Ed The Barber Is Running For Senate

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Dems File Suit To Stop Senate Special Election

Somerset County Democratic Chairwoman Peg Schaffer filed an emergency lawsuit yesterday with the NJ Superior Court Appellate Division to stop the Special Primary and Election that Governor Chris Christie called on Tuesday, according to a report on PolitickerNJ.

The Special Primary is scheduled for August 13.  The Special Election is scheduled for October 16.  Democratic and Republican Primary candidates must submit petitions with 1000 valid signatures by 4pm on Monday June 10 in order to get on the ballot. Independent or third party candidates must file petitions with 1000 valid signatures by August 13.

NorthJersey.com reports that the Appellate Court has ruled that the suit can proceed.

The plaintiffs are Marie Corfield, Joe Grillo and  Joseph Danielson.

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State Attorney General Jeff Chiesa is New Jersey’s New U.S. Senator, Effective Monday June 10

Chiesa will serve until the results of the October 16 Special Election are certified.

He will not run for the office.

Jeff Chiesa has served as the Attorney General of New Jersey since January 2012. He received bipartisan support from leaders on both sides of the aisle, and was confirmed by a unanimous vote in the State Senate.

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PolitickerNJ: Christie May Appoint A Placeholder To U.S. Senate

David Samson

PolitickerNJ is reporting that “several Republican sources” told them that Governor Chris Christie could appoint former State Attorney General David Samson to New Jersey’s vacant U.S. Senate seat as early as today.

Samson would be a placeholder, meaning that he would not run in the Special Election Christie called for October 16 to retain the seat.

Samson was Attorney General during the first year of the McGreevey administration.  He served in Governor Tom Kean’s administration as General Counsel to the NJ Turnpike Authority and as Chairman of the Governor’s Commission on the Laws Governing the University of Medicine and Dentistry (UMDNJ).  In the Florio administration, Samson was a member of the Governor’s Commission on Health Care Costs.

Samson was counsel to Christie’s 2009 gubernatorial campaign and Chairman of Christie’s Transition Team. Christie nominated Samson to Chair the Port Authority of New York/New Jersey, a position he has held since February of 2011.

Christie was U.S. Attorney while Samson was State Attorney General. Both of their lives were threatened by the Latin Kings street gang.

Samson is a founding member of the Wolf and Samson law firm.  The firm has offices in West Orange, New York and Trenton.

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Bayshore Tea Party Blames Steve Lonegan For Primary Loss. Won’t Support Him For U.S. Senate

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

Bayshore Tea Party Group co-founder Barbara Gonzalez blames her candidates’ landslide defeat in the GOP primary on Steve Lonegan.

In a post on faceback early Wednesday morning Gonzalez said that Lonegan, the former Bogota Mayor, former gubernatorial candidate and former Executive Director of Americans for Prosperity-NJ, promised financial support to Leigh-Ann Bellew and her team, only to renege.

“Steve Lonegan turned his back on Bayshore’s candidates after promising to help. He left us in the lurch and reneged….think about that before you get his petitions signed. Another blowhard. We would have won if we had the money/donations that he promised would come. We went on and did it ourselves and got 20% with NO money.! He can forget about our support!”

Wednesday afternoon Gonzalez wrote,

“Lonegan could have had some hard ass worker bees if he didn’t screw
Bayshore TPG. Oh well.”

Lonegan is so far the only Republican candidate of note to announce an intention to seek the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in the Special Primary on August 13.

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Governor, Please consider Caroline Casagrande for Senate

Assemblywoman Caroline Casagrande

It’s not even close to her turn and she’s not a white male.  That’s only two good reasons that Governor Chris Christie should appoint one of New Jersey’s Rising Stars to the U.S. Senate.

Assemblywoman Caroline Casagrande is smart, articulate, conservative and happy.  Voters love happy conservatives.  Angry conservatives are scary to moderates and Independent voters.  Happy conservatives appeal to moderates and Independent voters.

