I can partially explain Pallones’ earlier claim — this one:
“This is not Obama’s bill. This isn’t Nancy Pelosi’s bill. This is MY bill.”
I worked in the New Jersey Senate years ago when Pallone was a State Senator. He was known at the time as a bill thief.
Whenever a Republican would post a good bill for introduction, the Senate Democrat staff (who controlled the process, as they were in the majority) would simply take a copy of the intro bill, xerox it, cross out the introducer’s name, and write in Pallone’s name. Pallone would then sign intro copies, and his version would be given a priority number, while the Republican’s bill would be mere listed as “proposed for introduction” and therefore receive a higher bill number when it was actually introduced at the subsequent session. He and the staff did this over and over again in order to boost Pallone’s profile.
One day, they did it to Senator Frank Graves, a powerful Senate Democrat from Paterson, and Graves went verbally ballistic on Pallone on the Senate floor at the next session.
Pallone just stood there with that silly smirk on his face, never bothering to deny it because he knew it was true.
He has been claiming that bills are his for a long, long time! A habit of a lifetime.
By now, we’re used to the regular election sign wars in Middletown: signs being stolen, moved or taken down. It usually happens to Republican signs, and an active member of the Democrat executive committee was arrested and subjected to a fine a couple of years ago, after being caught in the act.
But this year, the sleazy Midddletown Democrat thugs are using new tactics. After taking down at least one 4×4 board sign, since last Friday night they started spraying those 4x4s with grafitti. It happened almost every night for the past 4-5 days, and some of those hoodlums are even tagging them with gang signs. You can see this happening on Tindall Rd, East Rd, Leonardville Rd and other places.
Maybe it’s time for Joe Caliendo to remind his thugs that this is not Hudson or Union county, and this kind of gang vandalism is not welcome in Middletown. Or maybe the local committee people would know more. Most of the thuggery occurred in District 23 (Thomas Mahon and Annaliesa Meloro). It was also seen in the neighboring districts, 13 (Steven Borbely and Lynda Cordasco) and 34 (Peter Geronimo and Mary Yule).
Below you can see an example of this new type of Democrat vandalism.
NJ-06 is Tight. Adjusted for 2004, it is a Nail Biter
Written by Noah Rothman on October 26, 2010, 4:43 PM
A Monmouth University poll released today shows that the race in New Jersey’s 6th district between Rep. Frank Pallone and the Republican candidate, Anna Little, has tightened significantly.
In the poll, Pallone leads Little with 52 to 45 percentage points. A Monmouth University poll from October 6th had Little only taking 33 percent to Pallone’s 58 percent of the vote. This 7-point margin in a district that has returned Pallone by no less than 67 percent of the vote in the last three cycles means this will be a race to watch on election night.
The poll, however, could underestimate Little’s performance. The Monmouth University poll’s sample was 40 percent Democrats, 22 percent Republicans and 38 percent Independents. 40 percent Democrat is probably close to correct; exit polls from 2004, 2006 and 2008 placed the Democratic share of the vote at 39, 41 and 40 percent for each respective year. In 2004 the Republican sample was 31 percent and the independent sample was 30 percent. In 2006 the Republican sample was 28 percent (a depressed year for Republicans nation wide, but especially dower in the North East) and the independent Sample was 31 percent. In 2008 the Republican sample was 33 percent and the independent sample was 38 percent.
It is fairly dubious assertion that this year will yield fewer Republicans at the polls than even 2006. It is even more suspicious that 38 percent of the Monmouth University poll’s sample is 38 percent; this independent sample outperforms their best year by 7 points. For a particularly good Republican year, when both the GOP and Democratic bases were engaged, 2004 is a decent place to start.
If you adjust the sample of 647 likely voters (257 Democrats, 141 Republican and 249 Independents) to reflect the exit polls from 2004, (253 Democrats, 201 Republicans and 194 Independents) then the race becomes 51 to 49 percent for Pallone. This is a minor adjustment from Monmouth University’s findings for Pallone but a major boost for Little. It also puts this race within the margin of error for most pollsters. This race could be a lot closer than Monmouth University’s polls show.
