Newark can't resist the mayor's parties
February 27, 2005
Every year on his birthday, Newark Mayor Sharpe James holds a political fund-raiser that brings in thousands of dollars -- much of it from municipal employees. Last Thursday, in the midst of a snowstorm, the mayor's annual gala brought out more than 1,000 people who paid $500 each to party in a cavernous ballroom wrapped in red, white and blue at the Robert Treat Hotel. The mayor's wife, mother and three sons were there. So was acting Gov. Richard Codey, city council members, local politicians, as well as scores of developers and others who do business in Newark.
Too funny. Sad, but Sopranos funny.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1352740/posts
Smiling Through the Storm
Camden--WAYNE R. BRYANT, a longtime Democratic state senator, has been getting the sort of attention that most politicians would be happy to do without.
The Courier-Post, a local newspaper widely read in his Camden-area district, recently called him the "king of double dipping," and an influential Web site, politicsnj.com, has taken to introducing articles about him with the words "oink, oink."
Meanwhile, Mr. Bryant has been singled out in news media accounts statewide as one of the chief stumbling blocks in the failed attempt earlier this month to pass a state law placing limits on the awarding of public contracts to political donors.
Perhaps most remarkable about this storm of criticism, though, is how little Mr. Bryant seems to care. His reaction to the mention of one graphic representation of him on the Web brought a broad smile