Who’s Up This Week in NJ Politics

Meagan Warner

The Lambertville icon and former CDNJ executive director last Saturday was elected President of the College Democrats of New Jersey at the organization’s spring convention at the College of New Jersey.

Herb Jackson

The Bergen Record political reporting institution (pictured, above) had this to say on his Facebook page Friday: “Psyched that it’s now official: I’m the new politics editor at CQ Roll Call, joining a great team focused on 2020 elections in a newsroom full of smart policy experts.”

Tom Little

The Trenton warhorse will head up the office of 11th District Assemblymembers Eric Houghtaling and Joann Downey as their new chief of staff as the two head into this year’s election. Little started off in the office of District 2 Democrats and joined the 11th District Democratic team in 2016. He has spent the past year as Legislative and Policy Director to all 3 District 11 legislators, including Senator Vin Gopal.

Christian Callegari

Promoted from within, Callegari assumed the the chief of staff position in the office of veteran Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-36). Grandson of the founder of the Peruvian parade in Paterson, Callegari met Schaer when he worked on the campaign of Passaic Mayor Hector Lora.

David Lyons

The Irvington North Ward iconoclast released his memoir: The Boy Becomes a Man: Confessions of an Honest Politician. The councilman tells the story of his political life, which began in Thomaston, Georgia, ran a tough luck and hell-raising gamut, and reached full expression as a public official in Irvington and proudly married man of 30 years to Charmin Lyons.

Who’s Down This Week in NJ Politics

James Cosgrove

Elizabeth Mayor Christian Bollwage announced the resignation of the embattled Police Director after the completion of a two-month investigation into his conduct, which concluded that, over the course of many years, Cosgrove described his staff using derogatory terms, including racist and misogynistic slurs, according to the Attorney General’s Office.

George Norcross III

The empire of the South Jersey Democratic Power Broker went into counter-offensive mode in the aftermath of stories detailing the doling out of $1.6 billion in tax incentives for businesses that moved to Camden. Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop took a shot via twitter: “Good news. The Whole Foods northeast HQ is moving to #JerseyCity + they did it without using the state’s EDA but more importantly they did it without fraudulently filling out paperwork in Trenton. Good news for everyone!”

Kevin Sheehan

The name of the attorney at Parker McCay surfaced in the wake of a criminal referral to law enforcement authorities by a Governor’s Task Force examining the state Economic Development Authority’s (EDA) awarding of tax incentives during the tenure of Governor Chris Christie.

Frank Caramagna

The Elmwood Park Mayor resigned from office this week after being charged with election fraud for filling in ballots for voters, as first reported by InsiderNJ.  See the Bergen County Prosecutor’s statement here. For more on this story, please see The Daily Voice here.

Walter Timpone

Last Thursday night, Bridget Anne Kelly, a convicted co-defendant in the Bridgegate case, appeared on the MSNBC Rachel Maddow television show and made serious allegations regarding current New Jersey Supreme Court Associate Justice Walter Timpone.  As condensed in his column this week by InsiderNJ’s Alan Steinberg, Kelly made the following disturbing claims:

1) It was Timpone who at the time of the release in January, 2014 of her infamous email, “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee”, initially solicited Kelly to be her attorney, not vice versa. 

2) When Timpone first contacted her, she raised the issue of his ELEC vice chair status as creating a conflict of interest on his part, barring his representation of her.  He said it would not be a problem. 

3) When Timpone approached Kelly to represent her, he implied that he was acting at the suggestion of Michelle Brown, Christie’s appointed CEO of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) and a member of Christie’s unofficial “kitchen cabinet.” 

4) Timpone advised Kelly two weeks after their initial meeting that he was withdrawing as her attorney due to his conflict as the ELEC Vice Chair.