Too quiet. On the municipal level one of the major parties is not fielding a full slate of candidates in 24 of 41 towns with elections.
On the legislative level, the biggest question in Monmouth is will former Assemblyman Dan Jacobson file to run for Assembly as an Independent in the 11th legislative district. My guess is that he will not. Rather, I predict Dan will throw the support of his newspaper, the tri-CityNews, behind Republican Mary Pat Angelini and Democrat Marilyn Schlossbach in the November general election.
In the 13th legislative district, the Democrats do not have a candidate for Senate on the ballot. Former Hazlet Mayor Chris Cullen received the Democratic nod at the party convention in April but did not file his petitions. Cullen is expected to get the nomination via write-in ballot.
Republicans are not running full slates for municipal offices in Belmar, Freehold Boro, Lake Como, Manasquan, Roosevelt and Shrewsbury Township.
Democrats are not running full slates in Allentown Boro, Brielle, Colts Neck, Englishtown, Fair Haven, Farmingdale, Interlaken, Little Silver, Millstone, Neptune City, Oceanport, Rumson, Sea Girt, Shrewsbury Boro, Union Beach, Upper Freehold and West Long Branch.
Republicans have primary contests in Sea Girt and Interlaken. Democrats have a contest for an unexpired council seat in Highlands.
With so little interest in municipal government, what is is real resistance to consolidating all of these governments?
The members of the Redistricting Commission must be appointed by June 15. The Auditor says he/she was told that Democratic State Chairman John Wisniewski plans to void the appointment of Belmar resident Maggie Moran to the commission. Moran, former Governor Corzine’s deputy chief of staff and campaign manager, was appointed to the commission by former Chairman Joe Cryan, at Pallone’s urging, as one of Cryan’s last acts before turning the chairmanship over to Wisniewski.
Moran, who is the wife of Belmar Mayor Matt Doherty, is supposed to be Pallone’s eyes and ears on the commission. Her removal would be a blow to Pallone, according to The Auditor, this year in particular as New Jersey is losing a congressional district. One incumbent congressman will lose his job regardless of the electoral outcome. The Auditor implies that Democratic boss George Norcross and Republican Governor Chris Christie would like that incumbent to be Pallone.
How would that work?
Pallone’s 6th district borders the 4th, 7th, 12th and 13th districts. He resides in Long Branch which is in the south east coastal part of the district.
While it is entirely possible in New Jersey that a gerrymandered district that includes Long Branch of Monmouth County could be combined with Clinton Township in Hunterdon County, home of 7th district Republican Congressman Leonard Lance or West New York, Hudson County, home of 13th district Democratic Congressman Albio Sires, neither scenario is likely.
Combining Pallone’s 6th with Rush Holt’s 12th would make sense based on geography as the 12th shares the largest border with the 6th. Even though neither Pallone or Holt is particularly well liked by Democratic leaders in New Jersey or Washington, it is unlikely that the Democrats would surrender a district without a fight.
Which would leave a match up between New Jersey’s two most senior congressmen, Pallone who has been in Congress since 1988 and 4th district Congressman Republican Chris Smith who has served since 1981. While it would be unusual that seniority be discarded as an incumbent protection consideration during a redistricting battle, an argument could be made along the lines of “continuity of representation.” Pallone first went to Congress as the representative of the 3rd district after the death of Congressman James Howard. Much of the pre-1992 3rd district is now part of the 4th.
Even with his $4 million war chest, it is hard to imagine Pallone beating Smith in a combined district that includes southeast Monmouth and portions of Republican Ocean and Burlington counties. Smith would dominate in his Mercer home turf.
Pallone vs. Smith would be a great race. It probably won’t happen. I’ll explain why at the end of this piece. But first let’s have some fun speculating about the fallout of such a district.
If Long Branch and Pallone are moved south into a district combined with portions of Smith’s (of Hamilton in Mercer County) 4th district, it would make sense that the Northern Monmouth portions of the present 6th district would be folded into the Rush Holt’s 12th district.
That would create an interesting race for the GOP nomination in the 12th. Diane Gooch, Mike Halfacre, Anna Little, and Scott Sipprelle could all be contenders for that nomination.
