Today was another disastrous day for Barbara ‘Dawn Quixote’ Buono.
The presumptive Democratic gubernatorial nominee’s campaign announced this morning that the candidate would have a private meeting with President Obama in Asbury Park. They later retracted the statement when news broke that Buono was one of about thirty people to meet the president in Asbury Park’s Convention Hall prior to Obama delivering his public remarks.
When Obama met Buono, he did not know who she was, according to a source who was in the room. “Barbara had to introduce herself to the president,” the source told MMM.
“A senior admin official says that Barbara Buono, a Democrat running for NJ governor, was part of a group of approximately 30 state and local officials who met briefly with Obama before his speech in Asbury Park today. There were both Democrats and Republicans among the state/local electeds present. There was a photo line but no separate meeting,” according to a pool report from Obama’s trip.
Many of my conservative friends and colleagues are panning President Obama’s and Governor Christie’s visit to Asbury Park and Point Pleasant Beach as lacking substance. Some say the presidential visit amounts to Christie assisting Obama in changing the subject away from the scandals the Administration is embroiled in; the IRS, James Rosen, AP, Benghazi.
My friends, you have partisan blinders on.
Last week the Washington Post published an article about regular Jersey Shore vacationers heading to Delaware and North Carolina beaches for their summer vacations, because they think New Jersey is not ready for them this year.
Obama’s remarks today were part sales pitch for the Jersey Shore and part pep talk for those of us who are still fighting and weary, seven months after Superstorm Sandy, to recover. Both the sales pitch and the pep talk were badly needed.
Obama’s visit and remarks will dominate the news cycle for the next 24 hours, or so, give or take. The message he delivered to the world today will bring vacationers and their money to the Jersey Shore. The impact will save businesses, create jobs and help make everything All Right.
Next week Congress will be back in session and the investigations will continue. Right now, I’m more interested in the people who are making their vacation plans this week and in my neighbors who are on the verge of giving up, this week.
President Barack Obama will visit Asbury Park on Tuesday, according to a report at The Star Ledger.
Obama, accompanied by Gov. Chris Christie, is expected to visit with families and business owners, according to the White House. The president’s visit comes roughly 200 days after he toured the region with Christie in the days immediately after the hurricane.
After touring the area, Obama will deliver remarks at Convention Hall in Asbury Park, according to the White House statement. The event at Convention Hall is open to the public. Tickets are limited to one per person and will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis beginning at 1 p.m. Sunday at the Grand Arcade at Convention Hall.
Gov Chris Christie and President Barack Obama greet residents sheltering in Brigantine. Oct 31, 2012. Gov’s Office/Tim Larsen
The A-Team slate of candidates in the Asbury Park election has hired Monmouth County Republican Chairman John Bennett as their attorney to challenge today’s election results.
Bennett told MMM’s Tommy DeSeno that he will be verifying what votes were not counted and why. He said he would also be looking at how many votes of the thrown out absentees may have voted provisionally and still need to be counted.
An A-Team campaign worker told DeSeno that the team believes they can pick up three of the five seats on the City Council. The didn’t win any seats in the unofficial count of machine and vote by mail (absentee) ballots.
The A-Team is comprised of former Councilman James Keady, former board of education member Redmond Palmer, Duanne Small, Nora Hyland and Daniel Harris. The top three A-Team candidates, Keady, Small and Harris, would need to pick up approximately 200 votes that have been rejected in order to over come the leads of the bottom three “unofficial” winners, Myra Campbell, Sue Henderson and John Loffredo.
Keady received 409 votes in the unofficial tally; Small 405 and Harris 388. Unofficial winners Loffredo received 640 votes, Henderson 608 and Campbell 598.
Four candidates of the 22 who ran, lost “unofficially” with more votes than the A-Team’s top three. Incumbent Kevin Sanders, a former mayor and former Republican of the Forward Asbury slate received 574 votes, Joe Woerner of the One Asbury slate received 566 votes, Talesha Crank of One Asbury received 441 votes, William Potter of the Forward Asbury slate received 431 votes, and Gregory Hopson received 428 votes.
The top “unofficial” winners, John Moor with 699 votes and Amy Quinn with 693, both of One Asbury, appear to be safe in what appears to be an inevitable recounted elected.
UPDATE 11:42 PM AsburyParkSun reports that A-Team candidate Jim Keady claims that 332 mail-in ballots have not been counted. Keady said 80 of the ballots were discarded because they were not filled in properly.
John Moor, Amy Quinn, John Loffredo, Sue Henderson and Myra Campbell are the top five vote getters of the 22 candidates for Asbury Park’s City Council, according to the Monmouth County Clerk’s website.
