We received an email from Frank Pallone today asking for our endorsement.
Dear Art,
I need your endorsement. The support of friends like you is what has allowed me to fight for the issues that matter most to New Jersey families. But fighting is not enough. We need true leadership in Washington that stands up for what is right. ….
Congressman, we’re honored that you asked. We’re happy to accept.
MoreMonmouthMusings hereby endorses Congressman Frank Pallone in the Democratic Special Senate Primary on August 13.
Pallone has the best of the slim chances to defeat Newark Cory Booker for the nomination.
If Pallone is the Democratic nominee in the Special Senate Election on October 16, the Republican nominee, either Steve Lonegan or Dr. Alieta Eck, would have a much better chance of winning, than if Booker is the nominee.
Booker has been endorsed by the Essex County Democratic machine and the South Jersey/George Norcross Democratic machine. If Pallone beats Booker, Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo and Norcross won’t have a U.S. Senator at their beck and call. Pallone won’t owe them. He’s never been much of a team player with them. He certainly wouldn’t be beholden to them if he beats Booker.
In that case, Norcross and DiVencenzo might sit out the October 16 Special Election or secretly help the Republican nominee win, figuring that Pallone would be finished if he lost to Lonegan or Eck. They would then make sure Booker gets the 2014 Democratic nomination and count on winning the Senate seat in 2014.
Tessa Bitterman, State Senator Barbara Buono’s 23 year old daughter, sent a fundraising email to her mother’s supporters this morning where in she declared she is gay and blasted Governor Chris Christie for vetoing same sex marriage.
Growing up, my mom was always there for me no matter what. I’m gay and from an early age I felt free to express myself with my mother, knowing she would always support me for who I am.
As a gay American I have a stake in what our governor says about marriage equality. And I have been deeply shocked by Chris Christie. As governor, he has been a giant roadblock to New Jersey achieving equality for all. By failing to support marriage equality, Christie is blatantly delegitimizing an entire group of people.
I have also seen Chris Christie misrepresent himself as a moderate to New Jersey – that’s why it’s even more important to stop him before he takes his radical show on the road when he goes national after this election.
New Jersey Public Schools are on the verge of becoming part of the government’s domestic spying apparatus. If the NSA misses something while going through your phone calls and emails, they will have the questionnaires your children fill out in school to fall back on, if the Sociological Strip Search bill passes, as amended by the Assembly last week, and is signed into law by Governor Christie.
In case you’ve missed our previous coverage of this proposed law, it authorizes schools to conduct intrusive surveys into the lives of students without parental consent. The bill, A/2421 in the Assembly and S/454 in the Senate, amends a current law passed in 2001 that requires written parental consent before school can question students about:
mental and psychological problems potentially embarrassing to the student or the student’s family;
illegal, anti-social, self-incriminating and demeaning behavior;
critical appraisals of other individuals with whom a respondent has a close family relationship;
legally recognized privileged or analogous relationships, such as those of lawyers, physicians, and ministers;
income, other than that required by law to determine eligibility for participation in a program or for receiving financial assistance under a program;
The educational establishment uses the information mined from the surveys to apply for federal money. Not enough parents are providing written consent, like they do for field trips and extracurricular programs, so the ‘educators’ and the companies and non-profits that sell drug abuse and anti-bullying programs to the schools, want to replace written parental consent for the children to be subject to the intrusion with simple parental notification. They are counting on parents not taking the affirmative action of objecting to the surveys, thereby giving ‘negative consent.’
The bill passed the Assembly last week, largely along partisan lines. Four Republicans, Mary Pat Angelini, Betty Lou DeCroce , John Amodeo and Chris A. Brown voted with the Democrats to pass the bill. Today it goes back to the Senate for a second reading to concur with the amendments the Assembly made. The bill originally passed the Senate 25-15 in February.
Contact your Senator and ask her/him to vote NO today. Contact Governor Christie and ask him to veto the bill if/when it gets to his desk.
Brian Froelich, a Democratic candidate for Monmouth County Freeholder, signaled that he wants to use the Birdsall Engineering scandal as an issue against his incumbent Republican opponents earlier this month when he told NJ.com’s cub reporter Christopher Robbins, “There’s no way that we’re going to out-fundraise a 30-year incumbent institution,” Froelich said. “They may not have Birdsall anymore, but they have a lot more people willing to support incumbents and entrenched leaders.”
If Froelich wants to make an issue of the no longer secret donations that Freeholder Director Tom Arnone and Deputy Director Serena DiMaso received from Birdsall employees, he will have to first question Monmouth County Democratic Chairman Vin Gopal. Gopal received $1600 in Birdsall funds for his 2012 campaign for Chairman. Gopal’s opponent in that race, Marlboro Councilman Frank LaRocca received $4000.
