Tax revenues indicate that New Jersey’s economy is on the upswing

New Jersey’s tax revenues exceeded projections for the seventh consecutive month and income tax collections were the highest ever in June, even without a “millionaires tax.”

The Treasury Department announced yesterday, that income tax collections in fiscal 2013 were 12.4% higher that in fiscal 2012 (the fiscal year ends on June 30) and sale tax collections increased 3.7%.

The State’s fiscal 2013 revenue collections through June totaled $25.6 billion, $1.58 billion higher than in fiscal 2012.

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Wake up call

Dirty Trick Alleged in LD 13

A robo call went out to Republican primary voters in the 13th Legislative District at 4am this morning urging people to vote for Senator Joe Kyrillos and Assembly Members Amy Handlin and Declan O’Scanlon.

“You have four hours to get out and vote…” the call said.  The obvious impression was that the call was supposed to go out at 4PM.

The Monmouth GOP did not order the call.  Kyrillos, Handlin and O’Scanlon did not order the call. Both campaigns say they had no calls scheduled for 4PM.

The caller ID was a secondary number of Monmouth GOP’s, yet the call did not mention the county candidates, Sheriff Shaun Golden or Freeholders Tom Arnone and Serena DiMaso.

O’Scanlon said the call looks to be a dirty trick.

Monmouth GOP Chairman John Bennett is furious. He said the call was a crime. He’s gathering data and plans to file a complaint with the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office this afternoon.

“We’ve never had this from the Democrats and they have not had it from us,” Bennett said, “I’m not accusing anyone, but we will get to the bottom of it and file a criminal complaint. This was a dirty trick and attempted voter suppression, pure and simple.”

Both Bennett and O’Scanlon said they became aware of the call before 4:30 this morning when they received phone calls from friends who had been woken up by the call.

MMM left a voice mail and a text with Bayshore Tea Party Group cofounder Barbara Gonzalez asking if she knows anything about the 4am robocall.  Gonzalez has yet to respond. The Bayshore Tea Party Group is supporting the slate of challengers running against the LD13 and Monmouth County Republican incumbents.

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NJ Right To Life Defends Kyrillos And Handlin Against Bellew’s ‘Misinformation’

Pro-Life Advocate Endorses O’Scanlon In LD13 Primary

Marie Tasy, Executive Director of New Jersey Right to Life issued a statement last night refuting the “misinformation” being circulated by State Senate Candidate Leigh-Ann Bellew and her Bayshore Tea Party Group backed running mates in the 13th legislative district Republican primary.

Tasy was quoted in a mailer sent by the Bellew/Bayshore Tea Party slate as saying that Senator Joe Kyrillos voted in favor of partial birth abortion.

In her statement to MoreMonmouthMusings, Tasy went into painstaking detail to list Kyrillos’s votes against partial birth abortion. She said that bill cited in Bellew’s mailer that Kyrillos voted for, S1909, was a “bill filled with very technical, scientific jargon that was rammed through the Senate at breakneck speed.” The bill legalized embryonic stem cell research and cloning, NOT partial birth abortion.  Tasy said that many Senators voted for the bill without fully understanding it.  Subsequently, Kyrillos voted against the funding of embryonic stem cell/cloning research with increased taxes and bonding.

Tasy noted that Assembly Members Amy Handlin and Declan O’Scanlon were not legislators when the partial birth abortion and embryonic stem cell/cloning research bills were voted on.

Tasy’s statement is particularly extraordinary because Kyrillos is pro-choice on abortion.  Tasy said she is not defending Kyrillos, but setting the record straight on the misinformation campaign.

 I am not writing to defend Senator Kyrillos’ record and well known position on abortion, but to set the record straight on the misinformation campaign that is being circulated regarding his voting record and the positions of Assemblyman O’Scanlon and Assemblywoman Handlin.  It should be noted that Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon and Assemblywoman Amy Handlin were NOT  in the legislature at the time these bills were voted on and  therefore did  not vote on any of these bills.

“It says a lot about our opponents who call themselves conservatives that someone as highly respected in the Pro-Life community as Marie Tasy would take the time to refute the misinformation in their literature,” said O’Scanlon, “This is further confirmation of what I’ve been saying throughout the campaign, Bellew, her running mates, and the Bayshore Tea Party Group’s leadership have no integrity.”

Neither Bellew nor Bayshore Tea Party Group co-founder Barbara Gonzalez responded to an invitation to comment.

Tasy’s statement can be read in its entirety below:

I am writing to set the record straight regarding some misinformation that is being circulated in mailers to voters in the the 13th legislative district. Read the rest of this entry »

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O’Scanlon Endorsed By NRA PAC

Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon

Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon has been endorsed by the NRA Political Victory Fund for the June 4th Republican primary in the 13th legislative district.

