Winston Churchill said, “An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.” In New Jersey, as long as we keep electing politicians who feed the State’s bloated budget, none of us are safe.
Phil Murphy calls New Jersey a high tax for high value state. But Democrats are squeezing out what little value is left. Our schools are failing, NJ Transit deteriorating, jobs leaving, and taxes rising. Policies passed to appease progressives instead of provide solutions are chasing businesses and families away.
Last year, Phil Murphy and New Jersey Democrats set the bar for their income ”success tax” at $5 million. One year later, they redefined “success” as a family making $1 million or more. That’s an 80 percent drop. Take 20 percent of that and by 2020 a family earning $200,000 would pay more taxes. By 2021, a family earning just $40,000 could be the next, New Jersey “success”. It sounds crazy, but it’s not. The middle class is next, because government is out of control. Read the rest of this entry »
Brent Sonnek-Schmelz at the Pink Prom in Asbury Park, May 7. photo via facebook
Brent Sonnek-Schmelz, the GOP candidate challenging Congressman Frank Pallone in New Jersey’s 6th Congressional District (Middlesex and Monmouth Counties), criticized the Republican National Committee for falling to soften its stand against gay marriage.
“Let me be blunt, the Republican National Convention’s Platform Committee did a terrible disservice to the Republican Party, by failing to recognize a clearly selfevident diversity of opinion within our ranks on the issue of same-sex marriage,” said Sonnek-Schmelz, pointing to a failed amendment offered by openly gay Washington, DC Delegate Rachel Hoff. “How can we expect men and women who share our beliefs on lower taxes, balanced budgets, school choice and a strong national defense to stand with the Republican Party, when the Party won’t stand with them when it comes to something so basic as the ability to marry someone you love? We can and must do better. I am eager to be part of a new generation of Republicans with the courage to continue changing hearts and minds on this issue by making my voice heard.”
Iowa U.S. Senator Joni Ernst is coming to New Jersey next week as the headliner for a GOPAC fundraiser.
Ernst, a freshman senator who gave the Republican response to the State of the Union address in January, came to national prominence with her unconventional campaign ad.
GOPAC is a national Republican political action committee that supports emerging Republican leaders and advances the principles of freedom, free markets and limited government.
By Matt Friedman and Brent Johnson/The Star-Ledger TRENTON — Campaigning for Republican candidates in California, Gov. Chris Christie on Friday criticized remarks made by Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a potential opponent in his party’s 2016 presidential…
UPDATED: MSNBC CHIEF APOLOGIZES. FIRES THE PERSON WHO LAUNCHED THE RACIST TWEET.
According to a report on Brietbart MSNBC President Phil Griffin issued an apology to RNC Chairman Reince Priebus and “everyone offended” by the tweet (see below) posted last night that implied that the “rightwing” hates biracial families.
The tweet last night was outrageous and unacceptable. We immediately acknowledged that is was offensive and wrong, apologized and deleted it. We have dismissed the person responsible for the tweet.
I personally apologize to Mr. Priebus and to everyone offended.
At MSNBC, we believe in passionate, strong debate about the issues and we invite voices from all sides to participate. That will never change.
Phil Griffin
In a memo to All Republican Elected Officials, Strategists, Surrogates, and Pundits and in an email to contributors, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus called for a national boycott of MSNBC until the cable network’s president, Phil Griffin, apologizes for a tweet posted last night which suggested that the “rightwing” hates bi-racial families. The tweet linked to a Cheerios commercial featuring a bi-racial family using the breakfast cereal as a discussion prop between father and daughter, rather than as food.
Here’s there tweet:
Here is the commercial
Priebus said:
While we understand MSNBC will go to great lengths to discredit Republicans and conservatives, this kind of attack on the millions of Americans who identify with the political right is offensive and unacceptable. Unfortunately, this tweet is just the latest in a pattern of poor statements by MSNBC and its hosts.
