WINNERS
Sam Raia
The mayor from Saddle River is Gov. Chris Christie’s choice to chair the Republican Party. Okay, maybe you wouldn’t, but he agreed to the job. The owner of a chain of apartment complexes, Raia is known for his fundraising prowess, having helmed Christie’s 2009 gubernatorial finance efforts in Bergen County. “Sam is a find,” veteran state Sen. Gerald Cardinale (R-Demarest) told PolitickerNJ.com. “He has done fundraising for the party and for the governor. If we’re talking about raising money, Sam will fill that bill very, very well. He’s also a wonderful human being, a very successful, terrific guy who doesn’t have a bad word for anyone.”
Mike Donohue
The Cape May County Republican Committee chairman helped force the two standing freeholders to take a knee and admit they do not intend to pursue re-election this year. So much for the old regime.
Steven Goldstein
He didn’t get gay marriage last year, but this week, the founder of Garden State Equality celebrated Gov. Chris Christie’s signing of the toughest anti bullying law in the country.
Ferreira Construction and George Harms Construction
Not a bad return on investment. Between the two of them, the road building public contractors gave $50,000 to Reform Jersey Now and this week received the news that $8 billion in road projects will be up for grabs over the next five years. Others may be ground into powder, but these guys will be working in concrete.
Beth Mason
In an election year, the Hoboken Council selected the 2nd Ward councilwoman as council president. And she didn’t have to spend $1 million to land the job.
Jon Runyan
The 3rd Congressional District freshman Republican took the oath of office on Wednesday, having already been a DCCC target for a fundraising party on Tuesday. By Friday, a grassroots Democratic group was sending out an email blast notifying supporters of an anti-GOP healthcare repeal rally at Runyan’s district headquarters. Welcome to Congress, Mr. Runyan.
John Driscoll
When Bergen County freeholders assumed the oath of office Saturday, they affirmed Republican Driscoll as their chairman of a governing body of New Jersey’s most populous county.
LOSERS
Roberto Rivera-Soto
The embattled state supreme court justice issued his stop-the-bleeding letter to the governor notifying the front office that he will not seek reappointment to the court, only to kickstart a new round of calls from legislators for him to resign. If the Assembly doesn’t impeach him next week, the senate will call for his resignation.
Kim Guadagno
Star-Ledger columnist Paul Mulshine again hammered the LG for her authorization of pension padding during her stint as Monmouth County sheriff. Not a great storyline for the second in command of Gov. Chris Christie, who’s trumpeted pension reform as one of his chief initiatives.
The executive county superintendents for Bergen, Burlington, Cape May, Hunterdon, Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean and Somerset
Do we really need to track down and print their names? Who cares? They’re gone, on an executive order by the governor. Told last week not to report to work because they would not be reappointed, they all had expiring three-year appointments and were typically being paid $120,000 annually.
West New York Commissioner Gerald Lange
He heads into an election season having just left the scene of an accident, according to a police report filed last week in the commissioner’s home town. Lange told the officer on the scene that he left because he had to go to the bathroom. If the campaign handlers of challenger Felix Roque have to resort to bathroom humor in campaign mailers later this year, we may not laugh, but we’re likely not to bitch about it either.
John Currie
The veteran Passaic County Democratic Chairman won the election in November of last year, then got stung Thursday night when Bruce James, the freeholder he backed to lead the governing body, lost to the Peter Murphy-Bill Pascrell-supported Freeholder Terry Duffy.
Republican Presidential Hopes
Sure, they took back the House this week and congratulations to freshman U.S. Rep. Jon Runyan, and a Zogby poll released this week shows Christie beating Obama. But Christie also doesn’t want the job. The other names on the list occupy one of at least two fractured pieces of the GOP, which between Michele Bachman and Mitt Romney hardly looks like prime time in 2012.
The State of New Jersey
We lost a star this week in Bloomberg reporter Dunstan McNichol, formerly of the Star-Ledger’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Statehouse bureau. To a consummate professional, rest in peace.
