Governor Chris Christie is enjoying his highest approval ratings to date in New Jersey, according to a Monmouth University/NJ Press Media Poll released this morning.
55% of registered voters approve of the Governor compared to 37% who disapprove. Among women there was a 15 point swing in favor of the governor. 53% of women approve while 40% disapprove. In an August Monmouth poll, 45% of women approved of Christie and 48% disapproved.
Among Independents, 58% approve of Christie and 34% disapprove.
Monmouth Polling Director Patrick Murray’s questions and his narrative of the poll focused on the national attention that Christie has enjoyed during his fund raising trip, his speech at the Reagan Library, and the speculation over whether or not he would run for president. Christie’s preparation for and response to Hurricane Irene were not specifically addressed in this poll.
Despite his increased popularity, New Jersey is not optimistic that Christie will be able to forward his agenda through the Democratic legislature. 54% of New Jerseyans say that the Democratic leaders in the legislature are not working well with Christie compared to 32% who say they have been working well together. Among Independents, 59% say the Democrats and Christie are not working so well together.
Today’s Monmouth poll is consistent with the FDU poll released on September 27. In the FDU poll, while 54% of New Jersey voters approved of Christie, 47% said that the state is on the wrong track.
As on wrote after the FDU poll and as InTheLobby wrote yesterday Christie has an opportunity to lead the electorate into giving him a more cooperative legislature, just as he led the electorate to defeat 59% of the school budgets in 2010 when his approval numbers were not nearly as strong as they are today.
Christie has said that he doesn’t think the legislative elections will be a referendum on his performance “given the map” that is gerrymandered to favor a Democratic legislature. In a normal year, Christie would probably be right about that.
However this is not a normal year. It is not normal for a sitting governor to enjoy 55% approval ratings when unemployment is at 9.4% half way through his term. With the exception a the few “competitive” districts, there has been no campaign to speak of. Christie has an opportunity here to close the gap between Democrats and Republicans in the legislature. Taking control of at least one house of the legislature is not impossible. It is not likely, but it is not impossible if Christie asks the electorate to give it to him.
Assemblywoman Mary Pat Angelini will be the guest of former Senator Richard LaRossa and Art Gallagher this afternoon on the Real Jersey Guys Radio Show from 5PM-5:30PM.
Angelini will be addressing the recently enacted “anti-bullying” law, of which she was a supporter, and Governor Christie’s reform agenda for New Jersey.
During the second half-hour, 11th District Democratic Assembly candidate Vin Gopal will be our guest.
The Real Jersey Guys Radio Show, sponsored by Repatriot Radio, is broadcast every Tuesday afternoon from 5pm-6PM on WIFI AM 1460 and here on the Internet.
Multiple media sources are reporting that Governor Chris Christie will endorse Mitt Romney for President during a press conference in New Hampshire at 3PM this afternoon.
Locally, news of Christie’s endorsement has had a negative reaction from Bayshore Tea Party Group founder Barbara Gonzalez who sent an “urgent” email to the group’s members and other Tea Party group leaders asking that they “take a leap of faith” and endorse Herman Cain for President.
“THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT WE ANTICIPATED WHEN HERMAN CAIN STARTED TO RISE IN THE POLLS”, wrote Gonzalez,
First, Christie was dragged out to run for President, and when that didn’t work, he is off to endorse Romney.
Are we really going to sit here and let them do this? Do you see what is happening here?
I know some of you don’t agree with me, but I am not going to sit back and let them dictate to me who is going to be the next President.”
Its four weeks before election day, yet it hardly looks like campaign season throughout much of Monmouth County. Lawn signs are scarce in the parts of the county where I’ve traveled. I’ve only received one mailer.
The Asbury Park Press is doing their usual interviews of legislative and county candidates, but you’d have to go looking to find the write ups.
Governor Chris Christie’s presidential consideration has commanded much of the political attention and dominated the news. The legislative races are uncompetitive. Campaign money is scarce due to stifling pay to play laws and the poor economy.
Voter turnout is historically very low in years when the legislature is the top race. 2007 was the last such year. In Monmouth County 128,169 people voted in 2007. The following year, when Obama was elected, 292,037 people voted. 200,199 voted in the gubernatorial election of 2009 and 179,133 voted in the congressional elections last year. There are 379,431 registered voters in Monmouth County, according to Labels and Lists.
