Politics & Elections

National & New Jersey political news, local talk & election results

AP file photoA new poll out today says 43 percent of New Jerseyans approve of the job Gov. Corzine is doing.

A new poll finds more New Jerseyans think Gov. Jon Corzine is doing OK as chief executive.

Forty-three percent of those responding to a Monmouth University/Gannett New Jersey poll out Friday say they approve of Corzine's job performance. Forty percent disapprove. That's the best showing for the Democratic governor in more than a year.

The poll indicates Republican former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie has the best early shot against Corzine, a Hoboken resident, in this year's election for governor, although Christie has yet to lay out his positions on most issues.

State Senate President Richard Codey Thursday questioned the viability of the Xanadu project, givendelays in its opening and the downturn in the national economy, according to a report in the Record.

The report said Codey said people soon might be calling the Xanadu project "the mistake at the Meadowlands." His comments came as part of a roundtable discussion with two other former governors -- Jim Florio and Donald DiFrancesco -- celebrating the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission's 40th anniversary.

Gov. Jon Corzine said Thursday has not changed his plans to retain e-mails he exchanged with his union leader ex-girlfriend, saying he fought on principle to keep them confidential.

Corzine told The Associated Press he welcomes an appeal to the state Supreme Court by Republican State Committee Chairman Tom Wilson, who has sued the governor seeking to make the e-mails public. "I want to make sure, as I have from the beginning, that the principle that private conversations of the governor -- not just me, but future governors -- are firmly established to be protected under executive privilege," Corzine said.

Forty-three percent of those responding to a Monmouth University/Gannett New Jersey poll out today said they approve of New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine's job performance.

That's the best showing for the Democratic governor in more than a year.

The state Supreme Court today upheld the constitutionality of New Jersey's pay-to-play law preventing companies that make political contributions from receiving special treatment in winning state contracts.

In the first major test of the law in state court, the seven justices unanimously affirmed a June ruling of a state appeals court and declined to write a full opinion of their own. (Text of the ruling)

APNew Jersey Supreme Court Chief Justice Stuart Rabner speaks as Justices Virginia Long, left, and Jaynee LaVecchia, right.

AP file photoNew Jersey has given President-elect Obama a 72 percent approval rating in a new poll by Fairleigh Dickinson University.

A new poll says New Jerseyans like what they see so far from President-elect Barack Obama.

The Fairleigh Dickinson University PublicMind poll released this morning says 72 percent of all New Jersey voters approve of the way he is handling his transition to president. Just 10 percent disapprove.

New Jersey Republican gubernatorial candidate Christopher Christie declined an invitation to attend a dinner hosted by Peter Murphy, a former Passaic County Republican Chairman whom Christie prosecuted on federal corruption charges in 2003, according to a report on PolitickerNJ.com.

The report said according to a statement released by the organizers of the dinner, Christie "was invited but called to say he could not attend - but he did say he looked forward to meeting with the group at a later date." Seven months before Christie became U.S. Attorney, Murphy was convicted for his role in helping a company obtain a medical services contract for the county jail with the understanding that proceeds of the contract would go to a four politically active individuals he selected.

A Palisades Park family met last month with President-elect Barack Obama's step-grandmother in Kenya, according to a report in the Record.

The report said Anthony Sambogna, 69, and his wife Nancy, arrived in Nairobi on Nov. 29 and later met Sarah Hussein Oyango Obama, who is about 86, was the third wife of Obama's grandfather, but the president-elect calls her his grandmother.