newjerseynewsroom.com

BY TOM HESTER SR.

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Vice President Joe Biden, former President Bill Clinton and Caroline Kennedy will travel to New Jersey in the next 12 days to make appearances on behalf of Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine's re-election campaign.

Biden will lead a rally for the governor Monday afternoon at Middlesex County College in Edison.

Clinton will appear with Democratic lieutenant governor candidate state Sen. Loretta Weinberg Tuesday afternoon at a rally in Collingswood and with Corzine that evening at a rally on the Rutgers University campus in New Brunswick. Kennedy, the daughter of President John F. Kennedy, will campaign with Corzine and former Gov. Brendan Byrne on Wednesday night at a rally "to honor New Jersey's Irish-American mayors'' at The Barclay in Belmar.

Biden's appearance, the fourth with Corzine since May, will come two days before President Obama is scheduled to make his second campaign appearance for Corzine at a rally late Wednesday afternoon at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Hackensack.

State Democratic Chairman Joseph Cryan said the visits by the big name Democrats shows the confidence they have in a Corzine victory.

But with 19 days until the Nov. 3 election and with Corzine, according to polls, in a neck and neck race with Republican challenger Chirs Christie, the return of Obama, Biden and Clinton can also be seen as an indication how important the White House and the national Democratic Party consider the governor's re-election.

National Democratic leaders are concerned that a defeat for party in the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial races could be taken as a sign the Republican Party is reviving after Obama's landslide presidential victory in 2008.

On California Democratic Congressional members Michael Honda and Loretta Sanchez will make three campaign stops each for Corzine.

While there is little immediate information about Biden's appearance, it will be held at the college's Physical Education Center at 2600 Woodbridge Ave. Doors will open for seating at 11 a.m.

The Corzine campaign could not immediately say if the event is open to the public or Democratic Party members or how many people the gymnasium can hold.

Biden appeared with Corzine and his lieutenant governor running mate state Sen. Loretta Weinberg Oct. 7 at a New Jersey AFL-CIO convention in Atlantic City where the Vice President told cheering labor activists "It is critically important he (Corzine) be re-elected."

In May, Biden appeared with Corzine and talked about federal stimulus spending in Lodi, Bergen County. The vice president returned on June 2 to celebrate Corzine re-nomination as the Democratic candidate for governor in West Orange.

Biden was prepared to appear with Corzine in Pennsauken on July 28 where he was to award $26.8 million in federal aid to finance the hiring of 123 municipal police officers. But the event was moved to Philadelphia after federal lawmen five days earlier rounded up a string of New Jersey public officials on corruption charges. All but one of the officials were Democrats.

On July 16, Obama endorsed Corzine before an overflow crowd at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel. Democratic Party hero, former U.S. senator and decorated Vietnam War hero Max Cleland and Obama cabinet members have also made at least 13 appearances with Corzine around the state since the president took office in January.