OMG...Today's Newark Star Ledger (1/13/08)

[Madam Mossfern]

Has a front page article about the primary in New Jersey. There in not one word mentioned about John Edwards- it's as if he doesn't exist. I find this appalling. The writer's name is Brad Parks and he can be reached at [e-mail] or [phone]. There are 107 delegates in NJ.

edit:It does appear that Edwards is mentioned in passing - see line in bold.

Candidates draw up plans for significant Jersey race
Sunday, January 13, 2008
BY BRAD PARKS
Star-Ledger Staff
The New Jersey headquarters for Hillary Clinton, long considered the front-runner in the state's Democratic presidential primary, are located directly across the street from the main entrance to the Statehouse in Trenton.

Occupying the second and third floors of a stately brownstone duplex, the space has a history of political activity -- it's usually home to the Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee. There's a reception area, a few nondescript offices, a conference room. Save for the red, white and blue "Hillary for President" posters, it looks like a well-settled insurance office.

The state headquarters for Barack Obama, Clinton's chief rival here and nationally, looks like an Internet start-up that just moved out of Mom and Dad's basement. It opened in November in an office building behind the Essex Green Shopping Center in West Orange. Some of the rooms are empty, piled with unused furniture. The exterior signage consists of a business card taped to the front door. The decorative style could be described as chaotic chic.

Come Feb. 5, the organizations launched out of these two offices -- call it the establishment vs. the upstarts -- will face off in a battle that, unlike every other Democratic primary in the state's modern political history, actually matters.

"This is new for all of us," said state Sen. Raymond Lesniak, who has publicly endorsed Clinton but is not involved in her campaign. "I've never been shy about going out on a limb and making a prediction. But I can't do it with this one."

That's because New Jersey has never contested a primary like this. Since the Democratic National Committee moved to its current system of selecting a nominee in 1972, New Jersey held its primary in June, long after the nomination was decided, when it was about as relevant as math problems at a spelling bee.

This year's move to what turned into Super Tuesday, with 22 states holding Democratic nominating contests, and the tight race between front-runners Clinton and Obama, has given a jolt to efforts here. Yesterday, both campaigns took to the streets, putting up lawn signs and ringing doorbells in communities statewide.

On the Republican side, there's little sign of a real campaign so far. None of the candidates has a New Jersey office yet, although former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani does have a staff aide with a laptop assigned to the state. Polls late last year showed Giuliani far ahead of his GOP rivals here, but right now he's giving all his attention to Florida, which votes Jan. 29.

A Quinnipiac University poll released in December showed Clinton with a crushing lead among registered Democrats in New Jersey, with 51 percent to Obama's 17 percent and only 12 percent undecided.

But that was before Obama's win in Iowa redefined the race, and neither campaign is putting much stock in those numbers anymore, especially after New Hampshire voters made a mockery of the pollsters.

TURNOUT IS KEY

The biggest wild card, as usual, is turnout. Unaffiliated voters can declare for one party or the other and cast a ballot on primary day. Then there is the fact that the state has never held its presidential primary as the lone item on the ballot. It's always been piggybacked with local races.
"It's entirely possible we're going to see a very different voter in this primary than we've seen before," Seton Hall political scientist Joseph Marbach said. "I don't know if the party's hard-core loyalists will come out like they usually do, because it's not tied to a local election where something is at stake. It's not like the sheriff is on the ballot and a loyalist needs to go to the polls because their job might be at stake."

It has both campaigns talking about how the key to the race will be their burgeoning ground operations. Both sides describe their efforts as enthusiastic, dedicated, grass-roots expressions of love and loyalty for their candidates.

But there are differences -- some cosmetic, like the headquarters, and some real -- from the leadership on down.

Team Clinton is headed by State Director Karen Kominsky, 50, a veteran Democratic operative and former deputy chief of staff for Govs. James E. McGreevey and Richard J. Codey. She, in turn, is being advised by the collective brainpower of the state's Democratic Party, everyone from Joseph Cryan, the 46-year-old state party chairman, to Harold Hodes, the 65-year-old lobbyist/war horse who helped Hillary's husband, Bill, carry this state four times -- twice in primaries, twice in general elections.

In addition, there's a campaign director, a political director, a field director, a volunteer director and 10 full-time field organizers. It has 13 offices across the state with more than 100 phone lines.

"There's just a lot of enthusiasm in general," said Rep. Frank Pallone (D-6th Dist.), who campaigned in New Hampshire on Clinton's behalf. "I can speak to our office in Long Branch, because that's what I'm seeing. There's a lot going on, a lot of young people coming in to make calls, a lot of new volunteers who want to take part. And it's happening around the state."

