By REV. ALEXANDER M. SANTORA GUEST COLUMNIST Gov. Chris Christie is a man of many hungers. Early in his administration, pundits made fun of his weight, and he turned the tables on them by laughing along with them even to go so far as to eat a doughnut on “The Late Show with David Letterman.” But… Read the rest of this entry »By Art Gallagher
In his OpEd published this morning, former Kean and Whitman Administration spokesman Carl Golden makes the case why it is safe for New Jersey’s Republican legislators to defy Governor Chris Christie and join the Democratic majority in overriding Christie’s of the Port Authority reform legislation.
The two identical bills that Governors Christie and Cuomo vetoed on the Saturday between Christmas and New Years Day had passed overwhelmingly with bi-partisan support in both houses of the New Jersey and New York legislatures. The bills would have required increased transparency and accountability on the part of Port Authority of NY/NJ.
In vetoing the bills, Christie and Cuomo endorsed reforms proposed by a panel they had appointed and urged both legislatures to adopt them instead. But as Golden noted in his OpEd, the vetoes have been widely viewed as maintaining the status quo of disfunctionality, wasteful spending and gubernatorial abuse at Port Authority.
In his five years in office, none of Christie’s vetoes have been overridden, even if the original bills passed the legislature with bi-partisan support and by veto proof majorities. Republican legislators have frequently “flip-flopped” and changed their votes to uphold the Governor’s will. As Golden explains,
Posted: January 20th, 2015 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: Mike Doherty, Monmouth County, NJ GOP, Opinion, Port Authority | Tags: Art Gallagher, Carl Golden, Chris Christie, Port Authority of NY/NJ, Senator Michael Doherty, Senator Mike Doherty, Veto override | 3 Comments »
By Carl Golden
Rarely has a possible legislative override of a gubernatorial veto been as fraught with political implications as that involving Gov. Christie’s rejection of legislation to revise and reform the operations of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Entering his sixth year in office, Christie has run the table in having his…
Posted: January 20th, 2015 | Author: admin | Filed under: 2016 Presidential Politics, Chris Christie, New Jersey, NJ GOP, NJ Senate Republicans, NJ State Legislature, Opinion | Tags: Gov Chris Christie, Opinion, Port Authority of NY/NJ, Port Authority reform, Veto Overide | 5 Comments »
Government -sanctioned theft. That’s the phrase state Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon (R-Monmouth) has used like a ubiquitous bumper sticker to rail against red-light cameras. A story by njadvancemedia reporter Bill Wichert shows just how much “theft” was going on in the city of Newark. In five years, Newark collected $34 million from about 400,000 tickets doled out… Read the rest of this entry »By Jim Granelli
To be honest, I’ve had a draft of an article like this on my desktop since before Christmas. But the recent article about John Heyer, AKA Vin Gopal, AKA Monmouth County Democrat Chair has created an opportunity to tie the current matter into the above issues.
Integrity as one dictionary describes it is “the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness.” That was the point of exposing Vin Gopal as a real person behind Jersey Shore Insider. It was a lie of omission, for if the real truth were known about the editorial bend of the Jersey Shore Insider blog, one would be able to put it all in context.
One of the tip off’s that something was fishy was finding out that John Heyer was a Democrat Freeholder who died in 1905. No one in Holmdel knew of John Heyer, nor was he found in any public records. That wasn’t too smart of a move Mr. Gopal. It raised a flag. Furthermore, that Gopal has not replied to MMM with a comment should raise a flag with you; telling you that a) he got caught and b) he’s got something to hide.
Posted: January 12th, 2015 | Author: admin | Filed under: Jim Granelli, Monmouth County, Monmouth Democrats, Opinion, Vin Gopal | Tags: Alinsky's Rules for Radicals, Jim Granelli, John Heyer, Monmouth County, Monmouth County Democrats, Opinion, Vin Gopal | 11 Comments »Jim McGreevey is Governor Christie’s Ethical Compass?
Govenor Chris Christie at his Belmar Town Hall on July 31. Photo by Art Gallagher
In the summer of 2004, U.S. Attorney Chris Christie had Governor Jim McGreevey on the ropes. McGreevey was “State Official #1,” an unindicted co-conspirator in a pay for play scheme that nabbed Democratic fund-raiser David D’Amiano. A few weeks later McGreevey was resigning, purportedly because he was a “Gay American” who gave his boyfriend an important homeland security job that he wasn’t qualified to perform.
