While politicians draw lines to save their jobs the People’s Map creates genuine competition
Middletown, NJ –Several articles have come out recently displaying the hysterics surrounding the possibility of a handful of legislators who may lose their jobs as a result of the Apportionment Commission’s final map. Meanwhile, an analysis of “The People’s Map” illustrates nicely how genuine competition between and among parties and incumbents can be easily achieved by simply drawing district lines according to the Constitution.
Below are some of the intra-party battles created as a result of the non-gerrymandered map produced by the Bayshore Tea Party Group:
·District 4: Sen. Steve Sweeney (D) v. Sen. Fred Madden (D)
·District 13: Sen. Joe Kyrillos (R) v. Sen. Jenifer Beck (R)
·District 21: Sen. Barbara Buono (D) v. Sen. Bob Smith (D)
·District 27: Sen. Anthony R. Bucco (R) v. Sen. Joseph Pennacchio (R)
·District 31: Sen. Brian Stack (D) v. Sen. Nicholas Sacco (D)
·District 9: Asm. Ronald Dancer v. Asw. Diane Gove v. Asm. Brian Rumpf
There are 11 additional districts in which incumbents of the same party would be pitted against one another. This is what representative democracy should look like.
While politicians holed up in lavish accommodations at one of New Brunswick’s finest hotels wheel and deal for their own personal benefit, voters are left with the scraps from a rancid political meal. “The People’s Map” changes that dynamic and forces long-term incumbents, many of whom have benefited for a decade from our previously Gerrymandered districts, to defend their records with their constituents and actually campaign for reelection.
It is a uniquely American ideal that no man should be entitled to the benefit of another’s labor. This ideal is no more applicable than in the world of electoral politics.
Upon discovering the information, primary map-maker and Bayshore Tea Party Group Redistricting Committee Chairman Sean Spinello stated:
“One thing that struck me with all the attempts at manipulating the matchups and wanting easy victories was that it sounded like old time boxing promoters…except with less integrity.”
The Bayshore Tea Party Group was heartened recently by NJ Apportionment Commission Co-Chairman and Assemblyman John Wisniewski’s statement citing the importance of adhering to the NJ Constitution with regard to the legislative map drawing, as reported in The Star-Ledger on March 28.
As per Chairman Wisniewski’s admonition, we expect that the Commission will issue a map fully compliant with law and the New Jersey Constitution, such as “The People’s Map.”
Please visit our website at www.bayshoreteaparty.org for information on how you can become involved with the effort to restore American Exceptionalism and fix our broken government. [email protected] or call 732-842-6652 for more information.
The Bayshore Tea Party Group Headquarters is located at 275 Rt. 35N in Middleotwn,NJ. Please contact
It’s not that Dan doesn’t have some valid points. He does. Government labor loves Kean. So does private sector labor. Big business loves Kean too. A look at Kean’s list of campaign contributors reveals that the 11th district senator is well funded by both labor and business interests dependent on friends in Trenton.
Ideological conservatives consider Kean a RINO. The loudest of the ideologues are morons and have been making some noise about challenging Kean. They’re morons because they would rather support candidates that comply with 100% of their ideology and lose elections then support an imperfect candidate that agrees with them most of the time and wins.
Jacobson argues that the right shouldn’t like Kean because he’s friendly with those who Governor Chris Christie is fighting. Kean could potentially have a bigger problem because he apparently fell out of favor with Christie when he issued a statement critical of the state’s clean up efforts during the December blizzard.
To the casual observer, Kean might look vulnerable to a primary challenge from the right.
He’s not. Not a serious one.
Jacobson doesn’t like Kean because he voted against gay marriage.
The gay community is furious with Kean, not just because of his vote against marriage equality, but more so because of what he said before casting his vote:
Kean might be right that he has the gayest legislative district in the state. Even so, Jacobson knows that the gay vote won’t be enough to defeat Sean Kean in the general election. That’s why Dan wants someone like Anna Little or me to challenge Kean in the primary. Dan knows how to count. He knows that only way to defeat Kean is in a primary. Democrat Dan also knows that if Kean were to be defeated in the primary that his “safe seat” would suddenly be in play. It won’t happen. State Senator is too small a title for Anna Little and I’m not a moron. At least I’m not that much of a moron.
