Kevin O'Toole

State Sen. Kevin O'Toole (R-Essex): Politicker Photo

Republicans on Wednesday night at the Princeton Hyatt unanimously elected Essex County Republican Chairman Sen. Kevin O'Toole (R-Essex) as leader of the GOP county chair people.

The chairs also unanimously elected Warren County Chair Doug Steinhardt as vice chair; Atlantic Chairman Keith Davis as treasurer, and Camden Chair Rick DeMichele as secretary.

"Kevin brings an interesting perspective," said outgoing Chairman George Gilmore, the Ocean County GOP chairman. "He serves in the Legislature and the Senate, and is in a unique position to build the party with the State Committee.

"Bergen's going to be a key county to look at," Gilmore added. "It used to be Republican. It's a county we need to work, to improve the party in this election and beyond, but there are a lot of opportunities across the state."

As he stood with futility against a bill he believes would ravage his 39th GOP Assemblyman Vince PolistinaLegislative District, Assemblyman John Rooney took little joy in noting a personal milestone.

For while 2008 marks the Bergen County Republican’s 25th anniversary as an assemblyman, it is also the low point of his legislative career.

"My towns got destroyed last night," said Rooney, a day after the majority Democrats passed a $32.9 billion budget, which includes 25% cuts in aid to all of the 28 municipalities in Rooney’s district, and eliminations of property tax rebates for residents in the $150,000 to $250,000 income range.

Monday also brought the Democrats’ successful if ignominious - by Rooney’s reckoning - passage of a bill requiring the construction of affordable housing in affluent towns.

Not thrilled with some of the budget provisions, Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex) presided over its passage. 

TRENTON - With a majority arguing that the state pension system needs to get on better financial footing, the Senate tonight passed a package of state worker pension reforms by a vote of 30-8.

Sen. Stephen Sweeney of South Jersey introduced the controversial proposal in what he described as a bipartisan vein.

"I make my living as a union leader," Sweeney told the Senate chamber. "You can go out of business if you don't manage your funds properly. These are modest not major reforms."

State Sen. Kevin O'Toole (R-Essex) on Wednesday stepped out in frontChris Christie of the back-static regarding a pairing of U.S. Attorney Jen BeckChris Christie with state Sen. Jennifer Beck (R-Monmouth) for GOP governor/lt. governor in 2009.

"I think it's a dream ticket," said O'Toole. "If Chris Christie decides to run, I expect Jen Beck to be considered in what would be an ideal combination of law enforcement, ethics and government transparency."

O'Toole recalled as "gutsy" Beck's drubbing out of of office of state Sen. Ellen Karcher last year.

Facing no opposition, state Sen. Kevin O'Toole (R-Essex) tonight sought and resoundingly won a third four-year term as chairman of the Essex County Republican Party.

State Sen. Kevin O’Toole’s chief-of-staff, Dominick Fiorilli, is leaving that position to become John McCain’s Deputy Northeast Regional Campaign Manager.

Fiorilli, 27, will be working directly under Bill Stepien, the current regional campaign manager who worked as former presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani’s national field director and ran state Sen. Bill Baroni’s campaign for Assembly in 2003. 

Fiorilli starts next week.  He will help coordinate the campaign in New York and New Jersey. 

Sen. Kevin O'TooleHaving already been through mulling mode last year and concluded they wouldn’t run for the U.S. Senate in 2008, State Sen. Kevin O’Toole (R-Essex) and Assemblyman Jon Bramnick (R-Union) both said today they would not likely change their decisions.

O’Toole flatly rejected the idea of his own run at this time, but said he would be happy if his colleague and friend, Sen. Bill Baroni (R-Morris), entered the U.S. Senate race.

"It’s family," O’Toole gave as the reason for his own decision not to run. "It’s the same reason I gave the national folks. I want to watch my ten and eight year olds grow up."

Following his disappointing third-place finish in Florida on Tuesday, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani is expected to drop his presidential bid today and endorse Sen. John McCain, sending GOP operators around New Jersey into BlackBerry heat-seeking mode.

Senators Bil Baroni (McCain's state campaign chairman) and fellow McCain-backer Kevin O'Toole naturally believe Giuliani's supporters in New Jersey will find refuge in the McCain camp rather than in that of former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney, who placed second in Florida and is still in the presidential hunt.

Romney State Campaign Director Joseph Kyrillos will be pressing the case for the Giuliani wayfarers to join Team Mitt.

At his old campaign headquarters in Hamilton, now converted into the base camp for New Jersey for McCain, State Campaign Chairman Sen. Bill Baroni and fellow McCain-backer Sen. Kevin O'Toole discussed their candidate several hours before McCain bested Mitt Romney in Florida.

The Monmouth University/Gannet New Jersey poll released this morning seems to have turned the conventional wisdom of New Jersey presidential politics on its head, especially on the Republican side, where John McCain has pulled even with Rudy Giuliani. But none of the state’s most prominent presidential candidate backers expressed much surprise today.

The most shocking number in the poll put John McCain leading 29-25% -- within the 4.5% margin of error. Just one month ago, according to a Quinnipiac poll, Giuliani had a 22 point lead over McCain, while three months ago that lead was 36 points. And in a Bergen Record poll published Sunday, Giuliani led McCain by 16 points.