Little beat Gooch for the 6th district nomination primary by 83 votes before losing to Pallone by 11% in the 2010 general election. She declared that a loss of only 11% was a victory and launched her 2012 race against Pallone in the weirdest election night concession speech ever. Since election night 2010 Little has alienated herself from both her local Tea Party and establishment GOP supporters. She’s chomping at the bit for a rematch with both Gooch and Pallone, but she’s referred to as a “coo coo bird” by former supporters. A Pallone-Smith match up would wreck havoc on her delusions. Only Little, her family and Larry Cirignano, her escort/handler/manager/driver/tenant, believe Anna Little will ever be nominated for congress again.
Halfacre, the Mayor of Fair Haven, has been kicking himself for bowing out of the race for the 12th district nomination since Tea Party candidate David Corsi beat Sipprelle in Monmouth County in the 2010 primary. Sipprelle won the nomination by virtue of his margin of victory in Mercer, Middlesex, Somerset and Hunterdon before losing to Holt by 7% in the general.
Halfacre was the Tea Party favorite during his contentious race against Sipprelle for the party lines in 2010. Sipprelle won all the county party lines and Halfacre correctly concluded that a primary against Sipprelle without at least the Monmouth or Middlesex lines was not winnable. Corsi’s Monmouth victory naturally lead to “what ifs?” Little’s narrow victory over Gooch created additional “what ifs?”
But the self funding Sipprelle did not spend any money to defeat Corsi. Gooch took victory over Little for granted in the primary. Given how contentious the Sipprelle-Halfacre county conventions/screenings were, it is likely that a primary between to two would have been bloody and expensive. Halfacre couldn’t have matched Sipprelle’s money.
Halfacre would have a heavy lift to regain his Tea Party support. If either Gooch or Sipprelle seek the nomination, he would have a heavier lift to raise the money necessary to compete. After Little’s victory in the 2010 primary, it will be a long time before any candidate or county party organization takes a Tea Party challenge for granted. Halfacre’s best hope for a nomination against Holt is for both Gooch and Sipprelle to conclude that 2012, a presidential year with Obama leading the ticket, is not the year to take on Holt.
Both Gooch and Sipprelle are staying in front of the party faithful. Gooch with Strong New Jersey and Sipprelle with the Lincoln Club of New Jersey, organizations each has founded since losing their respective races. Gooch has been open about wanting to run for congress again, depending on how the districts are drawn. Sipprelle has been coy about a future candidacy.
A Gooch-Sipprelle primary defies imagination. Given the money both could spend on such a race, a deal would likely be brokered by the state and county party chairmen before it would occur. But if ego got the better of either of them, it would be quite a race. A more sensible sceanario would be for one of the millionaires to take on U.S . Senator Robert Menendez while the other takes on Holt.
So while redistricting Pallone and Smith into the same district could make the Republican nomination contest in the Holt’s district more interesting, a Pallone-Smith battle is unlikely even should a district be drawn that way. Should such a district be drawn look for Pallone to retire from the House and use his hefty war chest as a down payment for a statewide race for Governor in 2013.
Pallone’s $4 million war chest would clear the field of Democratic candidates for Governor, unless Chris Christie isn’t a candidate or has anemic poll numbers, neither of which is likely. Christie would love to defeat Pallone, which he would but it would probably be a close race. Pallone would then run for U.S. Senate in 2014, assuming Frank Lautenberg finally retires.
The Rumson home of Peter and Judi Dawkins, named Long Point, sold yesterday for $12 million, according to a report in the Asbury Park Press. The 5 bedroom, 9 bath, 6 car garage mansion had been on the market since February 2010 with an original asking price of $29.9 million.
One source estimated that the Dawkins lost $10 million on the sale of the home that they built in 2004.
Peter Dawkins,73, a West Point grad and retired Army General, is an investment banker. He won the Heisman Trophy in 1958 and was the Republican challenger to U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg in 1988.
Dawkins was Vice-Chairman of Bain and Company from 1989 through 1991, leaving around the time that Mitt Romney became CEO of the consulting firm that was in financial distress before Romney turned it around.
Hall, a major Democratic donor, was implicated but not charged in a NY pension fund investigation. Vice President Joe Biden’s 2008 presidential campaign was fined by the FEC for accepting over the limit contributions and a deeply discounted private jet flight from Hall.
