CI conducts occasional surveys of Trenton insiders. This morning they released a survey which included questions on the ARC tunnel, the likelihood of Governor Christie running for President or Vice President in 2012, the likelihood of Governor Christie’s reform “tool kit” being passed before January 1, the outcomes of the congressional races in Districts 6 and 12, the Senate race is NJ’s 14th legislative district and the Bergen County Executive race. The survey results can be viewed here.
The vast majority(83%) of the bi-partisan expert panel do not expect Governor Christie to be on the 2012. 55% expect Jon Runyon to defeat John Adler in CD-3, and 81% expect Rush Holt to successfully fight off Scott Sipprelle’s challenge in CD-12.
This is the first election that the CI insiders have predicted. We’ll know next week how “expert” they really are.
In the surest sign yet that Frank Pallone is losing to Anna Little, Phoney Palloney has hit the airwaves with a negative TV ad.
Contrary to the custom with political ads, Pallone’s announcement that he approves the message appears at the beginning of the spot. This makes it appear that Pallone approves the previous ad shown, i.e., Frank Pallone approving a Scott Sipprelle ad, approving BP’s public relations ads, and Phoney Palloney approving a sleep apnea relief ad.
Complete with scaring music, newspaper headlines and black and white photos, Pallone’s ad says that Little told the Star Ledger that social security and medicare are unconstitutional, that she would end regulations on all corporations, kill the department of education, deny insurance coverage to sick people, and end corporate income taxes while imposing a 23% national sales tax. “Read the papers, Tea Party Approved Anna Little is too extreme for us” is the ad’s tag line.
When Pallone made these charges during the debate at Temple Shalom last Sunday, the crowd laughed at him. The ad provoked laughter in the Gallagher household this morning.
Both the Monmouth University poll and the National Research poll of the NJ-6 race indicated that Little’s only weakness (and Pallone’s only hope for reelection) is her low name recognition outside of Monmouth County. Pallone’s ad helps Little. I hope he keeps running it.
If anyone finds a video of the ad, please send it here. I want to post it.
"Jersey Guys" Ray Rossi and Casey Bartholomew greet fans of The Soprano State at the Clearview Middlebrook theater in Ocean Twp. Bob Ingle and Sandy McClure in the background
NJ 101.5 hosted a special showing of The Soprano State this evening in Ocean Township. The Jersey Guys, Casey Bartholomew and Ray Rossi broadcast their show from the Clearview Middlebrook theater this afternoon to promote the showing. Bob Ingle and Sandy McClure, co-authors of the book that inspired the movie where on hand.
The movie opens at Clearview theaters throughout New Jersey and New York on Friday. Click here to find the theater closest to you.
On my way out of the theater I noticed this car park in a handicapped spot:
At first I didn’t notice the handicapped permit hanging from the rear view mirror and thought the driver was thoughtless and foolish. Certainly not a Soprano State caliber law breaker.
Look what I found in the back seat of the car as I walked by:
Kind of looks like Senator Ray Lesniak, doesn’t it? Lesniak didn’t make it into the movie.
Do you think this handicapped driver is cruising in the NJ Turnpike HOV lanes?
I have a fantasy this election season. No, my fantasy does not involve Michelle Bachmann, Nikki Haley and Sarah Palin in negligees.
In my fantasy this election is not decided by whether a candidate once had trouble paying their bills or got behind on their mortgage.
It is not decided by the fact that they grow Christmas trees or raise donkeys on their seven acre farm.
It is not decided by whether they dabbled in witchcraft while in college or by whether or not they inhaled 25 years ago.
It is not decided by whether Chuck Norris or Oprah or even Bruce Springsteen endorsed a candidate.
In my fantasy this election is about choosing between two competing views of the purpose of government. We can argue about which is better. Reasonable minds can differ vehemently about which is better. I know which one I subscribe to.
In my fantasy everybody who thinks bigger government is better, who wants government to provide for their (or someone else’s) retirement and healthcare and their housing, who wants more regulation and more taxes on anybody votes Democrat.
Everybody who wants to provide for themselves thinks that governments role in our life should be as limited as possible and wants less spending, less regulation and less taxes for all, those people vote Republican.
In short just this once, on Election Day we cut through the crap and decide which vision of America is the one we are going with.