In an email to their members in the 13th district, NRA-PV said,

“Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon is rated “A” by the NRA-PVF and has been a proven Second Amendment supporter throughout his tenure in the state legislature.  He has been vocal in his support of your Second Amendment rights and has stood strong against anti-gun lawmakers pushing their radical agenda in Trenton.  Declan O’Scanlon has stood by gun owners in New Jersey by consistently voting against onerous gun proposals, including sweeping ammunition bans, magazine capacity restrictions, one-gun-a-month limitation, and more.

On Election Day, remember your gun rights are at stake and Vote Freedom First by voting to reelect Declan O’Scanlon for Assemblyman in District 13.”

O’Scanlon welcomed the endorsement as a confirmation of his conservative credentials by “one of the most effective advocacy groups in the nation.”

“This is confirmation that my opponents have be lying about my record and confirmation that my opponents have no integrity,”O’Scanlon said, “The NRA knows enough to say away from my opponents,

“As the only candidate endorsed by the NRA-PV in the district, I enthusiastically endorse Senator Joe Kyrillos and Assemblywoman Amy Handlin.”

Barbara Gonzalez, co-founder of the Bayshore Tea Party Group which is supporting O’Scanlon’s opponents in the primary did not respond to a request for comment.

UPDATE

Gonzalez responded to MMM late last evening, declining to comment. “Nope….your blog has become trashy.  Just….nope,” she wrote.

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Why I am voting against Leigh-Ann Bellew on June 4

By Art Gallagher

Yesterday I was interviewed by The Star Ledger and went on the record saying that I would be voting for Joe Kyrillos for State Senate in the 13th Legislative District Republican primary on June 4th.   Consistent with my slogan of being fair and biased, it is appropriate that I tell you, my readers and the reason my opinion matters to The Star Ledger, that MMM is now part of the story and that I have made a decision that can’t help but color my coverage of the rest of the campaign.

MMM is part of the LD 13 story, instead of just covering the story, because we’ve provided the bulk of the media coverage of the primary campaign to date and because Kyrillos’ challenger, Leigh-Ann Bellew, attacked this site in a press release, according to The Star Ledger.

On many important issues, Life and The Right to Bear Arms in particular, I am in more philosophical agreement with Bellew than I am with Kyrillos.   Despite my philosophical differences with Kyrillos, the choice between him and Bellew has become a very easy one.  Kyrillos is a very good State Senator.  Bellew is a deeply flawed candidate.  She never should have exposed herself, her family, and friends who care about her deeply to the rigors and vetting of this campaign.

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O’Scanlon On Offense

Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon

Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon said the Bayshore Tea Party Group backed challenge of the 13th Legislative District incumbents and the Monmouth GOP county-wide incumbents, is inspired by nothing more than the need for attention and the desire for relevance on the part of the challenging candidates and of Barbara Gonzalez, co-founder of BTPG.  O’Scanlon flat out challenged the group’s integrity.

O’Scanlon made his charge directly to the faces of the challenging candidates who showed up last night, Leigh-Ann Bellew for Senate, Edna Walsh and Steve Boracchia running for Assembly, BTPG co-founder Barbara Gonzalez, along with approximately 30 other Republican primary voters at a Meet the Candidates Night hosted by the Two Rivers Republican of Fair Haven.

O’Scanlon was representing himself and his running mates, Senator Joe Kyrillos and Assemblywoman Amy Handlin at the gathering.  Freeholder Director Tom Arnone and Sheriff Shaun Golden spoke on behalf of themselves and Freeholder Deputy Director Serena DiMaso.  All three men defended the conservative records of the incumbents and called out the challengers for running against the wrong candidates, dividing the party, and distorting their records to the Republican primary voters.

O’Scanlon went after the challengers aggressively on the content of their campaign, without personal attacks.

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Bellew, Gonzalez, Boracchia Attack LD 13 Incumbents, Blogs

By Art Gallagher

Bayshore Tea Party Group co-founder Barbara Gonzalez pinning Sen. Joe Kyrillos during happier times.

After over three weeks of media silence, the Bellew for Senate campaign issued a scathing 920 word press release this afternoon accusing State Senator Joe Kyrillos and Assembly members Amy Handlin and Declan O’Scanlon of hypocrisy, liberalism, slander, ducking debates and being mean.

Also blasted by Bellew Jersey, was “an organized army of cronies (that) have waged a campaign of personal attacks and character assassination on members of the Tea Party.”

