Joe Ferriero

The county committee races in legislative district 37 led to a war of words today between Englewood Mayor Michael Wildes and state Sen. Loretta Weinberg, which even led to an argument about what kind of car each of them drives.

In response to Wildes’s claim that the Real Bergen Democrats have dispatched more than a dozen out-of-state canvassers who appear “grungy,” state Sen. Loretta Weinberg said that grunginess is in the eye of the beholder.

“I happen to think (Wildes) grungy, and it has nothing to do with his appearance,” said Weinberg. “It has to do with his political affiliations.”

Wildes is a consistent foe of Weinberg, and last year aborted a primary challenge against her after she brokered a peace with Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joe Ferriero. That agreement broke down six months after it was made, however, and the county committee fights in Englewood, Bergenfield and Teaneck are the feud’s latest manifestations.

Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joe Ferriero and State Sen. Loretta Weinberg, in 2007State Sen. Loretta Weinberg insists that the county committee battle between the Real Bergen Democrats and the Bergen County Democratic Organization isn’t a contest of personalities between her and Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joe Ferriero.

“It’s not because they’re affiliated with me. And I know that the press keeps saying this, and I know I’m the face of this movement, but there are hundreds of people who are involved in this, and what they are affiliated with is they don’t like the way our party is operating and how it’s been operating,” she said.

But Weinberg would love to see Ferriero’s dominance of the party diminished, and the Real Bergen Democrats have latched onto his subpoena by U.S. Attorney Chris Christie to help their cause. Weinberg allies even recently put out a mailer on the subject.

The Star-Ledger reports that Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joe Ferriero is the target of a federal investigation regarding consulting contracts to municipalities.

Federal authorities served a subpoena to Government Grants Consulting LLC, a company in which Ferriero has a stake along with Bergen County Utilities Authority Executive Director Leonard Kaiser and former BCDO counsel Dennis Oury.

Last week, several Bergen County municipalities where Oury has contracts were subpoenaed.

The investigation, which first seemed to only target Oury, is apparently targeting Ferriero as well.

TEANECK -- Both sides in the hotly contested council election in this town play down their part in the long-standing feud between Bergen County Democratic Organization Chairman Joe Ferriero and state Sen. Loretta Weinberg.

But here on Weinberg’s home town, that rift is impossible to avoid.

Sitting down for a roast beef and chopped liver sandwich at a kosher eatery called Noah’s Ark on Cedar Avenue, councilman Elnatan Rudolph said that, while he doesn’t hide his ties to Ferriero, his opponents are the ones making the rift an issue. He noted a campaign piece that depicted him as a wind up toy, with Ferriero doing the winding.

While Honis and the two other candidates who act as her semi-official running mates dismiss partisan politics, Rudolph doesn’t buy it.

“They can tell you that. But it’s the same people who worked for (Weinberg), the same county committee men and women, who are supporting them in the race,” he said.

Both the Democratic and Republican organizations in Bergen County have intra-party fights to deal with before they can take each other on.                                                                                                   

Bergen County Democrats knew this day would come sooner or later, and today they responded to the indictment of former state Sen. Joe Coniglio not with an outright defense, but with pleas withhold judgment.

Republicans, on the other hand, pointed to the indictment as another sign of what they see as endemic corruption in the Democratic Party.

“Senator Coniglio accomplished a great deal for the working families of the 38th District during his career,” said Bergen County Democratic Organization Chairman Joe Ferriero. “Our legal system is founded upon the presumption of innocence and it is my sincere hope that Joe's upcoming trial is an opportunity for him to reclaim the good reputation that he built through his years of public service.”

State Sen. Bob Gordon spent two terms in the Assembly beneath Coniglio, ascending to the Senate after Coniglio decided not to run again after being pressured by Democratic Party leaders. During the investigation, Gordon saw his own office’s records subpoenaed, although he was not a target of the investigation.

• Conservative activist Steve Lonegan was arrested for protesting at Jon Corzine’s town hall meeting on Saturday.  Lonegan says the Attorney General retaliated by investigating him.
• During her campaign swing through North Jersey, Joe Ferriero endorsed Hillary Clinton. Clinton’s National Finance Co-Chair wants Bob Menendez as Vice President.
• A Quinnipiac New Jersey primary poll shows John McCain and Rudy Giuliani in a dead heat.        And McCain picked Bill Baroni as his N.J. campaign chairman.
• Leonard Lance says he’ll run for Congress, and Kate Whitman says she’s more conservative than her mother.
• The House Majority Leader supports congressional hearings on federal monitors and deferred prosecution agreements.
• Camille Fernicola is won’t seek a fifth term as Middlesex Freeholder, and Burlington Republicans pick Stacy Jordan as their new Freeholder.

Rev. Vernon Walton could become Bergen's first African American FreeholderBergen County Democratic Chairman Joe Ferriero endorsed Rev. Vernon Walton, a former Englewood councilman, for freeholder today, lining him up to be Bergen County’s first African-American freeholder.

The endorsement, given today at the Bergen County Democratic headquarters in Hackensack, was also attended by Assemblyman Gordon Johnson, a Ferriero foe and former Walton rival who pledged his support to the freeholder-in-waiting.

Ferriero’s endorsement all but ensures that the county committee will confirm Walton to serve the remainder of the unexpired term for the seat left vacant by Connie Wagner, who just entered the Assembly.

Insiders have said that Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joe Ferriero was prepared to endorse Hillary Clinton for president – but not without her coming to  accept the endorsement in person.

If that’s true, Ferriero got his wish with what he says is Clinton’s upcoming visit to Bergen County on January 23rd, although the Clinton campaign said that no date has yet been confirmed. But Ferriero said that his late timing has nothing to do with him appearing at a podium with Clinton, and everything to do with getting voters excited.

“I think it’s important to certainly focus the voters’ attention in New Jersey. I think by timing it only a few weeks before the primary gives her a certain amount of momentum going into the election,” he said. “She’ll be going to various different states and this will probably be the only major event she’ll be in the state for before the primary.”

Republican state Senate candidate Clara Nibot says that her opponent, Loretta Weinberg, should not be spending her time fighting with Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joe Ferriero.

Instead, Nibot said, Weinberg should be addressing the $3 billion budget deficit that’s expected next year.