Lucas Will Run In the New 12th

By Art Gallagher

Manalapan Mayor Andrew Lucas will be a candidate for the state legislature in the GOP primary from the new 12th district.

Lucas, who will make a formal announcement tomorrow, said he would defer to Assembly incumbents Sam Thompson and Ronald Dancer should either seek the vacant Senate seat.  In such case Lucas will run for Assembly.  Should neither incumbent Assemblyman run for Senate, Lucas will seek that seat.

Lucas said that he will not compete with Freeholder Director Rob Clifton for the Monmouth GOP line with the screening committee, but would  take the race to a primary.

“I think this will be fun and reinvigorate the western portion of the Monmouth GOP,” said the Mayor.

• Tweet

Thompson Strongly Considering A Senate Race

By Art Gallagher

Assembyman Sam Thompson told MoreMonmouthMusings that he is strongly considering a run for the Senate vacancy in the new 12 legislative district.  He said the support of the county chairmen in Monmouth, Ocean and Burlington Counties, all of which have towns in the district, would weigh heavily upon his decision.  Thompson is the the chairman of the Middlesex GOP.

Thompson noted that if he were in the Senate, the GOP would have senatorial courtesy privileges over Middlesex County appointments.

• Tweet

Clifton will seek a seat in the legislature

By Art Gallagher

Monmouth County Freeholder Director Rob Clifton told MoreMonmouthMusings that he will seek the GOP nomination for the legislative vacancy in the new 12th district.

The district as comprised has no incumbent Senator.  Sam Thompson of Old Bridge (Middlesex County) and Ronald Dancer of Plumsted (Ocean County) are incumbent Assemblymen. 

Clifton is unsure if he will be seeking a Senate seat or an Assembly seat.

Manalapan Mayor Andrew Lucas is considering entering the fray in the new 12th.  Lucas told MMM that he will make a decision within 24 hours.

• Tweet

The map’s impact on Monmouth County Incumbents

By Art Gallagher

Click on the map for a full view

New district 11: Comprised from parts of the old 11th and 12th.  Jennifer Beck is the incumbent senator.  Caroline Casagrande and Mary Pat Angelini are incumbent assemblywomen.  A district with all female representatives!  That is probably a historical first.

This district includes Asbury Park.  Dan Jacobson’s political comeback is effectively over as he won’t challenge Jennifer Beck.  Beck’s career is the creation of Jacobson’s newspaper….just ask him, he’ll swear to it.

New district 12: In addition to the Monmouth towns of Allentown, Englishtown, Manalapan, Matawan, Millstone, Roosevelt and Upper Freehold, this district includes Old Bridge of Middlesex County, the Ocean County towns of Jackson and Plumsted and the Burlington County towns of Chesterfield, North Hanover, New Hanover and Wrightstown.

Sam Thompson of Old Bridge and Ronald Dancer of Plumsted are the incumbent assembly members.  There is no incumbent senator.   This district creates an opportunity for Monmouth County Freeholder Director Rob Clifton, and Manalapan Mayor Andrew Lucas to run for the legislature.  Dancer is also the Mayor of Plumsted.  Thompson is Chairman of the Middlesex County GOP.  It is unknown if either men have ambitions to move up to the Senate.

New district 13: Declan O’Scanlon of Little Silver joins Amy Handlin of Middletown in representing this district in the Assembly.  Joe Kyrillos of Middletown is the incumbent Senator. 

This district keeps the Bayshore from the old 13th, adds Atlantic Higlands, Highlands, Monmouth Beach,  Rumson and Sea Bright from the old 11th and Fair Haven, Little Silver, Oceanport, Marlboro from the old 12th.

New 30th:  Incumbent Senators Sean Kean (Wall) and Robert Singer (Lakewood)both live in this district.  Singer represented both Lakewood and Howell in the old 30th.  Singer has to be considered the favorite in a head to head match up with Kean in a primary.

In addition to Wall, Lakewood and Howell, the new district in comprised of the southern Monmouth coastal towns of Brielle, Bradley Beach, Avon by the Sea, Belmar, Lake Como, the Spring Lakes, Sea Girt, Manasquan.  Farmingdale rounds out the Monmouth towns in the district.  From Ocean County, Pt Pleasant and Pt. Pleasant Beach are in the district.

Dave Rible is the incumbent Assembly member from the new 30th and there is a vacancy.  Former Howell Mayor Joe DiBella could be a contender for the Assembly vacancy.   Would Kean consider going back to the Assembly? Stranger things have happened, but not very often.  Running for Assembly might be the only way for Kean to continue his political career.

• Tweet

Redrawing the State Legislative Districts

By Art Gallagher

The US. Census Bureau will not release the data required for the State Apportionment Commission to do their work for another month.  The commission is holding its organizational meeting today in Trenton.

