Frank Pallone

U.S. Rep. Donald Payne (D-Newark): Politicker photo

DENVER - It was coming to an end in an Irish bar, only it wouldn’t actually end there. It would in another bar, a few blocks removed.

Two bars separated by one speech.

"It should be a walkover, of course," said U.S. Rep. Donald Payne (D-Newark). "These guys - Obama and McCain - are neck and neck. I think it’s perhaps the trepidation about race that makes it that way, but we'll see."

In a few hours, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) would take the stage and accept his party’s nomination.

Payne, and his elder brother former Assemblyman Bill Payne, mingled among a respectably large crowd of guests in this, the last big, pre-Obama speech bash in downtown Denver at the Celtic Tavern, thrown by U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch) and U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson).

The Celtic Tavern is located near the light rail line, and soon the delegates and superdelegates and other guests would pile aboard and head out to Invesco Field to see and hear Obama.

In the meantime, the hosts brought Speaker Joe Cryan up onto the stage with the folk band to take a bow. Just as they were stepping over the microphone cords and getting ready to launch into the Irish songs, the bar door swung open and Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy walked in, prompting Pascrell to make a special introduction.

It almost looked staged, as if a staffer had sent Healy a text message. Healy's a good Irish tenor with a rich, well-modulated voice.

But the mayor’s stride-in would astoundingly prove a premature entrance to the main event, for on this afternoon, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-Union City) went to the front of the room.

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-Union City): Politicker photo

DENVER - Sen. Robert Menedez (D-Union City) sang a more than passable verison of Toora loora looral the Pallone-Pascrell pre-Obama speech party at the Celtic Tavern hre Thursday night.

The Irish-Americans in the room listened with apparent satisfaction.

Corzine deputy chief of staff Maggie Moran, governor's spokesman Sean Darcy, Pallone chief Jeff Carroll and others all gave Menendez's perfomance a ramrod thumbs-up.

There wasn't a dry mug in the place.

United States Rep. Frank Pallone, who was one of Rep. Rob Andrews’s harshest critics during his primary run, today introduced him at the Democratic delegation’s breakfast today as the “great congressman from South Jersey.”

Pallone said that he appreciated the way Andrews handled the aftermath of the primary against Frank Lautenberg, reaching out to mend relations as soon as the primary was over.

U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch): Politicker file photo 

DENVER - Seniors should vote for Obama given the GOP’s designs on healthcare and social security, said U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch), but the real strength for Democrats this year will break the Republicans, in his view.

It’s the youth vote, and Obama plays into it in a way that will not only mean victory now - but maybe for years, in the congressman’s estimation.

"We will capture a generation of new voters (with an Obama victory)," Pallone said. "We could be the majority in the Senate and House of Representatives for the next 40 years if we were to accomplish that. We believe in the promise of America, and Obama makes such a change from what we have now in that regard."

When U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews decided to wage a primary challenge against Sen. Frank Lautenberg, few politicians went after Andrews as hard as Rep. Frank Pallone did.

But Pallone (D-Long Branch) today indicated that, with Andrews (D-Haddon Heights) expected to depart from the House in January, the two will once again have a working relationship.

“I don’t know if it’s certain that he’s working for Goldman Sachs, but I assume he’s going to be involved in legislation and continue to be involved with Congress in some way, even though he’s not a congressman. I’ve worked with him for years, and will continue to,” said Pallone.

U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-8), right, with U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ).: Politicker file photo 

On a regular basis now, Gov. Jon Corzine reminds audiences that he’s running for re-election. If he doesn’t end up running for whatever reason, U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) says he wouldn’t mind personally stepping into the breach.

But whoever ends up out there on the barricade facing the GOP in a statewide race, Pascrell said his party should not fear likely Republican candidate U.S. Attorney Chris Christie, whom Quinnipiac University last week listed one point above the governor in a statistical tie - 41% to 40%.

Of his own gubernatorial run, "I would think about it very seriously," Pascrell said. "Right now I’m supporting the governor and I would urge him to run for re-election.

Steve Adubato, Jr., presides over a meeting between Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo, center, and Sen. Joseph Kyrillos.: Politicker photo 

SPRING LAKE - They drove and were driven to the Irish Riviera from all corners of New Jersey, in cars with government plates on them and dark SUVs and sedans with tinted glass, sporting sunglasses and paunches covered with sports jackets, mostly Democrats and a handful of Republicans, converging on this mansion by the sea.

Congressmen and mayors and assembly people and state senators and opposition researchers and retainers.

Standing at the front of the Seashell Dining Room in the Breakers to greet them was Steve Adubato, wearing a Hawaiian shirt and welcoming smile - and casting an eye that invariably sharpens human activity into the lineaments of political theater.

"I believe in the luck of the Irish," said the executive director of Newark’s North Ward Center and head of the Democratic Party in the North Ward, facing a sun-filled room packed with rivals hunched over plates of eggs and bacon: Gov. Jon Corzine and Republican State Party Chairman Tom Wilson; former Assemblyman Wilfredo Caraballo, and Assemblyman Albert Coutinho and Assemblwoman Grace Spencer; Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo and Assemblyman Thomas Giblin (D-Montclair).

In this poor man’s Olympiad of Jersey ethnic groups gathered under one roof, Adubato highlighted - as he does annually at this North Ward Center-sponsored breakfast - the Irish, who now number 141,379 registered voters in New Jersey, or 47,514 Democrats, 36,063 Republicans and 57,802 independents.

BRANCHBURG- Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-6) helped the Somerset County Democratic Party raise about $50,000 at a private fundraiser here on Saturday.

"Bob Menendez came up from Washington because he believes in the potential to turn this county blue," said Zenon Christodoulou, vice chair of the party.

Christodoulou and his fellow Democrats are fighting a long tradition of Republican rule in Somerset.

U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-6): Politicker photo

Based in part on U.S. Attorney Chris Christie’s awarding of a potentially fat contract to ex-boss Attorney General John Ashcroft, U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch) and U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) don’t want U.S. attorneys appointing federal monitors.

To that end, they announced their intentions today to introduce legislation they say would take politics out of the appointment process, and prevent unelected officials from having "unfettered leverage against companies and corporations who have potentially engaged in criminal behavior," Pallone said.

As it is now, "The U.S. Attorney in this case has total discretion about when to decide who to appoint as a monitor and what the terms are," the 6th District Congressman told PolitickerNJ.com. "Everything we’re addressing is at the discretion of the U.S. Attorney, and it has led to the appearance of political cronyism and a lot of cynicism."

U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-8), right, (with U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg).: Politicker photo 

Two New Jersey congressmen intend to announce tomorrow their plans for legislation to regulate how U.S. attorneys award federal monitoring contracts.

Their Washington, D.C. news conference comes as part of the fallout from U.S. Attorney Chris Christie’s having awarded his former boss, former Attorney General John Ashcroft, a federal monitoring contract in which Ashcroft could make up to $52 million.

As part of their investigation, U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-8) and U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-6) requested full disclosure of 85 deferred and non-prosecution agreements and lists of corporate monitors selected in 41 agreements.