RePatriot Radio

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Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels “Would Like to Run For President”

By Art Gallagher

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels would like to run for president, according to an article in The Huffington Post that quotes a Daniels advisor.

Convincing his wife, Cheri, to support his presidential bid is said to be Daniels challenge.   The Daniels divorced in 1993 and remarried in 1997.  Cheri married and divorced another man during that four year period.  She is said to be reluctant to expose that period of her life to the media spotlight of a presidential campaign.

In addition to his marriage, Daniels will face questions about his role as a senior executive at Eli Lily from 1990 until 2001 when he became President George W. Bush’s budget director.  During his tenure at Lily, the drug maker paid $2.7 billion in fines and damages in criminal and civil matters concerning for illegally marketing two of its drugs.  Lily has said that Daniels had nothing to do with the agreements to settle the criminal charges.

If he gets into the race, Daniels could dominate what is considered by most a weak field on GOP candidates considering a challenge to President Obama in 2012.  He is considered a strong fiscal conservative.  As governor, he put an end to collective bargaining for public service workers, expanded school vouchers, and signed a bill that defunded Planned Parenthood.

Daniels turned a budget deficit into an budget surplus in Indiana.  How he did it will cause some tap dancing for any New Jersey Republicans who decide to back the head Hoosier.  He leased Indiana’s East-West toll road to foreign investors for 75 years, raising $3.8 billion dollars.  Sound familiar?  Jon Corzine might still be governor had he not emulated Daniel’s plan to restructure New Jersey’s fiscal mess.

Republican Governor John Kasich of Ohio is considering toll road monetization in Ohio.  Governor Chris Christie is not likely to do so in New Jersey.

Daniels has close ties to Indiana Senator Richard Lugar, going back to the 1970’s when Lugar was mayor of Indianapolis.  He ran Lugar’s senate office and his campaigns.  He was political director in the Reagan White House, turned down an opportunity to be appointed to Dan Qualye’s U.S. Senate seat to enter the private sector and returned to government service as  Bush’s budget director.

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Governor Christie Doesn’t Want People To Access a Beach

By Joseph Reynolds, Co-Chair, Bayshore Watershed Council

New Jersey’s world famous beaches are a public space that bring people together
as equals. Yet, if Governor Christie gets his way it’s possible that new beach
access rules will dramatically reduce a New Jerseyan’s right to view, use and
enjoy the state’s rivers, bays and coast for fishing, swimming, jogging,
surfing, kayaking, birding, beachcombing, walking the dog, or simply enjoying a
stroll in the surf or along an urban waterfront.

New rules recently announced by NJDEP Commissioner Bob Martin will roll back
years of hard-won progress by placing much of the control and authority over
beach access squarely in the hands of local towns. This is a system that has
proved disastrous for decades, as more than forty years of litigation over easy
public beach access has demonstrated.

Easy access to public beaches is not a tradition in New Jersey. It has only come
about after hard fought litigation between coastal advocates and towns or
business. Decades of poor planning by local politicians and planning boards has
lead to quite a few beachfronts now bordered by either a concrete wall or a wall
of private homes, townhouses, and commercial businesses.

There is a long history of many beach towns working against public access by
limiting on-street parking, limiting access from only dawn to dusk, installing
parking meters, prohibiting food and drink, and providing no public bathrooms.
It seems clear that many coastal towns are not accommodating the public’s right
to enjoy their water, but accommodating their desire to control public land use
for their financial benefit.

New beach access rules will only make matters worse and undo decades of progress
in ensuring the public’s right to walk on their beaches — many of which are
currently maintained with state tax dollars. New rules do not protect
year-round, 24-hour access, nor do they preserve current public access points.
New rules do not offer much in the way of public participation and there is no
provision on how NJDEP will enforce the plan or provide oversight to make sure
coastal communities provide ample and fair beach access.

A Rutgers-Eagleton survey paid for by the Surfrider Foundation recently found
more than 82 percent of those surveyed want towns that get beach replenishment
funds to provide better public access. Yet, the proposed NJDEP public access
rules contain no such requirement.

All of these issues provide great concern to New Jersey residents. Instead of
maximizing public access while ensuring the fair treatment of all people, the
new beach access rules proposed by the Christie administration will divide
people into income groups and put town against town to re-fight battles that
have already been won.

While Governor Christie says you should be able to freely enjoy our state’s
beautiful coastline, unfortunately his new beach access rules will make it
increasingly difficult to reach them.

I strongly encourage you to opposes the new public beach access rules and urge
anyone who wants to protect their right to enjoy New Jersey’s coastal waterways
(including Delaware Bay, the Atlantic Ocean, Barnegat Bay, and the
Hudson/Raritan estuary) to make your voice heard. Please contact Governor
Christie and NJDEP Commissioner Bob Martin to demand that more public hearings
be held so that the working people who will be most severely impacted by the
proposed rules will actually be able to be part of the public discussion.