At NJ Spotlight, Mark Magyar takes a comprehensive look at New Jersey’s population shifts based upon the 2000 census data and the 2009 population projections published by the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development.  Magyar’s piece is likely to be the most widely read article on State Street today.  His conclusions:

Based on an analysis of population projections, when the new legislative map is drawn we can expect to see a configuration more favorable to Republicans. We could very well see one Democratic district in the urban northeast replaced by a solidly GOP district, most likely somewhere in the middle of South Jersey. That is what happened in 1991 when Republican commission members persuaded the neutral tie-breaker to take the Democratic 30th District in Essex and plop it in the middle of Burlington and Ocean counties where it immediately became a Republican bastion for Senator Bob Singer of Lakewood and Assemblyman Joseph Malone of Bordentown, each first elected in 1993.

If Democrats decide to give up an urban northeast district as part of a retrenchment strategy, it will most likely end up in South Jersey The question for both party’s strategists is whether they want to make the new district a Republican stronghold and allow the the South Jersey incumbents from both parties to consolidate their bases, or use the new district to try to create more competitive districts — an approach that presumably would give the GOP a better chance to gain the seats they need to win back the legislature.

 

 

• Tweet

Gifts For Trenton Dems, Rivera-Soto and The NJEA

By Art Gallagher

Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce simultaneously played the roles of Scrooge and Santa Claus this week.

With his inartful comments about people receiving unemployment benefits, and his equally ignoble apology wherein he tried to deflect the attention to the dual office holding of the Legislature’s Democratic leadership and accused Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver of playing the race card in her criticism of his remarks, DeCroce appeared as Scrooge to “these people” on the unemployment dole and Santa to the Trenton Democrats, Supreme Court Justice Rivera-Soto and the NJEA.

While the Legislature should be focused on reforming civil service and COAH before the 2 % property tax increase cap takes effect on January 1, the leadership was engaged in what Governor Christie called a “food fight” over DeCroce’s gaffes.

Rather than drawing attention to dual office holding and Oliver’s willingness to play the race card, DeCroce deflected media attention away from the controversy over Rivera-Soto’s unwillingness to participate in State Supreme Court decisions so long as a temporary justice is sitting on the court.  The NJEA was really let off the hook by DeCroce’s remarks as the main stream media apparently completely missed the explosive videosreleased by citizen journalist James O’Keefe that expose union leaders promising to protect teachers who engage in sexual behavior with students.

The gift that DeCroce gave the Democrats may well keep giving throughout 2011 when the entire legislature will be on the November ballot.  

If the Legislative Redistricting Commission draws an equitable map New Jersey should have the first competitive legislative elections in 12 years. For most of the last decade New Jersey cast more Republican votes than Democratic votes for legislators, yet Democrats have dominated the Senate and the Assembly due to gerrymandering of the districts.  A new district map is due this coming winter.

If the coming election appears to be competitive and if DeCroce is effectively running for Assembly Speaker, count on the New Jersey Democratic machine running against DeCroce in much the same way the GOP ran against Nancy Pelosi in the recent national election.

• Tweet

Grading the Governor

By Art Gallagher

Tom Moran is the editorial page editor of the Star Ledger and the reporter who unwittingly made Governor Chris Christie a YouTube sensation.

Moran decided that its time to grade the Governor.  In a column published on Sunday, the pernicious pundit acknowledges that independent polls indicate that the voters are rating the Governor with A’s and B’s. He spends the rest of the column telling the voters (us) why they (we) are wrong about Christie. Moran say Christie only gets a C.

It’s a good thing that New Jersey pays little heed to Moran. If we did, Chris Daggett would be Governor and Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver would be taken seriously.

Moran gives Christie high marks for courage, calling the Governor a cage fighter for his cause.  Despite this A, Moran gives Christie demerits for failing to compromise.  This has been a theme of Moran’s throughout the year. Christie came to Trenton promising to turn the place upside down.  Moran wants him to be nice while breaking the furniture.

Moran even gives the Governor a B on the budget, even though he calls Christie’s claim that he plugged an $11 billion budget hole “farcical.”

On the 2% property tax cap, Moran says Christie will earn a spot on the honor roll if it works, but so far it hasn’t. Duh. It hasn’t even gone into effect yet, and the “tool kit” negotiations with the Democratic legislative leadership are ongoing. Moran criticises Christie for not caving and accepting Oliver’s and Senate President Steve Sweeney’s first offer.

Moran takes Christie to task for calling Oliver a liar over her assertion that she tried to meet with Christie over the “tool kit.”

Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver was shocked when she learned that the governor had accused her of lying.

