Green Jersey

Site: Corzine to move DEP head Lisa Jackson

The Department of Environmental Protection may soon have a new leader. According to Politicker NJ, Gov. Corzine plans to tap the current commissioner, Lisa Jackson, to become his next chief of staff.

Jackson would succeed Bradley Abelow, a former Corzine partner at Goldman Sachs, who apparently would stay on as an advisor.

A poll on Politicker NJ asks who Corzine should pick as Jackson’s replacement; respondents picked Adam Zellner, followed closely by Jennifer Godoski.

Those and other contenders, per the website:

Adam Zellner, the Governor’s policy director who has served as DEP Assistant Commissioner and ran the Highlands Council and the state Smart Growth office; Eileen Swan, the Executive Director of the Highlands Council and a former Mayor of Lebanon; Highlands Council Chairman John Weingert, the Associate Director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University and a veteran DEP staffer under two Democratic Governors and two Republicans; Jennifer Godoski, a former Democratic operative who is now Deputy DEP Commissioner for Policy and Legislative Affairs; John Watson, the Deputy DEP Commissioner of Natural and Historic Resources, and the brother of Assembly Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman; and State Sen. Robert Smith (D-Middlesex), the Chairman of the Senate Environment Committee.

Stay tuned.