HAMILTON — Barely a week after his Florida win, Republican presidential candidate John McCain will be stumping for voters on Monday in Hamilton Township.

McCain, now seen as the GOP front-runner for the presidential nomination, will appear at the Colonial Firehouse around noon, a day before the Super Tuesday showdown in 24 states including New Jersey.

Monday’s appearance is McCain’s final chance to influence voters before voting in the state’s primary.

Political pundits have watched as party members have not given the nation a clear choice of who they wanted to for their nominee. Party members have watched as presidential candidates Ron Paul, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, McCain, Rudy Giuliani, and Fred Thompson criss-crossed the country hoping to win the hearts and the minds of the party faithful.

GOP candidates have struggled to win over party members with McCain, Romney and Huckabee having won one or two primaries. Thompson removed his bid for the top job and Giuliani is expected to leave the race today as well.

Noting New Jersey’s importance in the presidential race, McCain opened his state campaign office last week in Hamilton on Nottingham Way. State Sen. Bill Baroni was named as the campaign’s state chairman.

Doors to Monday’s event are scheduled to open at 11 a.m. at the Colonial Firehouse located at 801 Kuser Road in Hamilton.

Mercer County Republican Committee are meeting Tuesday to vote on their endorsement of a Republican candidate for president of the United State. The 6:30 p.m. vote at La Villa Ristorante in Hamilton occurs less than a week before New Jersey’s Feb. 5 primary.
Committee Chairman Roy Wesley, who has personally endorsed Rudy Giuliani, said “New Jersey, with its winner take all primary, is likely to play a pivotal role in deciding who will be the big winner on Super Tuesday.”
New Jersey is one of 24 states including New York and California will hold primaries or caucuses with 41 percent of the total Republican delegates.
“Regardless of who I have endorsed personally, it is critical that the Mercer County Republican Committee be part of the debate and help focus attention on the importance of making an informed choice by endorsing a candidate. This is what county committees get elected to do,” he said.
Wesley noted that his committee members would be looking to Florida for guidance as they consider their endorsement.

We're now in the midst of the presidential caucus and primary season and all the polls, pundits and predictions that come with it. It's great fun for a political junkie, but sometimes vital issues get overshadowed.
As a member of the advocacy organization ONE, I'm working with 2.4 million other Americans from all walks of life to bring attention to an issue that doesn't always get heard through all the politics and sound bites: the emergency of disease and poverty in Africa and the poorest parts of our world, and what America's role should be in ending it.
I know it's not an issue you typically hear about during an election. But it must be heard. Around one billion people in Africa and around the world struggle to live, feed and clothe themselves on less than $1 a day. Diseases like AIDS and malaria (which America eradicated here at home in 1949) are killing thousands every day, ravaging communities that are fighting to escape the cycle of extreme poverty. Like never before, we have the proven, effective medicines and technologies to change these tragedies and save lives-and garner goodwill for America in the process.
If you ask a presidential candidate, each one will say they are against this kind of brutal poverty. I know. Everyone is against global disease and extreme poverty. But the issue is too important for platitudes and lip service. ONE members like myself want specifics. We want to hear commitments on how the next president plans to erase malaria, increase access to clean water and deliver more lifesaving AIDS drugs to the people who need them. And like never before, we are earning those specifics.
For the first time ever, voters who care about these issues have gotten all the major candidates-from Hillary Clinton to John McCain-to speak directly on camera about their policies, and all voters can now see it. On ONE's new website, www.ONEVote08.org/ontherecord, voters can watch these videos and compare the candidates side by side on these vital, yet until now under-the-radar, topics.
I hope the readers of this paper will take the time to view the website and learn a bit about an issue that's time has come to be heard and addressed in this year's campaign.

Aba DeGraft-Hanson
Princeton, N.J.

THE RACE:
Presidential primary for Democrats, Republicans in New Jersey.

THE NUMBERS - DEMOCRATS:
Hillary Rodham Clinton: 48 percent
Barack Obama: 32 percent
John Edwards: 10 percent
Dennis Kucinich: 1 percent

THE NUMBERS - REPUBLICANS:
John McCain: 29 percent
Rudy Giuliani: 26 percent
Mitt Romney: 14 percent
Mike Huckabee: 9 percent
Fred Thompson: 9 percent
Ron Paul: 7 percent
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OF INTEREST:
This is the second poll this month that found Giuliani has lost a lead that had exceeded 30 percentage points in the fall. The main beneficiary has been McCain.
For the Democrats, Clinton maintained her double-digit lead over Obama with the state's Feb. 5 primary less than a month away.
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The telephone poll of 862 registered voters from Jan. 15-22. The survey includes 464 likely Democratic primary voters with a sampling error margin of 4.5 percentage points and 398 likely Republican voters with a sampling error margin of plus or minus 5 percentage points.
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COMPLETE RESULTS: http://www.quinnipiac.edu/
By The Associated Press

Assembly Republican Leader Alex DeCroce said a consultant’s report released on Friday that predicts about 20 percent of the drivers who use New Jersey's toll roads will abandon them if Governor Corzine’s 800 percent toll hike scheme is approved debunks administration claims to the contrary.
The consulting report projected 20 percent to 30 percent of those who would use the New Jersey Turnpike and Atlantic City Expressway and 10 to 20 percent of those who would use the Garden State Parkway would find other routes.
“What are they thinking?” said DeCroce, R-Morris and Passaic. “As tolls go up, use of the toll roads will go down. Period. End of story.
“The Corzine administration is deluding itself if it believes most or all will return to the toll roads after the initial rate shock has abated,” DeCroce said. “Unlike past toll increases, Corzine's plan guarantees one huge toll hike after another. When truckers and commuters know tolls will increase each year, they will lose all incentive to return. They know it's only going to get worse for them as the years pass.”
DeCroce said the consultant’s report is concrete proof that Corzine’s massive toll hike and borrowing scheme will backfire and inflict more harm on the state and its economy.
“This is a disaster waiting to happen for the middle class. Corzine’s scheme will only make New Jersey a less affordable place to live.”

The very muddled Republican presidential race has turned on a dime with candidates changing positions every moment the party faithful having huge mood swings. What are New Jersey Republicans going to do. Rudy Giuliani is well known in the Garden State due to his leadership in September 11. A number of Jerseyans have an emotional attachment to Giuliani because of the number of New Jerseyans lost on that fateful day.

But John McCain, now dubbed the "Comeback Man" is a renewed man, looking for votes anywhere he can get them to maintain a lead in the primary. Mike Hukabee is nipping on his heals looking for a solid win hoping to place first or second instead of third. And Mitt Romney is just looking.

Miracles are being sought by all as Super Tuesday looms with Jerseyans itching to have their say in what has become the most exciting, mood altering and emotionally upseting primary race. Who is gonna win is anyone's guess.