Donald Payne

U.S. Rep. Donald Payne (D-10), left, and his son Freeholder and Newark Councilman Donald Payne, Jr. 

U.S. Rep. Donald Payne (D-10) issued a statement today concerning his switch of support from Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) to Sen. Barack Obama (D-NJ) in their presidential contest.

"Hillary Clinton is a good friend, and I continue to hold her in high regard," said Payne, a party superdelegate. "She has made important contributions to our nation through her outstanding work as First Lady and in the United States Senate."

Sen. President Richard Codey (D-Essex) in Newark with Mayor Cory Booker and Council President Mildred Crump.

ORANGE - Politics here invariably comes back to the state’s most popular politician, former governor and Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex), who grew up across the street from the city’s other favorite son, Two Ton Tony Galento.

"With Tony, what you saw was what you got," Codey recalls.

A rotund puncher who trained on spaghetti and beer, what that got Galento was a fourth round technical knockout at the hands of heavyweight champion Joe Louis, and a subsequent supporting role as a heavy in "On the Waterfront."

Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzoMidway through his second term, Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo is gearing up for whatever fight comes his way as he plans for a third term in office.

"Joe is looking ahead to running, and serving, to complete the execution of his vision for Essex County," said chief-of-staff Phil Alagia.

To that end, DiVincenzo today is holding a $300-a head celebration in West Orange.

An ally of North Ward Democratic leader Steve Adubato, Sr., who supports U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews (D-1) for U.S. Senate over incumbent U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, DiVincenzo to date has remained neutral in the U.S. Senate primary.

After failing to secure party line, Terrance Bankston bows out of freeholder raceVanquished by the Essex County Democratic Party machine this week, Terrance Bankston said he regards the leadership’s rejection of his freeholder at-large candidacy as a direct snub of Mayor Cory Booker, and a failure to reward hard campaign work.

But no matter, he says now that his candidacy is over - he means to return to Newark’s South Ward to labor on behalf of district leader candidates as part of an effort to provide an alternative to the machine of U.S. Rep. Donald Payne (D-12) and Payne ally Essex County Chairman Phil Thigpen.

“It was disrespectful to the mayor, and what was even more insulting about the situation was we didn’t just go to the table expecting to get put on the slate, we went out and worked for it,” said the 25-year old employee of the Booker administration.

U.S. Rep. Donald Payne speaks for Lautenberg at Newark City Hall with Sen. Richard Codey, Newark Mayor Cory Booker and others 

NEWARK - Standing on the steps of Newark City Hall in a city where the largest single political machine backs another candidate, an alliance of elected officials from Essex County today announced their support for Sen. Frank Lautenberg.

U.S. Rep. Donald Payne, state Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex), Newark Mayor Cory Booker, Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Essex), Mayor Robert Bowser of East Orange, Mayor Ray McCarthy of Bloomfield, freeholders, and council people joined forces to highlight the endorsements of 34 Essex officials for Lautenberg.

New Jersey’s Democratic Congressional delegation issued a scathing statement on Rob Andrew’s Senate candidacy today, saying that he broke his pledge to fully support incumbent Sen. Frank Lautenberg for reelection and that his conduct has been “both outrageous and unacceptable."

Six of the state’s seven Democratic Congressmen -- Frank Pallone, Bill Pascrell, Steve Rothman, Rush Holt, Albio Sires and Donald Payne -- co-signed the statement, in which they called on their Democratic colleague to drop his candidacy.

"It is now clear that Congressman Rob Andrews has failed to gain thenecessary support to realistically compete in this race, and therefore, we urge Congressman Andrews to end his campaign,” they said.

The congressmen, four of whom are interested in succeeding Lautenberg some day, also argued that Andrews’s primary challenge will weaken the eventual Democratic nominee against his Republican challenger.

TRENTON - As Democrats gear up for a bruising senate primary season, unofficial congressional filing results with the state Division of Elections show no same-party challengers to incumbent Democratic congressmen.      

Only in the 1st District, where Democratic U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews is vacating his seat to challenge U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg in the primary, are there several hopefuls battling for what Andrews leaves behind.

While House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has already called on President Bush to boycott the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics this summer, Rep. Chris Smith wants to take it further – a complete boycott of the games.

In an interview with PolitickerNJ.com last week, Smith renewed his call to boycott the Olympics, in part because of the Chinese government’s recent crackdown on Tibetan dissent. But Smith has been a long-time advocate of such a protest, stemming from the Chinese regime’s long record of human rights violations.

“I’ve called for it very aggressively,” said Smith, the former chairman of the House Judiciary’s subcommittee on Human Rights and Law. “We’re calling it the ‘genocide Olympics’ because of their enabling of the genocide in Darfur.”

U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg addresses the crowd as Gov. Jon Corzine looks on.

TRENTON -- Burnishing his blue collar roots and seniority in Washington, U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg today launched his re-election bid at the Trenton Marriott, promising to lead the fight for New Jersey's working families.

"I will build on my work of the last few years, to stand strong against those who attack our values that short change our state and to deliver the results that improve people's lives," said Lautenberg, who was first elected to the Senate in 1982.

Representative Donald Payne doesn’t think that "Vice President Bob Menendez" sounds too absurd.

“If he became vice president, I would think that some of our issues could certainly be heard more in the executive branch of government, so I certainly think it would be a very big plus for New Jersey,” said Payne.

Payne endorsed Hillary Clinton early this month, and served with Menendez for 13 years in the House of Representatives. In Menendez, Payne sees a politician like himself, who worked him self up from the lower rungs of local government to a prominent position at the federal level.