Do the clothes make the man?

Cory Booker was out of state exploring a his candidacy for U. S. Senate, so Governor Chris Chistie had to rely on his father, Jon Bon Jovi, Alec Baldwin, James Carville, and Kim Guadagno playing solitaire to co-star in this year’s video for the New Jersey Press Association Legislative Correspondents Dinner.  The dinner took place last night in Hamilton.

Anyone who has read Henry Vaccarro Sr’s book, Johnny Cash is a Friend of Mine, will recognize that Bon Jovi was reprising a role he’s mastered.

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Can Buono make a race of it?

Last month Monmouth Democratic Chairman Vin Gopal went on NJTV to make the case that Governor Chris Christie is leading the in the polls so strongly because of how he has handled the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy and because the presumed Democratic nominee for governor, State Senator Barbara Buono is largely unknown.Canada

In the month since Gopal’s interview, Buono’s name recognition has ticked up only 4 points.  Only 20% of the electorate know enough about her to form an opinion.  Of that 20%, only half have a favorable opinion of her, according to the Quinnipiac Poll.  Despite extensive free media granted Buono by New Jersey’s three largest newspapers, Christie has high favorable ratings even among registered Democrats.

Watch Monmouth County Democratic Chair: Buono Can Beat Christie on PBS. See more from NJToday.

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Oxley to get his hearing

Media bias evident when contrasting coverage of allegations against Oxley to allegations against Menendez

Former Monmouth County Sheriff Joe Oxley will finally get a hearing on his nomination to become a Superior Court Judge.

The Star Ledger is reporting that Senate Democrats have reached a “blockbuster deal” to hold hearings on 20 judicial nominations, including Oxley’s, this week.  The Senate Judiciary Committee has been sitting on these nominations with no action for months and New Jersey’s court system is backed up due to 55 judicial vacancies on the Superior Court level.

The Ledger is characterising Oxley’s nomination as “controversial” based upon their own report of a leaked deposition transcript wherein convicted fraudster Soloman Dwek said that Oxley gave him insider information regarding foreclosures in exchange for campaign contributions.  The FBI investigated Dwek’s allegations and like many other of his tales, found that they were without merit.

The Ledger obviously thinks nothing of smearing a Republican’s good name based on allegations that have been investigated and dismissed, yet as we have seen since early November, they’ve been hiding from the public Democratic U.S. Senator Bob Menendez alleged ethics violations and patronage of underage victims of prostitution.

Is Soloman Dwek a more credible source than State Senator Sam Thompson?  Thompson filed an ethics complaint against Menendez on November 3rd, 2012 yet there was no mention of it in the Ledger until last week after the FBI raided the office of Menendez’s friend and campaign contributor Dr. Salomom Malgen in Florida.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and much of the left stream media has justified their lack of coverage of the Menendez scandal because of “the source,” the conservative website The Daily Caller. MMM has learned that The Daily Caller’s source shopped the Menendez story to The Star Ledger before going to The Caller.

There would be no controversy over Oxley’s nomination had The Star Ledger declined to turn a politically motivated leaked of Dwek’s allegations into a salacious story.

Shame on The Star Ledger for smearing the good name and threatening the career of Joe Oxley based on the word of Soloman Dwek while ignoring the words of Sam Thompson and giving Bob Menendez political cover.

Posted: February 4th, 2013 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: Bob Menendez, Joe Oxley, NJ Media | Tags: Dr. Salomon Malgen, Joe Oxley, Soloman Dwek, Star Ledger | 2 Comments »

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Bennett and Doria go On The Record with Michael Aron : Red meat for New Jersey political junkies and history buffs

Two former New Jersey political powerhouses joined NJTV’s Michael Aron on his weekly show, On the Record, this week to discuss the 2013 gubernatorial race, the 2014 U.S. Senate race and to reminisce about the good old days… the governors they served under and how the climate has changed in Trenton since the days when they held power.

Watch Joe Doria and John Bennett on PBS. See more from On the Record.

Democrat Joe Doria served in the State Assembly from 1980-2004.  He was Speaker in the 1990-1992 session.  Doria left the Assembly after losing the Democratic primary in 2003. In 2004,  he was elected by the Hudson Democratic Committee to fill the State Senate term vacated by the death of Senator Glenn Cunningham, who was also the mayor of Jersey City. Doria also served as mayor of Bayonne from July of 1998 through October of 2007.  He resigned from the Senate and as mayor when Governor Jon Corzine nominated him to become the Commissioner of the Department of Community Affairs, one of the most powerful Cabinet positions in the State.  His public career came to a sudden end in July of 2009 when Corzine announced his resignation as DCA commissioner after his home was raided in the Operation Bid Rig sweep the resulted in 44 arrests.  Doria was never arrested and the U.S Attorney’s Office cleared him of all charges in October of 2011.

Doria is collecting a state pension of $58,895 per year.

Republican John Bennett is chairman of the Monmouth County Republican Committee.  He served in the State Legislature for 24 years, 10 in the Assembly and 14 in the Senate. While a Senator, Bennett was co-president of the chamber with Richard Codey during first two years of the McGreevey administration. Bennett was Acting Governor for 3 1/2 days, during the week between the Whitman/DiFrancesco administration and the McGreevey administration when New Jersey had five governors…DiFrancesco, Codey, Bennett, former Attorney General John Farmer and McGreevey.

Bennett’s career as a senator came to an end after he was defeated at the polls by Ellen Karcher, then a member of the Marlboro Township Committee.  The Asbury Park Press ran Bennett out of office with a relentless series of articles, over a period of months, over a billing irregularity while he was Marlboro’s Township Attorney.  Bennett was cleared of any wrong doing by the Feds in March of 2007.

Bennett is collecting a $90,000 annual pension from his years in the legislature and a plethora of part time law appointments tacked together to provide a handsome income.

On the Record interview highlights

Gubernatorial Race

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More financial troubles at New Jersey’s newspapers

The Asbury Park Press’s building is for sale.  The Press of Atlantic City is for sale.

This morning, The Star Ledger announced that they are laying off 34 people, including 10% of the newsroom.

In a poll published on January 8, Monmouth University’s Patrick Murray said that since 2005 newspapers as the primary source of news has decline from 48% to 27% among New Jerseyans.  The shift has favored the interent where 28% now get their news, up from 6% in 2005.  Television as a news source has also declined since 05, according to Murray.  48% got most of their news from TV in 05.  Now 34%, still the highest percentage, are informed by television.

There is not much good news for the industry looking forward, according to Murray’s report. 45% of 18-34 year olds now look to the net as their primary news source, up from 33% in 2009.

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NJ Media Whitewash For Lisa Jackson

United States Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson announced her resignation yesterday.  Jackson was Governor Jon Corzine’s Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner and briefly his chief of staff before joining the Obama Administration.

The Asbury Park Press’s coverage of Jackson’s resignation is more glowing than an obituary.  Both the APP and the Star Ledger used the news to fuel speculation that Jackson could be a candidate for governor of New Jersey or the next president of Princeton University.

Neither of New Jersey’s two largest media outlets bothered to mention the recent scandal surrounding Jackson.

Jackson is being investigated by at least two congressional committees and her own agency’s inspector general.  The Justice Department just agreed, as the result of a law suit filed by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, to release 12,000 emails from an alias account that Jackson used to conduct the government’s business under the name “Richard Winslow.”

Even anti-corruption crusader and champion of transparency, Bob Ingle, co-author of The Soprano State: New Jersey’s Culture of Corruption, failed to mention Jackson’s use of an email alias while conducting the government’s business as a cabinet level official of the Obama Administration.

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Media continues to give Menendez cover in prostitution, ethics violation scandal

State Senator Sam Thompson, as Chairman of the Middlesex GOP, files an ethics complaint against US Senator Bob Menendez

Media ignores the whole affair

In case you missed it while the lights were out, Senator Bob Menendez has been accused of accepting luxury travel to and lodging in the Dominican Republic where he participated in sex parties with prostitutes and short changed his concubines from their agreed upon fees.

Menendez responded by calling the accusations, which were first reported by the conservative website Daily Caller, “a product of the right wing smear machine.”

However, the far left wing website, Gawker, followed Daily Caller’s story with a report from “someone who was unfortunate enough to live in the unit below Menendez’s Washington, DC apartment,” who said “he would bring home a different young, attractive lady almost every night, put on a little jazz, and f**k loudly until 3 a.m.”

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Poll biases: It’s not just the sampling weights

As some national polls show President Obama widening his lead in his race for another term, much has been made about the sampling weights that pollsters use.  Analysts on the left insists the polls are accurate.  nalysts on the right say the polls are inaccurately favoring Obama by assuming his supporters will come out on election day in the same numbers as they did in 2008.

But its not just weighting that reveals a pollster’s bias.  The way the question is asked also makes a difference.

In a Monmouth University/Asbury Park Press  poll  about the 2013 New Jersey gubernatorial race released this morning, pollster Patrick Murray asked if voters were “bothered” with how Governor Chris Christie interacts with his critics and detractors.

Thinking about Chris Christie’s style and not his policies, does the way he speaks to or about people who disagree with him bother you personally or not bother you? [If BOTHER: Is that a lot or just a little?]

63% of respondents said they weren’t bothered by Christie’s style.  23% said they were bothered a LOT and 11% said they were bothered a LITTLE.  Given the way Murray asked the question, one could conclude that 74% of New Jersey voters are indifferent about Christie’s style.

In his narrative of the poll, which sets the tone for how much of the lazy lefty media covers it, Murray highlights his spin on Christie’s style.

“NEW JERSEY ON CHRISTIE’S STYLE: ‘MEH!’ ” is Murray’s headline.   His opening sentence:

Governor Chris Christie’s job approval rating has ticked up a few points in the latest Monmouth University/Asbury Park Press Poll and few New Jerseyans are particularly bothered by the way he deals with people who disagree with him.