The results include vote by mail ballots according to Debbie who answered the phone at the Board of Elections. Debbie would not give her last name.
Moor, Quinn and Campbell ran together on the One Asbury slate. Incumbents Loffredo and Henderson ran on the Forward Asbury slate in the non-partisan election.
John Loffredo (Forward Asbury Park ticket) and Amy Quinn (One Asbury ticket) are the top guns in the Asbury Park City Council race. That’s not news for me; I’ve known it for years and have let them both know they should be together.
In fact, I thought it was a foregone conclusion that they would run together since it makes so much sense. Had I known they would overlook the obvious I would have lobbied them vigorously over the past 4 years to create a political marriage (or civil union, if that’s your preference).
Just look at the last election. Tickets make it easier for candidates to win, particularly weaker candidates, but Amy Quinn fell just short of being elected while running as an independent. That means she carries a great deal of support on her own, perhaps as much as any individual candidate running this year.
How Loffredo didn’t see the benefits of scooping up Quinn and all her support befuddles me. She was clearly the off-season prize; the league’s most valuable free agent. How Quinn didn’t see the benefits of picking up support from the team who won for the past dozen years amazed me more. It’s like she passed up an opportunity with the Yankees to start her own team. That hasn’t worked out well for the Mets, has it?
What’s a “messenger ballot?” Excuse me if my answer is a bit sketchy, but I’m just learning about it from a group of bad guys who appear to be illegally exploiting it.
I don’t know if other states are doing this, the history of it, the need for it, etc., but here in New Jersey we are learning the perils of not having people show up to vote in person and present identification.
Apparently a “messenger ballot” is allowed when one person acts as a “messenger” for a voter, picks up forms for the voter to be allowed to vote by messenger, then votes for the voter by absentee ballot.
Gee, what could possibly go wrong?
Does the phrase “penchant for fraud” even cross the minds of legislatures when passing such a statute? Or, in a Democrat-controlled legislature like New Jersey, is fraud the goal?
Goal or not, it certainly seems to be the result in Asbury Park, a city poorer than most and more liberal than San Francisco (with a fraction of the feigned sophistication).
Residents of Asbury Park vote for their entire governing body (5 people) all at once, in an off year and in May — when no one is paying attention.
There are 22 people running this year – four “tickets” of 5 people and 2 independents.
Newark Mayor Cory Booker brought his 2014 U.S. Senate exploration to Congressman Frank Pallone’s backyard by endorsing‘Forward Asbury Park,‘ the slate of mostly incumbents running in the May 14 municipal election in Asbury Park.
Booker and Pallone both want U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg’s job when he retires at the end of his current term. The seat is up for grabs in the November 2014 election. Booker and Pallone are unofficially competing for the Democratic nomination.
Pallone has so far stayed out of the Asbury Park municipal election. Booker’s endorsement is a boost for the ‘Forward’ team. If they win, it will be a boost for him in his contest against Pallone.
UPDATE: Asbury Park Sun is reporting that the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office executed a search warrant on the campaign office of ‘The A Team” this afternoon. The report said that the investigators appeared to be looking for ballots. Read the APS report here.
~~
facebook photo
MoreMonmouthMusings has confirmed that the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office is investigating the “A-Team” ticket of Council candidates in upcoming Asbury Park municipal election. That investigation included a visit to the campaign’s Main Street office today.
No arrests have been made.
The ‘A-Team’ consists of five candidates running together for the five council seats, the entire governing body, being contested in the May 14 election. The candidates are former Councilman James Keady, former board of education member Redmond Palmer, Duanne Small, Nora Hyland and Daniel Harris. There are a total of 22 candidates running for the five seats.
After noticing a unusual spike in the request for messenger ballots in the upcoming municipal election in Asbury Park, Monmouth County Clerk M. Claire French instituted a requirement that all messengers sign an affidavit certifying that they have met with voters they are assisting; they are related to the voters or are themselves registered voters in Monmouth County; they will not act as messenger for more than 10 voters; they will deliver the ballots directly to the voters and not to any other individuals; and they are not candidates in the election.
Messengers also certify that they are aware that violating the Voting by Mail statute, which governs messenger ballots, is a crime in the third degree, according to a story first reported by Asbury Park Sun.
Since French started requiring the affidavits on April 17, only 5 of 42 messengers have submitted the paperwork and “almost no new messengers” have requested ballots.
The Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office will investigate messengers who do not return the required affidavits.
Asbury Park elects their entire governing body every four years in non-partisan elections. There are 22 candidates competing for 5 seats on the council in the election scheduled to take place on May 14.
Today was another disastrous day for Barbara ‘Dawn Quixote’ Buono.
