Welcome to the Garden State

If New Jersey's politics were likened to a sport, it would be rugby. Political players in Jersey often come away from political battles (metaphorically, you understand) with teeth missing and lumps on their heads. In other words, you've been in a fight. Lately, Jersey's politics have taken interesting twists and turns on three fronts. 

New Jersey's senior (in more ways than one) senator, Frank Lautenberg, was called on to run after Bob Torricelli's tenure crashed and burned in an ethics scandal back in '02. The conventional wisdom at the time was that Lautenberg's return to the Senate would be for one term, and then he'd retire (again). After all, he's in his 80s.

So much for logic. Lautenberg's running for a second full term and now the state's Democratic political establishment is forced to choose sides. South Jersey Congressman Bob Andrews has chosen to challenge Lautenberg in the state's June primary. It could be one of the few places in America where a congressional incumbent faces a primary challenge. And rest assured, it'll be ugly.

If that weren't enough, New Jersey got dragged kicking and screaming into middle of New York City's war on traffic. New York's Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants to charge motorists who drive into Manhattan's business core. New York's City Council passed a congestion pricing bill, but included in it a requirement that $1 billion dollars be transferred from the Port Authority (a bi-state agency) to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (only New York). That has Jersey's Gov. Corzine hopping mad, mad enough to talk about suing (he's since backed off, a little). Any further explanation of this mess gets much too complicated for a simple blog like this.

And finally, there's Corzine himself. He's an early and ardent supporter of Hillary Clinton's presidential bid. Or is he? In an interview on CNBC, he hedged about whether he'd back Barack Obama if he had the most popular votes at the end of the primary cycle. While saying he backed Clinton, he used the phrase "reserve the right" three times during the interview. That led the blogosphere to shift into overdrive, speculating about whether Corzine's support was wavering. He swears it hasn't, but the damage was done.

So, in a nutshell, that's pit bull politics, Jersey style. We didn't even get a chance to talk about the state's budget woes, but no worries.

Some other time.

So