But the good news for us and for you is that we now have sealed the deal on our new political editor: Josh Benson of The New York Times, formerly of The New York Observer.

You may know him from The New York Times' New Jersey desk, where his first week had him criss-crossing the state in the wake of Jim McGreevey's resignation; he also helped to launch the Times blog Newark '06. Those of you over 25 will also remember him as the Observer's political reporter--along with Greg Sargent--from 1998 to 2004. (How to characterize those years? Late Giuliani? Late Clinton and early Bush? Post-D'Amato? Mid-Nadler?) Among other things, Josh covered a couple of political conventions for us and Hillary R. Clinton's 2000 Senate election.

We won't have him till after Cory Booker's coronation as the Mayor of Newark, New Jersey, which he plans to see through at The New York Times.

On that happy day, I'll hang up my Politicker log-on. Expect to see Josh writing here, as well as occasionally in the print newspaper, as well as more from Jason Horowitz and Nicole Brydson; there will be other new names contributing as well, TBA.

- Tom McGeveran