3 Former Republicans Vying To Replace LaRocca On Marlboro Township Council

Frank LaRocca resigned his post as a Councilman in Marlboro and his chairmanship of the Marlboro Democratic Committee earlier this month in order to become Keyport’s new Municipal Court Judge.

By NJ law, the vacancy is filled by the Party Committee of the departing office holder’s party nominating three candidates to fill the position.  The governing body then selects one of the three to fill the vacancy until the next election.

The three candidates selected by the Marlboro Democratic Committee were Republicans until they each changed their affiliation to Democrat yesterday.

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Casagrande: BPU should act now to force JCP&L to repay overcharges

By Assemblywoman Caroline Casagrande

A state administrative law judge has recommended state regulators cut Jersey Central Power & Light’s rates by $107.5 million. It is now time for the Board of Public Utilities to act. JCP&L customers have waited over three years for relief. The BPU should respond quickly and in the best interest of consumers who have been footing the bill.

In 2011, the Division of Rate Counsel voiced concerns that JCP&L was earning excessive profits and not investing in infrastructure improvements. BPU ordered JCP&L to open its books to determine whether its profits were reasonable. The findings proved they were not, which is what the ratepayer advocate and I had been saying all along. BPU staff recommended that JCP&L cut its rates by $169.8 million.

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Is Christie headed for a great fall?

By Art Gallagher

Graphic by Robert Hazelrigg. Click on photo for RobertHazelrigg.com

Prominent New Jersey Republicans seem to finally be moving out of Governor Chris Christie’s shadow.

This afternoon The Star Ledger reported that Monmouth County State Senator Joe Kyrillos was among the 15 or so New Jersey Republicans who met with former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, a top rival of Christie’s for the 2016 GOP Presidential nomination, last week at a dinner hosted by Lawrence E. Bathgate.  Bathgate, an Ocean County attorney, is one of the top Republican fundraisers in the nation.  Also attending the dinner held at the Union Club in Manhattan was Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean Jr, according to The Record’s Charles Stile, who first reported the event.

Such potential defections from the Christie camp were unthinkable just 15 months ago.  Christie’s attempt at ousting Kean as Senate Minority Leader immediately following his 2013 re-election, and the resulting fallout as Kean, Jr’s father, the former Governor, went national in criticizing Christie can explain the younger Kean’s flirtation with the Bush campaign.

But Kyrillos being anything other than solidly in Christie’s corner is big news.  Their relationship was personal before it was political.  Christie introduced Kyrillos to his wife Susan. He swore Christie into his first elected office, Morris County Freeholder. Kyrillos was the Chairman of the Christie for Governor campaign in 2009.

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N.J. reaction to Obama’s State of the Union address: Democrats liked it, Republicans didn’t

WASHINGTON — What the New Jersey congressional delegation thought of President Obama’s State of the Union address depended on which side of the political aisle they sat on. U.S. Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-2nd Dist.), for example, said: “It is clear that cooperation is not on President Obama’s agenda for his final two years.” MORE: Obama embraces… Read the rest of this entry »

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Clinton talks to be co-hosted by foreign bank investigated by US

WASHINGTON — Hillary Clinton, the presumed frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination, will give a pair of speeches Wednesday in Canada hosted by a major bank that has been the subject of several investigations into wrongdoing over the past dozen years. Clinton and the bank refused to say if she’s being paid for the speeches. But… Read the rest of this entry »

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You’ll Never Guess Who’s Trying to Hack Your iPhone

The FBI wants to search through your electronic life. You may think it’s a given that the government is in the business of collecting everyone’s personal data—Big Brother run amok in defiance of the Constitution. But under the limits of the Fourth Amendment, nothing it finds can be used to prosecute its targets. Now the FBI… Read the rest of this entry »

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Don’t Count On GOP Legislators Voting To Override Christie’s Port Authority Reform Veto

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,

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Paint cans replace spray tans as new Jersey Shore reality show focuses on Sandy recovery

A new reality television show plans to film on the Jersey Shore this spring but expect less “gym, tan, laundry” and more hammers, paint and sawdust. The series is a part of a project launched by Humanity TV’s TravelTelevision to focus attention on the ongoing Hurricane Sandy rebuilding effort in New Jersey and drive people to… Read the rest of this entry »

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Ebola scare on Newark flight as CDC holds passengers on plane

NEWARK — Officials from the Centers for Disease Control today were sent to check for signs of Ebola in a woman who vomited on a flight to Newark Liberty International Airport after she had been in Sierra Leone, officials said. The woman, a health care worker returning from the West African nation still battling an Ebola… Read the rest of this entry »

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Opinion: GOP Legislators May Finally Be Ready to Buck Christie, Override Veto

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…

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