WINNERS
The NJFOP unanimously reelected Fox as the union’s president, sending a message to Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-Gloucester) about their intentions to double down in support of the leader denounced by Sweeney.
Leroy Jones
As the leader of the Democrats’ most potent political county, the Essex County Democratic Committee chairman presided over a successful fundraiser at Nanina’s in the Park.
Shariq Ahmad
A veteran of U.S. Senator Bob Menendez’s office, Amad started work this week as the new chief of staff for newly-minted Assemblyman Rob Karabinchak (D-18) of Edison. By the reckoning of most, Ahmad is the second Muslim to serve as a Trenton COS, following the lead of Essex County Republican Chairman al Barlas, who serves as COS for state Senator Kevin O’Toole (R-Cedar Grove).
Bishop Reginald T. Jackson
The former executive director of the Black Ministers Council of New Jersey and a longtime leading figure in New Jersey politics has been promoted within the African Methodist Episcopal Church and will leave New Jersey to lead the more than 500 AME churches in Georgia. It is a loss for NJ but great news for a distinguished leader and friend.
Saterrah Sumter
It’s good to see action on the federal legislative front in the face of a genuine threat to children. The ranking member on the House Energy and Commerce Committee today announced new legislation to amend the Safe Drinking
LOSERS
Atlantic City
Since the first quarter of 2014—which saw the closure of Atlantic Club in January, the first of the four casino closings that year—employment in AC’s casino hotels industry has declined by 5,400 jobs, a 20 percent decline, according to a study released this week.
Phillip C. Heiney
State law enforcement officials arrested the president of the Dunellen Board of Education on charges that he used a file-sharing network to share videos of child pornography over the Internet. For the full story, go here.
Jose “Joey” Torres
In the aftermath of a News 4 report alleging his misuse of city resources, the mayor of Paterson had to endure another week of political opponents stirring dissent. A city hall protest was small, but all of a piece with a bigger torturous ongoing narrative for Torres.
County Party Organizations
The chairmen of the parties walk around like Frank Hague figures, but the reality is they have ever diminishing power, their clout supplanted by shadowy political action committees (PACs). A state Election Law Enforcement Commission analysis this week noted that during 2015’s sleepy off-year Assembly elections, spending by special interest political action committees jumped to $17.8 million, a 60 percent increase from the year before.
Few actually believe LoBo will lose his seat this year in a Republican-leaning district that has his brand all over it, but in the middle of an Atlantic City meltdown, the veteran CD2 congressman must fend off persistent attacks from his democratic challenger, who has seized on a particularly timely (and headache-inducing for LoBo) narrative. Newcomer Dave Cole continues to hammer the Republican congressman for accepting campaign donations from Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump during the 1990s. That period marked the beginning of Trump’s ongoing bankruptcies, which have played a part in the resort town’s decline due to out-of-state competition, writes Observer/PolitickerNJ reporter J.T. Aregood.
New Jersey
The state mourned the loss this week of former state Senator Joe Palaia of Monmouth County, who made disability services in the Garden State his signature issue for over two decades, serving in the upper house from 1982 to 2008. Senator Palaia was 89.
He always finds a way to win, but it’s not a good sign in this volatile campaign season that the incumbent Republican congressman from CD5 felt compelled to come out swinging this week in a negative ad, which identifies Democratic challenger Josh Gottheimer by name in the most watched contest of the cycle.
Prodded by disgraced former Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Chairman David Samson, according to this NJ Advance Media story, the Governor of New Jersey rode aboard the infamous “chairman’s flight” from Newark to South Carolina, a route tailored specifically by United for the avaricious Port Authoritarian.
