Jr.

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. -- Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts’s decision to kill the Clean Elections Program wasn’t met with regret by Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean, Jr.

Although Kean voted for the previous incarnations of the pilot program, he said that, even if it’s retooled for 2011, he’s not sure whether he’ll support it again.

"I never agreed that just because there was a Clean Elections program last year there had to be one this year. But clearly we have to ensure that the program is constitutional.”

At-large Councilman Luis Quintana: Politicker photo 

NEWARK - Coming off a press conference in which he stood with former Councilwoman Dana Rone, veteran Councilman Luis Quintana said he favors keeping Rone’s Central Ward council seat vacant until the public votes in a Nov. 4th special election.

"I’d be willing to introduce a resolution saying leave it alone," Quintana told PolitickerNJ.com.

Keeping the seat unoccupied makes sense from several vantage points, argued Quintana, an at-large representative who lives in the city’s North Ward.

Jersey City Councilman Steve Fulop turned in enough signatures yesterday to put a pair of ethics reform referendums on the ballot in November, a move that may be seen as the opening salvo in his potential 2009 mayoral campaign.

If the signatures are confirmed by the City Clerk and the initiatives are passed by the voters, Jersey City - which for over a century has been infamous for political corruption, backroom deals and cronyism-- would have some of the strictest ethics measures in the state. 

Seriously. 

One of the initiatives would ban City Council members from accepting more than one public salary or pension.  The other would bar officials from giving out no-bid contracts to vendors who made campaign contributions within a year of the contract's start date.

Orange Mayor-Elect Eldridge Hawkins, Jr. endorsed Democratic incumbent Frank Lautenberg for reelection to the United States Senate today.

Hawkins, 28, said that he empathizes with Lautenberg, 84, on the age issue – even if he’s on the opposite end of the spectrum.

"In my campaign for Mayor, opponents tried to make an issue of my age, but the voters repudiated the argument, recognizing that chronological age is not a fair way to judge a candidate,” he said. Frank Lautenberg has demonstrated the wise judgment, commitment to New Jersey and robust good health to make it clear that he will serve us well in another term in the U.S. Senate.”

Lautenberg Statement on 40th Anniversary of Death of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean, Jr. says that comments by a senior Democratic legislator, Raymond Lesniak, suggesting that Gov. Jon Corzine’s toll hike plan is dead, means the state should look for a budget that doesn’t rely on revenues from toll increases. 
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“Prominent Democrat Senators have now pronounced as DOA in the Senate any gas tax increase, any toll increases for debt, and now the Governor's ill advised and quite likely unconstitutional PBC. It's clear that the members of his own party are now following of the lead of republicans in the legislature in rejecting the Governor's vision,” Kean said in a statement released today.