George Bush

State Sen. Leonard Lance (R-Hunterdon): Politicker file photo 

It’s Rangel versus Bush in the 7th Congressional District, where apparently voters will ultimately have to decide which of these two is the more toxic campaign sugar daddy.

Roll Call reports that Freedom’s Watch, a hard-right group founded in part by former Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer, has purchased $500,000 in ad time for 7th District Republican candidate state Sen. Leonard Lance (R-Hunterdon).

That makes the money they’re dumping into New Jersey’s 7th District, Freedom Watch’s largest expenditure for any single race, according to the Washington D.C.-based newspaper.

Struggling to raise money after a tough primary, Lance turned to President George W. Bush this week for a private fundraiser in Colts Neck. Lance wants to gain traction in his fight with big money candidate Assemblywoman Linda Stender (D-Fanwood).

Josh Zeitz, left, speaks to a Saturday crowd that includes Mercer County Executive Brian J. Hughes, right.: Politicker photo 

TRENTON - Since the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee last week listed the 4th Congressional race as one to watch, Democratic challenger Josh Zeitz has received, on average, cash commitments of $10,000 per day for his campaign, according to spokesman Steven D’Amico.

"It’s more than what we were getting before," said D’Amico, who wouldn’t specify exactly how much more.

Bolstered by the cash infusion, Zeitz took the floor at Saturday’s Obama HQ opening and declared that Nov. 4th will usher in a Democratic sweep.

Assemblywoman Linda Stender (D-Fanwood) and Josh Zeitz in Trenton this afternoon.: Politicker photo 

TRENTON - Wall Street is melting down while President George W. Bush fundraises in Colts Neck for candidates who will continue his failed policies, argued Democrats at a Statehouse press conference this afternoon.

State Democratic Chairman Joseph Cryan stood with congressional candidates, Assemblywoman Linda Stender (D-Fanwood) and professor Joshua Zeitz of Bordentown. They all whiplashed Republicans for allowing Bush to come and raise money in a state where the latest Strategic Vision poll shows the president with a 20 percent job approval rating.

NEWARK - In the middle of a political battlezone in the lead-up to the Nov. 4th presidential election, the forces of President George Bush aligned with the Democrats on the ground here in New Jersey to support the expansion of a prisoner re-entry program in the City of Newark.

Gov. Jon Corzine today stood with state Attorney General Anne Milgram, Mayor Cory Booker, representatives of the U.S. Department of Labor and others to announce the infusion of $5 million in county, state and federal prisoner re-entry funds.

The program expansion will beef up opportunities for Newark ex-cons to get job coaching, job readiness training and mentoring, Milgram told a packed crowd in the Dryden House near Lincoln Park.

The attorney general laid out the stats: 60 percent of those released from prison are re-arrested, and 50 percent are re-convicted. With the expansion of this program, "we know we can successfully drop the recidivism rate," Milgram said.

MINNEAPOLIS - George Bush’s face filling a screen at the Xcel Energy Center last night didn’t prompt a chorus of boos because most Republicans still like the president, said State Republican Chairman Tom Wilson.

"He’s liked by a lot of people - remember, the people in that room are mostly hardcore party activists," the state chairman said, "and last night he did what he had to do."

"I know his poll numbers are upside down but I think history will judge him well," said Ocean County Republican Chairman George Gilmore. "No terrorist attack in seven years. We’re doing better in Iraq."

State Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce (D-Parsippany-Troy Hills) agreed.

MINNEAPOLIS - The Republican Party can survive the appearance tonight by President George W. Bush broadcast via satellite from the White House, assured former Gov. Christie Todd Whitman.

With the help of the family dog.

On her way to do a CNN interview on the suite level of the convention center shortly before the president made his pitch on behalf of presumptive GOP presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Whitman said, "Sure," the party can bounce back from Bush.

Strategic Vision places the president’s job approval rating at 15 percent in New Jersey, but Whitman, Bush’s former head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), said Bush's dog, Barney, is from New Jersey, joking that people will find a connection there.

MINNEAPOLIS - The elevator doors in the Hilton opened and a man stepped off and headed for the bar.

"It’s Chris Christie’s brother," said a veteran newspaperman, staring at the familiar facial features of the newcomer in a scene that all evening took in a steady flow of New Jersey Republicans.

The white-haired, Chris-Christie lookalike made his way over to GOP operative Bill Palatucci, who was seated at the bar, and they began talking. He took an extended handshake from a stranger and acknowledged, "Yes, "I’m Chris Christie’s brother."

The word out the there among GOP sources is that Todd Christie is here to keep the idea firmly fixed in people’s heads that his brother, the U.S. attorney in New Jersey, is going to be running for governor next year.

Former state Sen. John Bennett, left, and Assemblyman Sam Thompson (R-Old Bridge).: Politicker photo

MINNEAPOLIS - Everything but an afternoon business meeting is off the table at tomorrow's Republican National Convention here, with Hurricane Gustav bearing down on New Orleans south of this Mississippi River town.

Standing in front of the Hilton among the early arrivals for the New Jersey delegation on late Sunday afternoon, and going with the flow at this point, were former state Sen. President John Bennett (R-Monmouth) and Assemblyman Sam Thompson (R-Old Bridge).

Widely lambasted for taking a ho-hum approach to the devastation wrought on New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina three years ago, President George W. Bush will not speak at the convention tomorrow night.

DENVER - Addressing the New Jersey delegation this morning, former Gov. Jim Florio told his fellow Democrats that they need to brush up on the harder-edged passages of the Hebrew Scriptures to get toned for what’s coming.

"We can’t afford to have this as a New Testament campaign," Florio told the crowd. "This is not turning the other cheek. This has got to be an Old testament campaign."

The way the Republicans demolished John Kerry four years ago, twisting a war hero, in Florio’s words, into a coward, should provide sufficient preview for GOP campaign tactics. But the Democrats have to huddle up and get ready to fight back with the obvious arguments.

"This president has to slither in and out of a foreign country before anyone knows he’s there, because he’s shredded our relations with the world," Florio said of President George W. Bush. "It’s an embarrassment."

Paterson Mayor Jose "Joey" Torres: Politicker file photo 

DENVER - If he felt any angst about his first choice not landing a place on the Democrats’ presidential ticket, Paterson Mayor Jose "Joey" Torres didn’t show it as he landed in the lobby of the Inverness Hotel on Monday, and turned his attention on the Republicans.

"We are fighting a war in our cities, but we are not putting the resources in to fight those wars internally," said Torres, who noted the fall-off in federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding during the Bush years.

Failing in a 2005 fight to terminate the program that administers urban aid, the Bush administration sought unprecedented cuts - up to 20%, the highest percentage proposed cuts since the program’s inception in 1982.