When the New Jersey Supreme Court recently ruled that the state must increase funding to 31 school districts in the amount of $500 million, it was both a gross display of judicial activism and worse, it perpetuated a bad public policy.
The Governor and Legislature, not the courts, should be deciding spending priorities, and while it is tempting to oppose this ruling on that fact alone, it is not the ruling’s most fatal flaw. That is why you see the Governor avoiding a confrontation with the legitimacy of the court’s action. Turning this into a battle over “separation of powers” will divert too much attention from the main event, which is how to change the state’s arcane and ineffective school funding formula to maximize the benefit to our students. Abbott districts were created by a court ruling in 1985 to mitigate the inequity in school funding between urban districts with higher poverty and suburban districts with more wealth. Subsequent court rulings and governmental actions have followed, all in an effort to equalize funding discrepancies. Since wealthier districts were able to benefit from significant stronger property tax revenue base, the Abbotts needed the state to compensate for their lack of funding with more education aid. In the mid-90s, attempts to equalize the districts included things like capping how much wealthier districts can spend on education and changing the spending ratio based on student population. Eventually, equalization in spending was achieved by the latter part of the decade. However, the inertia behind increasing funding to the Abbotts and limiting spending by wealthier districts became uncontrollable.
A tectonic shift occurred in the completely opposite direction. The more urban districts began spending more than the suburban districts at a growing and alarming rate.
For example, the average per child expenditure on education in New Jersey is roughly $12,000. Looking at Monmouth County, a wealthier school like Rumson spends roughly the average of $13,188. In Asbury Park, an Abbott district, it is $24,428.
We don’t ever think of public policy as having an expiration date, but it seems as if our funding formula is far past its optimal effectiveness. Included in that should be the notion that money solves the problem when it comes to education. This is evidenced by the continually poor performance of the Abbott school districts, despite sharp increases in education spending and a virtual monopoly of state education aid. That is why the most recent ruling by the New Jersey Supreme Court is so flawed. It props up a system that not only fails the state’s taxpayers, but more importantly our public school students. Real education reform has to be student-centered and get greater accountability for the millions of dollars invested in our schools.
Unfortunately, it seems the New Jersey Supreme Court has come down on the side of those who believe foolishly that we can just throw more money to ‘at risk’ districts to get results. In short, this court action is best defined by Albert Einstein’s description of insanity: “doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”
Shrewsbury, NJ June 3, 2011- Solutions Pregnancy & Health Center is pleased to announce the grand opening and ribbon cutting ceremony of its Medical Clinic in Shrewsbury, New Jersey.
Speaking at the ribbon cutting ceremony will be the center’s Executive Director, Lorrie Erli, the Medical Director, Doctor Margret Lambert-Woolley and Pastor Ty Choate, First Baptist Church of Red Bank. Congressman Chris Smith has also been invited to speak as an honored guest.
The Open House will be held on Sunday, June 5, 2011 from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm. This event is open to the public free of charge and will be held at Solutions Pregnancy & Health Center located at 837 Broad Street, Shrewsbury, New Jersey. Doors will open at 2:00 pm and includes ongoing tours of the facility until 3:00 pm, when the ribbon cutting ceremony is scheduled to begin. Light refreshments will be served during the grand opening.
Solutions offers free pregnancy testing, ultrasound exams, and STD screening, among other services, all in a safe, confidential environment designed for multi-level support.As a licensed medical facility, Solutions is able to offer clients comprehensive services that are not available at other health centers, such as emotional and spiritual support, which is desperately needed by women faced with unplanned pregnancies, and sexually transmitted infections. All of Solutions’ services are provided free of charge.
Unfortunately, the MMM unscientific economic indicators are proving to be true. The horrible economic activity I wrote about two weeks ago is showing up in the main stream indicators. Unemployment is up, inflation is up, the stock market is retreating.
Barack Obama is shaping up to be Jimmy Carter. Will a Ronald Reagan show up to replace him?
The latest Atlantic City Rescue Plan by the State of New Jersey for all intents and purposes, ensures a slow and painful death by a thousand cuts to New Jersey’s horse racing industry all so that our elected officials in Trenton are both blinded and mesmerized by the bright shiny lights of Atlantic City. The political machine is fond of trumpeting the tired old canard that New Jersey’s racing industry is dying. They tell this big lie over and over again in the hope that by sheer repetition it will become the truth, all the while purposely ignoring the politically inconvenient fact that Atlantic City’s gambling industry is not dying, but is actually dead and has been so for quite some time.
