U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan is due in Newark this afternoon to tour a charter school there with Gov. Corzine and state Education commissioner Lucille Davy.

The event is billed as an education-based visit as Duncan tours the country looking for examples of schools that work.

But it also fits well with a theme we can expect from the Corzine re-election campaign: stressing ties to President Obama and to education in New Jersey.

Corzine is passionate about education reform. It's the area where he left his biggest imprint during his first term, pushing for new borrowing for school construction and overhauling the state's education funding system after decades of court battles. (That win for Corzine was consolidated by a Supreme Court ruling in his favor last week).

The event today will mark his second school event in the three days since officially kicking off his re-election bid Tuesday. On Wednesday Corzine was in Newark to promote construction plans at a school there.

In other campaign news, a concert with Bon Jovi raised $2 million for Corzine Thursday night, according to the Star-Ledger. Meanwhile Mitt Romney is coming back to Jersey to raise money for the state's Republicans, according to PolitickerNJ.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie was scheduled to continue a swing through the state today in which he is criticizing Corzine's handling of the economy, blaming the incumbent for job losses. Two of the three stops, however, were rained out.

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Yesterday I wrote here about an editorial's appeal for a clean general election campaign. Within hours of that post, Democrats and Republicans went for each others' throats with arguments that basically went: elect our man, because the other guy is terrible.

Gov. Corzine hit Republican nominee Chris Christie for the lack of specifics in his platform. Fellow Democrats called Christie an "ultraconservative" and tried to tie him to former President George W. Bush with a video of carefully-edited snippets of his public appearances.

Meanwhile, Christie went to a closed pipe foundry and blamed Corzine for the bad economy, saying the governor is out of touch with regular New Jerseyans who are out of work. The Inquirer's Cindy Burton had the details from both camps, as did the Star-Ledger.

It's quite early still, but so far neither side has said much of what they would do in the next four years. Corzine on Tuesday night said he would maintain New Jersey's "values" and be a partner with President Obama. But he avoided making new promises, even on some social issues he touted. For example, he criticized Republicans' stance on same-sex marriage, but pointedly did not call for approval of gay marriage himself. (He has said he would sign a gay marriage bill if it reached his desk, but has not pushed the issue publicly).

Christie, on the other hand, has said he would cut income and business taxes, but has not said by how much. He says he will increase property tax rebates, but again, has not said by how much or how he would pay for the new costs after slashing state revenues. Maybe Christie is being realistic, given that if he wins he'll have to work with a Democratic Legislature that is tough even on its own governor. But he also hasn't laid out much detail that voters and the press can evaluate, other than that he's not Jon Corzine.

The Record noted the lack of specifics in an editorial today, and called for more details.

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First off, let me say that The Star-Ledger is a strong newspaper that does an excellent job, especially when it comes to covering state government and politics. But their editorial page had a headline that made me laugh out loud today.

The headline, at least online, was this: Congratulations Chris Christie and Gov. Jon Corzine: Now, let's keep the campaign clean.

The editorial urged the two candidates for governor to focus on issues and avoid mud-slinging. That's a nice idea.

But I've covered two statewide races here (governor in 2005 and U.S. Senate in 2006), and by the end, both required HAZMAT suits.

I know that doesn't mean every race is the same, but consider a Democratic party desperate to hang on to every branch of state government and a Republican party hungry for its first win in more than a decade, and smelling blood, and I'll say it won't take long for this race to get nasty.

Genteel Jersey politics? I wouldn't count on it.

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After months of staying above the fray, Gov. Corzine kicked off his re-election bid Tuesday night with an aggressive speech and a clear strategy: tying himself to the popular Obama administration and linking Republicans to former President Bush.

Aided by an appearance by Vice President Joe Biden, whose presence served to emphasize the ties to the popular new administration in Washington, Corzine vowed to make "the right" choices for New Jersey while saying Republicans are "out of step" with the state's values.

"We’re going to win this election,” a fiery Corzine said at Richard J. Codey Arena in West Orange. "You can be sure: I am going to fight like hell for our values."

Saddled with miserable approval ratings, Corzine called Obama a "partner."

Biden hammered that point home.

“We need Jon Corzine at the helm. Barack and I need him. America needs him,” Biden said.

Corzine, who critics say has failed to score a major policy win, stressed social values and his personal story, emphasizing his humble roots in rural Illinois and service in the Marines. He is largely known as a multi-millionaire who once led Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs.

Despite a dire budget, Corzine pointed to his stewardship during the national economic crisis and highlighted issues such as education, health care reform, the environment and stem cell research -- all of which expect to play well in a Democratic-heavy state. Republicans, he said, are on the wrong side of those debates.