Casagrande’s  pro-growth, pro-family, pro-women conservative policy positions belong on the national stage. She could help rebrand the Republican Party with her fellow Penn State alumnus Senator Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire.  Imagine that.  Two Northeast female Republican U.S. Senators.

Steve Lonegan, a scary angry conservative, has declared he’s running in the Special Republican Primary for U.S. Senate. Lonegan could win a primary against a moderate Jon Bramnick, Tom Kean Jr or Joe Kyrillos.  He can’t beat Cory Booker, Frank Pallone or Rush Holt in October.

Bramnick, Kean or Kyrillos are not likely to be able to gear up fast enough to beat Booker in October either.

If Caroline Casagrande were the temporary U.S. Senator, Lonegan would have no philosophical justification to challenge her.  None.  Republicans best chance of winning the Senate seat in October, and again next November, is if we coalesce behind a conservative woman now.

Casagrande has already caught the eye of many national leaders.  Earlier this year she was asked to be on the national leadership team of the Susan B. Anthony List. In 2010 she traveled to Nepal as a delegate of the American Council of Young Political Leaders, a State Department sponsored organization that creates opportunities for the next generation of political leaders.  She’s been invited to travel to Israel this summer by the American Jewish Council.

Casagrande would be an out of the box choice. She would appeal to both the conservative and moderate wings of the Party. She would appeal to Independent voters, Reagan Democrats, women and small business owners and employees, i.e., most of the New Jersey electorate. She would be a fresh face that the local and national media would appreciate and cover.

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Never Underestimate Chris Christie

By Art Gallagher

Who else but Chris Christie could pull off an October surprise in June?

When the Governor’s announcement of a Special U.S. Senate election in October prompted knee-jerk angry responses from national Republicans, New Jersey Democrats and New Jersey wingnuts, I figured he must be onto something good.

As my young friend, New Jersey Rising Star Matt Rooney pointed out this morning, there was a better than even risk that the NJ Supreme Court would side with Trenton Democrats and overrule Christie if he appointed a temporary Senator to serve until November of 2014.  The NJ Supremes could then overreach their authority and dictate that the special election be held in November of this year.

I once heard an honest Judge congratulate litigants for settling their differences, for keeping their destinies in their own hands, rather than turn their fates over to unpredictable third parties.  By choosing the route to fill the late Senator Frank Lautenberg’s seat that he did, Christie limited the possibility that his gubernatorial power would be taken over by the Court.

The conventional punditry seems to assume that whichever Republican Christie chooses to temporally fill the seat until the special election will inevitably lose to Newark Mayor Cory Booker in October.  I’m not convinced that is the case.

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Understanding October Logic

Faced with Three Bad Options, Christie’s U.S. Senate Strategy Might Be the Least Terrible

By Matt Rooney, SaveJersey.com

You’ve already heard from plenty of angry conservatives/Republicans who think Governor Christie’s uber-controversial U.S. Senate vacancy timeline is tantamount to high treason. Our own Irwin Fletcher is on record believing it’s a huge mistake.

Allow me to play devil’s advocate for a moment without risking a verbal stoning from a digital lynch mob?

When Frank Lautenberg left this earth, Save Jerseyans, Chris Christie was faced with three legal options:

(1) Hold a special U.S. Senate election coinciding with this November’s general election;

(2) Wait until November 2014 for a vote; or

(3) Pick a date between now and November for a separate special election.

Let’s hypothesize how each scenario would likely pan out for the GOP…

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Christie’s Announcement Of U.S. Senate Special Election

Transcript:

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Christie Calls For Special U.S. Senate Election

Governor Chris Christie announced this afternoon that there will be a special election to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Frank Lautenberg’s seat for October 16.  A primary will be held on August 13.

Christie has not yet decided who he will appoint the to fill the seat until October 16.  He said he expects to make the appointment in time for the Senate’s voting session next week.

Christie said he didn’t think it was right that he make an appointment through November 2014.

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