This proposed plan ignores the most obvious socially and fiscally responsible solution: allowing for the installation of video lottery terminals, slot machines or a gaming casino at the Meadowlands.
Why does the State continue to ignore this solution? Because a great number of our unelected officials, entrenched bureaucrats and political power brokers in Trenton, rather than deal with the realities attendant to the success of the introduction of video lottery terminals or casinos at racetracks in Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania and New York, have decided that the State of New Jersey is going to get into the business of subsidizing the failed business model that is Atlantic City. Some of the most shrewd and brilliant businessmen in the world couldn’t sustain the Atlantic City business model, yet Trenton’s powers that be are supremely confident that they are up to the task, the rest of the State of New Jersey be damned. And, quite frankly, why shouldn’t they be confident what with the tremendous success they’ve had over the past two decades with the revitalization of Camden, Newark and Paterson, the Xanadu Project, the School Construction Corporation, Abbott Districts, pension funding, budget balancing and the recent Race to the Top Application?
As evidenced by the success of gaming sites in Connecticut, Delaware, New York and Pennsylvania, the residents of the tri-state area are more than willing to forego the bucolic vistas offered by a ride down the N.J. Turnpike and Garden State Parkway and the urban “charm” of Atlantic City in favor of more convenient gambling venues. Notwithstanding the fact that the two most interested parties, the horsemen and the general public, are clamoring for a casino at the Meadowlands facility, the State dismisses the idea out of hand in favor of a proposal that provides neither party with what it wants.
Two reports by Christiansen Capital Advisors, commissioned by the New Jersey Department of Treasury, recommended the installation of slot machines at the Meadowlands. The reports stated that 5,000 machines at the Meadowlands would produce $750 million annually and that 10,000 machines would produce $1.5 billion annually. The same study suggested that 2,100 slots at the Meadowlands would reduce Atlantic City gross gaming revenue by .01 percent.
Senator Sean Kean recently said on the New Jersey Senate floor “if it (a Racino at the Meadowlands) were put to a vote we’d probably get a majority, if not a super-majority (in support), to save horse racing in the state of New Jersey.” Despite the overwhelming financial benefits flowing from such an arrangement, Trenton summarily dismisses the installation of Video Lottery Terminals, slot machines or a gaming casino in the Meadowlands in what can only be interpreted as a yet another deferential bow to Atlantic City’s political power brokers.
Given the fact that over the past decade or so New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Delaware have destroyed Atlantic City’s monopoly on East Coast gaming, one would think that our friends in Trenton would have enough sense to fight fire with fire and move quickly towards the racino business model. Unless, of course, maybe our Atlantic City-centric friends from Trenton don’t want to move quickly because if they wait long enough for the racing industry to finally die, then they won’t have to share profits with anybody. How much would you like to wager that, after years of categorically denying the financial benefits of allowing gambling outside of Atlantic City, our friends in Trenton will have a sudden about face on the issue once the horsemen have been forced from the Meadowlands?
Trenton refuses to acknowledge the viability of the racino model and, instead, continues to dump on our horse racing industry and the 7,000 jobs, $110 million in federal, state and local taxes, and 57,000 acres of working agricultural landscape which come along with it. Racinos around the country employ nearly 30,000 people. Bringing racinos to New Jersey will create thousands of new jobs. Additionally, it will solidify many jobs that may be in danger of leaving our state in favor of states that have already authorized racino legsilation. Racinos are a proven model that states around the country are turning to for gaming. Twelve states have already implemented racinos and many more are debating proposals to allow them in the near future. In 2009, racinos around the country generated $2.6 billion dollars in tax revenue for state and local governments. Additionally, they strengthen the state’s agricultural industry. Racinos allow existing racetracks to grow their purses, spurring new investments in breeding racehorse ownership throughout the state. Additional racehorses will create more jobs and improve the overall economic impact. As Delaware, Pennsylvania, New York and the nine other racino states can attest – racinos improve the rural economy. But the health and well being of our state’s rural economy does not seem to be of paramount importance to the movers and shakers in Trenton. Why should they spend a few million dollars to shore up and promote a proven, historically viable and stable commodity like horseracing, when instead they can throw HUNDREDS of millions of taxpayer money at a financial and social corpse like Atlantic City?