Marlboro is the exception. The Democratic incumbents, Mayor Jon Hornick running with Council members Frank LaRocca and Randi Marder are running hard to retain their offices. On paper, the municipal race in Marlboro should be a sleeper like the rest of the races in the county. Democrats have a 2619 voter registration edge in the township. The Republican organization is fractured and much of its best talent is supporting the Democrats. The underfunded Republican upstart candidates are relative newbies to the political process.
Yet legacy Mayor Jon Hornick and his team are running as if their lives, or livelihoods, depend upon it. They been advertising on NJ.com, they have billboards, lawn signs and mailers. They raised a lot of money and they are spending it.
With little organizational support, the scrappy underfunded team of Craig Marshall for Mayor running with Christopher Dean and Marianne Duffy-Longobardi for Council appear to be making a race of it.
The legislative races are snoozers. The county races are comatose, as are most municipal races. Marlboro is the only game around so MMM will focus on it over the next few weeks.
By Caroline Casagrande, also published in the October 6, 2011 edition of the triCityNews
Elections are about choices. And this year you have a clear choice: do you want to continue the new path of fiscal responsibility that started in 2009 with the election of Chris Christie, or go back to the bad old days?
My name is Caroline Casagrande and I’m running for the Assembly in the 11th Legislative District, along with my friends Senator Jennifer Beck and Assemblywoman Mary Pat Angelini. I’ve served parts of Monmouth County in the Legislature since 2008.
I believe we are the best candidates to represent you and keep us on the path to fiscal responsibility. Making New Jersey affordable for families and businesses, creating jobs, and restoring faith in a government which had become a punchline for late-night comedians is something that affects everyone, regardless of your gender, religion, or sexual orientation.
Those are the things I’ve been focused on since being elected four years ago and those are things I will focus on if I am re-elected.
Dan has given me this space to introduce myself to you. I thought I’d use the opportunity to set the record straight, then tell you a little about myself in my own words, rather than you hearing about me from someone who’s constantly hyperventilating.
Dan had been attacking me lately for, in his view, not taking a position on gay marriage. What I’ve said is I’m not going to speculate on hypothetical legislation. On issues like this, it’s easy to be for or against something in theory, but the details are the difference. That’s the approach I take on every bill I vote on- show me the details. Unfortunately, in the black and white, Keith Olbermann- Sean Hannity world we live in, this approach is now seen as a moral failing.
Of course, being lectured on political cowardice by Dan is the ultimate irony. This is the same person who was voted out of office after only one term after voting for the massive $2.8 billion Florio tax hikes in 1990, because he caved when pressure was put on him by the Trenton Democrats. It’s easy to understand why Dan would want to talk about other issues with that hanging around his neck.
In this difficult economic environment, people want leaders with the courage to cut spending, reduce the size of government, and get out of the pockets of businesses and families who can’t afford to pay any more. On those issues, the differences between us are clear: I’ve been a fierce advocate for them, and Dan voted for the largest tax increase in state history.
Let me explain a little about myself and why I’m so concerned about the direction of our state. I was born and raised in Monmouth County and I am currently raising my own family here with my husband Steve and our two young sons, Harrison and Teddy. I graduated from Red Bank Catholic, Penn State University and received my law degree from Rutgers. I am on the Board of Trustees of the Girl Scouts of Monmouth County and the Visiting Nurses Association.
In 2007, I decided to run for the General Assembly because runaway property tax increases (and tax increases of every other kind) were making New Jersey unaffordable for many families and businesses.
I come from a close-knit family. I want my parents to stay in New Jersey. I want my brothers and sisters to be able to afford to live here so my kids can hang out with their cousins. Government shouldn’t be taxing and spending to the point of breaking up families, but that’s what was happening. New Jersey was on the brink of financial disaster and no one seemed to care.
For example, in 2007 the Democrat controlled Legislature passed a $33.5 billion budget, capping a five year span where they raised the budget, $10 BILLION. That’s 50%! In just 5 years! Rather than do something crazy, like maybe spend less money, Governor Corzine was considering selling the Garden State Parkway and the New Jersey Turnpike.
Since 2009 with the election of Governor Christie, we have been able to start to undo the bad economic policies of the past that lead to tens of thousands of people and jobs fleeing our state. We have begun to restore fiscal sanity to our state and create private-sector jobs.
Last spring I voted for bi-partisan reform of the state’s pension and benefits system that will save taxpayers $120 billion over the next 30 years, and preserved the retirements for thousands of workers.
I voted to enact the 2% municipal cap legislation that forces local governments to live within its means and helps stabilize property taxes.
I have made it a point to root out arrogant and wasteful spending of your tax dollars. I’m leading the fight to forbid public employees from cashing in any unused sick and vacation time. I changed the law this year to increase penalties on people committing Medicaid fraud.
