Who’s Up This Week in NJ Politics

Paul Juliano

The impending departure to Sports and Expo by sitting Bergen County Democratic Committee Chairman Lou Stellato places the Fairview Public Works director within range of securing the chairmanship. This week he racked up the endorsements of senators Loretta Weinber, Paul Sarlo and Joe Lagana.

Jay Lassiter

In the Hamilton Manor last night, the InsiderNJ columnist (pictured above with part of the InsiderNJ team, thanks to Missy Rebovich) secured his richly-deserved New Jersey Press Association (NJPA) award for 2018 column writing. Lassiter won for his outstanding work as an InsiderNJ columnist, a package of writing that included the piece he wrote about burying his war veteran father at Arlington National Cemetery.

Priscilla Garces

Whatever the outcome in next week’s school board election in Newark, the Ironbound’s Garces – visually impaired since her birth in Ecuador – has shown the guts of a warrior in her bid to claim one of three seats on the board.

Jack Zisa

It’s a small gain to be sure in a county where his party is in ashes during the era of Donald J. Trump, but the Bergen County Republican Organization Chairman did pull a former Democrat into the fold with the incremental GOP conversion of Robert Kugler, who just last year competed for the Democratic nomination for sheriff before launching a doomed independent candidacy.

Anti-Machine Democrats

Enemies of the machine generated considerable attention this week in the aftermath of filing deadline, in Middlesex, but particularly in South Jersey, with this story by Politico NJ’s Matt Friedman.

Who’s Down This Week in NJ Politics

New Jersey’s Elected Officials

They’re not well-liked. They’re not even liked, according to a joint Rutgers-Eagleton poll. Certainly, the hard-working taxpayers are the real losers here, but in this poll their so-called servant-leaders came up – to borrow an apt word from Glengarry Glen Ross – wanting.

Luis Valez

The wife of the Paterson councilman alleged that he caused her bodily harm in a domestic dispute. Velez’s attorney told InsiderNJ that his client was, in fact, the victim in this case and will have his day in court.

Thomas Ganley

The Catholic priest pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting teenagers in the 1990’s, according to the state Attorney General’s Office, the first such confession secured by the AG since he formed the Clergy Abuse Task Force.

The SDA

The state Attorney General is investigating the hiring practices of the embattled Schools Development Authority (SDA), whose CEO this week faced the Assembly Budget Committee.

Catherine McCabe

Testimony to the Assembly Budget Committee by the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) commissioner this week met with pointed critiques by Assemblyman John McKeon (D-27) and derision by watchdog Sierra Club chief Jeff Tittel.

Stephen Reid

Judge Marlene Lynch Ford this week tossed the Point Pleasant Beach Republican Club’s endorsement of the mayor’s reelection. This story provides the details.