Bill Baroni

McCain State Chair Bill Baroni, right, with Sen. Leonard Lance on Wednesday in Woodbridge.
WOODBRIDGE - The McCain campaign opened up its New Jersey/New York regional headquarters here in the heart of hail fellow blue collar country on New Brunswick Avenue.

"New Jersey is McCain country," declared New Jersey State Campaign Chairman Bill Baroni, flanked by fellow Republicans, including Sen. Thomas Kean, Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce, state Sen. Kevin O’Toole, state Sen. Leonard Lance, Burlington County Republican Chairman Bill Layton, Bergen County Clerk Kathleen Donovan, Morris County Sheriff Ed Rochford, and Ed Cox, chair of the New York McCain campaign, among others.

"We are here, we’re campaigning, we’re competing, we’re building a grassroots organization, we’re opening it (campaign headquarters) in the heart of Reagan Democratic country," said Baroni, who also at least once invoked what New Jersey Republicans call the "Baroni model," or hardcore shoe leather-style campaigning.

New Jersey supporters of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) celebrated their candidate’s courage as they enlivened the crowd here at Burlington County Community College in advance of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s appearance.

McCain is campaigning in New Jersey today for the fourth time in five months, according to state Sen. Bill Baroni (R-Mercer), state campaign chair for McCain, who is serving as emcee here in Pemberton.

After receiving a standing ovation from the crowd of 2,000 here packed into the gym, retiring U.S. Rep. Jim Saxton (R-3) made his argument for McCain simple and straightforward.

On the flight to Puerto Rico, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) turned to former President Bill Clinton and told him one of the reasons his wife was losing was because the campaign too often allowed Sen. Barack Obama to frame the issues.

When Clinton ran in the 1990s, he stayed on message - most famously with his "it’s the economy, stupid" rundown of the first President Bush. He won, Menendez observed, because Clinton forced his opponent to respond to the issues on his terms.

A flummoxed Bush was left marveling at supermarket product scanning devices while Clinton told voters, "I feel your pain."

Sixteen years later, his wife didn’t capture the issues and present them aggressively enough, in Menendez’s view, and she suffered the consequences.

Now, as he shifts gears from Clinton to Obama, Menendez is on the offensive, trying to frame the immigration and ethics debates against Sen. John McCain, a day before the presumptive Republican presidential nominee lands in New Jersey for a Burlington County campaign rally.

let something slip that had previously been undisclosed: presumptive presidential nominee John McCain plans to open a staffed headquarters in New Jersey.

State Sen. Bill Baroni, who chairs McCain’s New Jersey campaign, confirmed the news, although he's not sure when and where it will open.

Banroni said that it’s proof McCain plans to play in New Jersey.

State Sen. Kevin O’Toole’s chief-of-staff, Dominick Fiorilli, is leaving that position to become John McCain’s Deputy Northeast Regional Campaign Manager.

Fiorilli, 27, will be working directly under Bill Stepien, the current regional campaign manager who worked as former presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani’s national field director and ran state Sen. Bill Baroni’s campaign for Assembly in 2003. 

Fiorilli starts next week.  He will help coordinate the campaign in New York and New Jersey. 

State Sen. Bill Baroni endorsed Goya Foods heir Andy Unanue for U.S. Senate tonight, just an hour before the Mercer County Republicans’ executive committee meets to endorse a Senate candidate.

Assemblyman Wayne DeAngelo, one of the sponsors of the Assembly version of paid family leave, which came out of committee today. 

The lobbyists' feeding frenzy continued in Trenton today as representatives from both the business and labor communities zeroed in on lawmakers in the hallways of power and attempted to elicit the promise of a yes or no vote on the issue of paid family leave.

The measure would extend state liability insurance to employees for up to six weeks, enabling workers to care for themselves, a newborn or a sick relative. Funding would come from the workers contributing on average a dollar a week from their salaries.

Sen. Bill BaroniUnlike a lot of his party brethren who were all but lining up to give Gov. Jon Corzine Statehouse high fives following his speech, State Sen. Bill Baroni (R-Mercer), emerged from the Assembly chamber today worried about Corzine's budget proposal.

"The governor's targeting rank and file public employees," said Baroni, referring to Corzine's preliminary proposal to scrap three state departments and eliminate up to 5,000 public jobs through a combination of layoffs and early retirements.

Baroni said that as long as Corzine is willing to keep 50% of the political patronage jobs on the state payroll, the senator could not support what he sees as Corzine's balancing act on the backs of civil servants. Many state workers live in Baroni's hometown of Hamilton, which is adjacent to Trenton.

Perhaps it wasn’t the best strategic campaign stop for John McCain, but he came to Hamilton today anyway accompanied by an entourage of nationally prominent Republicans and even one former Democratic vice presidential candidate.

Joining McCain today at the Colonial Volunteer Firehouse were Rudy Giuliani, Sen. Joe Lieberman [I/D-CT], Sen. Phil Graham [R-TX], Sen. Lindsey Graham [R-SC], Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and Rep. Vito Fossella [R-NY].

It was also a time to shine for McCain’s tried and true New Jersey supporters – especially those who backed the candidate even when his campaign was hobbled by low cash and low poll numbers: State Senators Bill Baroni, Kevin O’Toole and Sean Kean; GOP State Chairman Tom Wilson; Morris County Freeholder John Murphy; former 9th district congressional candidate Vincent Micco and Bergen County Clerk Kathe Donovan. 

Following his disappointing third-place finish in Florida on Tuesday, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani is expected to drop his presidential bid today and endorse Sen. John McCain, sending GOP operators around New Jersey into BlackBerry heat-seeking mode.

Senators Bil Baroni (McCain's state campaign chairman) and fellow McCain-backer Kevin O'Toole naturally believe Giuliani's supporters in New Jersey will find refuge in the McCain camp rather than in that of former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney, who placed second in Florida and is still in the presidential hunt.

Romney State Campaign Director Joseph Kyrillos will be pressing the case for the Giuliani wayfarers to join Team Mitt.