Annette Quijano

Annette Quijano will resign her post as Assistant Counsel to Gov. Jon Corzine to take her seat in the State Assembly. She won a special election convention last night to replace Neil Cohen in the 20th district.  Quijano's election further reduces the number of minorities on the Governor's senior staff: he has not had an African American Deputy Chief of Staff since Jeanine LaRue left to take a job at Rutgers, and has not had a Latino Deputy Chief of Staff since Javier Inclan, who had replaced LaRue, resigned after testifying in the corruption trial of former Guttenberg Mayor David Della Donna.

The Roselle Democratic County Committee voted Thursday night to support Councilwoman Cecila Dallis Ricks for the open 20th district State Assembly seat vacated by Neil Cohen. She won 17 votes, followed by 5 for Mayor Garret Smith. There were two abstentions, and fourteen County Committee members did not attend.

Look for Elizabeth Democrats to claim the Assembly seat currently held by Neil Cohen, possibly sending the first minority legislator from this heavily Democratic Union County district. Possible candidates include: Union County Freeholder Chairman Angel Estrada, City Councilmen Frank Cuesta, Many Grova, Nelson Gonzalez, Carlos Cedeño, and William Gallman; City Councilwoman Patricia Perkins-Auguste; and Annette Quijano, an Assistant Counsel to Goveror Jon Corzine.

The announcement today that Javier Inclan has resigned his post means that Governor Jon Corzine is in the market for a new Deputy Chief of Staff. If Corzine moves to fill this post with his usual speed , then the job will be open for a while. But if Corzine decides to fast track – and if you believe that in Corzineland, the Governor is likely to name another minority (his Chief of Staff, Chief Counsel, and his two other Deputy COS’s are white), here’s a short list of potential candidates: Assistant Counsel Annette Quijano; Alberto Alvarez and Laura Matos, who work in the Governor’s office; Cabinet Liaison Larry Lewis; and Troy Singleton, a former Deputy Executive Director of the State Assembly and now a top aide to Carptenter’s Union leader Frank Spencer.