John McCain

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.

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.

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.

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.).

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.

U.S. Rep. Donald Payne (D-Newark), and Piscataway grassroots organizer Nadia Brown: Politicker photo 

ROSELLE - It’s Garrett Smith country on a Saturday.

Emptying a chair alongside the young Roselle mayor, U.S. Rep. Donald Payne (D-Newark) stood in front of a microphone and gave Gov. Jon Corzine props for playing a role in discovering Sen. Barack Obama (D-Il) when Corzine chaired the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Obama’s romping here in Roselle by every indication, but Payne and Obama aren’t eyeball to eyeball on everything, including last week’s Wall Street bailout.

While Obama and his Republican rival in the presidential race on Wednesday quietly supported the $700 billion measure that its critics say falls disproportionately across the shoulders of American taxpayers, Payne twice vociferously bucked the controversial bill in the House.

Today he laid out his views before a cheering crowd in Roselle’s Warinanco Park, where several hundred people gathered in support of Obama on the front-end of a Union County voter registration drive days before the Oct. 14th registration deadline.

Gov. Jon Corzine: Politicker file photo 

Governor Jon S. Corzine on Saturday afternoon plans to address a rally in support of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Il.) at Warinanco Park in Roselle.

According to Obama campaign spokesman Andrew Poag, in his remarks the governor intends to detail why he believes Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) healthcare plan is wrong for New Jersey.

"Additionally, Obama’s New Jersey Campaign for Change will continue to hit the pavement across the state contacting voters in the run up to Election Day," Poag said.

Thomas Roughneen in GOP HQ Tuesday: Politicker photo 

SOMERVILLE - Led by Iraq War veteran Thomas Roughneen, Republicans kicked off a concentrated nightly phone-banking effort here today on behalf of presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

"Every night for 18 nights we will have people from a different town in Somerset County in here making calls for Sen. McCain, supplemented by women making targeted calls on Wednesdays and veterans calling people on Tuesdays," said Roughneen, who serves as the McCain campaign’s coordinator for Somerset County.

Roughneen, a Watchung lawyer who ran for Congress unsuccessfully in the 7th District earlier this year, is a longtime McCain supporter.

Barack Obama leads John McCain by nine points in New Jersey, according to a Strategic Vision poll set to be released tomorrow. 

That poll comes on the heels of today’s Survey USA poll that showed Obama leading McCain 52% to 42%. 

Survey USA also polled the U.S. Senate race, going as far as to pronounce incumbent U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg the winner in its headline, though probably not intentionally.   

Lautenberg leads Zimmer 51% to 38% in the Garden State.

A Press of Atlantic City/Richard Stockton College poll of South Jersey voters shows Obama leading McCain by 9% in the region, while Democratic U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg leads Republican challenger Dick Zimmer.

The poll is the first non-partisan survey conducted of the 3rd Congressional District race, where State Sen. John Adler (D-Cherry Hill) is running neck-and-neck with Republican Medford Mayor Chris Myers.

Myers leads Adler 38.5% to 37.1% -- within the poll’s 4.5% margin of error.