Newark Mayor Cory Booker is joining New Jersey’s special election for U.S. Senate, with campaign officials saying they will issue a media advisory at 3:30 p.m.

Booker is the second Democrat officially entered in the Aug. 13 primary. The special election is Oct. 16. Rep. Rush Holt announced he was in Thursday. Sources within the party say Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. will also meet the Monday 4 p.m. filing deadline.

On the Republican side, the only candidate so far is former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan.

Ben Dworkin, a political science professor at Rider University, said Booker is the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination.

“The advantage for Booker is people know who he is. The single biggest advantage for Cory Booker is that he is more famous than anybody else in the party,’’ Dworkin said. “Among insiders, all these people that are being talked about are known. Among the general public, how well is Frank Pallone or Bill Pascrell or Rush Holt known, outside of their districts? Cory Booker is the kind of person that people in South Jersey have heard of, people in North Jersey have heard of, et cetera. And that is a significant advantage heading in.”

The Governor made a little bit of news on NJ 101.5 with Jim Gearhart this morning.

Chris Christie announced that he will support an increase to the earned income tax credit… just not the one that Democrats wanted. That plan will receive his condition veto later today. Christie will, however, support an increase to New Jersey’s earned income tax credit (from to 20% of the federal level to 25%).

In his first public comments on Newark Mayor Cory Booker’s decision to run for his seat, Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) suggested his potential primary rival was like a misbehaving child.

“I have four children, I love each one of them. I can’t tell [you] that one of them wasn’t occasionally disrespectful, so I gave them a spanking and everything was okay,” Lautenberg told the Philadelphia Inquirer.Aides and allies of Lautenberg have criticized Booker for launching a campaign without waiting for the senator to decide whether or not to run again. Polling finds Booker in a strong position in a Democratic primary.

Assemblyman David Rible knows how to milk the pension system. The famous Assemblyman that still collects a disability pension after retitiring at age 31 for a back injury, yet runs marathon races,now feels he is calable of analyzing job growth in NJ. 

He announced this week that job Growth Numbers in NJ were Encouraging To Business. 

By Charlie Reese 

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?

Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don't propose a federal budget. The President does.

An anonymous ad that was placed on a Jewish blog is confusing readers. Nobody is sure what the advertisement is referring to. It mentions tent city, and anti-Semitic juries. It asks that nobody speak to the media, and warns of chillul hashem while giving no explanation on how to prevent it other than by threatening advertisers on Jewish websites.

It says it is endorsed by gedolei Yisroel, yet has no signatures. If more information is needed there are phone numbers that can be called.

These attempts of silencing Jewish websites usually happen before a big revelation that certain people are afraid to have discussed publicly.

In an interview on WOBM last night, Deputy Mayor Steven Langert admitted to being a partner in a townhouse development in the Chestnut area of Lakewood.

At the end of a discussion about how much building is too much, Langert explained that he doesn't believe it is fair to tell people they can no longer build when others built in the past. 

I called in  and asked Langert whether he has  interests in any large developments. He admitted that he is a partner in a large,yet to be built development. He also went on to say that he had made it public knowledge that he is a partner of this building project.

There is just one problem. Nobody can recall Langert ever publicly acknowledging his involvement in building, let alone his involvement in acquiring the needed approvals, or zoning changes. 

New Jersey is famous for being the most densely populated state in the country. Almost every part of the state is populated with very little desolate area. 

Now our State government is spending $9.7 million to preserve more than 5,000 acres of woodlands and wetlands in Atlantic County’s Great Egg Harbor River watershed.