Lots of folks are wondering if November 3rd was a fluke or not. We don’t know, no one here can answer that because we aren’t active in that organization. We prefer to sit on the sidelines and watch the show.

Fluke or not the congratulations go to Bill Fey who won leadership of the organization after a very bitter battle with the former party chair Loran Oglesby.

The organization gained nine seats at the municipal level, won an Assembly seat (and it was won in Gloucester County because Camden County came up way short on their end) and Chris Christie beat Corzine in the blue county.

At least some of the credit has to go to the new leadership at the county level. The question now becomes can they keep it up? Of course they have Steve Sweeney to contend with but as this blog mentioned earlier Sweeney is going to be busy with the Senate presidency so the GOP may be able to sneak him again.

With big races in Washington and Monroe townships next year. It’s possible the Gloucester County GOP might now be a contender.

The BIG show is over. Chris Christie is no longer candidate Christie, he is Governor-Elect Christie.

Now there’s another race, it started during the brutal gubernatorial slug fest and is no longer the under card.

It’s Sweeney versus Codey for Senate President and Sweeney has been hitting hard. Insiders tell us it looks like Sweeney will win the post.

Great, just what we need, a dual office holding Democrat as Senate President. But we have to ask is Steve Sweeney as Senate President such a bad thing?

Love him or hate him he will fight for South Jersey. After all he did take Corzine on over the sales tax increase. Sure he lost but he took the fight to him. He fought the unions and won. That was a tough thing for a union leader to do.

We may not always agree with his politics but Sweeney as the Senate President might not be such a bad thing plus it’ll have other benefits.

As Senate President Sweeney will be busy doing things and working deals all over the state. He will not be able to pay the close attention to Gloucester County politics that he has in years past. Look at this past election, he was busy lining up votes for his bid for the Senate Presidency and the Gloucester County GOP snuck up on him gaining seats in 9 municipalities, a seat in the Assembly, a win for Christie and even though he lost Bob Villare ran very well in Gloucester County out pacing Celeste Riley. Chris Del Borello nearly pulled of an upset win in the Freeholder race.

So think long and hard before you say no to a Sweeney Senate Presidency.

We know we haven’t posted in a while and we know it’s tough to get readers for a new blog that doesn’t post frequently but we do expect that to change. In our defense there are only two of us to watch everything that happens in politics off exits 1, 2 and 3 of the Turnpike and work our jobs at the same time. We are going to try to start posting on a more regular basis.

Since our last post a lot has happened in South Jersey politics as well as statewide politics. Naturally everyone is focused on the gubernatorial race and certainly the lines have been drawn in the sand. We support Chris Christie in that race and hope he manages to pull off the victory on November 3rd.

Aside from that there are some other races off exits 1, 2 and 3 of the Turnpike and now that the papers are starting to roll out there endorsements it’s time for us to start taking a look at these races.

The Assembly contests are in the 1st, 3rd, and 4th districts and all appear to be fairly competitive. Mike Donohue and John McCann are taking on Nelson Albano and Matt Milam in the 1st. Experts say this one is too close to call - at least that’s what the Vineland Daily Journal said.

In the 3rd district where Republicans had originally pinned their hopes on two other candidates it appears we could have an interesting Election Day if voters pay attention to endorsements. The Vineland Daily Journal, Gloucester County Times and Courier-Post have all endorsed a split ticket of Democrat John Burzichelli and Republican Bob Villare.

And in the 4th the Courier-Post has endorsed a split ticket of Democrat Paul Moriarty and Republican Domenick DiCicco.

Will voters listen in the 3rd and 4th and send one Democrat and one Republican to Trenton?

This could be interesting and now we will see how important endorsements are to the voters of South Jersey.

We’re starting to feel bad for poor Lou Magazzu. No, not really!

Magazzu has enough trouble with the NACo-Gate issue that simply will not go away. He’s tried to deflect attention by going after Cumberland County Clerk Gloria Noto.

Now, even Gloria Noto has beaten Magazzu down. Magazzu attempted to use his puppets on the freeholder board to force Noto to keep the Clerk’s office open for hours beyond those she already planned on keeping for extended voting.

Well, the News of Cumberland County reported today what Noto’s extended hours will be and they are exactly the hours she already planned on keeping. Magazzu loses again.

Now if only the Attorney General would get her butt down here and start the investigation into Magazzu’s NACo-Gate.

We like this kid! Okay, at 25 he’s a man but in political years that makes him a kid.

Chris Del Borrello has been a candidate for Freeholder in Gloucester County for less than a month and in every public statement he has called out his opponents for their lack of leadership on the issues in the county.

In a press release today he said, “It's interesting that freeholder Damminger didn't have a problem standing with Jon Corzine and Jim Florio, two of the biggest taxers New Jersey has ever seen, at the groundbreaking of the Paulsboro Port project but refuses to bring Corzine anywhere near the former Coleman Natural Foods plant or Glassboro's ADM plant to watch those jobs flee the county.”

25 years old and he knows enough to connect his opponents to two of the worst Democrats to ever be governor of New Jersey.

Keep it up Del Borrello.

The new aggressive, in your face Cumberland County Republican campaign style might be the prescription for the County’s problems.

The GOP has been relentlessly attacking Lou Magazzu and have forced the guy to start looking for a lifeline. He thought he had one by getting one of the best known lawyers in New Jersey, Angelo Genova, to start speaking on his behalf with regard to allegations in NACo-Gate.

Now, courtesy of another Cumberland County GOP press release on politickernj.com, it looks as though Magazzu is going to lose that lifeline.

In the press release Bob Greco asks, “How can Genova, who represents the County and has received over $172,000 in legal fees in the last two years, defend Magazzu in relation to possible criminal investigations and still serve as attorney for the freeholder board itself?”

It’s a very fair question and we can’t wait to see what the Magazzu spin machine has to say about this one.

This is nuts! There is no other way to explain this one. The latest in news from the GOP in Cumberland County is that Lou Magazzu has a connection to a County Supervisor in Arizona who was arrested for transferring money from a campaign account to an account for NACo office.

No Matter what way you look at it this one just looks bad.

From a press release on politicker.com issued by Cumberland County Republicans:

"Don Stapley and Lou Magazzu worked together on a NACo task force and both have transferred money from a political account to a NACo account. It just appears a little too coincidental that two guys who have worked with each other have a similar problem revolving around their NACo accounts," Cumberland County GOP Chairman Bob Greco said. "Now I have to wonder if it's possible Magazzu discussed how to transfer funds to a NACo account with Stapley."

Lou Magazzu looks dirtier and dirtier by the day. The Republicans in Cumberland County have made this guy unelectable by keeping to factual content the voters have a right to know about.

The question now is will Magazzu survive?

Published news reports tell us Lou Magazzu has Angelo Genova, Esq. speaking as his attorney about issues stemming from NACo-Gate.

Citizens, at least in the blogosphere, have asked how Magazzu is paying the super lawyer who has represented such fine outstanding citizens such as disgraced former Hoboken mayor Peter Cammarano and prevented Jon Corzine’s emails from being released to the public.

We have an answer to the question of who is paying the tab. Every man, woman and child in Cumberland County has already coughed up $1.18 each to Mr. Genova.

We arrived at that answer by taking a look at 1099 forms that are posted on Magazzu Watch and Save Jersey showing how much Genova’s law firm was paid by Cumberland County in 2007 and 2008. The total? A whopping $172,746 which given the 2000 census figures for Cumberland County means this man cost every man, woman and child $1.18 a piece for his services.

Next time you’re digging through the couch cushions for change to give the kids milk money thank Magazzu and Genova.