As imperfect as Sean Kean is, if he could be beat in a Republican primary, Steve Corodemus would be a senator. Kean is from Wall Township and he is wildly popular there. Wall Township dominates the 11th district and it will likely dominate what ever district Kean lands in after redistricting.
Kean and Corodemus had an uneasy partnership as Assembly members representing the 11th from 2002, when Kean was appointed to fill the seat vacated by the death of Assemblyman Tom Smith, through 2008 when both men left the Assembly. Corodemus had been in the Assembly for 10 years before Kean, who had never before held elective office, won Smith’s seat. Corodemus was the heir apparent to Senator Joe Palaia. Yet Kean’s ambitions were obvious. In their second race together, 2005, Corodemus and Kean were targeted by the state Democrats and narrowly won reelection against Corzine funded challengers. The winning votes came from Wall Township and Kean was the top vote getter.
Corodemus is not a moron. When Palaia announced he would retire rather than seek another term in 2007, Steve did the math and realized his seniority would not overcome Kean’s popularity in the southern part of the 11th district, especially Wall. Corodemus also announced his retirement from the legislature rather than challenge Kean in a primary or serve in the Assembly “under” Senator Kean.
Jacobson says a Tea Party type should take on Kean. That would be insane to do in a blue state against a “safe” Republican incumbent in a year when Republicans are attempting to win control of the legislature against steep odds. The Tea Party folks I talk to are not insane. They see the lay of the land and would rather work to pick up Republican seats in the Senate and Assembly than to put a “safe” seat at risk. They know that if Kean’s seat becomes vacant that the Democrats will recruit a viable candidate to run for it, even if that means changing nominees after the primary, and dedicate money to try to win the seat.
Anna Little couldn’t defeat Sean Kean in a primary and neither could I. I wouldn’t challenge Kean because I know I couldn’t defeat him. Little won’t do it because State Senator is not a prestigious enough title for her.
The only person who could defeat Sean Kean in a primary is Jacobson himself. If Dan changed parties he might be able to get 3000 of his Independent readers to declare as Republicans on primary day and vote for him. There were only about 2600 primary voters in district 11 in 2009. There’s little reason to expect a larger turnout this year, unless Dan Jacobson dedicates his paper to bringing out new voters to vote for him.
Jacobson is thinking about it. A few hours after he sent me his column he sent me an email asking if Kean is pro-life.
“Something tells me that neither you nor Anna is going to going to run against him, which means it will fall to me to take him on in the GOP primary.”
“If I can determine that he’s not for banning abortion, then the only constituencies he’ll have left are gun nuts and the anti-gay bigots. Then again, those two groups make up the majority of the Republican Party so I guess I can’t win.
Anyway, do you think Sean is pro-life?”
I don’t know if Kean is pro-life. I suggested that Dan call Sean and ask him. “Naaaw, he’s a pussy! Pussy, pussy, pussy!” I love how Dan expresses himself because it allows me to quote him, push the envelope myself, and still come off as a Republican.
“Wait a minute Dan,” I said, “You don’t want to call Sean Kean and that makes him a pussy?”
I don’t think Dan will do it. Maybe he was joking. He’s always joking. Maybe underneath it all he’s a, you know, …..not a moron.
Michael sent me a text at 10:17 AM that he and Ruth could go back to their hotel room now and thanking me for monitoring the situation. I had sent him a message at 8:42 telling him that the news reports were saying that the waves in Hawaii were insignificant. His email message to the family simply stated that all was ok and that they were thankful and tired.
In the 5 1/2 hours between communications with my brother who was in the path of a tsunami, I kept praying, monitoring the news on TV and the Internet and gave my best effort at my normal early morning routine of checking the news sites for material to comment on at MMM.
At app.com there was coverage of a four alarm fire in Ocean Grove. My mother spends a lot of time in Ocean Grove. Not often during this time of year, but she could be there. Calls to her home and cell went unanswered. Could both my mother and brother be in harms way at the same time on opposite sides of the planet?! Mom called back later from Michael’s home in California where she was looking after his teenage daughters while he and Ruth were vacationing.
So far on this Friday morning nothing bad had happened to any of my loved ones, as far as I knew for sure, but events of the day were shaking me up. Word from earlier in the week that a beloved aunt needed a liver transplant was shocking. Now my brother’s life and perhaps my mother ‘s were in imminent danger. The normal business of living that I usually approached urgently seemed trivial today. The news from Japan was devastating, but it wasn’t personal.
