The final debate of the race between U.S. Senator Bob Menendez and State Senator Joe Kyrillos for a 6 year term in the U.S. Senate was taped for television yesterday afternoon. It will air at 9:30 this morning on ABC in Philadelphia and at 11 on ABC in New York. NorthJersey.com reports on the debate here.
Kyrillos will be attending the 14th Dushahra Celebration in Edison this afternoon at 3:50. This morning he makes a South Jersey swing, appearing at the Southern Jersey Jewish Coalition Brunch at the Hotel ML in Mount Laurel at 10:30. At 11:20 he will be attending the Blackwood Pumpkin Festival before heading to Atlantic County for the Smithville Irish Festival at 1:20.
Governor Chris Christie will be campaigning with Kyrillos in Princeton tomorrow, 10:30am at the Princetonian Diner on Route 1.
Joe Kyrillos had a much stronger performance last night in the NJ 101.5/Verizon FIOS1 debate against Bob Menendez than he had last week at Montclair State.
In his opening statement Kyrillos framed the hour as a choice between Menendez’s “Corzine economic strategy of more spending, more taxes and more debt.” With the exception of $46 billion in defense spending cuts Menendez touted, more spending, more taxes and more debt were at the heart of all of the accomplishments the incumbent pointed to as his justification for another term. Throughout the hour Menendez called for more federal spending as the way to improve the economy while Kyrillos called for a “private sector stimulus package” of lower tax rates and less onerous regulation.
Menendez answered the Corzine label by tying Kyrillos to George W. Bush and former Governor Christie Whitman.
“Bob is laughable,” Kyrillos said to the charge that he favors millionaires over the middle class. “Bob protects lots of millionaires. Jon Corzine is one of them, along with the many others he takes money from.”
” I can’t believe you’re still talking about that,” Kyrillos said in answer to Menendez asking “Why would your not reject Mitt Romney’s 47% comment?” “I issued a statement right way saying I support 100% of Americans. Mitt can say what he wants. You issue a lot of press releases Senator, you should read some of mine.”
Each candidate got to ask the other two questions.
In his second question to Kyrillos, Menendez confronted Joe on his “War on Women,” citing 6 votes Monmouth’s senior State Senator cast against funding for women’s health care and a vote that he “walked out on” regarding an equal pay bill. Kyrillos handled it well, point to the “millions” he voted for in women’s health care funding over his career and the need to balance the budget. Regarding the equal pay bill, Kyrillos said, “that was not a women’s bill, it was a lawyers bill. “I don’t women want to sue their bosses. I want them to be the boss!”
Kyrillos questions to Menendez were consistent with the “Corzine economic strategy” theme he had set for the debate. In his first question, Joe asked if, given the economy since Menendez has taken office, would the incumbent senator do anything differently. Menendez rattled off the same talking points he used in both debates so far and proudly said he would do everything the same.
In his second question to Menendez, Kyrillos asked what the incumbents jobs plan, “besides spending more and raising more taxes.” Menendez took the bait and rattled off the federal monies he’s brought to New Jersey’s BioTech companies, solar energy companies and transportation projects.” “That’s all government spending,” Kyrillos said. “No, no, no,’ said Menendez trying to amend his answer before moderator Eric Scott cut him off.
As well as Kyrillos performed, there was no game changing moment that will dominate the news. As he did the the first debate, Menendez performed very well. He has a well practiced script of talking points that he accesses with ease and will not divert from.
The final debate will be on Sunday October 14 at 3PM, during the second half of the Colts/Jets game and the Lions/Eagles games. The will be broadcast on ABC television. Set your DVR.
Who do you think won the second senatorial debate?
U.S. Senate candidates Joe Kyrillos and the incumbent Bob Menendez will square off in their second debate of the campaign tonight at 7PM. NJ 101.5 will broadcast the debate which is being moderated by the radio stations New Director Eric Scott. Verizon FIOS1 will live stream the event.
Questions of the candidates can be called into 1-800-282-1015, sent via text by texting DEBATE to 89000 or via Twitter: #SenateDebateNJ. Additionally, there is will be a live interactive blog on NJ 101.5’s site.
The duplicity of Bob Menendez and the creation of Middle Class ghettos
During Bob Menendez’s first year in the U.S. Senate, 2006, there was a health care bill before the Senate designed to make insurance premiums more affordable for small businesses. The bill would have allowed small businesses to join together as larger groups in order to enjoy the economies of scale in their insurance purchases that large corporations enjoy. Chambers of commerce and other business associations would have been allowed to form groups to decrease the cost of health insurance so that more of the members could afford to insure the health of more of the employees and families.
At the time, I was a leader of the Northern Monmouth Chamber of Commerce and a member of the National Federation of Independent Business. The company I owned was paying 100% of the insurance premiums of its employees. Premiums were raising at about 13% per year. It was getting difficult to continue to provide health insurance. Potential hires who did not need insurance because their spouse’s employer provided it became the most attractive candidates to employ. Increasing insurance premiums consumed what would have been raises to loyal employees.
NFIB was lobbying hard for the bill. It had already passed the Republican House and President Bush had indicated he would sign the bill if it passed in the Senate. The Republican Senate majority support for the bill but the Democrats were filibustering. NFIP worked its members to contact their Democratic Senators asking that they stop the filibuster and allow the bill to be voted on.
I wrote Mendendez and Senator Frank Lautenberg asking that they support the bill. As I expected, they didn’t and the bill never made it to the Senate floor vote. Lautenberg wrote back thanking me for contacting him. Menendez wrote back telling me why he supported the bill that he voted to defeat.
