Richard J. Codey, the Democratic acting governor of New Jersey, announced yesterday that he will not seek a full term in the state's November elections -- a decision that clears the way for Sen. Jon S. Corzine (D-N.J.) to seize the party's gubernatorial nomination.
Codey, who took over last year after James E. McGreevey resigned amid a sex scandal, endorsed the senator, calling him "an honorable and decent man at a time when New Jersey desperately needs both."
His decision appears to spare the Democratic Party a bruising primary fight. Corzine announced in December that he planned to run for the job and was widely considered the favorite. Codey, a longtime state legislator, nevertheless considered running for a full term. In recent weeks, he had made big strides in some polls.
But Corzine has been racking up endorsements from Democratic Party leaders across the state and was sure to vastly outspend Codey. In 2000, Corzine, a former Wall Street executive, spent $60 million of his own money to win his Senate seat. He is now the only Democratic candidate for the seat; at least six Republicans are also vying for the job.
The race is one of only two gubernatorial contests this year -- the other is in Virginia.
Bloggers' Darlings
Who's big in the blogosphere? A Web site called Personal Democracy Forum (www.personaldemocracy.com) is now attempting to measure which members of Congress are -- and are not -- popular among bloggers. The site ranks lawmakers each day according to how often they are mentioned on more than 6 million sites. Yesterday afternoon, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) topped one of its lists, followed by three other Democratic senators: Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), Barbara Boxer (Calif.) and John F. Kerry (Mass.).
Micah Sifry, the site's editor, said he is still working out a few kinks. His site ranks lawmakers according to how often their names are mentioned on the blogs. But it cannot distinguish between them and anyone else mentioned who shares their name. Bad news for Sens. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) and George Allen (R-Va.), and any other legislator with a common name. The site also ranks them according to the number of times bloggers link their sites to the lawmakers' -- a much more accurate gauge, Sifry said, of popularity. The problem? Most bloggers do not create the links every time they write about a lawmaker.
But Sifry said that as the software gets more sophisticated -- and if more bloggers get into the habit of creating the links -- the tallies will provide a more definitive account of who bloggers are writing about. That, he said, will increase their clout on Capitol Hill.
"It's about showing more members of Congress that the hot breath of the blogosphere is on their backs," Sifry said.
