Paula Dow, the Essex County Prosecutor and Maplewoodian who has been tapped to be the next state Attorney General, says she has no plans to move out of Maplewood if she is confirmed as the state's highest law enforcement officer.

A Maplewood resident since 1987, Dow, 54, says she will commute daily to Trenton and is glad to do so to keep her family here. She also has access to a state trooper driver to help her, as most top state officials do.

"I like the small town quality of the place," Dow said Sunday during an interview with Maplewoodian.com. "I like to go to Gleason's on Saturday and have them call me Paula, I go to Quik Chek at least once a week. This has been a good town for me."

A single mother of two, with one child at Jefferson School and another a sophomore at Columbia High School, Dow says keeping them in Maplewood is important, even with the great opportunity to be attorney general. "It will be a sacrifice and we had a family pow-wow about it," she said. "I will have to leave early and come home later. But I did not want to deprive my son of his last two years of high school."

Dow, who would become the state's first African-American female attorney general, was nominated by governor-elect Chris Christie. If she is confirmed by the state Senate, she would take office when he does on Jan. 19.

Dow says she is a fan of the South Orange-Maplewood school district, and the township's events. "The Halloween parade downtown and trick or treating were a family favorite," she says. "I used to get dressed up and walk around down there. I also walk through Dickens Village."

She also says having her children go through the Marshall-Jefferson school program has been positive: "I have gotten the opportunity for the kids to be exposed to some pretty good schools," she says. "I have been happy with the school system and the community and its diversity."

With this new appointment, talk has already begun about Dow having a bright political future if she chooses. A former deputy U.S. attorney, she has never run for office. But could that change? "I don't think so. I never say never. But I don't see that in my cards."