Democrats Lining Up To Challenge Angelini and Casagrande

By Art Gallagher

Monmouth Democrats are expecting a contested convention race for the nominations for Assembly in the 11th Legislative District. 

Three of the five members of the Neptune Township Committee, Dr. Michael Brantley, J. Randy Bishop, and Kevin B. McMillian have expressed their interest in competing for the nominations for the two seats, according to a Democrat who asked not to be named because he/she was talking to a Republican blogger.   Red Bank Councilman Ed Zipprich will also seek a nomination, according to PoltickerNJ.

Republicans Mary Pat Angelini of Ocean Township and Caroline Casagrande of Colts Neck currently represent the district in Assembly.

The district is comprised of the Monmouth County municipalities of Allenhurst, Asbury Park, Colts Neck, Deal, Eatontown, Freehold Borough, Freehold Township, Interlaken, Loch Arbour, Long Branch, Neptune, Neptune Township, Ocean Township, Red Bank, Shrewsbury Borough, Shrewsbury Township, Tinton Falls, West Long Branch .

Monmouth Demcratic Chairman Vin Gopal will probably have to do some arm twisting to come up with a candidate to challenge Senator Jennifer Beck of Red Bank, according to the source.   The Republican Beck is pro-choice and pro-gay marriage.  She is very popular with Democrats in the district.  No one is currently interested in challenging her.

• Tweet

John Kaye is President of the Monmouth Republican Affiliated Club

By Art Gallagher

Former Monmouth County Prosecutor John Kaye is the new president of the Monmouth County Affiliated Republican Club.

Kaye takes over from Wayne Pomanowski who served as president for the maximum two years allowed by the club’s bylaws.  1st Vice President Gerri Popkin and 2nd Vice President Bob Burlew were unable to step up to the presidency due to other obligations.  Howell Chairman John Costigan, the club Sergeant-At-Arms, declined the post because he is running to replace Monmouth GOP Chairman John Bennett on the GOP State Committee. Pomanowski said he suggested Kaye to Bennett.

Bennett said that Kaye was the unanimous choice of the club’s trustees at their January meeting.  All other officers, except Pomanowski, retained their previous club offices. Pomanowski remains on the board.

The choice struck me as odd given 1) the wealth of up and coming talent in the Monmouth GOP and 2) Kaye’s rocky historical relationship with Govenor Chris Christie including the controversy surrounding Kaye towards the end of his distinguished 23 year career as Monmouth County Prosecutor.

Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

Can Republicans Have A Role In Asbury Park?

When last we heard of Republicans in Asbury Park, Municipal GOP Chairwoman Louis Murray was making national news by calling for a ban of beachwear on the boardwalk.  That didn’t go the way Murray planned.

By some numbers, Asbury Park looks like a waste of time for Republicans. Only 464 of the city’s registered 7,404 voters are Republicans.  2,723 are Democrats and 4,209 are Unaffiliated, according to Wikipedia.

By other numbers, no one in New Jersey should ignore Asbury Park.  New Jersey taxpayers fund the city’s schools and municipal government.  Trenton sent $57.6 million to Asbury Park for its schools in 2011-2012 and $9.5 million for its current municipal budget.

Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

Live feed of the 57th Presidential Inaugural

• Tweet

A Knock At Midnight

Moral principles have lost their distinctiveness. For modern man, absolute right and wrong are a matter of what the majority is doing. Right and wrong are relative to likes and dislikes and the customs of a particular community. We have unconsciously applied Einstein’s theory of relativity, which properly described the physical universe, to the moral and ethical realm. . . . This mentality has brought a tragic breakdown of moral standards, and the midnight of moral degeneration deepens.

~ Reverand Martin Luther King, JR,  A Knock at Midnight

• Tweet

Te’o and the left

Editorial cartoons are sponsored by New Markets Realty, 146 Maple Ave, Red Bank. 732-741-8211. Jim Giannell, President

• Tweet

How to stop mass shootings

Hat tip to Jim Gearhart, NJ 101.5

• Tweet

Montclair State President Overturns Fat Joke Suspension

Joseph Aziz can continue his graduate studies at Montclair State University.   The school’s president, Susan Cole, caved to media pressure generated by the civil rights group, The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) and revoked Aziz’s suspension for making fat jokes on YouTube and facebook about the girlfriend of a fellow student who heckled conservative activist Steve Lonegan during a presentation at the school last September.  The heckler who called Lonegan a racist and an American fascist while interrupting his presentation was never disciplined.