Kevin McMillian’s name will be above Froelich’s on the ballot in the 11th Legislative District. The Democratic Assembly candidate received a ‘secret’ Birdsall donation of $300 for his 2011 campaign for Neptune Township Committee.
The Star Ledger this morning published a list of the illicit donations throughout the state from Birdsall employees that were reimbursed by the company in a scheme to get around New Jersey’s pay-to-play laws. Both Democrats and Republicans statewide received donations. Of the 1476 illegal campaign contributions made between 2008 and 2012, 761 were made to Democrats. 651 were made to Republicans and 64 are listed as “Other.”
U.S. Senator Bob Menendez has another sex and influence scandal brewing.
This time Menendez is alleged to have had an affair with Cecilia Reynolds, the married publisher of the Freehold based Spanish language newspaper, Nosotros, and to have used the power of his office in an attempt to thwart the federal investigation into his friend, Anibal Acovedo Vila, while Vila was the governor of Puerto Rico, according to a report in The New York Post.
Menendez and Reynolds traveled to Vila’s isolated beach retreat on Puerto Rico in 2007, according NYPost, who report they are in possession of a nude photograph of Reynolds on the beach and another of the couple dressed in shorts with Menendez wrapping his arms around her waist. The photographs and other documentation were provided to NYPost and other media outlets by an anonymous tipster who Reynolds said is a former disgruntled business partner.
Dr. Alieta Eck is not likely to be a U.S. Senator come October 17. She’s yet to choose a campaign manager for her primary race against Steve Lonegan in the August 13 special primary. She does not have a fundraising base nor the personal wealth to pay for a statewide campaign.
Lots of New Jerseyans lost personal wealth when Jon Corzine was governor. Eck told me she lost $200,000 to Corzine in the MF Global debacle. Fortunately she got $180,000 back, but that won’t fund a statewide primary or general election.
Based upon my interview with her, I don’t think she is quite ready to debate Lonegan, or the eventual Democratic nominee, most likely Cory Booker, on any issue other the healthcare, yet. But that could change. Eck is smart.
In honor of the occasion, MMM recommends that every Tea Party member and ‘Certified Constitutionalist’ familiarize themselves with the necessary and proper clause.
Investigators from the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office and the Middletown Township Police Department are seeking the public’s help with information regarding the shooting death of a 30 year old man from the Leonardo section of the Township.
Anthony Capella, 30, was found dead from a gunshot wound in his home at 17 Roop Ave on Wednesday evening, June 19 at approximately 8:25. The Middletown Police responded and contacted the Prosecutor’s Office for a joint investigation.
Acting Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramicconi asks that anyone with information pertaining to the shooting contact Detective Brian Weisbrot of the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office at 1-800-533-7443 or Detective Adam Finck of the Middletown Township Police Department at 732-615-2100.
Governor Chris Christie today ordered that all State buildings will fly flags at half-staff on Monday, June 24, 2013 to recognize the achievements and contributions of actor James Gandolfini.
Gandolfini, best known for his depiction of Tony Soprano in the HBO series The Sopranos, died of a heart attach at age 51 on Wednesday while vacation with his family in Italy.
In a statement issued by his office, Christie said,
James Gandolfini, a New Jersey native born in Westwood, who graduated from Park Ridge High School and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Rutgers University. James Gandolfini enjoyed an extraordinarily successful acting career across television, film and Broadway, including his popularly acclaimed role as Tony Soprano in The Sopranos, and advocated for United States servicemembers and veterans in his two documentaries, Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq and Wartorn:1861-2010. James Gandolfini was an iconic actor and will be remembered for the timeless impact he left upon television and film in the State of New Jersey and across our nation.
The Special Senate Primaries will go forward on August 13 and New Jersey will elect a new U.S. Senator in a Special Election on October 16.
The New Jersey Supreme Court effectively upheld the Appellate Division’s ruling that Governor Christie acted legally in calling for the Special Election yesterday when they declined to hear an appeal of the lower Court’s ruling.
The Special Election had been challenged by Marie Corfield, Joe Grillo and Joseph Danielson. Somerset County Democratic Chairwoman Peg Schaffer was their attorney.
Corfield is a Democratic Assembly candidate from the 16th district (Hunterdon, Middlesex, Mercer and Somerset counties). She lost a special Assembly election to Republican Donna Simon last November. Corfield first came into the public eye when the YouTube video of her exchange with Christie at a 2010 Town Hall meeting went viral.
Grillo is the Executive Director of the Monmouth County Democratic Organization. Danielson is the Chairman of the Franklin Township (Somerset County) Democratic Committee.
The Appellate Division’s ruling can be found here.
Congressman, we’re honored that you asked. We’re happy to accept.
