Joe Biden

Sen. Kevin O'Toole (R-Essex).: Politicker file photo 

MINNEAPOLIS - It’s several hours until Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) takes the stage downtown at the Xcel Center and one of his supporters sits in a hotel where the New Jersey delegation is housed, and he reflects on the years he’s spent in support of this man who would be president.

Soon he will again observe McCain in person.

State Sen. Kevin O’Toole (R-Essex), a state campaign co-chair for McCain, goes back to 2000 in his support. But it was during the 2008 Republican presidential primary that he deepened his respect for the Arizona senator and recognized up close what he sees as McCain’s particular leadership qualities.

"He came into Hamilton - and look, I’ve been in politics going back to 1984, I’ve been around presidents and the rest of it, it’s heady stuff - but we were sitting in the back of a bus that day in Hamilton: Baroni, and Sean Kean and others who have long supported McCain," O’Toole says. "Lindsay Graham and Joe Lieberman were there, and so was John McCain."

The presidential candidate talked strategy, and seated with him, O’Toole, the Essex County political insider who came up in politics the hard way, says unabashedly that he felt he was in the presence of greatness.

West Ward Councilman Ron Rice, Jr. pounds pavement with Obama volunteers.: Politicker file photo 

DENVER - Months and months ago, when West Ward Newark Councilman Ronald C. Rice used to display his Obama button, friends would laugh.

"No chance," they told Rice, who went on organizing and serving as an Obama surrogate.

Tonight, from his vantage point among the New Jersey delegation, Rice said he felt inspired when he heard Sen. Joseph Biden’s (D-Del.) speech and saw the vice presidential nominee stand on-stage with Obama.

Not surprisingly, the New Jersey delegation was thrilled with Joe Biden’s speech tonight.  But among three delegates, the most powerful moment was Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden’s introduction of his father. 

Beau Biden’s recounting of the family’s tragic narrative, when he and his brother survived a car wreck that killed his mother and infant sister, struck State Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck) particularly hard.

Listening to his son speak and seeing him come out, that was very powerful,” she said.  “You could see the son’s eyes welled up with tears, appropriately so.”

Former President Bill Clinton addressed the Democratic National Convention tonight, pledging to help elect Barack Obama: Getty Images Photo
DENVER - The Clinton legacy took a battering in the recent Democratic Party primary, but Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Sayreville) says most of the landed blows are unjust, and argued that only the former president could convincingly argue on behalf of Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) the way he did tonight.

"In 1992, the Republicans called Clinton too inexperienced and that’s what they’re trying to say now about Barack Obama," says Wisniewski in the Spotted Dog bar at the Inverness Hotel, paraphrasing one of Clinton’s key arguments from his speech at the Democratic National Convention tonight.

"Clinton proved to be one of the best presidents of the 20th Century," added the assemblymen, who is poised to begin his term as a Democratic National Committeeman at the end of this week, where he is interested in examining possible reforms to the system.

President Clinton balanced the federal budget, and created surpluses approaching a trillion dollars.

Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Sayreville) and his wife, Debbie.: Politicker photo 

DENVER - The crowd crams into the Spotted Dog for Assemblyman John Wisniewski’s (D-Sayreville) convention watch party, which includes three other recognizable elected officials packed cheek by jowl into this low-ceilinged underground Inverness Hotel hangout: Assemblyman Gordon Johnson of Bergen and West New York Mayor Sal Vega and Plainfield Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs.

Wisniewski’s been attending conventions going all the way back to 1976, when his father served as a member of the New Jersey delegation. Now he has his own daughters here and they’ve already been on the floor of the Pepsi Center.

"It’s a relaxing atmosphere down here, in a way even better than getting on and off the bus to go out there to the Pepsi Center," says Wisniewski, chair of the state Assembly Transportation Committee.

"At least I know New Jersey’s not the only place with gridlock," he says.

The delegation at breakfast.: Politicker photo

DENVER - With blue collar foreign policy expert Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) on-deck tonight, Democrats promise that the family values phase of the convention will at last come to an end.

"Absolutely," Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex) said when asked if his party is now prepared to take the fight to the Republicans and their eight-year record in office.

Possessing a 90% Labor rating compared to 16% for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), according to union pump-up speakers at this morning's delegation breakfast at the Inverness, Biden is supposed to fulfill the lunch bucket running mate role of resident tough guy.

For some Democrats, the transition to more outward-directed energy will come as a welcome respite from the internal Obama-Clinton angst that to date has bedeviled the delegation.

Danny O’Brien, who was just hired as Sen. Bob Menendez’s new chief of staff in May, faces a happy predicament.

O’Brien, a native of southern California with deep political roots in New Jersey, spent three-and-a-half years as Sen. Joe Biden’s chief of staff before moving on to Menendez. Before Biden, he was chief of staff for former Senator Robert Toricelli, and worked on former Gov. Jim McGreevey’s 2001 gubernatorial campaign.

Now, having just started his job with Menendez, it’s easy to see him being recruited to the executive branch if Barack Obama and Joe Biden win the general election. But as of right now, he has no plans to change jobs.

“I have no plans to make any changes right now. I’m lucky to be working for Senator Menendez,” he said.

State Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen): Politicker photo

DENVER - Hours before Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) delivers her runner-up address to the Democratic National Convention, state Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen) praised the former first lady, whose politics Weinberg questioned on the campaign trail last year.

A hardcore Obama backer, Weinberg’s chief complaint about Clinton on the presidential primary campaign trail was regarding her record. Clinton essentially stayed under the radar during the Bush years, in Weinberg’s judgment.

State Sen. Jeff Van Drew says he won't change his mind and challenge U.S. Rep. Frank LoBiondo, even with Joe Biden on the ticket
DENVER – While State Senator and almost Congressional candidate Jeff Van Drew (D-Cape May) thinks Barack Obama’s selection of Joe Biden will help Democrats down-ballot in South Jersey, he is still standing behind the Democrats’ current candidate in District 2: David Kurkowski.

“Biden has a real connect to South Jersey. There are parts of South Jersey that are closer to Delaware than they are to New York and North Jersey,” said Van Drew.

Van Drew, a Democrat with moderate appeal, was national Democrats’ hope to run a third ultra-competitive race in New Jersey, against incumbent Frank LoBiondo (R-Vineland). Van Drew acknowledged interest in running, but he would have faced criticism as an office-climber, having just moved up to the state Senate from the Assembly in a tough race last year. So he didn’t, and national Democrats but aside their interest in the seat temporarily.

Assemblyman Reed Gusciora (D-Princeton): Politicker photo

DENVER - The deep freeze feelings Sen. Hillary Clinton’s (D-NY) fiercest supporters have reserved for the Obama-Biden ticket simply contributes to the convention’s drama, acknowledged Assemblyman Reed Gusciora (D-Princeton), a member of the New Jersey delegation.

People have deep-seated feelings this year, and it’s not always that way.

"I wasn’t at the 2004 convention, but I can’t imagine people getting as excited then as they are now," said Gusciora. "I just can’t imagine what the mood would have been like for John Kerry."

Maybe not everyone is ready to run straight to the barricade for Obama-Biden, but there’s a thrill in the sense of the unknown at this Democratic National Convention; white-knuckle suspense over whether the party will emerge truly unified.