Mark Alexander at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

Mark Alexander, state director of the Obama campaign during the primary and a senior policy director during the general, will not take a position in the president-elect's cabinet come the new year.

"As we make the transition to a new America, there is one small practical matter: with victory, the only downside was that the incredible campaign we built, formally speaking, has to come to an end," Alexander said in a statement he issued today. "While the Movement will continue, the 2008 Obama presidential campaign is now over. 

"So now I am reaching out to give you the practical scoop needed to stay in touch. You can find me, as before, at my professional home at Seton Hall Law School, where I am a proud member of a wonderful faculty."

Following the Feb. 5th New Jersey Primary, Alexander worked in other primary states in addition to later fulfilling duties in his homestate.

Chris Christie resigns, Wayne Bryant is convicted, Jon Corzine remains upside-down, Democrats take Monmouth, and the race for Leonard Lance's State Senate seat takes shape.

State Democratic Party Chair Joe Cryan, right, on the campaign trail with Elizabeth Councilman Nelson Gonzalez.

When State Democratic Chairman Joseph Cryan focused his players in the middle of the Obama presidential campaign, he told them to get ready for a long game, a two-year operation, in fact.

Despite all temptation to treat Obama’s victory like the ultimate end-zone rush and champagne romp, Election Night on Nov. 4th should be handled more the way a geared-up squad treats a 15-point lead in their favor in the locker room come half-time.

Everyone’s first job was to elect Sen. Barack Obama (D-Il.) president.  In comfortably accomplishing that, the campaign made up of 45 field organizers coordinated over a million volunteer calls, pounded on 750,000 door knocks, and built a volunteer base of more than 10,000 bodies.

Tonight at 7:00 and Sunday at 10am, catch Reporters Roundtable on NJN, hosted by Michael Aron and featuring The Star Ledger’s Dusty McNichol, Gannett’s Greg Volpe, The Gloucester County Times’ Trish Graber and yours truly,  PolitickerNJ’s Matt Friedman.  We’ll discuss Christie ’09, the Wayne Bryant verdict, the race to replace Leonard Lance in the state Senate and the state budget crisis.

On the Record with Michael Aron will feature The Legislative Leadership Panel at the State League of Municipalities Conference: Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts, Senate Majority Leader Steve Sweeney, Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean Jr., and Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce.   The show airs Sunday at 9am and 11am, and on Monday at 6:30am. 

Former Republican state Sen. Bill Schluter wants to see his old seat kept in moderate Republican hands, and he thinks Hunterdon County Freeholder Matt Holt is the man to do it.

Schluter, 81 is actively working to help Holt, the grandson of former U.S. Sen. Clifford P. Case, run for the 23rd District state Senate seat.

“I’m definitely in the camp of Matt Holt. I think he’s an outstanding individual and would make a good state senator. I’d like to retain the district as a Republican district, and I think he could do that,” said Schluter.

Holt has formed an exploratory committee, but yesterday told PolitickerNJ that he would not make a formal announcement until after Thanksgiving.

True, the 23rd District is drawn to be safely Republican, but, Schluter said, “stranger things have happened.”

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Sources in the City of Passaic say real estate developer Jose Sandoval is gathering forces to launch another run for mayor.

That makes Sandoval the second unsuccessful candidate in the Nov. 4th special election who's already gearing up for next year's May contest to secure a full, four-year term.

City supervisor Vinny Capuana never shut down his downtown campaign headquarters.

Capuana and Sandoval came in second and third respectively behind physician Alex Blanco.

City Councilman Joe Garcia and bail bondsman Carl Ellen came in fourth and fifth, and sources say both men are the objects of the remaining candidates' efforts to bring them and their constituents on board for the 2009 grudge match.

Hunterdon County Republican Chairman Henry Kuhl has sat down with all three potential candidates to succeed state Sen. Leonard Lance (R-Flemington), but said he won’t make an endorsement yet.

“This is too soon. Some people jump in front. I’m usually a late endorser because I want to see how all candidates running for office are participating, and whether they intend to be in to the end and so forth,” he said.

Gov. Jon Corzine

If it’s Corzine versus Christie for governor next year, both parties agree on one thing at least: the contest will get ugly, with bruising attacks emanating out of both camps.

“You’re probably going to have to go back to Lautenberg-Dawkins to find a race like this one, if it happens,” said Democratic Party political operative Pat Politano.

In that infamous 1988 matchup, the “Swamp Dog” incumbent senator, plagued by unfavorable internal polling, branded challenger Pete Dawkins a carpetbagger and flailed away at him with negative ads until he dropped him on Election Day by eight points.

Gov. Jon Corzine said a while ago that now retiring U.S. Attorney Chris Christie has demonstrated expertise “in one area,” namely as a crusader against government corruption. As such, the Democrats anticipate a Christie campaign trying to cocoon Corzine in the danker reaches of New Jersey politics.

A Quinnipiac poll released this morning paints a bleak picture of New Jerseyans’ economic status, though a majority see hope under a Barack Obama administration. 

Fifty-nine percent of New Jersey voters say that they are financially worse off than last year, but 66 percent believe the economy will get better under Obama.

"While only about a quarter think things will be better next year, there is broad optimism the Obama administration will be able to fix the nation's economic problems,” said pollster Clay Richards.