Clinton picks up Corzine, other key endorsements

By MAX PIZARRO
PoliticsNJ.com

Everyone at the top of the massive, Lincoln Memorial-like entrance to City Hall instinctively or self-consciously struck an imperial pose before descending toward the crowd.

Politicians are attentive to power.

Couple that with the race memory of a place like the Parthenon or the Pyramids, and on this day there were over 100 elected officials and ten County chairs testing their best power walks under the Ionic columns of that monumental building in downtown Elizabeth.

With the occasion of Gov. Jon Corzine endorsing Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for President still 15 minutes away, the warm-up act was finally prodded as a single unit, the New Jersey Democratic Party power structure, down the stairs, compressed into two cellphone-chattering phalanxes, one on either side of the podium at the bottom.

Down on the ground, facing City Hall behind the press pen, there were a lot of City of Elizabeth employees: hard but hopeful working class faces: Black, White and Latino. On the outskirts of the crowd in General Winfield Scott Park, Spencer Walker, a retired parking authority worker, took handshakes all morning long from people who remembered him from his job reading meters.

“I’m a Democrat,� Walker said. “Hillary’s got my vote. I will vote for her as President. I think her husband did a good job, and I would expect the same from her.�

Not everyone was convinced. Almost, but not quite.

Silvina Vale of Elizabeth was arguing with two other Portuguese women in the crowd.

“I hope she’ll be the first woman president,� said Vale.

One of her friends said, “I hope not. A man is a man is a man. Giuliani should be President. I like Giuliani.�

The double doors of City Hall burst open again and this time it was finally Clinton, up 41 to 19 points in New Jersey over Sen. Barack Obama in the latest Quinnipiac University poll, a record-breaking $36 million in the bank for her Presidential run, advancing amid a crowd of Democratic Party heavyweights: Corzine, Reps. Frank Pallone and Robert Andrews, Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts, Democratic State Chairman (and Assemblyman) Joseph Cryan, and Assembly Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman.

Looking at all of the old party faithful, mobile insulation for Clinton as she kissed and hugged her way to the podium, the words of Rutgers University Prof. Thomas Hartmann came back with particular relevance.

“What you have to realize about Hillary,� he said two weeks ago in a telephone interview with PoliticsNJ.com, “is that her husband had very good organization in New Jersey when he ran for President. Without too much effort, Hillary will be able to tap that structure and rebuild that organization.�

Suddenly the individual affectations of power were gone. Every politician up there, whether a big city mayor or a chairman, had the look of a second string quarterback who heads willingly to the bench when the star player arrives.

“Being a New York candidate does not give anyone a lock on New Jersey,� author and Jersey City native Thomas Fleming told PoliticsNJ.com in the lead up to Monday’s event. “Quite the opposite. There has always been a rivalry, even a dislike between the two states, going back to the 18th century, when New Jersey was described as a barrel tapped at both ends, by Philadelphia and New York.�

But the Clinton power structure, over a decade old, held fast, and if nothing else that was evident here Monday as Corzine and many key Democrats -- with the exception of Sen. Robert Menendez and Sen. Frank Lautenberg, State Sen. Richard Codey, and mayors Cory Booker of Newark and Jerramiah Healy of Jersey City -- got behind Hillary’s “Let the Conversation Begin� tour.

“I am desperate to get back on the White House Christmas Card list,� said Roberts.

“People ask me,� said Cryan, “if this campaign is about the way we were. No, it’s about the way we can be.�

Corzine tried to temper the good old boys enthusiasm somewhat.

“This is a person who’s respected on both sides of the aisle, and respected around the globe,� said the governor. “She’s true to her own thoughts. ...If George Bush hasn’t brought us out of Iraq, she will.�

When it was her turn to speak, Clinton offered no soaring rhetoric or foreign policy surprises. She stumbled when she tried regional affection, wading into the name DiVincenzo, for example, and adding an extra “I� before she got to the other side.

But no one seemed to care. The crowd took the words warmly.

“You go, baby girl,� a woman screamed from the front row.

And Clinton went, citing the need for the country to set great goals again, as John F. Kennedy did once when he willed to go to the moon. The new goals, said Clinton, are universal healthcare, energy independence, and affordable college tuition.

“Don’t listen to the nay-sayers in your government,� said Clinton. “Listen to your governor, and listen to me.�

The crowd loved it.

“I can’t wait till Bush leaves,� said Marcia Lindsay, who said she’s lived in New Jersey her whole life. “I like Hillary better than Obama because I think she’s been there. She brings experience with her.�

“What I like is she recognizes we need better jobs, we need more money for Medicare,� said Gregory Melton.

There were no nay-sayers out there.

“The crucial question will be whether Obama can take a large chunk of the black vote,� says Fleming, “which is down the line Democratic. In my father’s old ward in Jersey City, Bush got something like five votes in 2004. It's almost 100 percent black now. Just like the good old days, I said when someone from J.C. told me about it. A lot will also depend on whom Sen. Menendez backs. He has the most clout of any current officeholder.�

Like Lautenberg, Menendez hasn’t yet said whom he backs, but on this day at least in Elizabeth, the people were mostly with the power structure, and the structure stood with Clinton.