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Pallone Wins Lottery, Loses Moran and Influence On The Redistricting Commission

By Art Gallagher

Frank Pallone split a $75,000 lottery jackpot three ways and still ended up with more money than Anna Little has raised in her quest to unseat him. 

 The Wall Street Journal says that Pallone pocketed just under $25K after splitting the prize with his father and brother.  Little raised no money and spent $5K on her campaign according to her most recent FEC reports.

However, Pallone’s winnings and war chest can’t buy him love from the New Jersey Redistricting Commission now that his ally Maggie Moran has been booted off the commission, just as NJ.com’s Auditor predicted.

The Democrats on the Redistricting Commission are former Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts, former Assemblywoman Nilsa Cruz-Perez, former Assemblyman Michael Baker of East Brunswick, former Pascrell Chief of Staff Ed Farmer, former Corzine deputy chief-of-staff Jeannine LaRue of Trenton, and Essex County Democratic Committee Chairman Phil Thigpen.

The Republicans are political strategist Mike DuHaime, former Burlington County Freeholder Director Aubrey Fenton, Morris County attorney Eric Jaso, Assemblywoman Caroline Casagrande, Cape May Freeholder Susan Sheppard and National Federation of Republican Woman President Sherine El-Abd.

Not a Pallone loyalist on the list.   As the senior Democrat in the NJ congressional delegation, Pallone’s seat should be safe from redistricting.  However the commission is heavy with members loyal to Democratic power broker Donald Norcross and Republican Governor Chris Christie, neither of whom are fans of Pallone.

By the population numbers, the northeast part of the state should lose a congressional district when the new map is adopted.   But Donald Payne’s 10th and Albio Sires’ 13th are minority majority districts that have to be protected.   Combining Bill Pascrell’s 8th district with Steve Rothman’s 9th would make sense on paper, but the Democrats will never agree to surrender a seat without an election.

After both sides propose maps that guarantee the other side loses a seat, the commission will likely settle on a map that pits one incumbent from each party against each other.

MMM would love to see the southeast portion of Pallone’s district combined with Congressman Chris Smith’s district.  Smith would crush Pallone.  Phoney Palloney would probably retire from the House and run for governor rather than face Smith head to head.

The other reason we would love to see such a district is because it would likely mean that the Northern Monmouth portion of CD 6 would be folded into Rush Holt’s CD 12, setting up a four way race for the GOP nomination to unseat Holt between Strong New Jersey Chairwoman Diane Gooch, Fair Haven Mayor Mike Halfacre (the only mayor in the universe to lower property taxes four years in a row), Little, and Lincoln Club of NJ President Scott Sipprelle.   That would be a great race for web traffic and advertising revenue!

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Posted: June 16th, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Congressional Redistricting | Tags: , , , | 5 Comments »

5 Comments on “Pallone Wins Lottery, Loses Moran and Influence On The Redistricting Commission”

  1. Gene Baldassari said at 6:12 pm on June 16th, 2011:

    I guess that it is fun to play political football – sizing up various fantasy teams.

    Since we are speculating, I think that Smith (4th) and Runyon (3rd) will be pitted against each other in a new Primary District (3.5?).

    Texas law allows candidates to run for more than one office on more than one ticket. Texas redistricting will force Ron Paul (TX-14) into the NJ Democratic Primary in the new 4th/3rd (3.5?) District. (NJ will observe Texas law in this one case).

    Runyon and Paul will win their respective Primaries but Paul will withdraw because he will also win the Presidential Primary.

    Democrats will beg Christie to take the Congressional nomination to replace Paul, but Christie will be tied up with his run for the Presidential nomination and NJ law does not allow candidates to run on more than one ticket.

    Eventually, they will put Al Gore on the ticket to run against Runyon.

    Ron Paul never wanted to move to NJ anyway. Eventually, he will become President and will move to 1600 PA in DC starting January 2013.

    A third Party Whig candidate will almost win the new District, beating Gore. However, Runyon will stay in Congress and will become even more popular than today.

    Finally, town halls will come back to the old 4th.

    Smith won’t mind his own retirement because he will have gotten tired and fed up with the stupid voters that kicked him out. Plus he will be happy to stop answering questions as to why he refuses to answer questions.

    Stay tuned for my next match up, which will pit Len, Rush, and Frank together.

    And guess what famous celebrity will be coming to NJ to run for Senate?

    And, more interesting, Christie, who previously had an unlimited number of political shots, will find himself with no home after diluting too much political confetti in the public sewer.

    And also, learn how President Paul will proceed to disassemble the largest, most bloated bureaucratic plunder that ever existed in the history of the universe. Eventually, all of Washington will be housed in one building. The rest will be used for much needed farmland.

    Stay Tuned…..

  2. ArtGallagher said at 7:44 pm on June 16th, 2011:

    I can’t wait Gene. It should be front page material

  3. TR said at 7:28 am on June 17th, 2011:

    Really ? The Only mayor to ever lower taxes 4 years in a row.
    How did you verify that claim?

  4. ArtGallagher said at 7:32 am on June 17th, 2011:

    I googled it:

    http://www.google.com/search?q=the+only+mayor+to+lower+property+taxes+four+years+in+a+row&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7SUNA_en

  5. Philip moran nj | Clickadvise said at 11:32 am on July 12th, 2011:

    […] Pallone Wins Lottery, Loses Moran and … – MoreMonmouthMusings […]