Harry Hurley

The PolitickerNJ.com Power List to be released on Thursday

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The ballot: state Comptroller Matt Boxer, Corzine appointments counsel Michellene Davis, attorney/fundraiser Victor Herlinsky,
Atlantic City radio show host Harry Hurley, Corzine Deputy Chief of Staff Patti McGuire, State Police EPU chief Jim O'Neil, carpenters union staffer Troy Singleton, federal monitor Herb Stern, GOP State Chairman Tom Wilson, and Corzine administration official Adam Zellner.

The list of potential challengers to Republican State Senator Bill Gormley continues to grow with the announcement this week that Paul D'Amato, a former GOP Assemblyman and Linwood Mayor -- and once a staunch Gormley ally -- has switched to the Democratic Party. Booeyed by victories in '05 races for State Assembly, Surrogate and Freeholder, Atlantic County Democrats are anxious to mount strong challenges to Gormley and GOP County Executive Dennis Levinson in 2007. D'Amato and newly-elected Assemblyman James Whelan, the former Mayor of Atlantic City who ousted Kirk Conover last year, are at the top of the Senate Democratic recruitment list. Other possible candidates against Gormley and Levinson are Sheriff James McGettigan, County Clerk Michael Garvin, and Alisa Beth Cooper, another former Republican (her mother was longtime GOP Assemblywoman -- and Gormley foe -- Delores Cooper) who unseated a GOP Freeholder last November.

Radio host Harry Hurley says that Kenneth LeFevre is stepping down as the Atlantic County Republican Chairman. The GOP lost an incumbent Assemblyman and Freeholder, as well as the Surrogate's office, which had been under Republican control.

Lame Duck Atlantic City Mayor Lorenzo Langford is expected to endorse Republican incumbent Frank Blee for re-election in the increasingly competitive 2nd district Assembly race. Langford defeated one of Blee's opponents, James Whelan, in the 2001 Democratic primary and then lost renomination last June to a Whelan ally, Robert Levy. Langford, according to a report by local radio host Harry Hurley, will only endorse one candidate for the two seats -- taking a pass on Democrat Damon Tyner, the son of a longtime Atlantic City Councilman, and GOP incumbent Kirk Conover. Langford will appear on Hurley's radio show tomorrow, and Hurley says he will urge him to back Conover too.