Joe Roberts

The Senate and Assembly both passed laws disbanding and reforming the Joint Legislative Committee on Ethical Standards earlier this year.  But so far, only two of the new committee’s eight seats have been filled.

That’s because it’s hard to find people interested or eligible to serve, according to Rick Wright, executive director of the Assembly Republicans.

“We are going to make appointments, but like everyone else we’re having a hard time finding people,” he said.

The Joint Legislative Committee on Ethical Standards has been widely considered a joke for most of its existence.  It averaged one sanction against a legislator every 10 years during its nearly four decade lifespan.  Meanwhile, filing toothless complaints with the committee became standard fare during the legislative campaign season, when candidates or their allies would file a complaint against an opponent and then issue press releases trumpeting it.

Acting Mayor/Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic): Politicker photo 

PASSAIC - To be in Trenton, or not to be in Trenton, that is the question for Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic), who became the acting mayor of Passaic in May when a federal judge found Mayor Sammy Rivera guilty of corruption.

Initially, Schaer, who received the chief executive’s job by virtue of his position as council president, figured he would serve long enough to hand off to whoever wins a Nov. 4th special election.

But about three weeks into his service as acting mayor - with no stunning personality on the city’s horizon line, by his reckoning - Schaer began mulling the idea of pursuing his own mayoral run. 

"We can’t afford to have a mayor who’s not going to build on some of the positive things we’re doing," said Schaer, who implemented local ethics reforms, imposed a 37% cut to the mayoral salary (from $117,000 to $72,000), and a municipal hiring freeze.

Assembly Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing)Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts (D-Camden) told PolitickerNJ.com he believes Gov. Jon Corzine would do well to select Assembly Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing) as his running mate in 2009.

Watson Coleman, a veteran of the Assembly and former state party chair, would be the state’s first lieutenant governor if Corzine were to run with her and win re-election.

"He’s got to pick someone who’s compatible with his style, of course," said Roberts. "I happen to be a big fan of Bonnie Watson Coleman’s. Her strengths are that she is highly respected, very well thought of in the legislature, where she was unanimously elected majority leader, and she is highly committed to the faith-based, African-American community."

Several of his friends in south Jersey have jumped ship from Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama, but Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts said he’s sticking with Clinton.

“You have the shifting perhaps of one vote, but I remain where I’ve been completely, which is enthusiastically supporting Sen. Clinton,” he said, adding that “George [Norcross] is a very dear friend and a very powerful and important political leader.

Bill Clinton, joined by Gov. Jon Corzine, campaigned in Camden today: Getty Images Photo

After receiving criticism for his role in his wife's presidential campaign in New Hampshire and South Carolina, former President Bill Clinton stuck to a lawyerly script in Blackwood today, exactly one week before New Jersey's Feb. 5 primary.

"You must vote for someone not just to make history, but for someone who's going to build the future," said Clinton, in the one unnamed reference to Sen. Hillary Clintons chief opponent, Sen. Barack Obama.

In his second New Jersey appearance for his wife's campaign in as many months, Clinton told a crowd of 1,500 in Camden Community College's Papiano Gym that the most important reason to elect his wife as the Democratic presidential nominee is because she is a "proven change agent."

A pair of old antagonists, labor and business, are waging a battle in Trenton this week as the former works the legislature to pass paid family leave, while the latter hopes lawmakers scrap it completely.

Mims HackettGovernor Jon S. Corzine, Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts, Senate President Dick Codey and Assemblyman/Democratic Party Chairman Joseph Cryan have called on arrested Assemblymen Mims Hackett and Alfred Steele to resign by the end of the weekend, according to a statement issued by the Democratic State Committee this afternoon.

"I’m saddened that we’re at a position that we had to call for resignations. On the other hand, they had to be done. You can’t tolerate this stuff," the Democrats said in a statement.

The New Jersey Democratic State Committee has already raised $2.1 million for the Governor's Gala tonight featuring former President Bill Clinton.  That amount is double what the Republican State Committee raised last week at a major event with President George W. Bush. Clinton will be joined by Governor Jon Corzine, U.S. Senator Bob Menendez, Democratic State Chairman Joe Cryan, Senate President Richard Codey, Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts, and Newark Mayor Cory Booker.

Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts and Senate President Richard Codey have agreed to pick the 14th district as the "split" Clean Elections district, according to sources close to both legislative leaders.

But Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce and Senate Minority Leader Leonard Lance have asked to have the 12th district picked for the public financing program.

In the event of a deadlock, the legislative leaders will name a former Governor as the tiebreaker.

By Assembly Speaker Joseph J. Roberts Jr.

Concerned about government corruption and the rising costs of political campaigns, New Jersey tested the waters of public financing for legislative races through a Clean Elections pilot project in the 2005 Assembly elections.

Now the state is at the threshold of taking a second crack at employing public financing in legislative contests.  Legislation has advanced to reauthorize another Clean Elections trial run in this November’s general elections.  The measure is scheduled for a Senate vote on Monday and could be moved to the Governor’s desk for his signature as early as next Thursday.