I created a web site www.stopgovernmentwastenj.com, for public workers to report waste, such as the fact the state used to waste $3.2 million per year on unused phone lines.
I will continue to fight for taxpayers and look for more ways to reduce the size and cost of government. Unlike my opponents, I will never support job-killing tax increases and will work to find bi-partisan solutions to the challenges facing our state. I hope I have earned your support on the issues that matter most to working families.
I would like to address a question recently presented to me by supporters of my opposition concerning my campaign for town council and the fact that my wife is a member of the Board of Education. I was advised that I shouldn’t have let my wife run for the Board of Education and just run my own campaign.
How ridiculous. This is not 1920 and no one tells her what to do. Both my wife and I are committed to public service. We are both veterans of the Navy, having honorably served our country. At that time, no one said that only one family member should serve, the Navy was happy to have us both serve, and they knew we were dedicated service persons.
My wife serves on the School Board with no salary or benefits and I pledge, if elected, to serve the town of Marlboro and not take one dime in salary or benefits. Which is more than I can say for all the incumbents up for election this year.
The only possible time that there could be a concern is if the school budget fails and the council is asked to vote on a budget. At that time, I will have no choice but to recuse myself from that vote. But since that circumstance has only happened once in the last ten years at the k-8 level, I don’t see the concern. In fact, under those odds, I still would have a better voting record than a current councilman who has only voted on the township budget twice in the last 6 years.
It is sad that instead of joining like minded families in commitment of service to others, the opposition would rather tear us down and find fault with our service. Of course, these alleged concerns don’t apply to them, after all there is no cause for concern with the Mayor, Deputy Mayor and Council Member are all named partners in a local law firm or the Council President’s husband is receiving no-bid contracts from the town.
Governor Chris Christie is not the only Jersey Guy who announced yesterday that he is not running for president. On the Real Jersey Guys Radio Show with former Senator Dick LaRossa and Art Gallagher yesterday afternoon, Scott Sipprelle, last years GOP nominee for Congress in the 12th Congressional District, said he’s not running either.
Following suit, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin told Mark Levin that she’s also not running.
If you missed the show with Sipprelle, here’s a recording:
Ferraina: “I got $600,000? That’s not much,” he said. “There, you want a headline? ‘That’s not much.’
Casagrande: “Those are dollars that would be better served in the classroom”
Retired Long Branch School Superintendent Joseph Ferraina collected $616,123 in unused sick and vacation pay, not all at once in a lump sum at retirement, but over the course of course of his last ten years on the job, according to a report published at LongBranchPatch.
Go read the article. It is an outstanding piece of journalism by reporter Joe Malinconico who discovered the payments via an Open Public Records Act request and conducted a 57 minute phone interview with Ferraina.
According to LongBranchPatch, the records and Ferraina indicate that the educator only took off time from work if a close family member died; a half day for his father in 2004, a four hours when his brother died in 2005 and a partial day when his son died in 2008. On the day of his son’s funeral he went to work first thing in the mornin, left at 8:45 am, fifteen minutes before the services started, and was back at his desk by 2 pm.
Ferriana’s salary was $244,999 when he retired in June. His annual pension is $154,710.
Assemblywoman Caroline Casagrande said Ferraina’s $600K was essentially taken from school children by legislative leaders who have refused to outlaw the practice of paying public employees for unused sick and vacation time.
“This is another example of a system that allows dollars to come out of the classroom and into the pockets of administrators,” Casagrande said. “We had a bipartisan compromise bill that addressed part of the problem and Governor Christie recommended a way to fix the problem, which I support.
“Legislators who agreed this practice is wrong should work with me to enact Governor Christie’s changes so we can end the payout of unused time before there is another example of wasted tax dollars,” Casagrande added.
Casagrande, R-Monmouth, sponsors a bill, A-4193, that incorporates the Governor’s recommendations to ban public employees from cashing in unused sick and vacation days. It incorporates recommendations made by Governor Christie to strengthen a legislative proposal that was approved by the Legislature last year. But Trenton Democratic legislative leaders have refused to advance an outright ban, just a cap on the amount public employees can cash in.
“Those are dollars that would be better served in the classroom,” Casagrande said. “As long as this practice is legal, public employees will continue to use it and every day legislative leaders delay, is another day accrued for public employees, which adds up to many dollars taken from taxpayers and school children.
“These golden parachutes are especially egregious in these trying economic times,” Casagrande added.