Team Obama is headed by State Director Mark Alexander. He's 43 and on leave from his position as a professor at Seton Hall Law School. A longtime friend of Obama's -- his sister knows Barack's wife, Michelle -- he has been in and out of politics all his life, working for Bill Bradley's presidential run in 2000, Newark Mayor Cory Booker's effort in 2006 and others. But he has only actually run one campaign: At age 21, he won a bid to become an Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner in Washington, D.C.

The Obama campaign is less rigidly structured. It has three offices. And phone lines are scarce enough that volunteers have been encouraged to make calls from their own homes.

"Ours is not a top-down approach," Alexander said. "We're always encouraging grass-roots volunteers to take ownership of the campaign. You want to organize something in your town? Do it. You want to organize around a certain topic? Go ahead. It's a different way of running a campaign. I wouldn't say its radical. But we're pushing the edge of traditional campaigning."

Obama's campaign is not entirely without experienced political feet on the ground. In Bergen County, State Sen. Loretta Weinberg and Congressman Steve Rothman have endorsed him. In Hudson County, he's got Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy, who doubles as the county Democratic chairman, and state Sen. Sandra Cunningham. In Essex, there's Newark Mayor Cory Booker. In Middlesex, Edison Mayor Jun Choi is on board.

A few noteworthies have remained neutral -- Sen. Frank Lautenberg and Rep. Rush Holt among them. State Sen. President Richard Codey has endorsed John Edwards, who does not appear to be a factor here.

Meanwhile, Clinton has basically every other notable Democrat in the state. Gov. Corzine has been a fervent Clinton supporter, stumping around the state and across the nation for her. Clinton also has the support of Sen. Robert Menendez, five of the state's seven Democratic congressmen, and 20 of the 21 county party chairmen.

She's also harnessed the majority of the state's fundraising muscle. As of the end of October, the last time Federal Election Commission data were released, she had raised $3.4 million in the state as compared to Obama's $1.7 million. And that was before a Clinton fundraising event in December, headlined by Tony Bennett and Bill Clinton, raised another $1 million.

"Hillary has worked this state much longer," said Booker, Obama's state co-chairman along with Healy. "She has more money and more chits to draw on. That's a significant hill to climb. That's why we have to appeal to people's hearts as well as their heads."

There's little indication how much either side is willing to spend on New Jersey. Clinton's campaign says it has a budget for the state but will not say what it is. Obama's campaign is still deciding how much to put into the state. Neither side offered specifics about any planned media buys, though there is not expected to be any major advertising here -- just a lot of traditional campaigning, from lawn signs to rallies to bumper stickers.

After all, there's a lot at stake here come Feb. 5 -- specifically, 107 delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Denver. The state is divided into 20 districts, each with three or four delegates, to be divided proportionally according to voters' choices. A candidate could lose the race here but still pick up some delegates toward the 2,025 needed to secure the nomination.

"Feb. 5 is essentially the election, and the amount of delegates we have here makes us significant," Pallone said. "We've never been able to say it before, but New Jersey really matters."

Brad Parks may be reached at [phone] or [e-mail].

[patrice]

1. My letter to Mr. Parks, headed: You are a tool of the Machine. Please free yourself.

There is more to the truth than numbers. Polls are retail merchandise designed for specific markets/buyers. They are purposely blurred snapshots that you and others use like feature length documentaries for your own selfish goals. Please research quantitative research (such as polls) compared to qualitative research (such as interviews and naturalistic observation). In fact, you need to study the whole paradigm of what research is and how it works, especially the way in which assumptions affect outcomes which affect assumptions, because it is your blindness (or intentional lack of concern) about this feedback effect and that of media-elites like you that has put this country in peril of its life.

There is more to the truth than numbers and John Edwards IS part of that larger, more true, truth, of which you demonstrate your ignorance.

[Red Zelda]

2. STOP

stop reading bad newspapers. stop watching bad tv.
stop enabling the treasonous M$M.

[Madam Mossfern]

4. Absurd- If I stop, that doesn't mean that the millions that read this

will stop reading.- it an believing it. One doesn't get very far behaving like an ostrich.

[Red Zelda]

5. Call the paper and complain

Demand to speak to an editor.

[TreasonousBastard]

3. Well, you highlighted one word about him, but...

if Hillary's polling 51% and Obama's second with 17%, then what's the point? Like the author sez-- he's not a factor.

Almost every Democratic heavyweight is on Hillary's side, and you can't underestimate the pull of guys like Lesniak and Union County's Incredible Electronic Voting Machines.