratic incumbent Mayor Bernadette McPherson -- beating her by a margin of 2-1, and tying the council 3-3, with two Republican candidates ousting incumbent Democrats.

Assemblyman Gordon Johnson has taken some lumps lately -- enough to make it appear that, out of the three ethics crusading 37th district legislators, he’s the most vulnerable.

Ever since he joined his running mates, state Sen. Loretta Weinberg and Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle, to introduce a reform package that reignited the civil war between Chairman Joe Ferriero’s Bergen County Democratic Organization and the Real Bergen Democrats, Johnson has found himself in the crosshairs – both from Ferriero and his 37th district Republican opponents.

Almost immediately after the Real Bergen Democrats introduced their reform package earlier this month, Ferriero criticized Johnson as hypocritical for seeking to ban dual office-holding while concurrently serving as an Assemblyman and Englewood Councilman.

Englewood Mayor Michael Wildes says his fellow Democrat, Assemblyman Gordon Johnson, should resign from the Englewood Council following revelations that he gave $1,850 to Lyndon LaRouche's PAC.

"I have known two Gordon Johnsons in politics.  One is avuncular and knows what the politically correct thing to say is. The other is divisive, mean-spirited and profoundly lacks common sense, " said Wildes. 

Assemblyman Gordon Johnson apologized today for donating $1,850 to controversial political activist Lyndon LaRouche in 2005 and 2006.

"Had I been aware of the LaRouche record of anti-Semitism I obviously would not have made my contributions," said Johnson, who will ask for a refund.

Democratic Assemblyman Gary Schaer is upset with Assemblyman Gordon Johnson for donating money to activist Lyndon LaRouche’s political action committee, saying that the donation “makes no sense.”