NJ budget suffers another setback with $600M hole in April (via NJ.com)
TRENTON — New Jersey’s budget will take a big hit in April to the tune of $600 million, state officials announced today, warning that one of the best months for tax collections has been seriously behind Gov. Chris Christie’s expectations. The…
Chris Christie promotes Jersey Shore summer, aims not to fight on boardwalk (via NJ.com)
SEASIDE HEIGHTS — Gov. Chris Christie said Friday that his family’s summer plans include plenty of time at the Jersey Shore. Just don’t expect to catch him arguing on the boardwalk, he said. The governor visited Seaside Heights on Friday to survey…
Chris Christie lashes out at bridge scandal critics who say his attitude inspired lane closures (via NJ.com)
BRICK — Gov. Chris Christie today sharply dismissed critics who say he may have created a culture of brashness and retaliation that led his staff members to orchestrate last year’s controversial lane closures at the George Washington Bridge. The…
Photo by Paul Scharff
Throughout the relative austerity of the last five state budgets, Governor Chris Christie somehow managed to spend $100 million in cancer research through Rutgers Cancer Institute. In his current proposed budget for fiscal year 2015 (July 1, 2014-June 30, 2015), Christie has proposed funding the program at the same level it was funded in fiscal years 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013, $18 million.
Christie proposed spending $18 million in the FY 2014 budget too. In negotiations with the legislature the amount was raised to $28 million for the current year.
Now Rutgers Cancer Institute and their friends at The Star Ledger are spinning the new $18 million proposed for the coming year as a cut of $10 million.
Posted: April 22nd, 2014 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: Chris Christie, Rutgers | Tags: Cancer research, Chris Christie, Rutgers Cancer Institute | Comments Off on Christie spends $100 million on cancer research, proposes to spend $18 million more in coming year
Chris Christie’s comments spark debate over realty transfer fees in NJ (via NJ.com)
FRANKLIN — Several months ago, Scott Packwood, a retired state trooper, started looking for a smaller, less expensive place for his family to live. The eldest of two daughters was planning to move out after graduating from college, and the family’…
Magyar admits mistake, promises to fix it but doesn’t
By Art Gallagher, [email protected]
Monmouth University pollster Patrick Murray responded to my post this morning, Patrick Murray is emphatic that his next poll will be negative for Christie, about his quote in Mark Magyar’s anti-Chistie spin piece on NJSpotlight with an email asserting that his analysis was mischaracteriszed.
Patrick Murray
Murray provided an email exchange between himself and Magyar wherein Magyar admits his mistake and promises to fix it.
Murray said:
My assessment of what is likely to happen to public opinion going forward was based on an analysis of the underlying dynamics of my own poll released on April 2 — specifically the public’s underlying initial skepticism of the Mastro report was in my own poll and my analysis of potential movement in that opinion. Mark, by his own admission, mischaracterized my analysis, which was based on actual public opinion data that I have collected and analyzed.
In the NJSpotlight piece, Magyar quoted Murray as follows:
A Quinnipiac Poll released last week showed that 56 percent of New Jerseyans regarded the report as a “whitewash” and only 36 percent believed it to be a “legitimate investigation.” Even more ominously, 65 percent of voters knew of the Hoboken case, and 57 percent of that group believe Zimmer’s allegation that the Christie administration improperly withheld Sandy aid from her city because she refused to support the Rockefeller Group development.
Murray said he expected to see similar results in his next Monmouth Poll. “It will be negative. This is not going to be positive,” Murray stated emphatically, asserting that the controversy over the Mastro report clearly resonated with voters. “The question now with Christie is, ‘Have we hit a floor where a certain percentage of people will defend him no matter what, and everyone else will attack him?’”
Murray corrected Magyar in a email at 9;32 this morning:
By Art Gallagher, [email protected]
UPDATE 4:15PM: Murray says Magyar/NJSpotlight mischaracterised his analysis. Read the next chapter here.
Monmouth University pollster Patrick Murray already knows that his next poll about Bridgegate and the Mastro Report, will have an negative outcome for Governor Chris Christie.
Murray is quoted by Mark Magyar in a NJSpotlight piece posted this morning saying emphatically that his next poll will have negative results.
“The Mastro report raised more questions than it answered about what is going on in the Christie administration,” Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, noted. “Now, the release of the memos has raised even more questions, including questions about the credibility of the Mastro report itself.”
Murray said he could not imagine what Christie and his top advisers were thinking when they settled on their current legal and political strategy. “Every time they put something out, they undercut their credibility,” he said. “Everything they do provides fodder that keeps this investigation alive and keeps this story alive. The report was overly protective of the governor, and now everyone is looking through the memos to see what the report left out. Nothing gets settled, everything looks worse.”
A Quinnipiac Poll released last week showed that 56 percent of New Jerseyans regarded the report as a “whitewash” and only 36 percent believed it to be a “legitimate investigation.” Even more ominously, 65 percent of voters knew of the Hoboken case, and 57 percent of that group believe Zimmer’s allegation that the Christie administration improperly withheld Sandy aid from her city because she refused to support the Rockefeller Group development.
Murray said he expected to see similar results in his next Monmouth Poll. “It will be negative. This is not going to be positive,” Murray stated emphatically, asserting that the controversy over the Mastro report clearly resonated with voters. “The question now with Christie is, ‘Have we hit a floor where a certain percentage of people will defend him no matter what, and everyone else will attack him?’” (emphasis added)
Murray enjoys a well-earned reputation for producing polls that most accurately match the results of elections in New Jersey. However, his declaration of a poll’s results before he’s asked a question raises serious questions about his credibility as a political scientist and the perceived “independence” of his analysis.
In fairness I should point out that it is possible that Murray already conducted his survey and hasn’t reported the results yet.
Posted: April 16th, 2014 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: 2016 Presidential Politics, Bridgegate, Chris Christie, Dawn Zimmer, Hoboken, Monmouth University Poll, NJ Media, Patrick Murray | Tags: Bridgegate, Mark Magyar, Mastro Report, Monmouth Poll, NJSpotlight, Patrick Murray, Randy Mastro, Robert Del Tufo | Comments Off on Patrick Murray is emphatic that his next poll will be negative for Christie
He Said, She Said: Quotable Moments From The Bridgegate Interviews (via NJSpotlight)
Newly released documents offer additional details about the scandals enveloping the Christie Administration. The documents are summaries of interviews with 70 people that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s lawyers conducted as part of an internal review…
Christie: President is putting off ‘bad’ parts of Obamacare ‘until he’s almost out the door’ (via NJ.com)
FRANKLIN — Gov. Chris Christie today said he did not yet know how President Obama’s health care overhaul would ultimately affect New Jersey because the president kept delaying the law’s most detrimental aspects. “What effect it will have is very hard…
Chris Christie calls for unlimited campaign donations with 48-hour reporting period (via NJ.com)
FRANKLIN — Gov. Chris Christie today called for the U.S. to allow for unlimited donations to political campaigns, followed by a 48-hour period where the donors must disclose their contributions. “If somebody wants to write me a $100,000 check to my…
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