Menendez’s reelection campaign is just as duplicitous as his letter to me in June of 2006.
The theme of our junior senator’s campaign is The Middle Class Is Under Attack. He says he’s fighting for the Middle Class and wants to rebuild the economy from the “middle out.”
U. S. Senator Bob Menendez was in Belleville, NJ. on September 25 looking for votes from American Veterans and throwing around Presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s “47 percent” remark. Menendez likes to contrast himself with Romney. He told the veterans how much he understands them and their lives. What a joke.
How can he? How can a career politician like Bob Menendez play the champion of the “middle class” when he has lived as a member of that most elite of elites, the “political class”, for nearly all of his adult life? In other words, he is that rarity of rarities – a one percenter among one percenters.
Starting out as a young man on the make, Bob Menendez hitched on to corrupt Union City boss Mayor Musto and became one of his ardent henchmen – until a palace coup got rid of Boss Musto and replaced him with Boss Menendez. And what kind of a boss was Bob Menendez? To know the politician, you must go back to his roots, in Union City, back when he had his first taste of power, back when he was Mayor Menendez – boss of Union City.
In the winter of 1988, a story broke about an American veteran, down on his luck, living in low income housing, stuck in Union City. The Record (Bergen County) carried this report on December 9, 1988:
If case you missed it, view the debate between U.S. Senator Bob Menendez and State Senator Joe Kyrillos here.
Joe Kyrillos held is own tonight, but did not do what he need to do to close the gap in the polls and make a race of his contest to unseat Bob Menendez.
Menendez came better prepared to attack Kyrillos and better prepared to defend himself. The incumbent U.S. Senator seemed to have a better command of the facts, higher energy and was clear about the message he wanted to convey.
Kyrillos came off halting, uncomfortable and unclear in his message.
In the second half hour, Kyrillos seemed to step up his game. But his efforts to “land a punch” fell flat as his delivery was cautious and reserved. It was if he was trying to land a punch while being nice about it.
I don’t see the race changing much based upon what happened tonight. It’s not over, as there are two more debates and a month of campaigning. Most voters are not yet focused on the down ballot offices. Joe need to step up his game.
GOP U.S. Senate candidate Joe Kyrillos continues to introduce himself to New Jersey voters with the release of his third television ad today.
Here’s the script:
Joe Kyrillos: “I’ve talked to job creators from Burlington to Bergen, they tell me the same thing. Taxes, regulations, unfair competition from China, are killing jobs. My jobs plan will put America back to work. It reduces job killing regulations, streamlines government, and levels the playing field with China. Governor Christie and I are making progress in New Jersey, now it’s time to put America back to work.
Kyrillos’s opponent, incumbent Senator Bob Menendez has gone negative against Kyrillos in recent weeks with his “The Middle Class is Under Attack” theme. Menendez and his surrogates, former acting Governor Richard Codey and Newark Mayor Cory Booker, have been attempting to link Kyrillos to Mitt Romney’s “47%” comment .
Kyrillos is promoting his partnership with Governor Christie and their methods as the way to “put America back to work.”
What do you think MMM readers? Can Kyrillos beat Menendez by staying positive? Does Christie help Kyrillos more than Codey and Booker help Menendez? Will the ads work?
James O’Keefe, the independent journalist and president of Project Veritas who has exposed corruption and malfeasance at ACORN, NPR, the NJEA and Planned Parenthood , released the second video in a series that exposes corruption at SEIU yesterday.
O’Keefe secretly records his meeting with SEIU leaders as he is ostensibly seeking government funding for his project of digging ditches and refilling them.
SEIU Local 617 President Rahaman Muhammad is caught on camera exclaiming that U.S. Senator Bob Menendez would be enthusiastic about the project.
“Menendez is going to be like, ‘Oh for real? SEIU, Oh, good, great!” Muhammad says at the 1:53 mark of the video.
Menendez is not the only politician the union officials discuss. The other is Newark Mayor Cory Booker who fares better, or worse if you believe in wasteful government spending. Booker is not a supporter of the working class, in the assessment of the SEIU officials recorded.
Last week Kyrillos for U.S. Senate campaign manager Chapin Fay said the campaign planned to win every county that Chris Christie won in 2009, plus Bergen County, which Christie narrowly lost.
Kyrillos will need to comeback stronger than Bucky Dent’s 1978 Yankees in order for that to happen, if the Monmouth University-Gannett poll released this morning in on the mark. U.S. Senator Bob Menendez has widened his lead over Kyrillos from 9 points in July to 15 points today.
“I’m the moderate in this race,” Kyrillos declared to just under 2000 Bergen County Republican and Independent voters on a tele-town hall last week. While his message seemed to resonate with participants on the call who expressed their concerns for jobs, the skyrocketing national debt and gridlock in Washington, Kyillos’s message that he is ” a different kind of Republican,” as he is called in one of his TV ads, does not seem to be landing with Independents throughout the state who now favor Menendez 42% to 26%. In a July Monmouth poll, Kyrillos and Menendez were tied among Independents at 32% each.
President Obama’s coattails seem to be the determining factor in the U.S. Senate race. Obama was always expected to win New Jersey, but the Kyrillos camp believed that if Obama’s margin of victory was less than 10%, that Menendez could be beaten. Obama is widened his lead in New Jersey from 8 points in July to 15 points today, according to the poll.