This morning I left a message with MSNBC President Phil Griffin to express my displeasure. I have sent him a letter demanding that he personally, as president of the network, take responsibility and apologize for the disgusting tweet. Until he takes internal corrective action and personally apologizes—not just to the RNC but to all right-of-center Americans—I’m banning all RNC staff from appearing on, associating with, or booking any RNC surrogates on MSNBC.
As an elected official, strategist, or surrogate, I’m asking for you to agree to the same.
We can have our political disagreements with MSNBC, but using biracial families to launch petty and ridiculous political attacks is low, even by MSNBC’s standards. It only coarsens our political discourse.
MSNBC hosts—including Alec Baldwin, Martin Bashir, Melissa Harris-Perry, Alex Wagner, and Ronan Farrow just to name a few—have had a troubling streak in the last several weeks of making comments that belittle and demean Americans without furthering any thoughtful dialogue. Perhaps it’s time for the executives at MSNBC to consider whether their network is upholding a meaningful journalistic mission.
This is more than just a tweet or an offhand comment. This is part of a pattern of behavior that has gotten markedly worse, and until Phil Griffin personally apologizes and takes corrective action, we cannot be part of this network’s toxic programming.
I am confident that he will want to “lean forward” and prove to the American people that he does not condone this behavior. I look forward to his apology and corrective action.
Governor Chris Christie’s trusted political advisor is taking over the leadership of the New Jersey Republican Party.
Bill Stepian managed Christie’s 2009 victory over Jon Corzine, became the Governor’s Deputy Chief of Staff and then managed the 2013 reelection campaign. Stepien was tabbed by Christie today to replace Sam Raia, the real estate executive and mayor of Saddle River who lead the NJ GOP for the last three years. Raia resigned today, effective immediately.
In a press release, the NJ GOP characterized Raia’s tenure as “historic.”
“We’ve surpassed each of our goals during the three years of my chairmanship – we’ve reelected our Governor by historic margins, raised $8.8 million and laid the groundwork for the future success of our Party,” said Raia. “I couldn’t be more thankful for the opportunity provided by Governor Christie and members of the State Committee to serve our Party.”
Winning control of the legislature must not been one of Raia’s goals.
It’s not that Booker is invincible, as was widely thought prior to the Special Senate Election last October. He is beatable. Steve Lonegan exposed the fallacies of the Booker myth and Patrick Murray documented that Booker’s support is shallow. Had Washington Republicans not followed Senator Ted Cruz’s lead to shut down the government in October and had State Comptroller Matt Boxer released his audit of Newark’s City Government which exposed millions of wasted taxpayer money and management practices that encourage fraud in September instead of this week, Lonegan might have pulled off the upset that Booker deserved.
There’s nothing wrong with 4 of the 5 Republicans reported to be looking to challenge Booker. Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick, Senator Minority Leader Tom Kean JR, Senator Mike Doherty or Assemblyman Jay Webber would all serve New Jersey well in the U.S. Senate.
That Darryl Isherwood included Assemblyman Chris Brown is his list of 5 Republican of potential candidates to challenge Booker is more of a reflection of Isherwood’s sense of humor than it is of Brown’s viability as a candidate for any office in the future. After blaming his Assembly running mate John Amodeo’s 39 vote loss on Governor Christie, Brown will be lottery winner lucky if he is even re-nominated for his Assembly seat in 2015. “What will Brown do after politics?” MMM asked a senior Republican strategist after the gaffe. “We’ll find out soon,” the strategist said with a laugh.
(Correction: As a commenter pointed out, Isherwood was referring to a different Assemblyman Chris Brown (the LD 8 Brown) than the one who blamed Christie for his running mate’s loss. My mistake makes my overall point. MMM readers are more informed than the average voter. How many knew there was even one Chris Brown in the Assembly prior to the LD 2 Brown’s gaffe? There isn’t a member of the legislature with the statewide name ID to compete with Booker~ Art)
We’ll find out tomorrow night if Governor Chris Christie’s 11th push for coattails is working, but an FDU Public Mind Poll released this morning indicates that the Republican brand has been damaged by the antics of Congressional Republicans and that Christie’s personal popularity is not enough to overcome New Jersey’s Democratic tilt.