Just after I received Michael’s message that he and Ruth were fine, my wife arrived home from a doctor’s appointment. Lori was relieved to hear that Michael and Ruth were well. She looked happier than I had seen her looking in quite sometime. The surgical procedure she had a week earlier for a back injury had worked well.
It was getting to be late in the morning and I was late in getting to the business of living. However, I spent some time filling Lori in on what had happened since I was awakened for no apparent reason in the middle of the night. Lori asked me what time I was awakened. “2:47 AM,” I replied. At that very moment a TV anchor’s voice announced, ” At 2:46 this morning east coast time a 8.9 level earthquake hit off the coast of Japan.”
I still can’t get my head around that one. It could mean something or it could mean nothing. I believe in God and believe there is such a thing as miracles and divine intervention. I also believe that the power and nature of God is beyond human understanding . I am suspect of those who claim to understand God and tell other people how to live based on their “knowing.”
I don’t “know” that God woke me up in the middle of the night nor do I “know” that I felt an earthquake on the other side of the planet. I don’t “know” that my prayers made a difference in keeping my brother and his wife safe. I know I woke up in the middle of the night. I know I communicated with my brother via human technology and thanks to that technology I know he and his wife are safe.
I believe I received a wake up call. That while I’ve been urgently engaged in the business of living, I’ve paid less attention to what really matters than I need to.
When I arrived home on Friday night after dealing with the business of living, Lori filled me in on the good news from her doctors appointment. The procedure on her back injury had worked. Her suffering was greatly reduced. There was more work to be done, but she told me that the doctor said she had made his day when she told him she felt as though she had a new future. She had been mentally preparing to live in pain and with limited mobility for the rest of her life and now she felt she wasn’t going to suffer that way. If she had previously told me that she was going through that, I didn’t hear it. This really mattered.
Lori will have another procedure in a few weeks, which will keep me working on the business of living. Those health insurance premiums need to be paid and it really matters.
Sometimes the business of living keeps us from appreciating what really matters in life. I suppose I should speak for myself, but I’ve heard that’s true for others too. Unfortunately it takes an unexpected catastrophic or potentially catastrophic event to wake me up. Yesterday was a day filled with several wake up calls for me.
I was awakened out of a deep sleep for no apparent reason in the middle of the night. The digital clock in the bedroom read 2:47 AM. I went to the bathroom because that’s what men in their 50’s do when they wake up in the middle of the night, and tried to go back to sleep. But I had an annoying restlessness. I turned on the television to find something mindless to help me sleep. I tossed and turned for a while and felt myself starting to doze off when there was an emergency news break on the TV about a big earthquake in Japan and a coming tsunami. “That’s terrible,” I thought to myself as I rolled over into what I hoped was the doze that would last at least a couple of hours.
The next thing I noticed I was on my feet heading towards my computer. I didn’t remember giving up on the nights sleep and getting to work. I was just up and walking towards my computer. The television still had the news of tsunami in the Pacific going. The digital clock read 3:40.
There was an email from my brother Michael that had arrived at 3:35 AM. It had been sent from his Blackberry.
His email was distributed to his family. He and his wife were at a resort on the north shore of Oahu. There was a tsunami warning because of a big earthquake off the coast of Japan. It was 10:30 PM in Oahu and the waves were expected to hit at 2:30 AM. The hotel was having an information meeting at 11:15. They were on the 5th floor of a 6 story building. They will send more info when they have it. And finally he sent us the name of his lawyer.
WTF! Suddenly the news on the television was personal. I was wide awake. It was now 3:45 AM and everyone else on my brother’s email distribution list was likely sleeping.
I directed my Internet browser towards the resort’s website to get a look at this 6 story building my younger brother was staying at. It looked to be a well constructed concrete structure, but it was right on the shore line! The TV just had a picture of a building in Japan falling into the water.
I started switching the TV between FoxNews and CNN for news from Hawaii and surfing the web for Hawaiian news and government sites. CNN was doing a better job than Fox in covering the events. A web cam from Waikiki was playing loud Hawaiian music that woke up my wife.
One of the news stations had an announcement that Hawaiian police were instructing locals to follow evacuation routes to higher ground and instructing visitors to return to their hotels. WTF! Locals are being told to head up the mountains and visitors are being told to head towards the water! The news shows on TV were talking about something called “vertical evacuation” which means get to the highest floor in the building. There was footage of another building in Japan falling into the water and the wave in Japan was on fire. I don’t know about this vertical evacuation business.
I checked out the evacuation maps on the Hawaiian state website. If it were me and my wife at that resort, we would leaving that 6 story building on the beach and hiking up the mountain. One news site said the police had established road blocks on the evacution routes. “Where’s the jail?” I imagined myself telling the officer as I ignored his order to go back to my hotel.
No doubt my brother was getting all of his information locally. He didn’t even know that I had read his email.
One of the Hawaiian government sites said to stay off the phone lines, land and cell, because heavy phone traffic can interfere with emergency communications. I remembered that being so from 9-11.
Michael had sent his email from his Blackberry. I sent him I text at 4:34,”Praying for you and monitoring internet for evacuation info. I hope you are being moved away from the coast line.” 8 minutes later I get a text back from him, “Thanks, Artie. We’re on the 5th floor of a building on elevated point. 6 feet of water expected. 1st and 2nd fls evacuated as precaution. All guests in hallways.”
“I saw a photo of the building on the resort’s site,” I responded, “I would move to higher ground off the coast, but I know you will make the right decisions.” Michael now knew that he had another source of information if he wanted or needed it. All I could do now was pray, ask others to pray, which I did on facebook while waiting for Michael to repsond to my first text, and keep monitoring.
It was now 4:50 AM. What a way to start the day. My wake up calls were just starting.
The National Review’sRick Lowry met with Governor Chris Christie last week. Here’s what the governor told Lowry about his non-candidacy for president:
Yes. Believe me, I’ve been interested in politics my whole life. I see the opportunity. But I just don’t believe that’s why you run. Like I said at AEI, I have people calling me and saying to me, “Let me explain to you how you could win.” And I’m like, “You’re barking up the wrong tree. I already know I could win.” That’s not the issue. The issue is not me sitting here and saying, “Geez, it might be too hard. I don’t think I can win.” I see the opportunity both at the primary level and at the general election level. I see the opportunity.
But I’ve got to believe I’m ready to be president, and I don’t. And I think that that’s the basis you have to make that decision. I think when you have people who make the decision just based upon seeing the opportunity you have a much greater likelihood that you’re going to have a president who is not ready. And then we all suffer from that. Even if you’re a conservative, if your conservative president is not ready, you’re not going to be good anyway because you’re going to get rolled all over the place in that town.
I just see how much better I get at this job every day, and I do, and I learn things. If not every day, at least every week. And my wife and I were actually talking about this last night. We had dinner together with the family after the [New Jersey budget] speech and she was saying how much better she thought I was yesterday than I had been before in my speech. She said, “You are getting better.”
That’s just the nature of life. So, I see the opportunity, I recognize and understand it and I’m really flattered that people think of me that way. But, if I don’t believe it in here [pointing to his heart], I’m not going to be a good candidate on top of everything else.
And remember in the context of sitting there on election night 2009, and my wife and I were convinced we were going to lose. It is a bit to get your arms around, too. You’re a successful United States attorney and then within a year of that time you have people talking about you and I was running around campaigning for folks. All of these handmade “Christie for President” signs in the crowds when I was in Michigan and Iowa and all the other places that I went, Ohio and Pennsylvania and Florida. It’s also been overwhelming, too.
Like I said before, I am who I am and people have to trust, they don’t have to but they should trust, my instincts on this. I know me better than anyone else knows me. If I felt like I was ready, I’d go, but I’m not. But I’m also not going to go if I don’t think I’m ready.
When I walked into the Governor’s office last January there have been some difficult days in the job. There has never been a day where I’ve felt like I’m over my head, I don’t know what to do, I’m lost. I don’t know whether I’d feel the same way if I walked into the Oval Office a year and a half from now. So, unless you get yourself to the point where you really believe you have a shot to be successful, then I don’t think you have any business running for it.
Lowry noted that Christie is better prepared than Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama were when they took office. I would add Truman, Kennedy and Carter to the not as prepared as Christie list of modern day presidents. Since FDR, the only prepared chief executives America has had were Eisenhower,Johnson, Nixon, Reagan and George H. W. Bush.
Unless a Republican leader emerges in the coming months, the “readiness” argument will become weaker and weaker to a country hungry for leadership. Unless that Republican leader emerges the pressure of Christie to fill the leadership vacuum will increase.
I don’t know Christie that well, but I don’t think the question of seeking the presidency is truly a matter of readiness for him. I think it is a matter of calling. A truly great president is called to the office, as Reagan was.
Christie is conducting his governorship as a mission he is called to. He is in the process of becoming a transformational governor. His leadership is having national consequences. He appears to be called to the work that he has started in reducing the size and cost of government on the state and local level.
If Christie is called to a higher office, like the presidency, such calling will probably not happen until there is significant progress in New Jersey and elsewhere throughout the country where his example is making a difference.
For Christie to seek the presidency because of the opportunity when the level of accomplishment in his current calling is far from complete would diminish his current work and the future opportunity. Christie frequently says “I know who I am.” Who he is is someone who doesn’t leave a job undone to take a “better” opportunity.
If Christie stays on his current course as governor and a national leader in bringing fiscal sanity to state and local government he has the potential of making a bigger difference, domestically, in the quality of life and freedom for Americans than any modern day president.
“It does take quite a man to remain attractive and to be loved by a woman who has heard him snore, seen him unshaven, tended him while he was sick, and washed his dirty underwear. Do that and keep her still feeling a warm glow and you will know some very beautiful music.”
~ Ronald Reagan
Posted: February 14th, 2011 | Author:Art Gallagher | Filed under:Uncategorized | Comments Off on Happy Valentine’s Day
Last week’s 12th anniversary edition of the triCityNews was no where to be found in Highlands and Atlantic Highlands by Friday evening last week. I wondered if officers of the Highlands Republican Club grabbed them all so no one would read it, but all the positive feedback I received through out the week indicates otherwise.
This week’s issue, Volume 12 + Issue 13, was still in Foodtown in Atlantic Highlands tonight. There’s a full page of TriCity>Mail dedicated to calling me a self serving bloviator! Is there any other kind?
I’d link you to the letters, but Dan Jacobson doesn’t publish on the Internet. You’ll have to pick it up.
Actually, I can link you to one of the letters. Dan published HRC President Louis Croce’s letter banning me from Republican Club meetings which I published here the day I received it. Here it is in case you missed it.
In another letter, the Sergeant-At-Arms of the HRC writes about 600 words on how irrelevent I am. I doubt he sees the irony in that. I guess, as Sergeant-At-Arms, it will be his job to take “appropriate measures” to have me removed from the HRC meeting on Monday night should I attend. Should I show up? Dan wants pictures if I go. Rhoda?
The other letter is an anonymous email from someone who looked up MMM’s stats on alexa.com and reasoned that the 70% growth in MMM traffic is because I’ve been picking on the former Mayor of Highlands.
My page is entertaining, but the best reason to pick up this week’s issue is Dan’s column about the epic failure of the Asbury Park Press, Frank Pallone and those who destroyed Jim Wassel’s effort to redevelop Fort Hancock on Sandy Hook. I wish I could link it for you. It’s really good. Pick up the paper.
Assemblywoman Mary Pat Angelini is encouraging her friends and supporters to take part in a blood drive for injured Asbury Park firefigher Jason Fazio who was severely burned in a fire last month. Fazio is undergoing a series of skin grafts at Saint Barnabas Burn Center.
The blood drive is being held tomorrow, February 5th, from 9am to 2pm at the Asbury Park Fire Department on Main Street and Asbury Avenue. All blood types are needed
Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow, which according to Groundhog Day lore means there will be an early spring.
According to the StormFax Weather Almanac, Phil’s predictions have been accurate 39% of the time,
Posted: February 2nd, 2011 | Author:Art Gallagher | Filed under:Uncategorized | Tags:Groundhog Day | Comments Off on Punxsutawney Phil Doesn’t See His Shadow
Last week’s 12th anniversary edition of the triCityNews was no where to be found in Highlands and Atlantic Highlands by Friday evening last week. I wondered if officers of the Highlands Republican Club grabbed them all so no one would read it, but all the positive feedback I received through out the week indicates otherwise. 