N.J. Senate pulls gay marriage bill

N.J. Senate pulls gay marriage bill (via NJ.com)

TRENTON — State Senate Democrats have pulled from consideration a bill that would write gay marriage, already legal in New Jersey by court order, into the law books. Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg said Sunday that she decided to follow the…

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Drinking on the Today Show

The segment was bumped by the Short Hills Mall shooting story.  It is now rescheduled for Tuesday between 7:30am and 8am.

Tune into NBC Monday morning between 7:30 and 8 or set your DVR  to catch some familiar faces, including your favorite blogger, demonstrating the dangers for drinking too much during the holiday season, or anytime, especially if you plan to drive.

The Today Show, in conjunction with the New Jersey Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control and the Fair Haven Police Department, hosted a holiday party for a small group of Monmouth County residents at Raven and the Peach last week.

The drinking, followed by sobriety tests and interviews, should serve as an important warning. Hopefully, those of us who participated will not look too ridiculous.

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Keep an eye on Kennedy

As was the case in the early days of the 2008 presidential campaign, which started the day after George W. Bush’s reelection in 2004, Hillary Clinton is considered a lock for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination.

Along came Davids Plouffe and Axelrod to snatch the 2008 nomination away from Hillary in favor of an unknown and untouchable freshman U.S. Senator from Illinois, Barack Obama.

Presidential campaigns are big business.  If James Carville and Company cruise Clinton to the nomination without a fight, Plouffe and Axelrod stand to lose out on millions in consulting fees as well as their seats at the pinnacle of power.

For most of her adult life, President John F. Kennedy’s daughter Caroline, kept a low profile and went by her married name, Schlossberg.

After Clinton was named President Obama’s Secretary of State, Kennedy Schlossberg briefly entertained the idea of running for the New York U.S. Senate seat vacated by the appointment.

Now that she is Obama’s Ambassador to Japan, Caroline is officially a Kennedy.

A Caroline Kennedy for President campaign is a long shot. But not as long as shot as Barack Obama’s candidacy was in 2005.

You have to wonder why she would start using her maiden name after 27 years, if she wasn’t running for something.

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Bridgegate: What difference does it make?

Some members of New Jersey’s press corps, along with Senator Loretta Weinberg, Assemblyman John Wisniewski and the Democratic National Committee seem think they finally have an issue to thwart Governor Chris Christie’s rising star.   They’re hoping traffic jams in Fort Lee will prevent Christie from becoming President of the United States.

The Star Ledger has an article this morning quoting Democrats and academics saying “the scandal” could hurt Chrisite’s national ambitions.

But questions about the incident have fueled a scandal that even Christie’s masterful team of brand managers can’t make go away.

The Record’s Charles Stile writes that “Christie won’t easily shake GWB flap.”

Stile and The Star Ledger’s reporters have it wrong.  Christie deftly accepted “ultimate responsibility” for the mistakes made in Fort Lee last September, while deflecting blame, at his press conference on the matter on Friday. As NJTV’s Michael Aron said on Reporters Roundtable, the issue is ‘fundamentally over.”   If the ‘Bridgegate’ story gets any ink at all in 2014 and beyond, it will be deep in the back pages.

It’s doubtful that the subpoenas that Wisniewski, as Chairman of the Assembly Transportation Committee, issued will result in any smoking gun that proves that Christie or anyone in his inner circle other than Port Authority’s Bill Baroni or David Wildstein knew about the George Washington Bridge lane closures that tied up traffic in Fort Lee for a few days is September.  Even if a smoking gun is discovered, as Hillary Clinton would shout, “What difference does it make?”

Now that Christie is a legitimate presidential contender, the front runner in the early polls, it is perfectly appropriate that the press and his opponents attempt to make mountains out of traffic jams and other mole hills as part of the vetting process for a president.  Barack Obama got a pass from the press and his opponents in 2008 and 2012. Look what that got us.

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Baroni Is Edged Out Of Port Authority

Governor Chris Christie has announced that former State Senator Bill Barnoni has resigned as Deputy Executive Director of the Port Authority of NY/NJ.

Deborah Gramiccioni has been tapped to replace Baroni.  Gramiccioni is a long time Christie staffer, going back to his tenure as U.S. Attorney.  She is the wife of Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni.

Christie said he had been planning to the change ” a while back.” He said that Baroni offered his resignation and he accepted given the “distraction” over ‘Bridgegate.”

Christie said that Baroni had acknowledged that ” a mistake was made” regarding the George Washington Bridge closure last September, and that Baroni has taken responsibility for it.

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Governor Christie Press Conference At 11 AM

There will be ‘Bridgegate’ questions

Governor Chris Christie has called a press conference for 11am this morning to announce personnel changes in his administration.

‘Bridgegate’, the controversy over lane closures on the George Washington Bridge last September, will likely be the hot topic the press corps wants to talk about, unless Christie declares the press conference ‘on topic’ or restricted to questions about his new appointments or nominations.  Christie has done this on occasion and then lambasted reporters who asked off topic questions.  Any reporter who lets him get away with that today, if he tries it, will deserve to be called an idiot.

Democrats are alleging that the lane closures were political retribution against Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, a Democrat, for failing to endorse Christie’s reelection.

At his press conference on December 2 announcing Kevin O’Dowd’s nomination to be State Attorney General, Christie blew off questions about the GWB lane closures by joking that he was incognito, moving the cones to close the lanes.  But his joke did not satisfy Assemblyman John Wisniewski who is acting as if he finally has an issue with which to take down Christie, politically.