The YouTube video of the fat heckler was set to private within an hour of MMM asking the University for the identity of the heckler and if the heckler had also been disciplined.

Aziz declined to tell MMM the name of the heckler or the heckler’s girlfriend.

Cole revoked Aziz’s suspension in a letter dated Thursday after consulting with the University’s attorney.

“While Montclair State never should have issued its unconstitutional gag order in the first place, we commend President Cole for acting swiftly to end the situation once it became public,” said FIRE Senior Vice President Robert Shibley. “Since this unwarranted suspension prevented Mr. Aziz from attending any classes, we expect that Montclair State will make accommodations to ensure that he can get into the classes he needs as soon as possible. We also expect that the university will make sure that this unjust punishment does not appear on his records.”

Shibley offered to work with Cole on revising other University policies that violate students’s rights of free expression.

“Montclair State briefly tried to justify its decision by appealing to New Jersey’s anti-bullying law, but Aziz’s comments did not constitute bullying under the law’s definition of the term. Even if they had, Aziz’s speech still would have been protected by the First Amendment, which supersedes state law,” said FIRE’s Shibley. “While Montclair State recognized its error this time, several of the university’s policies could still be used to silence student speech in the future. FIRE would be pleased to work with President Cole to revise those policies to comply with the First Amendment, by which all public universities are legally and morally bound.”

Cole should take Shibley up on his offer.  She should also make sure the University’s code of conduct is not used as a weapon against students who do not subscribe to her administration’s political agenda.

• Tweet

House Republicans Seem To Be Coming To Their Senses

Republicans in Congress have decided to put their own personal finances, and those of their Democratic colleagues in both the House and Senate, at risk, rather than to risk a global economic meltdown if the Democrats don’t get serious about reigning in our government’s runaway spending.

The New York Times is reporting that House Republicans have agreed to raise the debt ceiling for three months, with a requirement that both chambers of Congress pass a budget in that time and engage in deficit reduction negotiations.   Rather than drive the nation over a “fiscal cliff” or risk the government defaulting on its debt, the Boehner Brigade’s debt ceiling bill will include a provision that federal lawmakers not get paid if the Senate does not produce a budget.

Senate Majority Leader Harry’s Reid’s office issued a statement that sounded like they might go along.  Reid’s Senate has not passed a budget in four years.

Finally!  Washington Republicans have stopped drinking stupid juice!

Whoever came up with such a common sense idea of punishing the Congress for not doing its job rather than risking the global economy deserves a Nobel Prize.

• Tweet

More Strange Justice: A Warning to Public Servants

By Art Gallagher

Last November I wrote Strange Justice, a piece about my observations of the criminal sentencings of former Brookdale Community Community College President Peter Burnham and former Eatontown Detective Philip Emanulle.

Both men were charged with Official Misconduct. Burnham pled guilty to the Official Misconduct Charge and to Theft.  He charged $24,000 on the college’s credit cards for personal expenses over an eight year period and used a $20,000 federal grant for his son’s tuition at Monmouth University for personal use after Brookdale had already paid the tuition. In addition to Official Misconduct, Emanuelle was charged with Sexual Assault, Criminal Coercion and Tampering with Evidence.  The Sexual Assault and Official Misconduct charges were dismissed as part of a plea agreement. Emanuelle pled guilty to Coercion and Tampering.  Emanulle got five years probation.  Burnham was sentenced to five years in prison with the stipulation that he serve at least two years before he is eligible for release.

Burnham is in State Prison now.  A mutual friend tells me prison has not been easy for Burnham.  That is an understatement.   It hasn’t been easy for his family either.  Burnham had already lost his job and pension.  What was unexpected by his family is that he also lost his Social Security Benefits as a result of his conviction.

On January 8, Marlboro resident Mark Trawinski was sentenced to five months in prison for tax evasion.  Between 2002 and 2008, Trawinski didn’t pay the employment taxes withheld from his employees wages or the business’s employment taxes. He beat the government for $713,759 and used the money in part to purchase a $1 million home in Florida that he tried to hide from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court and the IRS.   In addition to his five months in prison, after Trawinski is released this spring he will be confined to his home for five months and he will undergo three years of supervised release.  He must also pay back the $713,759 to the IRS.

Why is Burnham doing two years hard time for stealing $44,000 while Emanulle got off with probation for Sexual Assault and and Trawinski got five months  for stealing $713,759?  Official Misconduct.

Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet