New Jersey’s State Government and 23 of its municipal governments will recover a morsel of integrity at midnight tonight when state sanctioned theft in the form of red light cameras cease to operate at 73 intersections. New Jersey’s Red Light Camera Program, authorized as a five year pilot during the lame duck session of the 2006-2008 legislature and signed into law by Governor Jon Corzine, expires tonight.
The fact that the Red Light Camera Program has not been renewed is due in large measure to the efforts of Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon and his staff. Their efforts have been heroic.
O’Scanlon and Co. have been relentless in monitoring the Red Light Camera Program and telling the truth about it. They have hired independent experts to investigate complaints and document fraud within the program. They have sorted through data that has regularly been obfuscated by the red light camera companies (and bureaucrats friendly to them) to reflect improved safety conditions at RCL intersections where in fact conditions had often worsened. They have worked hard in getting the word out about the program’s failure and corruption. They have countered expensive advertising campaigns by the red light camera companies and countered expensive lobbyists working the halls of the Statehouse, without the benefit of the profits the red light camera companies stole from the motoring public to fund their efforts.
In thwarting the Red Light Camera Program’s renewal, O’Scanlon has proved himself to be “the real deal”….a leader who fights for the right thing because it is the right thing. He is an example of what a “public servant” should be.
TRENTON — Hold onto your seats. It’s June in Trenton, and that’s always a bumpy ride. With the state budget due by month’s end, horse-trading is rampant as just about everything that was proposed all year long under the Statehouse dome is up…
Beck: “Hubris and Ego have no place in this recovery process. We have all made some mistakes. Now we need to fix them.”
Thomas P. Largey, 82, and Senate President Steve Sweeney talk in Largey’s gutted Sea Bright home prior to Sweeney’s press conference. May 30, 2014. Photo by Art Gallagher
Senate President Steve Sweeney held a politically charged press conference in a partially gutted Sea Bright home this morning, ostensibly to create political pressure on Republicans in the State Legislature to join Democrats in overriding Governor Chris Christie’s conditional veto of the Sandy Bill of Rights.
Sweeney’s comments sounded like a campaign rally against Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon, Senator Jennifer Beck and Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean, JR.
The “Sandy Bill of Rights” passed both houses of the State Legislature unanimously in March. Christie conditionally vetoed the bill earlier this month, making over 150 changes to it. Some of the changes were to bring the law into compliance with federal Housing and Urban Development regulations, others removed what Christie called “partisan language.” One of Christie changes removed the requirement on the State that applicants for RREM grants be able to access the status of their applications online.
Sweeney penned an OpEd published in The Asbury Park Presslast week wherein he appealed to Republican legislators who had unanimously voted for his bill “to do something they have yet to do under this (Christie) administration, and that’s to put aside their partisanship and override the governor’s veto.”
O’Scanlon responded with an OpEd of his own, wherein he said, “after further analysis we found a number of critical flaws that the Governor wisely and reasonably addresses in his conditional veto.”
The eyes of New Jersey’s political junkies on are Trenton this afternoon to see if the public rift between Governor Chris Christie and the Kean family will lead to the first override of a Christie veto.
The Pig Gestation Bill is on the Senate calendar for an override vote this afternoon. The bill, which would prohibited NJ pig farmers from caging gestating pigs in a manner such that they can not move or lay down for most of their lives passed both houses of the legislature overwhelmingly last spring. Christie vetoed the bill, noting that the State Supreme Court upheld the Humane Standards that the State Board of Agriculture and Department of Agriculture have set and enforced in accordance with the 1995 Administrative Procedures Act. In his veto message, Christie said he was confident the Board and Department would continue to monitor the humane treatment of gestating pigs, and that bill would inappropriately criminalize a practice that is not opposed by the American Veterinary Medical Association nor the American Association of Swine Veterinarians.
Christie critics and skeptics have said that the governor vetoed the bill with an eye toward the 2016 Iowa Republican Presidential Caucuses. Iowa is the largest producer of pork in the United States.
Don’t bet on an override, warn legislators who spoke to MMM on background.
As a matter of policy, since they voted for the bill last spring, the Republicans we talked to have learned that it is the Democrats supporting the bill, not Christie, who are playing presidential politics. The bill would not impact the quality of life for New Jersey pigs. No one knows of at New Jersey pig farmer that uses the gestation crates that the bill would prohibited.
As a matter of politics, New Jersey Legislative Republicans are united with the governor, the rift over this move to oust Tom Kean, JR as Senate Minority Leader notwithstanding. They are not going to weaken Christie’s negotiating position with the Trenton Democrats over a bill that has no impact on what is happening in New Jersey.
