Tom Kean

Instead of holding a press conference at Sandy Hook National Park tomorrow to talk about the environment, presidential candidate John McCain will be at Liberty Science Center in Jersey City. 

The event begins with a press conference at 11:00 a.m., followed by a tour of an exhibit with former Gov. Tom Kean, Sr.

The Sandy Hook event was canceled due to rain. 

Perhaps it wasn’t the best strategic campaign stop for John McCain, but he came to Hamilton today anyway accompanied by an entourage of nationally prominent Republicans and even one former Democratic vice presidential candidate.

Joining McCain today at the Colonial Volunteer Firehouse were Rudy Giuliani, Sen. Joe Lieberman [I/D-CT], Sen. Phil Graham [R-TX], Sen. Lindsey Graham [R-SC], Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and Rep. Vito Fossella [R-NY].

It was also a time to shine for McCain’s tried and true New Jersey supporters – especially those who backed the candidate even when his campaign was hobbled by low cash and low poll numbers: State Senators Bill Baroni, Kevin O’Toole and Sean Kean; GOP State Chairman Tom Wilson; Morris County Freeholder John Murphy; former 9th district congressional candidate Vincent Micco and Bergen County Clerk Kathe Donovan. 

Senate Minority Leader Thomas Kean, Jr. wants the state Attorney General to investigate the possible violation of Steve Lonegan’s first amendment rights. Lonegan, a former Bogota Mayor and possible 2009 candidate for Governor, was arrested on Sunday outside Middle Township High School where Gov. Jon Corzine was holding a town meeting.

Bill Baroni will head John McCain's presidential campaign in New JerseyState Sen. Bill Baroni has been named State Chairman of John McCain’s presidential campaign in New Jersey, and Rick Mroz, a former Chief Counsel to Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, will serve as State Campaign Coordinator. Former Gov. Tom Kean is the Honorary State Chair and former Rep. Dick Zimmer is the Honorary Vice Chair.

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.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani tomorrow will debut a television ad on Fox News that refocuses the campaign narrative on Sept. 11, 2001.

The former New York mayor remains New Jersey's Republican frontrunner in the race for president, with 38% support among GOP voters, or 26% more than the number two man in the Republican field here, Sen. John McCain, according to a Dec. 13th Quinnipiac University poll.

• With Barack Obama surging in Iowa and New Hampshire, Bill Clinton comes to New Jersey to raise $1 Million for Hillary.

  Quinnipiac Polls: Corzine approvals are slipping, and Hillary and Rudy have solid leads.

  After a bitter primary, Democrats find peace in Hudson County.

  Ocean County Republicans pick John Kelly to run for Congress.

  PolitickerNJ.com’s Jeannine LaRue cartoon causes a stir.

  And Tom Kean, Jr. grows a goatee!

New Jerseyan Joe Colletti, the field director for Tom Kean, Jr. Senate race, is now working for John McCain in NewHampshire
Hillsborough Co., NH - Joe Colletti first shook the hand of Arizona Sen. John McCain in the Short Hills Hilton back in 2006, not knowing then that he would soon work for the old war hero nursing longtime presidential aspirations with a last chance at the prize.

Colletti was toiling for state Sen. Tom Kean, Jr., at the time and McCain had landed in Jersey to support Kean's challenge of Sen. Robert Menendez.

"Youth," McCain said when asked why he thought Kean would be a good addition to the U.S. Senate, and a little later, on his way into the banquet hall where he would mount a stage in front of a mostly Somerset and Morris County crowd, he met the then 24-year old Colletti.

One of the first of a core of Kean staffers Colletti had joined the campaign early - 15 months before Election Day. As the contest intensified, the U.S. Senate candidate dispatched Colletti to serve as field director for the campaign's central Jersey headquarters. That meant Colletti, who grew up in Linden and Warren, would be in charge of building political operations in Middlesex, Mercer, and Monmouth counties.

As recently as the American boyhoods of John Kerry, John McCain and George W. Bush, it was nearly impossible to think of becoming president without going through the ritual of combat.

World War II vets threw down a gauntlet that members of the succeeding generation couldn't hope to wield unless they donned uniforms and picked up rifles. But the motif of warrior as leader goes back most vividly and foundationally to Washington.

The general on horseback myth worked so well and the country's early talent pool tested in war went so deep, few men thereafter could assume the chair of presidential power without showing battle stripes. From the country's founding all the way up to 1908, only the elections of 1800 (Adams v. Jefferson), 1844 (Polk v. Clay) and 1861 (Lincoln v. Douglas) failed to feature war hero candidacies.

Martin Marks, the Mayor of Scotch Plains, is interested in Mike Ferguson's congressional seatUnion County may not be a bulwark of Republican Party politics, but a chunk of it fits into a Republican-leaning Congressional district, and it is the home of at least two Republican politicians alert to a coming vacancy.

With the announcement earlier today that state Sen. Tom Kean, Jr., would not pursue retiring U.S. Rep. Mike Ferguson's seat, Assemblyman Jon Bramnick emerged as Union County's frontrunner.

But he definitely has company.

Scotch Plains Mayor Martin Marks says he once told Ferguson that if the congressman ever moved up or retired, Marks would be interested in running for his 7th district Congressional seat.