"New Jersey cannot afford to be Bush-whacked again," he said. 

Corzine trails in early polls, but has months, and millions of his own dollars, to make up the difference.

On Tuesday, he made his first full-throated entry into the race.

We'll have more on Corzine and the Republicans in Wednesday's Inquirer.

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U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator and former New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Lisa Jackson said Monday that the proposal to overhaul New Jersey's site remediation program by using licensed private contractors is worth trying because the contaminated sites aren't getting cleaned up under the current system.

In a visit to the Inquirer's newsroom, Jackson answered questions on a broad range of topics, including the so-called "licensed site professional" bill recently signed into law by Gov. Corzine, who she saw at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner on Saturday. The law will allow the parties responsible for cleaning up toxic sites to hire licensed environmental consultants to determine how to clean up the contamination and then certify that they meet state standards.

Work on the legislation began under Jackson's watch at the DEP. She said that while she has not kept up with the changes to the bill since she left, the proposal was an attempt to get the toxic sites cleaned up faster. New Jersey has nearly 20,000 contaminated sites ranging from leaky homeowners' fuel tanks to Superfund sites and many have lingered for years, mired in red tape.

Jackson said that when she was asked about the program in her EPA confirmation hearing, she said she didn't think there was a need for such a program at the federal level because of the smaller number of contaminated sites under federal oversight.

"It can't get worse," Jackson said of the New Jersey sites. "They're not going to get cleaned up by themselves."

Environmentalists fought the proposal and argued for a number of measures to strengthen environmental controls. In signing the bill into law, Corzine also signed an executive order that, among other steps, increases the role of the DEP in sensitive sites such as land to be used for housing and schools.

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Much of the commentary surrounding Sen. Arlen Specter's party switch has centered on the best course for a Republican recovery: does the GOP need to expand its views and be more of a "big tent" party, or is it better off as a purely and strictly conservative movement?

The Record's Charles Stile says that debate is playing out in real time here in New Jersey as moderate Republican Chris Christie battles staunch conservative Steve Lonegan for the GOP gubernatorial nomination.

"Lonegan and Christie are baring the party's soul in bare-knuckled fashion," Stile writes.
 

Republican don't need a listening tour for their soul-searching, Stile concludes, just come to Jersey.

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Two interesting notes on the governor's race today.

The New York Times is reporting that Gov. Corzine's Democratic allies plan to ramp up attacks on Republican candidate Chris Christie -- during the GOP primary. The idea is to either help conservative Steve Lonegan, whose hard right positions, Democrats believe, might make him an easier opponent in the state's general election, or to simply bang up Christie a bit before he goes toe-to-toe with Corzine.

Corzine, facing only a nominal primary challenge, has tried to stay aloof of the political combat, but his poll numbers have continued to tumble and several surveys have him trailing Christie. A Democratic move to jump into the Republican primary would show just how seriously the party is taking Christie as a threat.

Meanwhile, Corzine may get a boost from Jersey rocker Jon Bon Jovi, who is planning a fund raising concert for the governor in June.

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Senate President Richard J. Codey (D., Essex) and Assembly Speaker Joseph J. Roberts Jr. (D., Camden) met with Gov. Corzine this afternoon to talk about the latest grim budget news: a new shortfall that could be as large as $2 billion.

"This began as a dreadful budget year and unfortunately it's only getting worse and worse," Roberts said after the meeting.

Roberts said the three did not discuss specific solutions, but he noted that municipal aid and school aid are two of the largest items in the budget and said property tax rebates, another large line of spending, is "an area that we're going to have to continue to talk about."

He said all potential solutions are on the table for discussion. We took a look at some of the possible budget fixes and fall out from the latest revenue shortfall on Saturday.

Roberts added that Corzine is hoping to lobby the Obama administration for additional federal aid and more flexibility in spending some of the money Washington has already awarded to New Jersey.

He said tax increases should be a last resort.

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The New Jersey legislature will soon have the 11th highest proportion of women lawmakers in the nation, according to the Center for American Women and Politics, part of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers.

With the selection of Nancy Munoz to represent the 21st district in the Assembly, the Legislature will include 10 female state senators and 27 assemblywomen, or 31 percent, compared to 24 percent nationwide, according to CAWP.

As recently at 2004, New Jersey ranked 43rd for women in the legislature.

CAWP director Nancy Walsh called the leap a "stunning improvement."

"Many of our state's leaders now understand that women make a difference, and they're joining our efforts to ensure that women are at the table when important decisions are made," Walsh said.

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