FDU surveyed 1206 registered voters last week on how they feel about the job Christie is doing in New Jersey, President Obama’s handling of the federal budget negotiations and Congressional Democrats and Republicans handling of the federal budget negotiations.
As has consistently been the case over the last year, Christie’s approval numbers are very strong. The governor’s approval rating is positive 61%-24%. Obama’s handling of the federal budget is disapproved of by 52% of NJ voters and approved by only 38%. Congressional Democrats got a negative rating from 57% with only 32% approving. 75% disapprove of how Congressional Republicans have handled the federal budget, including 79% of Independents and 58% of Republican voters. Only 14% of NJ voters, 33% of Republicans, approve of the job Congressional Republicans are doing on the budget.
FDU altered the order of their questions before asking participants their partisan identification. Those who were asked about Congressional Republicans immediately before being asked their party ID, were less likely to say they are Republican or that they would vote Republican.
Governor Chris Christie and Danny Shields in Highlands earlier this year. Shields, an owner of Windansea, is Sen. Jennifer Beck’s husband.
Governor Chris Christie sounded like a candidate for President of the United States during an address to a private luncheon of the Republican National Committee this afternoon in Boston, according to a report at Politico.
The meeting was closed to reporters at Christie’s insistence, Politico said, but the site obtained a recording from someone in attendance.
Christie’s theme: Republicans need to stop debating, focus on winning and he knows how to win.
“We are not a debating society,” Christie said. “We are a political operation that needs to win.”
“I’m in this business to win,” he said. “I don’t know why you’re in it…I think that we have some folks that believe that our job is to be college professors. Now college professors are fine, I guess. You know, college professors basically spout out ideas that nobody ever does anything about. For our ideas to matter, we have to win because, if we don’t win, we don’t govern. And if we don’t govern, all we do is shout into the wind. So I am going to do anything I need to do to win!”
Yet, good news for Trenton Democrats—the NJ Republicans are trying to lose
By Art Gallagher
State Senator Barbara Buono, the presumptive Democratic nominee for governor, received two doses of bad news today (so far) for her fledgling campaign to unseat Governor Chris Christie in November.
1) A Quinnipiac poll released today indicates that Buono has made no progress over the last month in increasing her dismal name recognition. 78% of those polled don’t know enough about Buono to form an opinion. That compares to 79% last month. Of the few who recognize her name, 43% have an unfavorable opinion.
Christie’s numbers remain amazingly strong. 67% approve of the job he is doing as governor. 66% says he deserves to be reelected. In a head to head match up with Buono, Christie wins 58%-26%, with 13% out to lunch.
2) Even worse for Buono, PolitickerNJ reports that she is likely to be the only major party gubernatorial candidate in the history of New Jersey’s matching funds campaign program not to qualify for the maximum amount. PolitickerNJ said that Buono has raised only $29,000 per week since she declared her candidacy in December. In order to earn the maximum $2 million in state matching funds for the primary, she would have to raise $216,000 per week over the next six weeks of the primary campaign.
Christie has opted out of the state matching funds program and has raised upwards of $5 million to date for the primary.
Trenton Republicans Trying to Lose
With Chrisite’s polling and financial numbers so strong, one would think that the Trenton Democrats that control the legislature would be concerned about Christie coattails. Trenton Republicans seem enthused about the prospect of taking control of the legislature, but so far their campaign is deploying the stupidest strategy imaginable.
I’m not a professional political strategist, I just play one of the Internet. In my not so humble opinion the NJ GOP‘s campaign against Corzine Democrats is the dumbest political strategy since Christine O’Donnell declared she is not a witch.