“That has irreparably affected my ability to work with this governor,” she says. “For him to cast aspersions on my integrity and say I would lie? That did it. That showed me I really cannot have a trusting relationship with this governor. Because he will distort the truth. He will stand up and lie.

“It was a game changer for me, a total game changer.”

Will Oliver’s resignation as Speaker be forthcoming?  If she can’t or won’t work with the Governor she has no business being Speaker.   Oliver should be grateful that the Governor and most of the media gave her (and Moran) a pass when she called the Governor racist in an earlier Moran column.

Moran seems to think it is a problem for Christie that Oliver and U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg “hate his guts.” 

U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg felt this sting as well. After he criticized the governor for killing the Hudson River tunnel project, the governor lashed out.

“All he knows how to do is blow hot air,” Christie said. “So I don’t really care what Frank Lautenberg has to say about much of anything.”

This is the downside of the governor’s straight talk. He has to work with Oliver and Lautenberg, like it or not. And now they both seem to hate his guts.

“Look, I worked with Tom Kean and Christie Whitman, and had no problems,” Lautenberg says. “This is really unusual. There’s been hardly any communication from his office, and I’m on the Appropriations Committee. I put my heart and soul into this, and to have someone calling me names and trying to shame me? It’s incomprehensible.”

Lautenberg is old and has been very sick for most of the year. He can be forgiven for not noticing that Christie is not Tom Kean or Christie Whitman.  Now that he’s woken up, he’ll start comprehending, if his heart and soul are really in his job.  How effective has he been for us on the Appropriations Committee anyway?

Moran is right about one thing.  Christie hasn’t delivered yet.  But that is not the measure by which to grade a Governor 11 months into his term.  Moran is a liberal ideologue masquerading as a moderate.  Like ideologues on the right who are critical of Christie because he hasn’t fixed all the inequities of New Jersey government in 11 months, he is driven only by his own narrow agenda.

The NJEA is having a news conference in Trenton today to propose education reforms including “significant reform of the tenure system.”   That is remarkable.  Even if the proposed reforms are full of loop holes, which as a Jersey cynic I suspect they will be, the fact that the NJEA has entered the reform conversation is truly remarkable.  Chris Christie made that happen.

Civil Service and binding arbitration is going to be reformed.  Mayors and councils are going to be unbound from the ties that have driven property taxes to catastrophic levels and be empowered to truly manage their communities rather than rubber stamp state mandates. That is unbelievable. Chris Christie made that happen.

The 2% property tax cap, even with its exceptions, will truly force a reduction in the size of government, especially when inflation kicks in. Share services will become a reality out of necessity, rather than something community leaders pay lip service to during elections.

Chris Christie has changed the tone and transformed the direction of government in New Jersey. “Changed has arrived” he declared in his inaugural address.  He is deliverying change.  Trenton is not quite upside down yet, but it is surely tilted.  He can’t be graded by the old score card, because he has changed the game in New Jersey and given Governors throughout the nation, and our leaders in Washington new rules.

Rather than a report card, lets judge Christie with a scorecard.

Christie is leading by a wide margin as the first quarter of his term comes to a close.  Yet, the opposition of special interests and trough swillers have been studying the films and making adjustments.  The final minutes of the quarter are critical as the effectiveness of the tool kit will be determined.  Next year, the second quarter, is when the real heavy lifitng will start. Legislative redistricting, the budget and the legislative election will dominate the agenda.  Municipal budgets drawn under the 2% cap will dominate the news.  As the economy improves, if it does, “we don’t have the money” will not work as well in forcing reforms.

Christie gets an A for his first year.  Next year will be the real test.  Mid-terms will be in November.  If the voters give Christie and A or B in the form of a Republican legislature, we’ll find out what “turning Trenton upside down” really means.

• Tweet

Credit Check Bill Is Bad Law

The Associated Press has a story this morning that has been picked up my several New Jersey news outlets about NJ Assembly Bill #A2561.  The bill would prohibit most employers from requiring credit checks as part of the evaluation process of potential employees.   The bill passed the Assembly Labor Committee on October 14.  It has yet to be scheduled for a vote by the full Assembly.  Similar legislation failed to pass  the Senate Labor Committee on May 27th.

Advocates of the bill say that allowing employers to run credit checks on potential employees prevents people whose credit histories has been hurt by periods of unemployment from getting back on their feet.   They are wrong about that.  The effect of this bill, which would impose fines on violators of $5,000 for a first offense and $10,000 for each subsequent offense, will be to make hiring decisions more difficult, should it become law.

Senator Shirley Turner (D-Mercer) , a strong supporter of the Senate bill, said it “would help if we had legislators who were unemployed.  We’d be a little more sympathetic to this kind of requirement.”    What would be really helpful is if we had more legislators who owned businesses that employ people.

• Tweet