“They have used surrogates in a legion of non-journalistic blogs and Internet attack machines to call the Tea Party “nut jobs.” To the Tea Party, this closely resembles Obama campaign style tactics of personal destruction. In fact, it mirrors what the IRS is now in trouble for doing – trying to silence their critics. Conservatives know this destroys any credibility Joe Kyrillos, Declan O’Scanlan, and Amy Handlin and their liberal Republican establishment team could possibly claim to have in support of the patriots fighting for limited government.”

The release, which was sent out by and paid for by Bellew for State Senate, quotes Senate Candidate Leigh-Ann Bellew, Bayshore Tea Party Group co-founder Barbara Gonzalez, and Assembly Candidate Steven Boracchia.   Assembly Candidate Edna Walsh was mentioned but not quoted in the statement which can be read in its entirety here.

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Hypocrisy and the Bayshore Tea Party, Perfect Together

Phil Russo, facebook photo

By Phil Russo

Back in February 2009 I had the honor of being one of 10-15 people in the country that was on the conference calls that planned the first round of tea party protests.  There were only 50 cities and in Orlando, where I was organizing our rally, we only had about 100 people.  From the beginning we developed a set of core values for the tea party that many groups ended up adopting.  It was actually Justin from Cincinnati that came up with “fiscal responsibility, limited government, and free markets”.  Many tea party web sites you visit will have those core values listed.  I don’t know if the bayshore group uses the core values or not but it doesn’t matter if they do or not because those values become the core of the movement.  How the bayshore group could so ignore these core values in their selection of endorsements astounds me.

The fact that they have decided to run against Declan O’Scanlon shows that they have different reasons for picking their endorsements.  Our group in Orlando, and most tea party groups I know, encourage people to learn about all the candidates and talk to them. Ask them questions. Then decide.  We avoided telling people who to vote for because that is the very thing that the establishment we hate so much does.  Full disclosure:  I worked for Declan for about 2 years in his legislative office.  But I am not writing this article because I worked for Declan.  In fact, it is quite the contrary.  I worked for Declan because he is the kind of legislator about whom I would write such an article. 

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Bayshore Tea Party Backed Slate Claims Momentum With Polling Data In LD13

Won’t Say Who Is Doing The Polling Or Reveal Data

UPDATED: 1pm

townhall photo

Bellew for State Senate campaign manager Dwayne Horner called from Texas to say that the campaign polled 5,000 Republican voters in LD 13 on Sunday evening and that 83% said they favored replacing the incumbents.  Horner refused to name the polling firm, saying only that its a well respected Republican firm that worked for the Romney campaign in Florida and several Texas congressional campaigns.

Horner declined to say what questions were asked of those polled, saying he would not get into the specifics of the poll.  Twice MMM asked if the incumbents were named in the polling questions.  Twice Horner declined to answer.

“83% said the incumbents should not be re-elected,” Horner said. “Did you tell them who the incumbents are?” we asked. “I’m not getting into the specifics of the poll, but Leigh-Ann Bellew’s name was mentioned,” Horner responded.

Horner challenged Senator Joe Kyrillos and the anonymous Republican political operative quoted below to go door to door and find 8 of 10 voters who plan to reelect Kryillos.

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The slate of candidates challenging LD 13 legislative incumbents, Senator Joe Kyrillos, Assemblywoman Amy Handlin and Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon claim they have polling data that indicates “voters overwhelming want to fire the incumbents.”

An email sent to Bayshore Tea Party Group members by co-founder Barbara Gonzalez reads, in part, as follows:

Momentum  is on the side of the candidates of R4CL.  Voters overwhelmingly say they are ready to fire the  current incumbents. Internal polls show that voters are ready to support  a new slate of candidates.

Gonzalez told MoreMonmouthMusings that she does not know who is conducting polls for the primary challengers led by state senate candidate Leigh-Ann Bellew or what the numbers say. “That message was sent over by the campaign, I just cut and paste and sent it out,” said Gonzalez, “but my internal poll agrees with it.  Everyone I talk to wants a change.”

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O’Scanlon: New Jersey Committed to Rebuilding from Sandy and Redeveloping Fort Monmouth

Assembly Republican Budget Officer Declan O’Scanlon, commended the New Jersey  Economic Development Authority for its commitment to Monmouth County’s efforts to rebuild after Superstorm Sandy and  redevelop Fort  Monmouth.

“We were knocked down by Sandy and the State has been there from the  beginning offering a helping hand to get businesses and families back on their  feet,” O’Scanlon, R-Monmouth, said. “From providing temporary housing units for  families to providing grants and loans to businesses that suffered damage, the  authority has been absolutely committed to our region and intends to place staff  in our communities – potentially at Fort Monmouth – to ensure easy access to grants  and assistance for business owners.”

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