Sabrin Filed Ethics Complaint Against Sweeney For Lobbying

Murray Sabrin, PhD raised questions about Senate President Steve Sweeney’s potentially conflicting roles as a labor leader and state legislator months before he considered running for U.S. Senate.  If his ethics complaint is politically motivated, the complaint itself was not made to boost his Senate candidacy. But the fact that he is shedding a public light on it now, over three months after he first raised the issue, is an effort to raise his public profile to support his candidacy.

But if Sabrin thought his efforts against Sweeney would help him garner support with the GOP establishment for the Senate nomination, he is mistaken.  Former Acting Govenor/Senate President Don DiFrancesco, still a power player in the establishment, defended Sweeney in the Chasing New Jersey report (video below) that brought Sabrin’s complaint to public light.

Sabrin says that Sweeney’s employment as General Vice President of the International Association of Iron Workers, where he earns over $200,000 per year, is a conflict with his role as Senate President because he lobbies senators that he overseas.

DiFrancesco told Chasing New Jersey’s Sibile Marcellus that Sweeney is “not lobbying the legislature, he’s in government relations.”

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Greg’s List: Things to do in Monmouth County this weekend, March 7-9, 2014

By Greg Kelly

Friday, March 7

• The Moody Blues at Count Basie Theatre (Red Bank) – MORE INFO

• Open Ceramics Class for Adults (Lincroft) – MORE INFO

• Driving Miss Daisy at Algonquin Arts Theatre (Manasquan) – MORE INFO

• The Odd Couple at Spring Lake Community Theatre – MORE INFO

• Free Tax Preparation Help (Wall Twp, Shrewsbury, Manalapan) – MORE INFO

• Date of a Lifetime at NJ Repertory Theater (Long Branch) – MORE INFO

• Into the Woods at Axelrod PAC (Deal) – MORE INFO

• Sylvia at First Ave Playhouse (Atlantic Highlands) – MORE INFO

• Little Shop of Horrors at Monmouth U (WLB) – MORE INFO

• Once On This Island at Jersey Shore Arts Center (Ocean Grove) – MORE INFO

• The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Aberdeen) – MORE INFO

• Pinkolandia at TRT (Red Bank) – MORE INFO

• A Conversation with the Doctor (Shrewsbury) – MORE INFO

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House Passes ‘Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act’

Bill would reform National Flood Insurance Program, aims to protect homeowners from steep insurance hikes

Congressman Chris Smith and Monmouth County Shaun Golden prepare to survey Hurricane Sandy damage

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The House of Representatives voted last night to provide relief to hundreds of thousands of homeowners facing huge flood insurance premium rate increases, including many still recovering from the devastation caused by Superstorm Sandy. Congressman Chris Smith (NJ-04), who represents severely damaged areas in southern Monmouth and northern Ocean Counties, praised the vote.

“The bill makes targeted and necessary reforms and will prevent massive premium increases from hitting homeowners who simply cannot afford them—and cannot find a buyer to take them on, leaving them stranded and without a solution,” Smith said.  “Many cannot afford the recommended mitigation measures that may or may not reduce their premiums, creating a further environment of uncertainty. Accordingly, the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act slows the rate of increase that was included in the 2012 Biggert-Waters reform bill, allowing homeowners to remain in their homes and plan accordingly to continue flood insurance policies.”

The bill passed in a 309-91 vote. If enacted the bill will provide relief and stability to these homeowners and their communities while bringing reform to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).  It also provides a mechanism for enhanced community participation in the flood mapping process and increases transparency by making information publicly available to impacted parties.

The Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act (HR 3370), co-sponsored by Smith, remedies many of the unintended consequences of the so-called Biggert-Waters Act of 2012. It repeals certain rate increases on Pre-Flood Insurance Rate Map (Pre-FIRM) properties and restores Grandfathered Rates for Post-FIRM properties that were built to code at the time of construction. It prevents a property sale from triggering rate increases and refunds those who have already faced one.

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Jury Selection Starts For Eatontown Man Accused Of Throwing His Daughter Off A Bridge

Arthur Morgan III during a hearing at Monmouth County Court last October. Photo courtesy of Wall.Patch.com

Jury selection for the murder trial of Arthur Morgan III, 29 of Eatontown, started yesterday in Judge Anthony Mellaci’s courtroom in Freehold.  Jury selection is expected to continue throughout this week. Opening statements in Morgan’s trail could start as early as Tuesday, March 11, according to a statement by Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni.

Morgan is accused of murdering his 2-year old daughter, Tierra Morgan-Glover, on November 21, 2011, by tossing her off an overpass on Schoolhouse Road in the Shark River Park section of Wall Township.   Tierra’s mother filed a missing persons report after Morgan failed to return his daughter to her mother’s custody as agreed after a visitation scheduled for a few hours. The toddler’s body was discovered by passers-by on November 22, 2011.

