Phil Haines

Assemblyman Wayne DeAngelo, one of the sponsors of the Assembly version of paid family leave, which came out of committee today. 

The lobbyists' feeding frenzy continued in Trenton today as representatives from both the business and labor communities zeroed in on lawmakers in the hallways of power and attempted to elicit the promise of a yes or no vote on the issue of paid family leave.

The measure would extend state liability insurance to employees for up to six weeks, enabling workers to care for themselves, a newborn or a sick relative. Funding would come from the workers contributing on average a dollar a week from their salaries.

Before she launched an uprising in the Burlington County Republican Organization, outgoing Chair Dawn Lacy thought she had secured the support of Sen.-elect Phil Haines. But Haines reneged - and Lacy criticized him for that on Saturday.

Newly chosen as chair of the Burlington County Republican Party, Bill Layton calls on Sen.-elect Phil Haines to stand with him as part of a unified front.

Rev. Aubrey Fenton, a Republican Freeholder from Burlington County, with Rep. Jim SaxtonRev. Aubrey Fenton was as shocked as any other Republican to hear that 12-term Rep. Jim Saxton’s would not seek re-election. But after getting the news on Friday, Fenton shut himself off from the political world as he typically does on weekends, taking sanctuary in his church to focus on his Sunday sermon.

So it wasn’t until Monday that the 37-year-old Burlington County Freeholder saw published reports that Burlington County GOP leader Glenn Paulsen, who’s feuding with potential congressional candidate state Sen. Diane Allen -- the early favorite for the Republican nomination – was talking up a potential Fenton run.

Paulsen later told PolitickerNJ.com that Republicans ought to look into supporting the candidacy of Fenton, an African-American, as an opportunity for the national party to reach out to minority voters. Plus, he said, Fenton is more socially conservative than Allen, meshing with the national party’s stance on issues like abortion and gay marriage more than the moderate Allen.

The field of potential Republican candidates to replace Jim Saxton next year is still large, but a few of the names first floated have removed themselves from consideration.

State Sen. Diane Allen is a possible successor to retiring Rep. Jim SaxtonAlready locked in a mano-a-mano with potential U.S. Congressional candidate State Sen. Diane Allen, GOP boss Glenn Paulsen is now trying to fend off another prong of an uprising launched against him and his allies by Allen-ally Dawn Lacy, the party's acting county chairwoman.

A spat between the acting party chair and former chair boiled over after the election, when Lacy dismissed Paulsen confidants Bill Layton and Chris Russell, then secured party documents that she saw as the rightful purview of the acting chair and not Paulsen's surrogates.

"We need to professionalize this organization," says Lacy, who took the party's books out of the headquarters housed in a building owned in part by Paulsen.

Democratic campaign spokesman Jeff Meyer said early intel shows high voter turnout in key Democratic Party towns in the 8th district: Evesham, Moorestown and Pemberton Township.

"That is a very good sign for us," said Meyer in a brief telephone interview from party headquarters in Mount Laurel.

Republican state Senate candidate Phil Haines remains the favorite against Assemblyman Francis Bodine, who switched parties earlier this year to run for the state Senate in district 8.

Michael K. Maloney, president of the Mercer County Labor Union council, gave the troops their marching orders in the Colonial Firehouse in Hamilton on Election Day.

"Do not come back till after six o'clock," he told the 300 union workers representing 22 locals who packed the tables in the hall and prepared to hit the streets to canvass for labor candidates here.
 
A few minutes later Maloney introduced Charlie Wowkanech, president of the state AFL-CIO, who jumped up onto the makeshift stage next to Maloney and stood above the workers.

John Adams sought a standard for the emerging country's legal system when he represented a British soldier no other lawyer would defend. Adams argued that unless the enemy soldier was subject to a fair trial under the law, there was no sense standing up to the British crown.

"When Adams looked back on his career late in life, he said it was the most honorable thing he had ever done," Justin Loughrey, president of the Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers of New Jersey (ACDL-NJ).

Loughrey and others in the New Jersey legal community are invoking the second president of the United States and rising to defend due process against what they see as an attack in the district 8 legislative contest.

Republicans have issued campaign mailers that call into question Democrat Tracy Riley's husband's representation of a man charged in a terror conspiracy plot.

The race for State Senator in District 2 is a Toss-Up, while Nicholas Asselta and Ellen Karcher could be headed for defeat, according to a new PoliticsNJ.com Battleground '07 analysis.  READ