Bill Gormley

Former state Sen. Bill Gormley just had a building named after him.

At a ceremony last night, members of United Here Local 54 and the non-profit heatlh organization AtlantiCare renamed an Atlantic City facility the William L. Gormley AtlantiCare HealthPlex.   

The groups cited Gormley’s support for AtlantiCare’s Special Care Center. 

Conservative activist Steve Lonegan isn’t surprised that Gov. Corzine’s fiscal restructuring plan is so unpopular.

A Quinnipiac poll released today puts the public’s opposition to the plan at 73%. 

The more Corzine has tried to promote his fiscal restructuring plan, Lonegan said, the more distasteful the public finds it. As he’s traveled across the state to protest it, Lonegan has found mostly sympathetic reactions.

Bill Baroni will head John McCain's presidential campaign in New JerseyState Sen. Bill Baroni has been named State Chairman of John McCain’s presidential campaign in New Jersey, and Rick Mroz, a former Chief Counsel to Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, will serve as State Campaign Coordinator. Former Gov. Tom Kean is the Honorary State Chair and former Rep. Dick Zimmer is the Honorary Vice Chair.

Assemblyman Jim Whelan, the former Mayor of Atlantic City, is challenging incumbent Sonny McCullough for a State Senate seat the GOP has held since 1982

Put a bunch of Irish politicians in the same party and what you’ve got is an old Hudson County primary, but put them in opposing parties, add gambling, boxing and war-time middle class angst to the mix, and you’ll find them down in present day Atlantic County, throwing punches long before you ever have to tell them to come out swinging.

In this case it’s Senator James "Sonny" McCullough, the longtime mayor of Egg Harbor Township and a Republican, in a district 2 standoff with Assemblyman James Whelan, the former long serving mayor of Atlantic City and a Democrat.

Sonny McCullough won a special election convention for Bill Gormley's State Senate seat last February

"We build a brand new school every five years," says the 65-year old McCullough. "I tell my fellow mayors, ‘Every three years I build a neighborhood bigger than your whole town.’"

Whelan, 59, the ex-mayor of a city where the county’s most notorious industry is concentrated, has to demonstrate that he can step beyond the boundaries of Atlantic City and deliver pragmatic solutions to this tax burdened and still Republican-leaning region - even as he fights the tag of being a field hand for Camden County mega-boss George Norcross.

Republicans say the Democrats have fashioned a weak-kneed bill that does away with dual office holding but for those elected officials currently in office.

To that the Democrats have an answer: Republican State Sen. (and Egg Harbor Township Mayor) James “Sonny” McCullough, who is in a battle in the 2nd district to hold onto a seat he filled earlier this year for retired Sen. Bill Gormley.