Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Union): Politicker photo 

For the good of the country, a Republican with foreign policy smarts and gravitas would be a wise running mate choice for Sen. Barack Obama, in the view of state Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Union).

In his NJ Voices blog over the weekend, Lesniak said he likes Indiana senior Sen. Richard Lugar, and today he told PolitickerNJ.com that Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) would also be good.

"It would show that Obama wants to bring this country together," said Lesniak. "I’m most impressed with Lugar’s ability to articulate a tough and reasoned approach to Iran.

Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Essex) won't vote "yes" for budget unless he can get passed $3.9 billion for schools construction. 

TRENTON - The vote on the budget today is expected to go along party lines in the Assembly, which means Democrats have the numbers to pass a $32.9 billion document over the objections of a Republican minority.

For at least one key legislator on the Senate side, however, his "aye" vote for the budget hinges on whether the governing body approves $3.9 in borrowing for schools construction in mostly poor school districts.

TRENTON  - Asked whom he supports to run on the ticket withSen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Union) presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, state Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Union) said he believes the natural pick is U.S. Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA.).

"It's not a question of neutralizing (Sen. John) McCain's status as a war hero, it's what Webb adds to Obama to balance the ticket," Lesniak told PoltickerNJ.com in the Statehouse as he manuevered out of the committee he chairs on economic growth this afternoon. 

A former Republican and secretary of the Navy under President Ronald Reagan, Webb opposed the war in Iraq and made a public show of his disdain for Presdient George W. Bush when he took office as senator. 

U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews (D-1) won the official support today of Assemblyman Jerry Green (D-Plainfield)Assemblyman Jerry Green (D-Plainfield) as part of Andrews’s quest to unseat U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) in Tuesday’s Democratic Primary.

"After watching Rob Andrews travel this state to meet with voters, listen to their concerns and explain his vision for the future, I am convinced he is the kind of strong, effective advocate our citizens here in Union County and across New Jersey need in the U.S. Senate," said Green. "I enthusiastically support Rob, and I urge all Democrats to vote for him in Tuesday's primary. He is our best hope for change."

Sen. Ray Lesniak signs his book for Sen. Ronald Rice and Caren Friyer at Kean on Tuesday evening.

UNION - A line of politicians and friends spilled out of Kean Hall tonight, patiently awaiting their time with Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Union), who at a table in the front of the room signed copies of his new book, "The Road to Abolition: How New Jersey Abolished the Death Penalty."

"I learned how to do book-signings from McGreevey," cracked the veteran legislator, whose slim, soft-cover volume recounts the Legislature’s 2007 demolition of the New Jersey law that once sent Bruno Hauptmann to the electric chair.

U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews picked up the endorsements today of Sen. Raymond Lesniak and Sen. Nicholas Scutari in his race for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination. Lesniak, one of the state's most powerful political insiders, and Scutari represent Union County.

"Congressman, we need your vision, dedication and energy to end the war in Iraq and bring our troops home," Lensiak and Scutari wrote in a joint letter to Andrews. "These qualities will enable you to be an outstanding candidate to serve the entire state of New Jersey.

The State Senate will vote Monday on legislation to eliminate the death penalty in New Jersey. The bill, sponsored by Senators Raymond Lesniak, Shirley Turner and Nia Gill, would replace the death penalty with life in prison without parole.

State Sen. Gerald Cardinale’s move to hold up the nomination of Matthew Boxer as New Jersey’s State Comptroller might be considered a good political move by Republicans interesting in keeping Gov. Jon Corzine’s ties to his former girlfriend in the news, but his colleagues in the Senate minority aren’t rushing to help him out.

Cardinale’s idea is to tie up the nomination of Boxer for the newly created office until Corzine appoints an independent prosecutor to look into the matter of Rocco Riccio, a brother-in-law of Corzine’s ex-girlfriend/paramour/companion Carla Katz, who he gave $15,000 after pressuring him out of his accounting job at the Turnpike Authority. Boxer was reportedly present at a meeting in which Riccio was asked to leave his job.

That image of presidential candidate Al Gore running up the white flag in the face of the Supreme Court decision of 2000 still mortifies Democrats, particularly Jersey Dems schooled on the battlements of in-your-face politics.

If a candidate can’t be a people’s champion, let the people be their own champions, so runs the logic of populism. At the very least, let the will of the people decide the outcome.

Such is the expressed aim of a bill co-written by State Senators Richard Codey and Raymond Lesniak, which would change how victory is determined in presidential elections, subordinating the electoral vote to the total popular will, or awarding states’ electoral votes - 15, in the case of New Jersey - to the presidential candidate who wins the most popular votes nationwide.