Trenton, NJ – Today, Governor Chris Christie accepted the recommendation of NJ Transit Executive Director Jim Weinstein to continue the orderly and expeditious shutdown of the ARC Project. Despite intense negotiations with federal and state participants, no agreement was reached on terms that would assure New Jersey’s taxpayers would not pay more than $2.7 billion for a completed Trans Hudson Express ARC project.
Frank Pallone Jr.Disappointed to hear Governor plans to cancel ARC tunnel at a time when New Jersey needs more mass transit options.
Well, if Pallone had any clout in Washington after 22 years, maybe he could have gotten the Feds to cover the cost over runs on the project. Or maybe he could have gotten his friends in the New York delegation to lean on Albany to contribute their fair share to a project that would have benefited New York more than it would have helped NJ anyway. Think of all those tax dollars New Jersey residents would have been paying to New York after we spent $15 billion dollars to give them a way to leave the state to go to work.
As our friend Harold Kane, the next Middlesex County Clerk, pointed out last week, New Jersey has 40 million square feet of vacant office space. What do we need to spend billions of dollars to send people to work in New York for?
Christie did the right thing and come Tuesday Pallone is going to be despondent.
The time is getting closer for Pallone to exit stage left and Little to enter stage right, much like their political ideologies. Pallone, as many long term politicians before him, has lost his way and become a victim of a malady known as “I know what’s best for the people.” They totally lose sight of the will of the people, thinking of them as little lost sheep who couldn’t possibly know where they are, how to get home, or what they want. So the politician takes on the role of the good shepherd, not only to lead them, but to tell them what they should want. Pallone has reached that stage where he no longer represents what the people want, but actually believes that he knows much better what the people should want and have.
This is exactly why it is time for Congressman Pallone to exit this position and be replaced by someone who knows and recognizes the importance of representing all of the people and what they want. Fortunately, our form of government has a process for the orderly change of representatives who have lost sight of that role.
We now have the good fortune on November 2nd, to participate in an election for someone who understands and will work to represent all the people based on what the people want. That person is Anna Little. I encourage everyone to vote for Anna Little for Congress to bring us back to what a representative form of government is supposed to be – Of the People, By the People and For the People.
Princeton, October 27, 2010 – Slamming Congressman Rush Holt’s new radio ad as “defamatory” and “knowingly false and misleading,” as well as is non-compliance with Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations, Republican Scott Sipprelle today issued a letter through his attorney, Brian M. Nelson of Menna, Supko & Nelson, LLC, calling on Millennium Radio New Jersey (101.5) to cease and desist playing the advertisement on their airwaves today.
Holt’s ad falsely alleges that Sipprelle somehow manipulated his property tax bill through participation in a volunteer advisory committee in the Borough of Princeton. In addition to being refuted by Sipprelle, the charge was labeled as “ludicrous…not even possible” by the Borough’s Democrat-appointed Tax Assessor in a Trenton Times article yesterday, who added “that the committee and its members were in no position to know what the outcome of the revaluation would be while it was going on.”
“Rush Holt’s defamatory and knowingly false charges against me are the latest and most blatant signs of desperation from a career politician who will to say or do anything to cling to power,” said Sipprelle. “Mr. Holt knows that he can’t run on his record, so his only hope is to run me down. His actions are a disgrace and he should be ashamed of himself. In addition to asking Millennium Radio to take these ads down, I am requesting a public apology from Mr. Holt to the voters in this district, and an admission that his ads are simply not truthful.”
Sipprelle cited Holt’s 2000 campaign against former Congressman Dick Zimmer as evidence that the incumbent has a sad history of misleading campaigns ads being pulled from the airwaves. (Source: “Democrats’ ad is taken off the air,” Star-Ledger, 8/19/00)
“This is a pattern of dishonest behavior from Mr. Holt and it’s completely consistent with how he governs as a Congressman,” said Sipprelle. “For twelve years in Washington, Rush Holt has not allowed the facts to get in the way of his or Nancy Pelosi’s agenda so why would he worry about the facts during his political campaigns?”
Holt’s ad is not only untrue, it is also in violation of campaign finance regulations for failing to have the proper “Paid for by” disclaimer at the end of the spot.
