SIGNS, SIGNS, EVERYWHERE SIGNS: This morning, mere hours after a New Jersey court ruled that Frank Lautenberg can replace Robert Torricelli as the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, I saw the first "Lautenberg for Senate" signs near the PATH terminal in Hoboken. This was a bit curious, since I had not seen a single Torricelli sign, poster, or flier anywhere before he dropped out, even though the area had been totally blanketed with McGreevey fliers last year, to the point where Hoboken and Jersey City hosted more leftover McGreevey posters and bumper stickers from last year than Torricelli signs for this year. Tells you something about how much the local political bosses cared for the Torch...
When I worked on McGreevey's Hudson County field staff last year I was the only Jewish staffer among a group of hard-boiled working-class Irish guys who had been working for the local Democratic machine their entire lives and worked hard (successfully) to get a fellow Irishman into the governor's mansion. It'll be interested to see how differently those same guys approach an election where their nominee is a 78-year-old Jewish guy.