(Distilled from a post at Blue Jersey. This just has to go on the front page--Chris)

After Blue Jersey exposed another Tom Kean Jr campaign lie yesterday (which state media is now picking up as well), the campaign went into panic mode. Their spokeswoman, Jill Hazelbaker, registered multiple accounts on Blue Jersey and posted what were obvious "concern troll" comments. The accounts were registered within 10 minutes of each other, the comments from the different users were posted 15 minutes apart, and both comments were posted from the same exact IP address (70.90.20.85), which is for a Comcast business account that can be traced to a node within 5 miles of the campaign. But there's more. Below is the header information from an email sent out by the campaign spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker. Some information has been removed to protect the innocent, but the important thing here is that Jill Hazelbaker's IP address is 70.90.20.85:

Return-Path: <jill@tomkean.com>
Received: from tomkean.com (mail.xquizit.com [66.194.14 8.20])
by XXXXX with ESMTP id XXXXX;
Received-SPF: neutral (XXXXX is neither permitted nor denied by best guess record for domain of jill@tomkean.com)
Received: from KFS05 [70.90.20.85] by tomkean.com with ESMTP
(SMTPD32-8.15) id XXXXX;
From: "Jill Hazelbaker" <jill@tomkean.com>
To: "XXXXX"

This is the same IP address that several troll comments last night were posted from. It's pretty obvious that those comments were posted by Hazelbaker herself. The content of the comments is a dead giveaway. In one comment, "cleanupnj" says:

"What happened to Mr. Mark Davis, the counsel who apparently gave Boss Bob "verbal approval" to line his pockets with tax-payer funded federal money."

This sounds like nearly the exact same thing Jill Hazelbaker said to reporter Herb Jackson in his story today:

"Menendez said it was another person that originally gave him approval, now his corroborating witness doesn't remember the act of approval."

And then there's this highly defensive comment from "usedtobeblue" protesting attacks on Hazelbaker:

Also, you guys are upset about the attacks on Menendez, but isn't it a little bit hypocritical to then attack his press secretary.

Wow. I'm sure that's what random, rank-and-file supporters are thinking: "Why is that blog attacking the press secretary?" Uh huh.

And perhaps the most damning evidence, again from "cleanupnj" (emphasis mine):

She is also married to Russ Feingold's legislative director.  Unbiased source?  A conflict of interest certaintly. And the woman isn't even sure if she gave Boss Bob approval anyway.

That was not public information until Herb Jackson's article appeared this morning. That's something only Herb and the people he spoke with for the article, like the campaign spokespeople, could have known at 7:15 PM yesterday.

In an embarassingly funny twist, even after being exposed as trolls, the campaign created yet another account and posted another "concern troll" comment, pretending to be an ardent democrat who used to enjoy reading this blog. Again, with the same exact IP address.

All hilariousness aside, this raises serious questions about the Kean Jr campaign. If they're willing to lie about simple things like this, what else would they lie about to win? Does Tom Kean Jr condone this type of unethical behavior in his campaign? And will he fire all those involved?

We're very excited to announce that our first podcast is live and ready to download. If you've already subscribed to our feed through iTunes, it should download for you next time you start the program. If you're not subscribed, you can do so by clicking here.

For this month's podcast, we sat down with Congressman Rush Holt to hear his thoughts on the upcoming State of the Union, political blogging, NSA domestic spying, rising energy costs, the President's upbringing (hint: it involved immersion in oil) and more.

On Medicare Part D: "I'm not going to accuse them of designing it to fail - although that thought has crossed my mind."

Holt answers the question: "Where are the Democrats?" and shares his thoughts on how to regain a Congressional majority.

If you're already subscribed to our feed, the podcast should download for you the next time you start up iTunes. If you have iTunes (free download) and haven't yet subscribed, just click the button below to subscribe to our feed. Otherwise, you can access the mp3 file directly through this link.

(Cross-posted at Blue Jersey)

[Background: This is huge news. Laurel Hester, a 23 year veteran of the Ocean County prosecutor's office has lung cancer which has spread to her brain. The state passed a domestic partner law that allows (but does not mandate) counties to grant domestic partner benefits to county employees. Laurel has asked for the right to pass her pension benefits on to her partner, who may otherwise lose their home without it. Months of protesting, attending freeholder meetings, and public education have finally paid off. You can find out more background info on the situation here.]

"This is one of the happiest days of my life...I feel like David conquering Goliath." said Laurel Hester on Saturday morning.

After nearly a year of refusing to grant Lt Laurel Hester the right to pass her pension benefits on to her partner, Ocean County's freeholders will finally grant Hester her dying wish when they vote on Wednesday.

