Booker Strong In Vote By Mail Returns

PolitckerNJ is reporting that Newark Mayor Cory Booker blew away in Vote By Mail (VBM) ballots in Hudson County and is outperforming the field in Bergen, Essex and Passaic  counties.

In Monmouth County, Charles Measley drove past Congressman Frank Pallone’s house on the way to the Pallone celebration at McCloon’s.  Frank’s Chevy is parked in the driveway.

Measley will be reporting for MMM from Pallone Headquarter throughout the night.

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Down to the wire, Pallone not letting up

Congressman Frank Pallone is working this election to the very last minute.  At 7PM he sent out an email reminding supporters that they still have an hour to vote and offering rides to the polls.

Pallone ran the “Chevy” ad on News 12 shortly before 7. The polls close at 8.

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Live Election Coverage From NJTV

Watch NJTV’s live primary election coverage here at 6, 8:56, 9:56 and 11 tonight.

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A map that favors Pallone?

 The Special Senate Primaries are today.

Turnout is always low in primaries, normally held on the first Tuesday in June.  In the last competitive Democratic Senate primary, 2008 when Congressman Rob Andrews challenged incumbent Senator Frank Lautenberg because he was too old, approximately 325,000 New Jersey Democrats voted.  About 159,000 Republicans voted in the 2008 Senate primary between former Congressman Richard Zimmer and State Senator Joseph Pennacchio.

Voter turnout was always expected to be low for today’s primaries being held on the second Tuesday in August.   The polls indicate that Newark Mayor Cory Booker will easily win the Democratic primary and that former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan is essentially unopposed in the Republican primary. But no one has a historical model by which to predict voter turnout on the second Tuesday in August.

That’s why Congressman Frank Pallone has been running hard like he doesn’t believe, or care about the polls.  Pallone told MSNBC last week that the turnout will be very low, that the polls don’t mean very much at this point, and that he has a strong field operation to get his supporters to the polls.

In the last day of the primary campaign, Booker had Eva Longoria on his bus, Congressman Rush Holt went on The Colbert Report, Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver picked up the last minute endorsement of the Woman Political Caucus of NJ, and Pallone rented a fleet of vans to take voters to the polls.

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Grow Monmouth Facade Improvement Program

By Monmouth County Freeholder Director Tom Arnone

Freeholder Director Tom Arone

It gives me great pleasure to announce The Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders recently passed a resolution approving the Grow Monmouth Façade Improvement Program. As liaison to the Department of Economic Development and the originator of the Grow Monmouth initiative already in place, I am very proud to have been an instrumental part of the Grow Monmouth Façade Improvement Program. This is yet another example of the county’s commitment to our business world and to the continued promotion of economic growth within our county.

            The program, the newest initiative under our Grow Monmouth program, uses HUD Community Development Block Grant funds that were de-obligated by grantees to help privately held commercial buildings that are located in eligible areas improve the look of their businesses. NO county funds are used for the program.

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Eck Clarifies Her Position On Abortion, Says She Can’t Imagine Lonegan Getting Elected, Will Run For Senate In 2014

At Steve Lonegan’s press conference on Saturday, the front runner in tomorrow’s GOP primary to replace the late U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg said that his opponent, Dr. Alieta Eck, first presented herself the party as pro-life but recently announced she was pro-abortion.  Lonegan said Eck should leave the Republican party.

The confusion arose out of comments Eck made during a meeting of the Long Hill Republicans last week wherein she said that there was no practical way for the government to prevent abortions during the early stages of pregnancy.

MMM wanted to clear up the confusion and understand Eck’s position.  She granted Art Gallagher an interview yesterday at her free health clinic in Somerset.

Eck said she is unabashedly pro-life. We spoke about her work with the poor, her experiences campaigning for Senate, and her political future.

Eck said she can’t imagine that Lonegan will be elected in the  October 16 Special Senate Election, if he defeats her, as the polls indicate he will tomorrow.  She said she will be a candidate for U.S. Senate again next year should the Democratic nominee selected tomorrow be elected.  She wouldn’t rule out another primary against Lonegan, even if Lonegan is elected in October.

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Christie Nominates Camden County Assignment Judge To State Supreme Court

Justice Helen E. Hoens. photo via NJ Courts website

Governor Christie announced the nomination of Judge Faustino J. Fernandez-Vina to replace Justice Helen Hoens on the State Supreme Court during a press conference at the State House this afternoon.

