Phil Thigpen

Adrianne Davis: Politicker photo 

NEWARK - Newly retired from her nearly 20-year career as clerk of the Essex County Freeholder Board, Adrianne Davis this month assumed her role as executive director of the North Ward Center.

It’s a return to her roots for the member of the 1963 Newark Teachers’ Union, who coordinated buses that carried activists to Washington, D.C. to hear Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., deliver his "I Have a Dream" speech.

The former high school teacher helped found the North Ward Center in 1970 with her friend and fellow teacher, Steve Adubato.

"What Steve sought to do was stabilize the North Ward with programs that served the Italian population that lived here," said Davis, a native of the West Ward, who ran the early secretarial training program and worked as the North Ward Center’s administrator.

WEST ORANGE - Essex County Democratic Party Chairman Phil Thigpen, Gov. Jon Corzine and fellow party members huddled up in Pal’s Cabin this morning in a show of party unity as Team Essex heads into Denver in support of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Il).

This is the second time in as many weeks that Corzine has gone to Pal’s to help focus party members on getting Obama elected president. Last week the governor met with members of the Group, the chief fundraising arm for Sen. Hillary Clinton, which is now committed to Obama.

"This one was much more about elected officials and the county party apparatus," said Mark Alexander, senior advisor for the Obama campaign. "There were town chairmen and women, all showing the unity of Obama and Clinton. This was about creating a unified force in the party."

Gov. Jon Corzine on Monday evening in Essex with freeholders Blonnie Watson, left, and Carol Clark.: Politicker photo 

The paneled surroundings of Pal’s Cabin have turned rancor to languor in the case of many an Essex County political rivalry, enabling the likes of North Ward Democratic leader Steve Adubato, for example, to occupy the same friendly booth as his old political foe, Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex).

So it’s unsurprising that neither Democratic Party fundraiser John Graham, a former Hillary Clinton supporter, nor Obama Campaign policy director Mark Alexander decided to convene in Pal’s for their continuing discussions about statewide campaign fundraising.

On Tuesday, they intend to meet in the West Orange watering hole with Gov. Jon Corzine between them. Alexander’s hoping the history Corzine has with Obama (they go back to Obama’s Senate primary campaign) will help him focus Graham and Graham’s allies.

Mayor Robert Bowser: Politicker photo 

Having already spread the word unofficially that he plans to pursue a fourth term in 2009, East Orange Mayor Robert Bowser tonight told PolitickerNJ.com that he's certain.

"100% sure," said Bowser, who emceed tonight's Essex County Democratic Committe party in Short Hills. "Make that 105% sure."

At the beginning of the summer, the three-term mayor and engineer by profession who has spear-headed East Orange's redevelopment, said he was about 70% certain he's running for re-election.

Word had started leaking out last spring that Bowser intended to go for a fourth term, but a potential opening as Essex County Democratic Committee chairman kept Bowser hedging for several weeks.

East Orange Mayor Robert Bowser says he’s 70% certain he will East Orange Mayor Robert L. Bowserpursue a fourth term in next year’s election.

“It’s early, but there are still a lot of things we need to do here,” said Bowser, who has led the redevelopment of his Essex County city over the past 11 years.

Former Assemblyman Willis Edwards - an ally of East Orange Democratic Party leader Leroy Jones - has expressed an interest in taking on the 74-year old incumbent.

“I saw that,” said Bowser, referring to news of the potential challenge. The mayor doesn’t seem concerned.

Essex County Democratic Party Chairman Phil Thigpen 

NEWARK - Essex County Committee Chairman Phil Thigpen today confirmed to PolitickerNJ.com that he would pursue another term as chair.

"We’re going to go again," he said in his office at the Robert Treat Hotel.

There is peace in Essex County: Adrienne Davis has dropped her bid to run for Essex County Democratic Chairman, and incumbent Phil Thigpen is now expected to run unopposed for a fourth term next week.

Essex County Democratic Chairman Phil Thigpen is telling Democratic leaders that he will seek re-election to a fourth two-year term when the party reorganizes next week.  Thigpen faces a challenge from former Essex County Freeholder Adrienne Davis, who has the support of Newark Democratic powerhouse Steve Adubato, Sr.

County Executive Joe DiVincenzoNEWARK - The Essex County Executive and Newark’s senior senator today both panned a proposal by North Ward Democratic leader Steve Adubato and a few others to dump County Chairman Phil Thigpen in favor of a longtime member of Adubato’s inner circle.

County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo and state Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Newark) pledged their full support for Thigpen, and denounced Adubato’s attempted power play to deliver the chairmanship to his friend, Adrianne Davis.

"Steve’s a guy who wants his epitaph to be, ‘I controlled everything in my life,’ but he’s just a guy with a big ego, who wants everyone to kiss his behind like we’re out here picking a bunch of cotton bales, black, white and Latino, all of us," Rice said. "To hell with Steve."

Himself a longtime Adubato ally who came up out of the North Ward, DiVincenzo stopped short of Rice’s all-out assault on his friend and political mentor, but was clear in his disapproval.