It Was a Dark and Stormy Bowling Match

by: jeffpickens

Sun Oct 30, 2011 at 07:18:00 PM EDT

Who is this guy Max Pizarro and who thinks his "writing" is fit to publish?

This stinker was dropped in my Google Alerts this afternoon. It is a PolitickerNJ account of a GOTV rally at a bowling alley in Manville, in support of 16th District Democrats, with an appearance by Newark Mayor Cory Booker, including the story of a friendly $1,000 bowling wager between Booker and SCDC Chairwoman Peg Schaffer.

The article clunks through a description of Booker's motivational remarks, peppered with journalistic slop like:

The Tony Robbins headset messages included team work and never giving up, and these were massage points (did he mean "message points"?) for a county organization long used to getting carried off the field on Election Day - on stretchers, not shoulders.

Redistricting put a crack in the drawbridge of longtime GOP stronghold LD 16 - rerouting the Princetons and South Brunswick into the laps of veteran state Sen. Kip Bateman (R-16) and Assemblyman Pete Biondi (R-16) and giving Dems enough juice to play for an assembly win.

The mayor went first, powering in shot that left him with a single spare. On his second roll he pounded the lone sentinel down with ease.

Ed Potosnak gets Union County endorse for NJ-7, Zenon Christodoulou exits race

by: Rosi Efthim

Thu Mar 11, 2010 at 04:54:01 PM EST

And Zenon Christodoulou ended his bid for the nomination last night, swinging his support to Potosnak. Union County Dems' decision marks the second county party endorsement Potosnak won, after he took the Hunterdon County Democratic Committee's endorsement almost two weeks ago.

The other counties comprising NJ-7 are Middlesex (with only part of Edison, part of Woodbridge Twp, and South Plainfield in the District) and Somerset, mostly in NJ-7. The fact that not only Potosnak, but Christodoulou hail from Somerset County is important. The Obama surge in late 2008 flipped the historically Republican county to majority Democrat. If there are opportunities in this uphill race, they may come there.

Hunterdon County saw its number of Democrats nearly double from 2005-2009, but the total still hovers under 18,000. And Lance, a lifetime resident from a political legacy family, will count on Hunterdon - which delivered the highest percentage victory for Christie 4 months ago - as base support. Middlesex and Union are Democratic.

Somerset's in flux. Potosnak has roots there. He was a chemistry teacher at Bridgewater-Raritan Regional HS, then won an Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship which took him to work as an aide for DNC Vice-Chair Rep. Mike Honda on education policy, among other issues. He was born and raised in New Jersey, was an adjunct professor at his alma mater Rutgers, and now lives in North Plainfield.  

Christodoulou is in a great position to be a key player in Potosnak's race. Christodoulou is Vice-Chair of the Somerset Democratic Committee, and under Chair Peg Schaffer, the Somerset organization has been building much needed infrastructure. And both Christodoulou and Schaffer are members of a bunch of Democrats known as "The Group," who raise big money for Democratic candidates, and recently tried to clear the field for Hillary Clinton. At Blue Jersey, we have often been critical of "The Group" but they sure as hell get their calls answered. Christodoulou can be a key player in attracting financial support for a NJ-7 Democrat, if he makes the choice to be. I called Zenon today to tell him I hope he does.

Stink bomb thrown into Corzine HQ in Somerset County

by: Rosi Efthim

Mon Aug 31, 2009 at 04:18:44 PM EDT

A stink bomb was thrown into the Somerset County Democratic Headquarters a little after noon today, the office where the Corzine for Governor campaign is coordinating their field efforts in the county.

This is the same Division Street office Governor Corzine visited last weekend during the Opening Day Party of the field office.

One person was present - an intern named Lash Green II, who was in the office working on invitations for an upcoming event with Mayor Cory Booker. Green told police he believed the stink bomb was thrown from the passenger window of a white Chrysler 300 that pulled away from the curb in front of the HQ entrance moments after. Somerville police responded but refused to file a report, citing lack of damage.

No one was hurt but the stink bomb produced a cloud of acrid sulphur odor. County Party Executive Director Alex Radus said a few minutes of work time were lost but the staff continued to work even in the "very uncomfortable environment". Said Somerset Democratic Chair Peg Schaffer:

This kind of childish behavior takes on grave significance when a political organization is targeted. It is a mark of intolerance, and amounts to nothing less than assault, voter intimidation and harassment.

The incident was filed with the NJ Secretary of State, the entity charged with overseeing the election process.

Woman Takes Over Somerset County Dems

by: huntsu

Wed Jun 11, 2008 at 09:00:25 AM EDT

Mike Ceponis, the last Democrat to win a Somerset County seat but totally absent from county politics since then, announced that he was going to fix the broken system.  The folks who had been involved and active for 30 years largely backed him.

Beki Perkins, who ran for Freeholder twice in 1999 and 2000, also announced her bid with the same attitude about the Dems.  She had some real issues however, because she had declined previously to run for her own county committee seat and there were rumors she had preliminary discussions with the GOP about running for Assembly in the 21st.

Peg Schaffer, the Democratic Chair of Bedminster, came in with a more positive attitude though a personality that sometimes grated on folks.  She did, however, praise all the people who fought so hard through the hard years from the Florio defeat to the Clinton impeachment to the war fervor of the past five years, and said she was going to build on that great foundation rather than start from scratch.

At the convention Perkins threw her support to Ceponis since it appeared she had little support.  Ceponis spoke a lot about a broken party and a history of failure, but lauded his son who had fought in Iraq but opposes the war.  And Schaffer talked about building the party in a hard Republican area just as she had done in Bedminster.

When all the votes were counted, Schaffer came out ahead about 185 to 132 for Ceponis to 5 for Perkins.

And New Jersey has its fourth Democratic County Chairwoman.

Congratulations, Peg!  And good luck.