WHO’S UP

Joey Muniz

Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto (D-32) earlier this month appointed the North Bergen operative to the Board of Directors of Horizon Blue Cross/Blue Shield.

Josh Gottheimer

The announcement this week, first reported by InsiderNJ, that former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan is entering the contest to win the GOP nomination in CD5, exposes Republican fracture in a key and winnable district. Congressman Gottheimer already beat a Republican in former U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett who strongly resembles fellow movement conservative Lonegan.

Phil Murphy

The Democratic nominee for Governor has now raised about $5 million, according to the state Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC), compared to $1.47 million by his Republican opponent Kim Guadagno. The New York Post also reported that Robert DeNiro and Harvey Weinstein are all set to do some fundraising for Murphy. In response to Murphy’s repeated salvos against Governor Chris Christie, Goodfellas star DeNiro evidently said, “You offended him a little bit. … a little bit,” to which Murphy apparently told Christie to go get his shine box.

Steve Adubato, Jr.

The Montclair-based host of NJTV’s State of Affairs received an Emmy Award nomination in the Host/Moderator category.

Jordan Albiez

Amid much fanfare in North Jersey political circles, the first-born son of Hudson County operative Mark Albiez (chief of staff to Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop) and his wife came into this world earlier this week.

WHO’S Down

Vincent Prieto

Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto (D-32) earlier this month appointed the North Bergen operative to the Board of Directors of Horizon Blue Cross/Blue Shield.

NJ Transit

In a statement Friday afternoon, Assemblyman Gordon Johnson (D- 37) summed up the sentiments of the Senate Legislative Oversight Committee and the Assembly Judiciary Committee on complaints of employee discrimination and intimidation at NJ Transit. “Systemic disorder among NJ Transit leadership is apparent after hearing the testimony on employee relations at the organization this afternoon. NJ Transit’s handling of general operations repeatedly has been a subject of inquiry over the last few years, but what we’ve learned today is just disturbing. Its operations may be more comparable to a train than we thought –one that has fallen off the rails.”

Richard Stockton

Stockton University President Harvey Kesselman told reporters that the college decided to move a bust of the university’s namesake from the campus library because Stockton owned slaves.

Bob Menendez

Judge William Walls said this week that he is unsympathetic with U.S. Senator Bob Menendez’s (D-NJ) entreaty to get a special schedule that would enable him to vote on critical issues on the floor of the U.S> Senate. “I’ll put it in street terms: I ain’t permitting that,” Walls told one of the senator’s lawyers when the topic came up at jury selection earlier this week, according to Politico. “All right? If he absents himself, he is no better and no worse than any other defendant. He has a right to be absent, and that’s it.”

Kristin Corrado

A feud between Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-3) and Passaic County Democratic Committee Chairman John Currie has delayed the seating of the senator-elect from New Jersey’s 40th District.