For more information check out the American Littoral Society at:
http://www.littoralsociety.org/

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Use It Or Lose It

Christie Administration Urges School Districts To Spend $200 Million In Stimulus Funds

There is $200 million in unspent federal stimulus earmarked for New Jersey Schools that will have to be returned to the federal government unless spent by August, according to a report at NJ Spotlight.

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Iowa Republicans Recruiting Christie For President

The Associated Press is reporting that a group of Iowa Republican fundraisers is coming to New Jersey this month with the purpose of recruiting Governor Chris Christie into the race for the 2012 presidential nomination.

Bruce Rastetter, Iowa entrepeneur and GOP fundraiser

The group, is led by Bruce Rastetter, the CEO of Hawkeye Energy Holdings, America’s third largest ethanol producer, will meet with the governor on May 31 at Drumthwacket.

Rastetter, who met Christie last year at a fundraiser for Iowa Governor Terry Branstad last year, is a major player in Iowa politics.  He was the chair of Branstad’s inaugural committee. Branstad appointed Rastetter to the Iowa Board of Regents.

“There isn’t anyone like Chris Christie on the national scene for Republicans,” Rastetter said. “And so we believe that he, or someone like him, running for president is very important at this critical time in our country.”

“He clearly understands smaller government, less government spending, job creation, and how to create a better education system — certainly, all the things I and those accompanying me care about,” Rastetter said.

Christie has been steadfast about not running for president.

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Happy Mothers’ Day

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“She’s Ugly and Orange. I Love Her”

~ my friend’s daughter, a Brookdale student, speaking of Snooki

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Keep your day job Governor

By Art Gallagher

I gave it twenty minutes, but I couldn’t take it anymore.

Governor Chris Christie is far more compelling when speaking policy and politics than he is when talking about sports.   Craig Carton was far more entertaining as a “Jersey Guy” than he was during the twenty minutes I endured watching the Boomer and Carton show on MSG this morning.  Christie is sitting in for Boomer Esiason.

They loved Christie at Harvard.  We love him at his Town Hall meetings.   I have called Christie the best communicator since Ronal Reagan.    Please Governor, when it comes to extended appearances on the radio, stick with Eric Scott and talk about New Jersey.

Maybe someone from the NJEA, Tom Moran or Steve Lonegan will call into the show and make it interesting.

Christie will be on the show until 10 AM.  The number to call in is 877-337-6666.

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Only the Dems can make $500 million = $9 billion.

By Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon

While pandering to his audience at a recent union rally, Democratic Party leader John Wisniewski said the state should raise the state’s income tax and otherwise “find a way” to pay all of its $3.5 billion pension obligation this year. He said, “It’s about keeping a promise.”

If that’s the case, why didn’t Assemblyman Wisniewski and his party make the annual required pension payments when Democrats controlled the Legislature and governor’s office for eight years?

The assemblyman has proposed raising the income tax on our state’s highest-income earners, also our job creators, as a “solution” to funding the $3.5 billion payment. Democrats admit such a tax hike would only garner $500 million.

Yet they have targeted that $500 million to fund $9 billion worth of programs, which also include property tax relief ($2.1 billion), schools ($1.6 billion), job incentives ($800 million), municipal aid ($445 million), preschool funding ($400 million), Medicaid ($300 million) and nursing homes ($70 million).

Seems Assemblyman Wisniewski is using the same type of warped mathematical calculations used to “balance” the state budget over the past decade — which has led us to the brink of fiscal ruin. Of course, if he can seriously explain how $500 million will fund $9 billion, I’m willing to listen. However, we need the answer by June 30, when a balanced budget is due.

I’m confident the various groups Democrats pander to are smart enough to see through this sham and demand the kind of serious reform that will benefit everyone in the long term. I know our taxpayers do.

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NJEA Spending Teachers Dues On Anti-Christie Ads

The New Jersey Education Association has launched an advertising campaign to encourage people to “Tell Christie he’s done enought to help millionaires.”

There is a full page ad on the back page of section A in the print edition of the Asbury Park Press (which is how using the header THE PRESS). Capitol Quickies reports that the ad also appeared in the Home News Tribune, Daily Record and Courier News, all Gannett owned papers.

The ad says “Governor Christie cut our schools, women’s health care and our public safety to give a tax break to millionaires” and touts their website, MillionairesForChristie.com.  The website encourages readers to email their legislators to “to let them know that you’re against Governor Christie helping millionaires.  Its time to protect our schools!”

Readers of the site can also sign a petition to Governor Christie and preview a TV ad that repeats the nonsense.

I wonder why the NJEA waited until after the school board elections to launch this advertising campaign.

Governor Christie has not given any tax breaks to millionaires.  The Democrats let the millionaires tax surcharge expire before Christie took office.  Christie vetoed the reinstatement of the tax last year, just as he promised he would in his campaign.

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