“This is typical of entrenched, out-of-touch career politicians like Congressman Holt,” said Sipprelle. “He is violating a legal requirement that he himself voted to create. This is just another example of arrogant Members of Congress exempting themselves from the laws they pass for the American people and underscores why we need to change Congress. I am asking the voters of the 12th Congressional District to stop Rush Holt on November 2nd and vote for a new direction.”
On Monday, October 25th, I went to Trenton to attend an event organized by the New Jersey Conference of Mayors, which is the largest and oldest Mayor’s organization in the United States. The purpose of the event was to meet with Governor Christie, the Assembly Republicans and the Assembly Democrats to urge the passage of a key provision of the Governor’s “Tool Kit” reforms: capping interest arbitration awards to the 2% property tax cap passed by the Legislature and signed by the Governor last Summer.
Many of you may remember that when both Republicans and Democrats passed the Governor’s budget, there was much hoopla about the 2% property tax cap, and there was an emphasis on the need for passage of the “Tool Kit” reforms that would enable local governments to manage the cap. While the Tool Kit is composed of many Bills, there is almost universal agreement among Mayors that arbitration reform that mirrors the cap is vital.
There is currently pending before the Legislature two versions of arbitration reform. In one version, A-3283, arbitrators, mediators or fact finders would be prevented from recommending or awarding any settlement that would exceed by more than 2% the total economic impact on the public employer.
The other version, A-3393 has already been reported out of Committee, and may go before the full Assembly any day. This version does not require an Arbitrator to adhere to the 2% cap, rather, it simply adds the cap to a list of nine criteria that should be considered by the Arbitrator in making a decision.
For obvious reasons, the need for a hard cap on arbitration awards is vital to the success of the hard cap on property taxes. To provide otherwise will slowly and inexorably eat away at all governmental functions until all that are left are those functions that are carried out by collective bargaining unit employees. Eventually even those “protected” employees will be downsized to feed the public sector union monster.
The group from the New Jersey Conference of Mayors was made up of Mayor’s from both sides of the aisle. Republicans, Democrats, large towns and small, all who have engaged in the municipal budget process recognize the need for this reform. The need for arbitration reform is not a partisan issue, it is an issue of economic and financial necessity.
The Governor graciously met with the approximately 35 Mayors who attended. He was introduced by David DelVecchio, Democrat Mayor of Lambertville. The Governor gave us as much time as we needed, and answered questions. Governor Christie emphasized the need for a hard cap on arbitration awards, and asked us to take his message to the Assembly.
The group of Mayors then walked to the Assembly Republican caucus room, where virtually every Republican member of the Assembly listened as Mayor Arnone, Republican of Neptune City and Mayor Tarantolo, Democrat of Eatontown, gave their pleas for enactment and reform. The Assembly Republicans asked their own questions, and agreed that real reform meant a hard cap on arbitration awards.
The overriding message brought to Trenton by the Mayors is that we have done almost all we can on our own. We have shared services, some have laid off employees, some have laid off police, some have cut services drastically. We have, often, done all we can do to stabilize property taxes in our towns. What we need now is help from Trenton. For too long, Trenton has helped itself, and not given the State’s municipalities the tools needed to stop the rise of property taxes. Now there is an opportunity to pass meaningful reform, and we can not let it slip away.
After leaving the Assembly Republican Caucus room, we went across the hallway to meet with the Assembly Democrats in their Caucus room.
The Assembly Democrats did not let our bipartisan group of Mayors in to speak with them. An anonymous staffer came out and said that the Assembly Democrats would be in caucus for at least another hour, and then the Assembly would go into session. Assembly Speaker Oliver would not come out to speak to us, nor would any other Assembly Democrat.
Our bipartisan group of Mayors, organized by the bipartisan New Jersey Conference of Mayors, were left out in the cold by the Assembly Democrats.
When people ask me why the Great State of New Jersey has the highest property taxes in the Country, I now have yet another first-hand account: Because the Assembly Democrats don’t care about your property taxes.
Even Frank Palloneknows his negative ad claiming Anna Little an extremists is ridiculous. So much so that he put his “I’m Frank Pallone and I approved this message” disclaimer at the front of the ad, rather than at the end of the ad as is customary.
This morning on FoxNews this ad ran:
The next frame on the TV screen was “I’m Frank Pallone and I approved this message.”
