In an historic and unanimous vote yesterday afternoon, New Jersey Democrats chose Sheila Oliver as the first African-American woman ever to serve as the state’s Assembly Speaker.

After the vote, Democratic legislators expressed confidence that Oliver and incoming Majority Leader Joseph Cryan will provide effective leadership in their new roles:

"(Oliver) was very soulful," Assemblyman John McKeon (D-Essex) said. "Joe (Cryan) is very practical. I think they'll be a great team."

Assemblyman Wayne DeAngelo (D-Mercer) said Oliver will be an effective speaker despite her relative inexperience in the Legislature.

"Her ability to put people together is one of her strong assets," he said. "And she has the support of all of us."

Oliver will lead a chamber where Democrats hold a dominant, 47-33 majority after successfully defending all but one of their Assembly seats earlier this November. Her Democratic counterpart in the State Senate will be incoming Senate President Joseph Sweeney, who was also chosen yesterday afternoon.

In a night when state Democrats were looking for good news, the New Jersey Assembly offered a sharp counterpoint to elections elsewhere.

Headed into Tuesday, Democrats held a solid majority, but Republicans had been talking about mounting a serious effort to cut into that margin, if not win the eight seats they would need to tie the chamber.

The Democratic Assembly Caucus met that challenge head-on. In the weeks before Election Day, New Jersey Democrats built up formidable advantages in fundraising, candidate quality, and organization. That in turn allowed them to counter a bad set of national trends and a strong statewide campaign from GOP gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie.

Last night, the Democratic Caucus protected all of its incumbents. The only seat that appears to have changed hands was left open by retirement in District 4.

The NJ Democratic Assembly Caucus did nearly everything right in this year's election, and the advantages they banked during the summer allowed them to offset the Republican climate in the state last night.

We’ve known since June that Republicans were planning a hard charge to retake control of the New Jersey Assembly, but the Democratic Assembly Caucus has met the challenge head-on. With two weeks to go before Election Day, New Jersey Democrats have built up formidable advantages in fundraising, candidate quality, and organization – advantages that give the party ample reason for optimism this November.

First, Democratic Assembly candidates are enjoying the second straight fundraising period in which they’ve swamped their Republican opponents:

As in past years, Democrats are raising and spending more money than Republicans.

Assembly Democrats have raised $6.8 million, spending $4 million so far. Meanwhile, Assembly Republicans have raised $2.9 million and spent $1.2 million.

This advantage also extends to the Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee and Republican Assembly Victory 2009 – the two major-party Assembly campaign organizations. The DACC raised more than twice as much as the Republican caucus in the latest fundraising period, and they ended the period with a 3-1 advantage in cash-on hand.

Even when looking at the Republicans’ best pick-up opportunities across the state, it’s clear that Republican candidates simply aren’t raising the money they need to stay competitive. In district after district, even the most endangered Democratic incumbents enjoy at least a 2-1 fundraising advantage over their challengers – a strong indication that Republicans failed to recruit candidates who have what it takes to win.

Finally, Assembly Republicans have failed to offer solutions on property taxes, one of the biggest political issues in New Jersey. A few weeks ago, a group of Republican candidates held a press conference touting a property tax “plan” that was so bad a sitting Republican Assemblyman said he was “embarrassed for my party if this [is] the best they can do.” A Newark Star-Ledger political columnist examined the plan and declared that the party “should just give up.”

In short, Democrats are running a superior campaign, with better candidates, against a party that’s ignoring one of the top issues in the state. With just two weeks left and with so many factors working against them, it’s tough to see how Republicans can capture the 8 seats they need to tie the Assembly.

For more information, be sure to visit the New Jersey newsfeed on DLCC.org

The New Jersey Legislature has passed an important new bill to help ease the transition for military veterans in the state’s colleges and universities. Approved unanimously in both legislative chambers and signed by Gov. Corzine this week, the plan establishes the Troops to College program, providing veterans’ assistance officers on each campus to help returning veterans access financial aide, navigate their schools’ bureaucracy, and adjust to life on a bustling campus.

So far, many New Jersey veterans are excited about the program:

"It's not easy to get on your feet and back into school," said New Jersey National Guard Army Sgt. Marie Exley, 30, of Voorhees, who served in Iraq from 2004 to 2005 and from 2007 to last year.

"This program sounds like it would make the transition easier. You wouldn't get discouraged and lost in the shuffle."

