WHO’S UP

Ronald L. Rice

Whether in the 2017 general or primary, no one challenged the outspoken state senator from the 28th District this year. Having filed to run for reelection and having been certified, the Newark West Ward senator of three decades gets to walk back into office.

Horizon

According to an analysis released this week by the state Election law Enforcement Commission (ELEC), the healthcare outfit hauled in last year’s biggest public contract payday in 2016 totaling R$4.7 billion.

Justin Shoham

The bright Democratic Party operative, chief of staff to Assemblyman Raj Mukherji, is pressing onward with the start up of his own political consulting company called Enigma.

Dave Parano and Jenny Davis

The staffers of former U.S. Ambassador to Germany (and former Goldman Sachs executive) Phil Murphy delivered box-load after box-load of petition signatures to the state Division of Elections, annihilating the record number of signatures previously submitted by Chris Christie. Murphy posted 43K delivered sigs compared to 15K for Christie in 2013.

Kristin Corrado

The Passaic County Clerk running for an LD40 state senate seat benefited from the heads-up-baseball play of Essex County GOP Chairman Al Barlas, who prevailed on Essex County Clerk Chris Durkin to remove a rival freeholder slate from the Essex ballot after challenging their petition signatures.

WHO’S DOWN

Cory Booker

He lost this one, and so did his fellow nay-vote registering U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ). But try to forget for a moment that Booker occupied  the losing side of the Judge Neil Gorsuch debate (48-52). Arguing against President Donald J. Trump’s U.S. Supreme Court nominee, Booker delivered a potent, detailed, multi-cantilevered, case by case considered, and lawyerly (yet still passionate and inspiring and laden with the senator’s love of history) speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate. The junior senator’s speech should be studied and dissected as one of the finest delivered by an elected official from New Jersey – an example of the kind of deep level reasoning and explication that our public officials should strive for – and that the public deserves.

Paul DiGaetano

The Bergen County GOP Chairman running for the state senate seat in LD40 lost his running mates in Cedar Grove after Essex GOP Chairman Al Barlas challenged the petition signatures of DiGaetano’s freeholder slate – and won.

Bill Baroni

A week after his sentencing in the Bridgegate case, the former deputy director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey had his law license revoked “pending ethics proceedings against him,” according to this story in the Asbury Park Press.

NJ Mass Transit Commuters

Another NJ Transit train derailed this week (the second derailment in two weeks), prompting Governor Chris Christie to order the state to halt all payments to Amtrak and call for an investigation of the rail operator’s track maintenance. The Bergen Record‘s Al Doblin had this well-honed take: “If Amtrak officials want to play a game of chicken, go to a poultry processing plant but get out of the commuter rail business.”

Nellie Pou

The state senator from the 35th District will have to work for reelection this season against a Democratic Primary candidate intent on making the case against her by highlighting her work as the city business administrator for indicted Mayor Jose “Joey” Torres.