(HIGHLANDS, October 27) – Republican Congressional challenger Anna Little today maintained her campaign’s focus on Frank Pallone’s recent silence on his role in the passage of the government takeover of health care, frequently referred to in New Jersey’s 6th Congressional District as “PalloneCare.”
“Back in the spring, when he thought it was going to be popular, my opponent infamously said of the government takeover of health care, ‘This is not Obama’s bill. This isn’t Nancy Pelosi’s bill. This is MY bill,'” said Little. “But now that the public has learned more about what’s in it, and it’s not nearly as popular as he thought it was going to be, he’s gone radio silent – why, his campaign web site’s ‘On the Issues’ section doesn’t even MENTION health care!”
“Sadly, this is not surprising,” said Little. “All we’ve heard from Frank Pallone is distortions of my views, rather than an explanation for the votes he cast for a failed trillion-dollar stimulus package, a failed cap and trade policy that would raise everyone’s electricity bills, and the government takeover of health care.
“Of course, it’s perfectly understandable – if I had cast a vote to cut Medicare by $500 billion, reduce patient choice, put government bureaucrats between doctors and their patients, and raise taxes, I probably wouldn’t want to draw attention to it, either.
“But that’s the big difference between Frank Pallone and me – I would never have cast that vote in the first place!
“In six days, New Jersey will vote, and we’ll have a chance to send a fresh face to Washington,” said Little.
“If you think we’re headed in the right direction, then Frank Pallone is your man,” said Little. “But if you think we’re moving in the wrong direction, if you think you’re ready for a change, then I need your vote – because you cannot change Washington without changing the people we send to Washington!”
A screen capture of Pallone’s campaign web site “On the Issues” section, taken early this morning, is attached.
It is sad to watch a highly esteemed member of our community be so easily manipulated by a heartless politician shamelessly fighting to save his career.
Make now mistake about it. Rush Holt is, and has been, manipulating Greg and Linda Bean, the former editor of the Greater Media Newspapers and his wife, for his own desperate political purposes.
Back in September, Greg accused this blog of conspiring with the Sipprelle campaign to play “dirty tricks” on the Holt campaign. Bean said he was convinced that the Sipprelle camp had put me up to posting “Abram Spangel’s” Rush Holt Champions Infanticidepost and that Spangelis a pseudonym of mine. The truth is that the Sipprelle campaign wanted to distance themselves from Spangel’s posts before Greg reacted to that one. I am not Spangel. Bean milked the controversy he created for a couple of weeks in his column in the Greater Media newspapers and on their website. I maintain that Bean was looking to attack Sipprelle and used this blog as his excuse to get started.
In case your unaware, Greg and his wife Linda lost their son Coleman to suicide in September of 2008. Coleman had served two tours in Iraq and was seeking treatment from the VA for post-traumatic stress syndrome. Holt and Bean blame Coleman’s suicide on a “gap in the system” that doesn’t serve members of the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR), reservists who are not assigned to a unit. Greg wrote:
“He fell through the cracks. He had no advocate, no Army machinery to help him find his way through the system. He felt he was literally on his own. He made appointments with the VA to have an ulcer treated and to obtain treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. Those appointments were postponed. He was still waiting when he took his own life.”
Holt reached out to console the Beans after their loss. Whether his initial gesture was genuine or political only he and God know. Since then, Holt has obviously been exploiting his relationship with the Beans for political purposes. During the spring of this year Holt promoted the legislation he introduced “to close the gap” in mental health care available to members of the IRR with great emotion and fanfare. He had the Beans testify in Washington and “earned” a lot of free media in the central jersey papers.
In his closing remarks at the Rider University debate with Sipprelle, Holt brought up the Bean legislation–“out of nowhere”–it had not been a topic during the debate–as a reason to reelect him.
Now the Holt campaign has an ad featuring the Beans tugging on the heart strings of 12th district voters, as if Holt’s efforts on their behalf are a reason to give the congressman another term:
In the ad, Greg Bean says Rush Holt has “worked on this (legislation) tirelessly.” Holt hasn’t work on it tirelessly.
Linda Bean says, “what we are talking about is legislation that will save someone’s life.” The legislation will not save anyone’s life.
