U.S. Attorney

Gov. Jon Corzine is meeting with President-elect Barack Obama next week (along with several other area Governors) and could bring up his short list of three candidates for U.S. Attorney: the Governor likes Paul Fishman and Joseph Hayden, and Attorney General Anne Milgram.  And there are two names -- both former federal prosecutors -- sources say, that Corzine opposes to replace Republican Christopher Christie: Essex County Prosecutor Paula Dow and Monmouth County Prosecutor Luis Valentin.   

It's possible that none of Corzine's three picks will get the job: Milgram would be opposed by some serious Democratic players, and Hayden has some pending legal matters -- he's the attorney for Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joseph Ferriero who is under federal indictment and awaiting trial.  Fishman, who reportedly has the backing of U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg, is an interesting pick for Corzine: he's representing labor leader Carla Katz, the Governor's former girlfriend, in a lawsuit about private emails between the two. 

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One name that probably won't receive much consideration for United States Attorney, if Barack Obama wins the presidency:  Walter Timpone, a politically connected ex-federal prosecutor who has coveted the job for years.  Timpone gave the maximum $4,600 to Rob Andrews' campaign for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination earlier this year, and his contributions in the presidential race went to Hillary Clinton and John Edwards, not Obama.  Timpone spent eleven years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, and was named by a panel of Judges to monitor elections in Passaic County.  He currently represents Laborers International Union of America (LIUNA), which backed Andrews against Lautenberg in the Senate primary.

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If Barack Obama wins the presidency, a leading candidate for U.S. Attorney is Paul Fishman, a former federal prosecutor who reportedly has the backing of New Jersey's senior United States Senator, Frank Lautenberg.  Sources close to Lautenberg say that he plans to strongly advocate Fishman's appointment to replace Republican Christopher Christie.

But Fishman essentially needs two votes to get the job, and U.S. Senator Robert Menendez has not committed any support to Fishman. Even though Lautenberg is the senior Senator, insiders say that the support of Menendez will be crucial to any successful candidate for U.S. Attorney.

Lautenberg pushed hard for Fishman to get the U.S. Attorney post in 1999, when Faith Hochberg was nominated to a federal judgeship.  But Fishman got in the middle of a rather extraordinary public feud between Lautenberg and U.S. Senator Robert Torricelli.  The Clinton administration sided with Torricelli, and when Hochberg resigned to take her seat on the bench (after a lengthy delay in the confirmation process), Attorney General Janet Reno elevated Torricelli's preferred choice, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Cleary, as New Jersey's interim federal prosecutor.  Read More >

Despite all the buzz surrounding state Sen. Bill Baroni as a possible U.S. Attorney pick if John McCain wins the presidency, Baroni won’t touch the topic.

“I’ve spent nine years working for John McCain, and the only new job that I care that somebody gets out of November’s election is John McCain becoming president. There’s no other consideration, no other thought, no other discussion about any other job – period,” he said.

Baroni, an attorney, teaches a course at Seton Hall Law, and headed up the effort against Sen. Robert Toricelli’s ballot switch with Frank Lautenberg in 2002. 

“I have spent hours in the snows of New Hampshire and Michigan, and the traffic of southern California, and now nine months later we’re two months away from electing John McCain,” he said.  “I’m not going to begin to discuss hypotheticals.  This is all about John McCain. It has been for nine years, and it will be for 9 more weeks.”

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U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie is in a statistical dead head with Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine in a 2009 gubernatorial poll: Getty Images Photo
A new Quinnipiac University poll released early this morning shows Gov. Jon Corzine and U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie are in a statistical dead heat in the 2009 race for Governor. Christie leads Corzine 41%-40%.

Less than four out of ten New Jersey voters (37%) say Corzine deserves to be re-elected to a second term. Half the voters (50%) say he does not.

"Gov. Jon Corzine is in trouble. Since most New Jersey voters say they don't know a lot about Christopher Christie, Gov. Corzine's record and inability to unscramble the state's budget mess is pulling him down," said Clay F. Richards, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

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There's another statewide campaign in New Jersey next winter: the race to succeed Christopher Christie as the United States Attorney - a post that holds considerable power and visibility, and potentially a launching pad for higher public office.   By tradition, federal prosecutors submit their resignations to coincide with the inauguration of a new President. 

If John McCain wins, possible candidate for U.S. Attorney include McCain state campaign director Rick Mroz, a former Chief Counsel to Gov. Christine Todd Whitman; and State Sen. Bill Baroni, the Chairman of McCain's New Jersey campaign.  Mroz runs former Assemblyman/BPU Commissioner Edward Salmon's consulting firm, and is associated with former Cumberland County GOP Chairman Lawrence Pepper's law firm.  Baroni is a Seton Hall University law professor, and has been on Team McCain since 1999, when he worked on the national campaign staff as McCain's advanceman. 

McCain could also go with one of Christie's deputies, like First Assistant U.S. Attorney Ralph Marra or Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney Michele Brown.

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Some political insiders say that U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie, a likely candidate for the 2009 Republican gubernatorial nomination, might have crossed the line last weekend when he criticized Morristown Mayor Donald Cresitello, a candidate for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination, in a speech before a non-political group last weekend.  "I don't think it's helpful when a mayor of a town in New Jersey stands up at a rally and calls people he believes to be undocumented 'pinkos' and communists,” the Daily Record reported him as saying. 

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U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie spoke at Fairleigh Dickinson University today: Scott Giglio Photo
U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie, a likely candidate for the 2009 Republican nomination for Governor, was on home turf this morning at a speaking engagement at Fairleigh Dickinson University’s Madison campus -- just a short drive from his house in Mendham.

It was another stop on the corruption busting prosecutor’s public circuit: once again he rattled off his 125 convictions, recounted stories of jaw amazingly blatant corruption and fended off what he said were politically-inspired attacks on his record -- without going into specifics.

Christie made no reference to the ongoing controversy over his appointment of John Ashcroft to a federal monitoring contract worth between $27 and $52 million, instead arguing more broadly that his office has been accused of acting with political motivations by both parties. After the event, Christie said that he would not answer any questions regarding Ashcroft or the contract.

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John Ashcroft displays copies of The Record to defend Chris Christie's corruption-busting record: Getty Images Photo
WASHINGTON -- In a combative exchange with Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-CA), former Attorney General John Ashcroft jumped to U.S. Attorney Chris Christie’s defense.

After Sanchez asked whether the selection process complied with the type of guidelines the Justice Department laid out yesterday, Ashcroft said that she was implying that Christie was a “law violator.”

“I really don’t believe that Mr. Christie is a law violator. His record as a prosecutor is an outstanding record,” Ashcroft said.

Ashcroft then held up two copies of Bergen Record headlines about Christie’s public corruption convictions and insinuated that there were partisan motivations behind today’s hearing.

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U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie with U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft at a Justice Department news conference in 2003
WASHINGTON - Testifying at today, former Attorney General John Ashcroft mainly explained why he’s qualified to be a federal monitor, but had some combative words for his critics.

Ashcroft compared the type of criticism he’s faced for being assigned a lucrative federal monitor contract by U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie to the political attacks he faced during his term as Attorney General. He did not single out any of his critics by name.

“As you may or may not recall there were many people who attacked me in the way that I chose to defend America from terrorists. Those assaults did not shake my commitment to protecting American lives from terrorism attacks,” he said. “Similarly, a monitor should be immune to pressure and should not allow attacks from whatever sources that contaminate the cause of justice. I will not allow external pressures to compromise my responsibilities as a monitor.”

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