Yesterday, a decade later, Governor Christie is hanging his hat, and his orange sweater, on a McGreevey Executive Order that exempts the Governor from New Jersey’s ethics laws against accepting gifts.
Chris Christie marched into Trenton promising to turn the place upside down. Five years later McGreevey is Christie’s ethical compass. Not the man McGreevey has become over the last 10 years. Christie’s ethical compass is the man he investigated and probably could have indicted and convicted. To paraphrase Christie on the stump for Mitt Romney two years ago, something got turned upside down in Trenton, but it wasn’t the culture of government that Christie promised he would impact and overturn.
About the best thing we can say about Christie accepting gifts of travel on private jets and seats in owner’s boxes at NFL games is at least it was family friendly entertainment with the cameras running, unlike the alleged entertainment U.S. Senator Bob Menendez flew off to on a friend’s private jet.
Posted: January 6th, 2015 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: 2016 Presidential Politics, Chris Christie, Opinion, Reform Agenda | Tags: 2016 Presidential politics, Chris Christie, Ethical Compass, ethics, Jerry Jones, Jim McGreevey, New Jersey, Opinion, Port Authority, Port Authority of NY/NJ, Reform Agenda, Steve Adubato, Turning Trenton Upside Down | 20 Comments »
So that’s why he wanted to lose all that weight.
Since we have nothing better to do here in New Jersey, for instance, trying to stop Atlantic City from crumbling into the water, or hoping that Trenton does, let’s wring our collective hands over the Governor cheering for the Giants’ divisional rival while bromance hugging Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. I’m a Jets fan. If it weren’t for this distraction I’d be scouting the Pop Warner leagues to find my team a better coach than the one we just fired.
Governor Christie has really bad optics by publicly wearing Texas spurs. Why? Because Football ain’t baseball, that’s why. Politicians can only lose more votes in the football world than they can gain. Everybody knows that.
Posted: January 5th, 2015 | Author: admin | Filed under: 2016 Presidential Politics, Chris Christie, Humour, Opinion | Tags: 2016 Presidential politics, Chris Christie, Dallas Cowboys, Tommy DeSeno | 3 Comments »By Ernesto Cullari
If Republican Congressmen Chris Smith and Tom MacArthur vote for John Boehner (R-Ohio) to be the Speaker of the 114th Congress then they will both be breaking two foundational campaign promises: the first to defeat Obamacare and the second to end Obama’s policy of Executive Amnesty for Illegal Aliens. If they break either campaign promise both are certain face a mutiny at home by voters in two years.
On the issues of Amnesty and Obamacare, Speaker John Boehner has given Obama’s policies the Congressional stamp of approval. In the $1.1 trillion dollar spending bill that Boehner fought for and passed in December 2014, there were provisions that provided short term funding of Obama’s amnesty program.
Prior to the Republican Congress’s financial support, Obama was on shaky legal ground; however by providing funding for Executive Amnesty Boehner breathed new life into Obama’s strategy. The U.S. Supreme Court in Youngstown, a case dealing with the executive seizure of private property in the absence of congressional approval, established that, “Presidential authority is strongest when acting with the expressed or implied consent of Congress.” Through Boehner Congress has shown consent.
Posted: January 5th, 2015 | Author: admin | Filed under: Chris Smith, Ernesto Cullari, Opinion | Tags: Chris Smith, Ernesto Cullari, Executive Amnesty, House of Representatives, John Boehner, ObamaCare, Tom MacArthur | 7 Comments »Winners
Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon led the effort to terminate New Jersey’s Red Light Camera Program.
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.
Christine Giordano Hanlon
Dubbed The Architect by Monmouth GOP Chairman Shaun Golden, Hanlon designed Golden’s defeat of John Bennett for leadership of the County Party, avenging her razor thin 3 vote defeat by Bennett in 2012. By building a coalition of previous regional rivals and splitting Bennett’s 2012 coalition, which he failed to nourish, Hanlon demonstrated strategic leadership without seeking the limelight or accolades.
On a recent weekend I drove to a spot along the beach in Brick Township to see how my tax dollars were doing. About 40 million of them are going to build a steel wall that will protect a four-mile stretch of beach running from Mantoloking southward. Once I parked, I realized there was no way… Read the rest of this entry »© Copyright 2025 | MoreMonmouthMusings | All Rights Reserved