From the diaries--Chris

(Cross-posted at BlueJersey)

Earlier we wrote about the revelation that Forrester's campaign manager was the source of rumors surrounding Corzine's personal life. Enlighten-NJ started dropping hints of these and other rumors about two weeks ago. Finally, the last piece of the slime machine, the Drudge Report, helped push the rumors to the mainstream press. This set in motion blowback for the Forrester campaign, and dispirited the New Jersey electorate even further. Even Forrester condemned the rumors he set in motion (then later changed his mind), though he won't go so far as to fire or discipline his campaign manager Rick England or communications staffer Sherry Sylvester for pushing them.

But I'm not so interested in the smear campaign so much as what it portends for the future, and specifically 2006.

(Cross-posted at BlueJersey)

It's been revealed by the Star Ledger that the smear campaign against Jon Corzine has been led by Doug Forrester's campaign manager, Rick England. Forrester initially denied that he even knew about it:

Forrester said he was unaware of the details of a rumor Republicans have been circulating about Corzine: that the U.S. senator had a sexual relationship with one of his young female aides.

Riiiiighht. Then, one of the people who had been fed the smear spoke up:

In August, England spoke with Jim Schroeder, a lobbyist for the New Jersey Education Association, about the decision by the state's largest teachers union to endorse Corzine.

Schroeder, in an interview yesterday, said England "did tell me I was making a mistake" by endorsing Corzine. He said England relayed the rumor about Corzine and the staffer, saying reporters were investigating it and that resulting stories would embarrass the Democrat's supporters.

NJ Congressman Rush Holt will be live-blogging at BlueJersey.net this Sunday afternoon arond 3:00 PM. He will also be responding to questions through the website.

This isn't Holt's first forray into the blogosphere. He recently engaged in several days worth of dialog over at TPM Cafe.

Rush Holt has been a leader on the issue of verified voting. As a scientist, he's also been outspoken on the issues of stem cell research and the so-called debate over evolution. He has recently called for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.

Holt is also one of several NJ Congressmen vying for Jon Corzine's soon to be empty Senate seat.

On Sunday evening, Holt will appear on CBS's 60 Minutes to talk about the recent indictment of Libby and the outing of Valerie Plame. Holt was the first member of Congress to introduce a Resolution of Inquiry that would have required the Bush Administration to turn over relevant documents to Congress. His Resolutions of Inquiry have been voted down along party lines on eight separate occasions, in four different committees.

If you have questions for Rush Holt on these issues or any other topics, this is your chance to ask. Head over to BlueJersey tomorrow afternoon around 3PM.

(Cross-posted at BlueJersey.net)

A few days ago, I wrote about Doug Forrester using Swiftboat tactics on Jon Corzine. As the final days of the campaign approach, and Forrester's defeat is near certain, the attacks are getting even nastier...

Earlier, I wrote about the Swiftboat machine that Forrester's camp is gearing up to smear Jon Corzine.

Please welcome the newest member of the smear machine: Enlighten-NJ. They're setting the stage for media outlets to pick up on unsubstantiated rumors:

...it'll make Jim McGreevey look like a Cub Scout compared to Jon Corzine.

The fact that the Forrester camp is using Enlighten to put out this information means they can't get anyone respectable to bite.

From the diaries--Chris

(Cross-posted at BlueJersey.net)

Doug Forrester, with the help of the national GOP, has started a desperate swiftboating campaign against Jon Corzine. Using national GOP funds and a well-orchestrated whisper campaign, the Forrester campaign is resorting to the GOP's tried and true tactics of race-baiting and questioning the patriotism of Jon Corzine and Democrats.

Radar reports that millions of dollars previously earmarked for Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) are being redirected by the national GOP into Doug Forrester's coffers:

Increasingly dubious about Santorum's chances, Capitol Hill sources report GOP powerbrokers have refocused their attentions--and dollars--on Doug Forrester, a little-known party hack who's currently embroiled in a dead heat race with multi-millionaire Democrat Jon Corzine for New Jersey's governorship.

"The party is pouring millions of dollars in PAC money into Forrester's coffers, but most of that money was previously earmarked for Rick," reports a well-placed Republican senate staffer. "It's disgusting. Rick used to be Bush's biggest booster on issues like stem-cell research, Social Security, and the Iraq war. Now the White House won't even take his phone calls."

Leading the charge on this effort is Forrester's media advisor Greg Stevens - whose firm, Stevens Reed Curcio & Potholm - the same firm that produced the Swift Boat ads against John Kerry, has been paid $16 million so far by Forrester's campaign....