Racinos are a sure thing. Rushing with reckless financial abandon into the resurrection of Atlantic City is a sucker’s bet. Sure thing. Sucker’s bet. Sure thing. Suckers bet. Which one will our friends in Trenton take? If left to their own devices, I think we all know that our friends in Trenton will take the sucker’s bet every time. And since our friends in Trenton will be spending our tax dollars trying to raise the corpse that is Atlantic City and its gaming industry, we, the taxpayers, are the suckers. And we really are suckers if we let them do this without giving them a fight. I say that we bring the fight to them. Let’s do everything we can to get this matter to a vote of the New Jersey Legislature as soon as possible!
AP Report: Christie and GOP reimbursing state for cost of flight
By Art Gallagher
I ran into former Governor Brendan Byrne earlier today at the New Jersey Law Center in New Brunswick where I had a business meeting.
“Hello Governor,” I said while zipping my fly, “what do you think of the controversy over Christie’s helicopter ride?”
“It’s bullshit,” he exclaimed while drying his hands, “that’s what I said when I was governor. If Corzine had been using the helicopter he wouldn’t have gotten hurt.”
We weren’t exactly in a locker room, but as close as you can get to one in a law center I guess. I appreciated Byrne’s candid venacular.
The media and partisan outrage over Christie’s use of the state police helicopter is bullshit.
The Associated Press is reporting that Christie and the state GOP are reimbursing the state for the cost of the helicopter ride.
No doubt the reimbursement is being made to quiet the bullshit. There is serious state business to be done. The budget. Pension and benefit reform. A new collective bargaining agreement. The ridiculous nonsense over the governor’s use of the helicopter has become a major distraction. Since there have been no natural disasters (the tornadoes missed NJ and hit Massachusetts), terrorist attacks, corruption arrests or revelations of love children to knock the helicopter ride off the airwaves and front pages, Christie and the GOP did the right thing paying for the chopper rides. Not because the flight was inappropriate, but because the hullabaloo is a distraction from important state business.
If it had been Frank Pallone or Steve Rothman who tweeted a picture of his package to a coed instead of NY Congressman Andrew Wiener, Christie’s chopper ride would not be dominating the news and there would be no reimbursement until the next ride during a slow news cycle.
Christie spokesman Mike Drewiniak said in an email explaining the reimbursement:
Also, though the Superintendent of the State Police noted yesterday the travel does not cost taxpayers additional dollars, the Governor understands the sensitivity about this kind of thing and believes he owes it to the public to ensure that this is not a distraction. As such, the Governor is reimbursing for the last two trips dated 5/27 and 5/31 in the amounts of $919.20 and $1232.30, respectively.
(emphasis added)
Drewniak also released a list of instances in which State Police helicopters have been used by the Governor’s office since Christie took office. 33 flights were by the Governor. 1 by the Lt. Governor and one was for transporting staff between consecutive press conferences at the Meadowlands and Atlantic City. You can download the list here.
Some of the active MMM commenters have indicated that they think State Police Col. Rick Fuentes statement that the governor’s helicopter rides do not cost the taxpayers additional money is disingenuous. I disagree. That kind of thing is too easy to verify. I’m sure some industrious reporter is checking it out now. If Fuentes made it up we’ll read all about it and he will lose his job. If he is telling the truth, as I believe, we’ll hear no more about it.
I want the Governor to use helicopter more than he does. If it makes him more productive at his job, or God forbid, gives him more quality time with his family, I’m all for it. That the State Police have to put in hours flying the choppers anyway makes it a no brainer.
The opposition to helicopter use is petty partisan bullshit.
The demogougues who are invoking the working Moms and Dad’s who are sitting in traffic while missing their kid’s games are full of it. I don’t believe the majority of New Jerseyans are that petty. The media is that petty. The politicians are that petty. I don’t believe the people are. I know Governor Byrne is not that petty.
Pallone’s 6th district borders the 4th, 7th, 12th and 13th districts. He resides in Long Branch which is in the south east coastal part of the district.