Notice the use of the word few.

Christie’s numbers are the highest they ever been in a Monmouth poll. 55% of registered voters approve of the governor’s performance. 36% do not approve.

Yet Murray spins the results to read that a few people like him better and a few people are bothered about how he talks to people who don’t agree with him.  The few who are bothered take top billing over the fact disclosed but not reported that Christie’s numbers are better than ever in Murray’s poll.

What does that tell you?

The Asbury Park Press’s coverage of the poll leads with the “bothered” question.

The headline at NJ.com for an Associated Press story is Christie’s approval rating up slightly, poll says.

To their credit, PolitickerNJ cut through Murray’s spin and covers the poll results very well.   They reported the real news of the poll results;  New Jersey’s sagging economy is not hurting Christie’s popularity with voters and that of potential Democratic challengers in 2013, only Newark Mayor Cory Booker and former acting Governor Richard Codey have sufficient name recognition to be considered credible candidates for governor next year.

What if instead of asking if voters were bothered by Christie’s style, Murray asked if they liked his style?   If Murray had done that, the headline would be:

CHRISTIE’S APPROVAL AT ALL TIME HIGH

New Jersey voters like his style

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O’Scanlon Blasts Democratic Colleagues, Statehouse Press Corp Over S &P Outlook Spin

The three major credit rating agencies affirmed the credit ratings of New Jersey’s bonds within the last week.   Two of the three, Moody’s and Fitch affirmed the outlook for the State’s credit as stable.  However, while affirming their AA- rating today, Standard and Poor’s lowered their outlook for New Jersey from stable to negative.  S&P’s rationale for lowering their outlook is that they consider Governor Chris Christie’s revenue projections optimistic.

Democratic legislators, Assembly Budget Committee Chairman Vincent Prieto, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Paul Sarlo and Assembly Majority Leader Lou Greenwald, a potential gubernatorial candidate next year, all jumped on the S&P outlook downgrade to score political points against Christie.  The Statehouse Press Corp was happy to advance the negative spin.

Monmouth County’s Declan O’Scanlon, the Assembly Republican Budget Officer, fired back against the Democrats and the media for “crowing” about the S&P report while falling mute over the Fitch and Moody’s reports is a scathing statement:

“My Democrat colleagues are like vultures seeking to pounce on potential prey despite the fact that their appetite will not be satisfied by one agency’s outlook,” said O’Scanlon, R-Monmouth. “They are always ready to jump on what they perceive to be negative news and many in the media buy into their political theatrics. Instead of working with the governor and Republicans in the Legislature, they continue to wait for gloom and doom predictions.

“The conduct and glee from our leading legislative Democrats is remarkable and disturbing. For days, they sat silent when two ratings agencies affirmed New Jersey’s credit rating in response to the Schools Development Corporation bond offering and today are dancing in the streets when a third rating agency – after also maintaining the state’s credit rating – gave an outlier’s opinion and lowered its outlook,” explained O’Scanlon. “To see this kind of political opportunism and rooting for failure from individuals entrusted with some of the highest leadership positions our government offers is disgraceful. Their Swiss cheese, fragmented perception of reality – with the holes miraculously lining up with anything positive about our state’s fiscal condition – is disturbing, but not surprising.”

“That our Statehouse press corps simply gobbles the partisan nonsense up so willingly is also a real disappointment, stated O’Scanlon. “That is especially so when you see them blindly quoting even those lawmakers who so vigorously fought bipartisan pension and benefits reforms in an effort that would have crippled New Jersey’s long-term efforts to fix our long-term economic health.

“Had we followed the path of the very people now attacking the Governor the outlook for the state’s future would be dramatically worse. They cannot, with a straight face, criticize this Governor with any credibility,” said O’Scanlon. “It was this governor that has started to turn our state around – and he had to fight the very people now attacking him in order to do that. The governor and Republicans know we are in a difficult economy and these are risky times. But we are also not afraid to make tough decisions. Previous Democrat administrations talked about tough times, but never took action. Without taking decisive action to fix many of our state’s problems,New Jerseywould be in a financial abyss.

“The Democrats’ are selling a bill of goods to the public and the media which conveniently ignores their eight-year record of expanding government spending and want us to believe their distorted view of reality,” commented O’Scanlon. “We have more work to do in turning our state around, but I am much more confident entrusting our state’s future with the Christie administration than its Democratic predecessors.”

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Little rates a “Pants on Fire”

6th District congressional candidate Anna Little’s claim that she “made history” and “came the closest in 24 years to defeating Frank Pallone” in 2010 is a fib, according to research compiled by The Star Ledger’s  PolitFactNewJersey.

Little made the claim in an interview with NJTV’s Mike Schneider on August 2.

Watch Congressional Candidate Little Believes in Grassroots Effort on PBS. See more from NJToday.

PolitFactNewJersey found that while Little’s margin of defeat was smaller than most who have taken on Pallone, the 2010 election was not Pallone’s closest and that Little’s timing was wrong.

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