“Things are back to normal,” one legislator said, “The governor underestimated the trust, respect and affection the Senate Caucus has for Tom (Kean, Jr), and mishandled that situation. But when your friend makes a mistake, you don’t trash the friendship.”
Five women whose divorce cases were heard by Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Paul X. Escandon are petitioning the New Jersey General Assembly to impeach the Judge they say violated their rights of due process and equal protection.
WABC-NY first reported the story of the impeachment petition.
Under the New Jersey Constitution, the General Assembly has the sole power to impeach judges by majority vote of the members. Should a judge be impeached by the Assembly, a trial is held in the Senate. A conviction and removal from office requires the vote of two-thirds of the Senate members.
Patricia Madison aka Patricia Pisciotti, Rachel Alintoff, Tameka Hunt, Paula Diaz Antonopoulos Wolfe, and Kristen Williams are represented by Robert A. Tandy, Esq., a Woodcliff Lake civil rights and employment attorney.
The women argue that they have no recourse against Escandon, other than impeachment and removal from office, for violating their civil rights due to the broad immunities granted Judges. They make the following allegations in their petition:
It has been replaced by government of, for and by the government workers’ unions, bureaucrats protected by civil “service” laws and contracts, and the politicians, protected by gerrymandering and incumbency, who have abdicated the most fundamental functions of government to said unions and bureaucrats. The so called public “servants.”
If this was a partisan political post, I’d be slamming Newark Mayor Cory Booker for the rise in crime in his city over the last over the last three years.
But that would be disingenuous. Violent crime in Newark declined from 2006, when Booker was elected mayor through November of 2010 when he laid off the 167 city police officers that had been hired since he became mayor.
Update: The General Assembly will vote on these bills today! Take Action!
The Senate Budget Committee released these bills on Tuesday. I testified against both bills. Read the article here. Please call your state assembly members today and tell them to vote no on
A4171 and A4172. The Senate will most likely take the bills on Monday so please call them also and tlel them to vote No. Thank you.
State Legislation – Take Action Immediately!
Pro-Abortion Democrat State Legislators have once again introduced bills to use taxpayer dollars to fund Planned Parenthood despite the fact that Governor Christie has vetoed similar measures four times. The Assembly Budget Committee released the following two bill this afternoon and the Senate Budget Committee has scheduled them for a hearing tomorrow.
Legislation that would eliminate the scheduled 10% surcharge on employers’ unemployment insurance tax was cleared by the Assembly Labor Committee today.
The bill, A-4112/A-3675, sponsored by Assemblywomen Amy Handlin (R-13, Monmouth) and Alison Little McHose (R-24, Hunterdon, Morris, Warren and Sussex), postpones the implementation of the surcharge, which is currently scheduled to go into effect on July 1, for one year. An identical bill, S-2404, passed the State Senate unanimously in February.
The Office of Legislative Services estimates that eliminating the surcharge will save employers $300 million in the coming fiscal year.
“The timing of this legislation is critical as we approach the summer season and with the effort to restore the Jersey Shore well underway,” stated Handlin. “Rebuilding communities involves both residential and commercial redevelopment. Companies who invest in our economy would face significant unemployment insurance increases which could impact their hiring decisions. This legislation ensures that the strides made in putting people back to work will not be affected by the cost increases that would have been felt under this surcharge.”
Two weeks ago MMM gave the Trenton GOP a head slap over their idiotic strategy of trying to pick up seats in the Legislature by running against Corzine Democrats.
Evidently, someone heard us.
The Assembly Republic Victory Fund is paying PolitickerNJ to run their video, The New Republicans-Coming to a Voting Booth Near You
Call that a good first step. But it’s far from a winning strategy.
But first, please understand that I thought long and hard about writing this commentary. After all, Bellew is running in a primary in another district than my own and I have my hands full rebuilding our home after Sandy. I would have loved some peace and quiet right now; instead of what I expect will be coming; harsh criticism from some Tea Party people who will attack me as a faux Conservative. I could have simply sat this out. But then, people that know me; know most of all that I am indeed a Conservative and I would feel ill at ease for not doing the right thing. I will let my resume and references speak for themselves should those attacks come.
New Jersey’s State Government and 23 of its municipal governments will recover a morsel of integrity at midnight tonight when state sanctioned theft in the form of red light cameras cease to operate at 73 intersections. New Jersey’s Red Light Camera Program, authorized as a five year pilot during the lame duck session of the 2006-2008 legislature and signed into law by Governor Jon Corzine, expires tonight.