Soldiers' feelings of isolation are common after combat tours, making adjustment to busy campus life particularly difficult, said former Army Spec. Bryan Adams, 25, of Palmyra, who was shot twice in Iraq during a tour from 2004 to 2005.

"The legislation is excellent; every university should have" a veterans' assistance officer, said Adams, a pre-business major at Rutgers University in Camden. "When we come back, we face a unique set of issues - obstacles that [the] average student doesn't have to worry about.

Troops to College follows in the wake of the federal 21st Century G.I. Bill, passed in 2007, which significantly expanded the educational benefits available to soldiers, guards, reservists and their families. With the number of returning veterans enrolling in college expected to rise, New Jersey is doing its best to be ready for them.

As New Jersey’s November 3rd elections rapidly approach, Democrats recently received encouraging news about their prospects of maintaining the 48-32 majority they currently enjoy in the General Assembly.

• The Assembly Democratic Campaign Committee possesses a three-to-one fundraising lead over its Republican counterpart, Assembly Republican Victory, according to campaign finance reports released last week. The Democratic committee currently has $989,244 at its disposal compared with just $334,429 for the Republican group.

• Democrats widened the gap with a strong performance in the last fiscal quarter, when they raised nearly $400,000 and the Republicans well under $200,000.

This decisive financial advantage deflates Republican hopes of narrowing or potentially erasing the Democrats’ comfortable majority. With all 80 of the Assembly’s seats up for grabs in November, the monetary disparity will hamper the Republican effort to remove Democrats from office in an array of districts across the state, including those in Bergen, Passaic, Essex, Middlesex, Mercer, Cape May, Atlantic, Cumberland, Camden and Gloucester counties.

Conversely, the Democrats intend to focus primarily on protecting the seats that they already control while supporting qualified challengers. This goal makes these latest financial reports especially promising for Democratic Assemblymen Nelson Albano and Matthew Milam in the state’s hotly contested 1st Legislative District. Both parties plan to pump significant amounts of money into these Cape May County races, where Democrats expect to translate their substantial fundraising advantage into a boost at the polls for both incumbent candidates.

Democrats hope to receive a similar boost in districts throughout the state and see the wide fiscal margin as a promising, albeit still somewhat early, sign of electoral success come November.

Max Selver is a Klindt/Dye Intern for the 2009 Summer Semester.

With much of the media focus on 2009's gubernatorial contests, New Jersey Republicans are gearing up to challenge Democrats for control of the General Assembly in that state’s 2009 legislative elections -– and the battle lines are quickly taking shape:

Republicans will be attempting to unseat Democratic legislators in eight districts in Bergen, Passaic, Essex, Middlesex, Mercer, Cape May, Atlantic, Cumberland, Camden and Gloucester counties. Democrats want to unseat Republicans in Atlantic County but mainly intend to protect the seats they control.

Democrats start the contest with a commanding, 48-32 lead in the General Assembly, meaning Republicans must capture 8 seats to force a tie. However, because New Jersey elects two Assembly members from every district, Republicans only need to win 4 districts to accomplish that goal. If a 5th district splits its vote, they will take outright control.

That’s still a tall order, and Democrats are aggressively pushing the message that their economic policies have shielded New Jersey from some of the catastrophic economic troubles faced by other states.

New Jersey Senate President Richard Codey was almost the victim of a car accident on Sunday when another vehicle somehow managed to roll down a 50-foot grassy mound, cross the median, and slam into a guardrail:

The acting governor said he and a state trooper, who was driving him south to Monmouth Park Racetrack in Oceanport where Codey is to present a trophy to the winner of this year's Haskell race this evening, rushed to aid the driver of the small car. The Senate president has New Jersey's top job while Gov. Jon Corzine is away this weekend out of state.

Codey and the state trooper found the driver of the other car unconscious, and the senator held back the man's head until he came to.

All in a day's work. . .

In New Jersey, three bills designed to promote the use of wind and solar energy unanimously passed the Senate Economic Growth Committee and will soon go to the full Senate for consideration.

This year, nearly 50 million students will be enrolled in the nation's public schools according to the Washington Post. That sets a record, which is only expected to continue increasing.

As more soldiers come home from Iraq and Afghanistan, lawmakers in Maryland are working to ensure that veterans in that state have access to the care they need to return to civilian life. The Veterans Behavioral Health Bill passed both houses without a single vote against it.

A spending bill passed by the California legislature last year now allows the California Air Resources Board to offer taxpayers a $1,000 rebate for the purchase of an electric car.