Shirley Turner

Newark Mayor Cory Booker, backing up Senate President Richard Codey's endorsement of Obama.

Obama Campaign State Director Mark Alexander knew it would be hard to pry Sen. Hillary Clinton’s supporters loose in New Jersey after her victory in New Hampshire.

This was a fight now, and Clinton’s people were solid.

"We have an opportunity here in Hudson - Hudson, Hispanics, Hillary and history," Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) cried to a North Bergen audience of mostly Latinos with Clinton on stage.

The response was near to deafening with Clinton standing on stage with Menendez, U.S. Rep. Albio Sires (D-13) and state Sen. Teresa Ruiz (D-Essex).

But that didn’t mean there weren’t other opportunities for Obama; in fact, one big opportunity, in the form of Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex), who was at the moment glumly serving as state director for the foundering campaign of John Edwards.

Alexander knew Codey. He also knew Codey was close to former U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley (D-NJ), who had come onto the Obama campaign as an advisor.

Obama Campaign State Director Mark Alexander. 

The campaign was about to change.

On Oct, 9, 2007, an announcement came down from Chicago regarding New Jersey operations. 

Mark Alexander, a Seton Hall University law professor and Obama’s senior policy advisor, would be the campaign’s official state director.

"I am grateful that he is going to carry the fight forward to and through the Feb. 5 contests," Obama said of Alexander. "He is a valued and trusted advisor, and at the same time has deep ties in his home of New Jersey that will be invaluable to our efforts. 

"I am proud of the policy work we have done on this campaign and through Mark’s leadership we have built a team of key advisors from the ground up that will continue to offer new and innovative approaches to the challenges this country faces," added the presidential candidate.

A personal friend of Barack and Michelle Obama’s going back a dozen years, Alexander as a child worked on the 1974 Washington, D.C. mayoral campaign of his father, Clifford Alexander, former chairman of the Equal Opportunity Commission. Later, he ran Sen. Bill Bradley’s 2000 presidential campaign and served as counsel to Cory Booker.

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."

Sen. President Pro Tempore Shirley Turner (D-Mercer) today at her annual family picnic. 

PRINCETON - Sen. Shirley Turner (D-Mercer) had a simple reply today when asked about a running mate for presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama, whom she supported in New Jersey’s Feb. 5th primary and later stumped for in Philadelphia.

"Someone from a red state," said the Senate’s president pro tempore at her 16th annual family picnic at the Princeton Country Club.

"And I’d put Virginia at the top of the list," she added.

Two measures aimed at providing relief to constituents - public Senate President Pro Tempore Shirley Turner (D-Mercer)sector cuts proposed in the Gov. Jon Corzine’s 2009 budget, and the Paid Family Leave Act - landed in Sen. Shirley Turner’s (D-Mercer) district this week with all of the ceremony of friendly fire.

The president pro tempore can’t support the governor’s budget because it posits 3,000 job cuts that Turner said would devastate her district, which includes Trenton and the environs where a lot of public employees live.

"I’m going to fight to protect as many of my constituents as possible, to make sure they don’t go after the rank and file," the senator told PolitickerNJ.com. "I’m discussing those proposed cuts with the governor, and I know he believes the most humane and sensible way is to offer early retirement packages. These are workers at the top of the salary grade, and at an age where they can retire."

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.

On the eve of the New Jersey presidential primary and with most polls showing his rival trying to maintain a slight lead here, Sen. Barack Obama made a last stop in the Garden State today, telling voters that his message of hope is not one of naivete but of common purpose.

Senator Shirley Turner hits the public housing highrises in Trenton.

Three days before Tuesday’s presidential primary, Senate President Pro Tempore Shirley Turner dispatched campaign volunteers throughout the neighborhoods of Trenton and personally went floor by floor through two senior citizen high rises as she tried to rally support for Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.

"This is the first time we’ve had a presidential primary in the winter, and what I’m generally getting is that people want to support Obama, but they don’t know there’s an election on Tuesday," said Turner. "We want to change that."

Senate President Richard Codey at the Wilshire Grand Hotel todayAfter getting one question cleared up in the affirmative with Sen. Barack Obama, Senate President and former Governor Richard Codey today officially endorsed Obama for president at a press conference in his hometown of West Orange.

"What’s the skinny on the fact that you’re part Irish?" Codey said he asked Obama in a 10 minute conversation with the presidential candidate this morning, six days before the Feb. 5 primary.

"I am," Obama told him.

"Is that on your father’s side?" Codey cracked.

"It’s O’bama," Senator Loretta Weinberg informed the Senate President.

Gov. Jon Corzine likes the idea of Bob Menendez running for Vice President
Gov. Jon Corzine said that he’s not involved with Hillary Clinton’s potential choices for Vice President. But he thinks Bob Menendez would be a good one.

“First of all, it would be a great choice, but I have no idea. I’m not involved in that,” said Corzine before boarding a train that whisked him down to Washington, DC for the Chamber of Commerce’s Walk on Washington. “Clearly Bob has played a meaningful role in the national campaign because of his leadership of Hispanics for Mrs. Clinton, and he’s an able spokesperson on any of the issues he speaks out about.”