House Democratic Caucus To Choose Between Eshoo and Pallone This Morning

Congressman Frank Pallone 

Congressman Frank Pallone will either be anointed into the elite class of legislative chairmen and ranking members this morning or remain a congressional back bencher as his campaign to replace Henry Waxman as the highest ranking Democrat on the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee comes to a close.

Pallone lost the endorsement of the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee yesterday to California Congresswoman Anna Eshoo but secured enough votes to force the choice to the entire caucus. The leadership committee is dominated by allies of Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who favors her friend Eshoo to lead Energy and Commerce.  The 39-19 tally gave Pallone 14 more votes than he needed to get a ballot with the entire caucus. As a backup, Pallone had a petition signed by 53 Democratic members of congress which would also have forced the caucus ballot, according to Roll Call.

The caucus vote is scheduled for 8:30 this morning, according to Roll Call.

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Pallone’s Status Is On The Line This Week

House Democrats won’t let pregnant Iraqi war veteran vote by proxy

Congressman Frank Pallone cruised to reelection easily earlier this month, but the race he’s been waging since February for a key leadership post in the Democratic Minority of the House of Representatives will come to a head on Tuesday, November 18.

Pallone is battling California Congressman Anna Eshoo for the ranking position on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The retirements of Henry Waxman and John Dingle made the coveted position available. Pallone is the next in line for the job, based upon seniority, but Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi in backing her California colleague Eshoo who, as At-Large Democratic Whip, has been part of Pelosi’s leadership team since 2003.

Maryland Congressman Steny Hoyer, the # 2 Democratic Leader in the House, backs Pallone for the position.

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Nancy Pelosi: An American treasure

Not Nancy Pelosi

By Stuart J. Moskovitz

By now most people are aware that Jonathan Gruber has stated on several occasions over the last few years that in order to pass Obamacare, it was necessarily to 1. Lie to Congress and the American people, and 2. Depend on the “stupidity” of the American voter to accept this health care act.

Nancy Pelosi, the representative from Pacific Heights, and currently the second scariest resident of Pacific Heights, second only to Jim Belushi’s character in the movie of the same name, claims that she has no idea what he is talking about, because she never met him and has no idea who he is. As the major force behind the passage of Obamacare in the House, even more than Frank Pallone, who declared as “lousy” every insurance policy purchased by Americans prior to Obamacare, including those policies covering procedures no longer covered by Obamacare, and costing far less than Obamacare, Nancy Pelosi’s statement would carry considerable weight. If this were still 1995. Today, of course, we have social media recording just about everything said by anyone in public view. This includes the speech by Nancy Pelosi in 2009 when she assured everyone that Obamacare was a perfect health plan because it was carefully written by Jonathan Gruber of MIT, the person who she claims now did not write the plan and whom she had never heard of.

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Obamacare website won’t reveal insurance costs for 2015 until after election

Those planning to purchase health insurance on the Obamacare exchange will soon find out how much rates have increased – after the Nov. 4 election. Enrollment on the Healthcare.gov website begins Nov. 15, or 11 days after the midterm vote, and critics who worry about rising premium hikes in 2015 say that’s no coincidence. Last year’s… Read the rest of this entry »

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Geraldo Rivera to headline Monmouth GOP Fundraiser

Photo courtesy of Geraldo.com. Used with permission

Had the late Senator Frank Lautenberg lived to complete his term, Geraldo Rivera might have been the Republican nominee to be New Jersey’s junior member of the United States Senate. Cory Booker would still be mayor of Newark and the two celebrities would have been engaged now in an expensive high profile race with national implications.

In early 2013, Rivera was very publicly exploring the possibility of running for Launtenberg’s seat.  Booker had just declined to challenge Governor Chris Christie’s reelection bid and announced that he would run for Lautenberg’s seat.  Booker’s announcement came before the ailing Lautenberg’s announcement that he would not seek another term.

Lautenberg’s June 2013 death and Christie’s call for an October Special Election to fill the seat scuttled the plans of the television and radio personality/journalist to enter politics on a national level.  He was not able to rearrange his life or gain support of his family in the short time required to compete in an August GOP primary.

What might have been a high profile exciting battle between Rivera and Booker this fall is now reduced to bragging rights as to which man will raise more money for his respective Party in Monmouth County.   Monmouth County Republican Chairman Shaun Golden will announce this afternoon that Rivera is the keynote speaker at the GOP Fundraising Gala on October 15 at the Navesink Country Club.  Rivera’s office and Golden both confirmed that Geraldo is coming.

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Use of Christie in Sandy ads cleared by feds

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Monmouth Dems mimick Pallone’s squinting

Devoid of ideas of how to improve Monmouth County’s government and running on so called “issues” that have failed in the last few campaigns, the Monmouth County Democratic Freeholder candidates, Larry Luttrell and Joe Grillo are apparently hoping they can win in November by mimicking Congressman Frank Pallone’s odd facial expressions.  Even their campaign volunteers are doing it.

Luttrell and Grillo have been handing out literature that blame Freeholder Director Lillian Burry and Deputy Director Gary Rich for the misdeeds of Peter Burnham at Brookdale Community College and Andrew Lucas’s alleged misdeeds in the the sale of development rights to a farm that he owns to the farmland preservation program.

That’s like blaming Derek Jeter for A-Rod using steroids. Monmouth County voters didn’t fall for it last year and won’t likely fall for it this year, leaving Luttrell and Grillo to do the Pallone squint.

Pallone is kicking off his campaign with a BB-Q on Sunday afternoon.  It won’t be on Greg’s List, but click here if you want to RSVP to eat Frank’s free food.

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Pandering Pallone Lies About U.S. Soccer Team To Boost Amnesty

New Jersey’s truth challenged Congressman Frank Pallone took to twitter last evening to garner support of the Amnesty Bill he’s sponsoring in the House of Representatives.

Thanks to the folks at Twitchy who researched the World Cup players that Pallone dubbed as immigrants:

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U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone serves breakfast to New Brunswick Middle School students

U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone serves breakfast to New Brunswick Middle School students (via NJ.com)

NEW BRUNSWICK — Congressman Frank Pallone (D-6th dist) will meet with New Brunswick Middle School students Thursday morning to observe the federally-funded “Breakfast After the Bell” program in action. “Breakfast After the Bell” provides a…

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Pallone has less than $1 million in campaign cash

Plainfield Today photo

Congressman Frank Pallone’s (NJ-6, Monmouth and Middlesex) once formidable campaign war chest of roughly $4 million is down to less than $1 million according his latest report to the Federal Election Commission.

New Jersey’s senior Democratic congressman, Pallone spent $3,778,155 in the Special U.S. Senate Primary last summer in his bid to replace the late Senator Frank Lautenberg. He lost that primary to then Newark Mayor Cory Booker.

Pallone reported $938,472 cash on hand in his congressional campaign account as of March 31, 2014.  He raised $200,449.64 in the first quarter of this year and disbursed #338,450.67.  $60, 645 remains in his senate campaign account.

The $938,472 that Pallone reports on hand may be inflated by illegal contributions. A cursory examination of his most recent quarterly report reveals $14,200 in contributions from individuals during the current election cycle that exceed the legal limit of $2600 per election.

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