Posted: October 19th, 2010 | Author:Art Gallagher | Filed under:Uncategorized | Comments Off on DISPATCHES FROM SAN JUAN
The book chronicled corruption in New Jersey from the days of the Byrne administration through its publication in 2008during the Corzine years. The movie traces New Jersey’s culture of corruption all the way back to the delegates of the Continental Congress who were absent from Philadelphia because they were collecting tolls from travelers trekking from New York to the City of Brotherly Love, and to Richard Stockton who was the only man to sign both the Declaration of Independence and a loyalty oath to the British Crown.
Darrow noted that we’re still collecting those tolls along the NJ Turnpike. He didn’t mention that we named a college after Stockton. But that point was made by Sharpe James’ hero’s welcome back to Newark after being released from prison.
Both funny and exasperating, the movie is extremely entertaining. Not “especially for a documentary.” Audiences elsewhere in the country might nominate it for Best Comedy, but for this Jersey Guy, it is a tragedy. New Jersey audiences are likely have their laughter tempered by anger, frustration and shock. That was my experience and my sense of the Jersey dominated crowd at the Ziegfield last evening. Like the book, the movie is very funny, except that it is about us. It is filled with unbelievable tales of schemes that actually happened, and that we are still paying for.
Ingle, McClure and Politifax’s Nick Acocella are featured prominently, as is Governor Chris Chrisite. Carla Katz has a couple of cameos in camisoles.
Tony Darrow and Carla Cefalo
There’s lots of footage of familiar faces. From Monmouth County, there’s Terrence Weldon, John Merla and Solomon Dwek. Former Senate President John Lynch, George “The King of South Jersey” Norcross, Jim McGreevey, Charles Kushner, and the 44 politicians and rabbis arrested in the summer of 2009 are all featured.
Towards the end of the film, Governor Chris Christie is asked, “How do you change New Jersey’s image?” “You change New Jersey’s image by changing New Jersey,” was his answer, “change the culture and the image will follow.”
Everybody who lives in New Jersey should see this movie. Especially U. S. Attorney Paul Fishman.
The Soprano State opens Friday, October 22 at Clearview Cinemas in Red Bank, Aberdeen, Hoboken, Montclair, Morristown, Ocean Township and Tenafly. There will be a New Jersey 101.5 Exclusive Screening and live broadcast with The Jersey Guys and Bob Ingle on Wednesday, October 20 at 7pm at the Clearview Middlebrook Galleria Cinema 10on Route 35 south in Ocean Township.
(ABERDEEN, October 18) -Republican Congressional challenger Anna Little – buoyed by the support of a crowd where her supporters outnumbered 22-year incumbent Frank Pallone’s supporters by at least 10-to-1 – handily dispatched Pallone in their League of Women Voters debate last night at the Temple Shalom in Aberdeen.
Usually, a post-debate press release includes some chest thumping by the campaign, claiming victory. And our headline certainly engages in a bit of that chest thumping, to be sure.
But a picture, as they say, is worth a thousand words – and a YouTube clip, as we say, is worth even more. So rather than tell you what happened last night in Aberdeen, we’re going to let last night’s encounter speak for itself. Simply click on the links below to see the exchanges between Anna Little and Frank Pallone on each of the key issues addressed.
The Asbury Park Press endorsed Tom Arnone and Janice Venables for Monouth County Freeholder yesterday. Their reasoning? That Rob Clifton and John D’Amico have been in office too long.
Today the Nudniks endorsed Rush Holt for Congress in CD-12. Holt has been in office longer than Clifton and D’Amico.
Not surprisingly, the APP needs a history lesson. They said that Rob Clifton is the last vestige of the GOP’s “good old boy” network. Clifton’s first candidacy was actually the beginning of the end of the “good old boy” network when he was Amy Handlin’s running mate in 2004.
More than most politicians, Clifton has been a faithful and humble public servant, consistently putting the people before his ambitions. As the longest serving Freeholder, “Robby” has served through a tumultuous political environment over the last six years and avoided ambition driven infighting .
Clifton’s experience and his level headed demeanor will be an important dynamic on the Freeholder Board next year.
during the Corzine years. The movie traces New Jersey’s culture of corruption all the way back to the delegates of the Continental Congress who were absent from Philadelphia because they were collecting tolls from travelers trekking from New York to the City of Brotherly Love, and to Richard Stockton who was the only man to sign both the Declaration of Independence and a loyalty oath to the British Crown.