Hoens, who was up for reappointment after seven years, will not be re-nominated, Christie said, because State Senator Ray Lesniak, a senior Democratic member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, recently said that Hoens would not be reconfirmed as political retribution for Christie not re-nominating Justice John Wallace in 2010.  Christie said that Hoens took the news as a professional and thanked him for not putting her through an arduous and fruitless re-confirmation hearing.  Hoen’s term expires in late October.

There are currently two vacancies, of seven positions, on the State Supreme Court. Christie nominated Monmouth County Judge David F. Bauman and Board of Public Utilities President Robert Hanna to fill those vacancies in December of last year.  The Democratically controlled State Senate has not acted on their nominations, despite the fact that both men have been previously confirmed by the Senate for their current positions.

If all three of Christie’s current nominees are confirmed, a majority of the Court, 4 Justices, will be Christie appointees. Justice Anne M. Patterson was nominated by Christie in May of 2010. She was confirmed by the Senate and sworn in 19 months later in September of 2011.

Judge Fernandez-Vina, a Cuban-American and a Republican, was first nominated to the Superior Court in Camden County by Governor Jim McGreevey in 2004.  He was re-nominated by Christie an reconfirmed by the Senate in 2011.  In 2012, Chief Justice Stuart Rabner, a Corzine appointee, named Fernandez-Vina the Assignment Judge of the Camden County Vicinage.

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Christie Says Lonegan Tweet Was Inappropriate

Governor Chris Christie said this afternoon that the controversial tweet sent out by a Lonegan for Senate staffer last week during the Democratic Senatorial Debate was inappropriate, and the fact that Lonegan immediately ordered the tweet taken down indicates that Lonegan knows it was inappropriate, despite his protestations since.

“Why take it down if there was nothing wrong with it?” Christie said.

Christie said the would have fired the staffer who posted the tweet, “but its Steve’s campaign. He has a different management style.”

The Governor said he would endorse the winner of tomorrow’s Republican primary to replace the late U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg.

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Lonegan: Bayshore Tea Party Doesn’t Support Me Because I Didn’t Support LD 13 Primary

Steven Lonegan and Bayshore Tea Party Group Founders Barbara Gonzalez and Bob Gordan, 2010. facebook photo.

Prior to the start of yesterday’s press conference in Kinnelon, former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan told MMM that the Bayshore Tea Party Group is not supporting his U.S. Senate candidacy because he did not support their effort to remove State Senator Joe Kyrillos, Assemblywoman Amy Handlin and Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon from office in the 13th Legislative District primary last June.

When told that BTPG said he encouraged them to mount a primary challenge, Lonegan said, “I encourage everybody to run, but you have to have good candidates. Not like them.”

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Lonegan Takes The Offensive

“I have a handicap, you know.   I’m a white guy, running in the State of New Jersey.  That’s my handicap. “

“I took down an inappropriate, silly tweet after 20 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes.  5 months later, Anti-Semitic, hate filled videos are still posted on Cory Booker’s website. Where’s the race card now? Where’s the media now? “Where’s the liberal left now in defending us against this kind of hate filled Anti-Semitism?”

~Steve Lonegan

Former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan, the front runner in the August 13 Republican primary for the nomination to replace the late U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg,  held a press conference in Kinnelon yesterday afternoon to address the reaction to the tweet(pictured to the right) posted by his campaign on Thursday night during the Democratic Senate Debate.

Lonegan billed the event as a “press conference on political correctness” but the tweet and his opponents “pulling the race card” was the topic.  In classic Lonegan fashion, the candidate confronted the problem and flipped the criticism back on his opponents.  In this case, his opponents being Booker, who is expected to win the Democratic nomination on Tuesday, the “liberal media” and Dr. Alieta Eck, his opponent for the Republican nomination.

Lonegan said the tweet, which was removed quickly, was posted by a young staffer who remains employed by the campaign. “He made a mistake. I’m not going to ruin his career by firing him.  I don’t do that. I will help him learn from it,” Lonegan said.

“Racism, racism, racism. They can’t wait to play the racist card,” Lonegan said of the Booker campaign and the media, “They couldn’t wait for the opportunity, any opportunity at all, a silly map, which is meaningless, sent out by some kid in a campaign, that had no intent other than to ah, whatever the intent was, I don’t even know what the intent was. But they can’t wait to pull the race card. Cause that’s how they play politics.

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