Greg says, “Congressman Holt has actually been better than his word.” He hasn’t.
Holt approved the message and he has orchestrated the manipulation of the Beans.
Holt’s Congressional website, the one we taxpayers pay for, says the legislation he introduced in memory of Sgt. Coleman Bean has passed the House and awaits action in the Senate. It has not passed the House. It is buried in the Military Personnel sub-committee of the House Armed Forces Committee. Holt lied to the Beans and he is lying to his constituents on the website they are paying for.
Holt’s Congressional site, the one we pay for, goes on to say that on July 28 the House unanimously passed his amendment to allocate $20 million into the Fiscal Year 2011 Department of Veterans Affairs budget for direct advertising and the use of online social media for suicide prevention outreach. The House passed the funding bill for the Department of Veterans Affairs, and it awaits Senate passage.
Amendment to what bill Holt doesn’t say. But that it awaits passage in the Senate means it hasn’t happened.
If Rush Holt actually has worked tirelessly on his Bean legislation, he is incompetent. The legislation is not law. It is a campaign piece. It will not save any lives. If Rush Holt has been “better than his word” that is because his word has never been any good.
There is a strong argument to be made that Holt is incompetent. In the current Congress he has introduced 38 pieces of legislation. None became law. In the 110th Congress he introduced 52 bills. None became law. In the 109th Congress Holt introduced 50 bills. One, a resolution (not a law) passed the House and the Senate. That resolutionrecognised the 40th Anniversary of the Second Vatican Council’s promulgation of Noestra Aetate. None of them became law. And so it goes.
Holt knows that the legislation he introduced for the Beans will never become law. He’s just using them for his campaign.
Hopefully the Beans will not be too bitter, or embarrassed, when they smell the coffee.
And hopefully Greg’s involvement in Holt’s campaign hasn’t cost him his column at Greater Media. His byline has been removed from their websites. Maybe that is just temporary until the election is over. If not, my offer to Greg to be published here stands.
UPDATE
Greg Bean’s column is back at Greater Media! MMM is pleased that GM didn’t pull a NPR on GB.
For such a good writer, you would think Greg would have better reading comprehension.
In his first column back from his trip to Colorado to celebrate his brother’s birthday, Grego takes another swipe at this blog. His headline, The truth isn’t always apparent at first blush , is a reference to my questioning the absence of his byline on the Greater Media sites last week in the original post of this piece. As you can see by scrolling up a few lines, I expressed my hope that Greg’s involvement in the Rush Holt campaign did not cause him to be NPR’d by GM. Greg said, “…because my column didn’t appear in the paper, and my name wasn’t in its usual place on the newspapers’ website, the local right-wing bloggers said I must have gotten fired. ” That’s not what I said at all! The truth of what I said was apparent at first blush, just as it is at this second blush. You just have to read it and not twist it.
Funny, Greg used to complain about this blog being written anonymously. When he wrote about this blog in September, accusing us of conspiring to commit “dirty tricks” against the Holt campaign, he named the blog but didn’t link to it. Now he doesn’t even name it, refering to MMM as “local right-wing bloggers.” That’s OK. This piece will be picked up by CNN’s news feed (which is why I am really reposting it, I could care less what Greg did last week) and Greg’s won’t.
Sad, that while Greg obviously read the original posting of this piece, he who thinks he has a special gift for spotting dirty tricks, didn’t mention the dirtiest trick of the NJ-12 campaign….the one played on him by Rush Holt who lied about getting the bill named for Greg’s son passed by the House of Representatives.
He also didn’t write about the dirty trick Holt is perpetuating by falsely advertising that Scott Sipprelle used his volunteer service in Princeton for his own financial benefit. As Sipprelle has protested, Holt has falsely, and knowingly, accused Scott of a crime. That’s a pretty dirty trick.
No, Greg used his first column back from his brother’s birthday party to defend NPR’s right to fire Juan Williams.
I’m proud to be a “right-wing” blogger. When will Greg come clean about his leftist leanings and stop ranting about phantom “dirty tricks” to advocate for his candidate? Why won’t Greg, and Rush Holt for that matter, simply argue their ideological cases, rather than fabricating dirt about their opponent? Why? Because they know they would lose if they were honest.