Christie’s men at the Port Authority, the bi-state agency that manages the GWB, said the lane closures were part of a traffic study. David Wildstein ordered the closure/study and has resigned.  Bill Baroni gave testimony to Wisniewski’s Assembly Transportation Committee justifying the study.  Wisniewski called Baroni’s testimony “less than truthful.”   New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s guy at the Port Authority, Executive Director Patrick Foye, threw Wildstein and Barnoni under a bus in his testimony before Wisniewski’s committee.  Wisniewski has called for Baroni’s resignation and has subpoenaed emails and memos from Port Authority.

The issue is beginning to get legs in the national political press as a possible threat to Christie’s 2016 presidential prospects.  A pro-Hillary Clinton Super PAC is producing ads on the issue.

Tune in at 11 to see if Christie can put this issue behind him before it becomes a distraction to his second term, his chairmanship of the Republican Governors Association and to his 2016 presidential prospects.

UPDATE: BARONI RESIGNED.

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Highlands Mayor Nolan Calls For Sharing Municipal Accounting Services, Criticizes Proposal To Give CFO Candidate A 6th Government Job

If one person can do six government jobs for $300,000, why can’t those governmental entities get together and hire one person to do that work for half the amount or less?

Highlands Mayor Frank Nolan, photo by Tim Larsen, Governor’s Office

In his column on facebook and Atlantic Highlands Herald, Highlands Mayor Frank Nolan said there is currently a contract being negotiated for a new Chief Financial Officer in the borough.  The candidate, who Nolan did not name, currently has five government jobs, including another job in Highlands, and earns $244,606. If hired as Highlands’ new CFO, the candidate would have to work 160 hours per week, theoretically, to justify the combined full time and part time salaries which would exceed $300,000.

As of this writing, there is a contract being written for someone to fill that position that already has 5 municipal jobs across the state. If this individual was to be given this 6th municipal job at our council meeting on December 18th they would be one of the top paid public employees in the state and would hold 2 jobs in the Borough of Highlands. His current salary listed on the state website is $244,606 for his 5 current positions. If we add another $65,000 to the total and highlands would be putting him over the $300,000 per year mark.

By definition most part time jobs are about 20 hours per week. The average fulltime job is 40 hours. If you have 4 part time jobs, that means you are working, in theory, 80 hours per week on those jobs. Plus you have 2 full time jobs. That’s another 80 hours. The person who is potentially being given a 6th municipal job at the Wed, December 18th council meeting that will be held at Highlands Elementary School at 8:00pm for the public. This person will be working 160 hours per week. There are 168 total hours in a 7 day week. How can someone work 6 jobs and be effective? The answer is: they can’t.

MMM believes the accountant is Highlands Tax Collector Patrick DeBlasio, who, according to APP’s Data Universe, has two jobs in Carteret, and one job each in Keansburg, North Plainfield, in addition to his tenured position in Highlands, all of which will pay a pension.

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Suspect Sought In Aberdeen Bank Robbery

Click photo for larger view

A light skinned male robbed the PNC Bank branch on Rt. 34 in Aberdeen on Monday, December 9. Authorities are seeking identity and whereabouts of the man, according to a statement from Acting Monmouth County Prosecutors Christoper J. Gramiccioni.

The suspect stands between 5 ‘3″ and 5 ‘5″ tall and was last seen wearing a black knit winter cap with brim, a black winter coat, dark pants and dark shoes.

Anyone with information about this suspect is asked to call Detective Andrea Tozzi, of the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office at 732-431-7012 ext. 4809; Detective Louis Nanna of the Aberdeen Police Department at 732-566-2054 or Detective Erik Nolte at the Red Bank office of the FBI at 732-741-0006

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Opinion: Can the Democrats Cash in on George Washington ‘Bridgegate’?

Opinion: Can the Democrats Cash in on George Washington ‘Bridgegate’? (via NJSpotlight)

By any measure, the last four years of Democratic control of the Legislature yielded the party little political benefit. But the Democrats may be able to recover some lost ground, courtesy of what started as a hellacious tie-up on the George Washington…

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Monmouth Poll: New Jersey residents expect Christie to run for POTUS

Christie beats Clinton or Cuomo in New Jersey

7 of 10 New Jersey residents expect that Governor Chris Christie will run for president and he would take the state’s 14 electoral college votes against former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton or New York Governor Andrew Cuomo if the presidential election were today, according to a Monmouth University/Asbury Park Press Poll released this morning.

A Republican has not won New Jersey in a presidential election since George H.W. Bush was elected in 1988.

Christie is favored by 46% of registered voters, including 19% of Democrats and 51% of Independents, against Clinton who is favored by43%.   3% prefer another candidate and 8% are undecided.  Against Cuomo, Christie’s margin widens to 19% of NJ registered voters, 52% -33%.

The Monmouth University Polling Institute surveyed 802 adult New Jersey residents from December 4 to  8.  Yesterday, Monmouth released a narrative of the same survey which indicated that 65% of New Jersey resident approved of the job that Christie is doing.

Posted: December 11th, 2013 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: 2016 Presidential Politics, Andrew Cuomo, Chris Christie, Hillary Clinton, Monmouth University Poll | Tags: Andrew Cuomo, Chris Christie, Hillary Clinton, Monmouth University Poll, Patrick Murray | 1 Comment »

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