Morgan fled the area and was apprehended in San Diego, CA on November 29, 2011.  He has been held on $10 million bail in the Monmouth County Correctional Institution since his extradition.

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Sandy Fraud Task Force Bayshore Office Is Closed

The Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Superstorm Sandy Task Fraud Task Force office at the Bayshore Activity Center in Middletown closed last Thursday, February 27, Acting Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni announced on Monday.

The Task Force Command Center had been set up in Bayshore Waterfront Park, Port Monmouth, in February of 2012 to protect Sandy survivors from unscrupulous contractors and predators looking to defraud residents in the process of rebuilding their homes.   Residents who continue to need such assistance are encouraged to visit the Task Force’s website, SandyFraud.com, or call the Task Force hotline at 855-SANDY-39  (855-726-3939).

Acting Prosecutor Gramiccioni urges everyone to keep in mind the following list of “red flag” situations when dealing with a Home Improvement Contractors:

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Toms River Crowd Gives Christie A Standing Ovation

Sharon from Toms River asks the last question at Governor Chris Christie’s Town Hall Meeting in Toms River. March 4, 2014

After Governor Chris Christie gave his customary warning to the last questioner at Town Hall meetings…don’t ask a stupid question or the crowd will turn on you…he called on Sharon from Toms River.

While the announced topic of the Town Hall was Sandy Recovery, Christie told the crowd of over 550 jammed in to the club house of a senior citizens’ community that they were welcome to ask him about anything.

Sharon brought up ObamaCare and the crowd started to boo.  “What can we do?” Sharon asked after expressing her healthcare concerns to the governor over the boos.

“Elect a new president,” Christie said a matter-a-factually.  The crowd erupted spontaneously. 550 senior citizens jumped out for their seats as if they had bed bugs and cheered Christie’s answer for a good minute, maybe two.

Christie said his answer was not a matter of partisanship, him being Republican and President Obama being a Democrat, but a matter of what works and what doesn’t work. The governor noted that Obama keeps delaying the implementation of parts of ObamaCare, “because they are not working.”

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Isola considering jumping into the U.S. Senate race

Ocean County GOP Chairman George Gilmore told MMM that he is actively encouraging Chris Isola, a declared candidate for the CD-3 GOP nomination, to seek the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate instead.

Isola, of Malton in Burlington County, is close to making a decision, according to Gilmore.

The Ocean County GOP’s screening committee endorsed former Randolph Mayor Tom MacArthur to replace Congressman Jon Runyan in the House of Representatives last weekend.  Gilmore’s committee interviewed Murray Sabrin and Jeff Bell for the Senate nomination on Saturday but did not select a candidate. “There are two other candidates we want to interview and a fifth who I want to get in, Chris Isola,” Gilmore said after Governor Chris Christie’s Town Hall meeting in Toms River.

Isola’s LinkedIn profile lists his profession as “Candidate at 113th United States Congress.”   A U.S. Marine Corp veteran, Isola served in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Upon his honorable discharge in 2005 Isola entered the financial services industry.

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Lonegan Should Challenge Pallone

Steve Lonegan is not going to win the GOP nomination to replace the retiring Congressman Jon Runyan in New Jersey’s third congressional district.

The party bosses in Ocean and Burlington Counties that comprise the district have settled on endorsing former Randolph Mayor Tom MacArthur.  Ocean County Republicans with the stones to defy Chairman George Gilmore are lining up behind Toms  River Councilman Maurice Hill, a retired Navy rear admiral.  If Lonegan continues to compete for the nomination in the party conventions, he’s likely to come in third in Ocean and second in Burlington.  Lonegan does not have an organization to compete with the Ocean and Burlington Republican organization should he run a primary race against MacArthur.

Lonegan should stop fighting fellow Republicans in Ocean and Burlington and come north to Monmouth and Middlesex where we need his considerable talent.  If Monmouth GOP Chairman John Bennett and Middlesex GOP Chairman Sam Thompson have not been on the phone pleading with Lonegan to take on ObamaCare author Frank Pallone in the 6th Congressional district, they are missing an opportunity.

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Cullari will not challenge Pallone

He had pledges for the $30,ooo he wanted to raise in thirty days and said Monmouth GOP Chairman John Bennett reacted enthusiastically to his potential candidacy, but at the moment of choice his heart was not in it.  Ernesto Cullari, a GOP primary candidate for the CD-6 nomination in 2012 told MMM he will not seek the nomination to challenge Frank Pallone this year.

Cullari said he recently signed a deal to author a series of novellas, the first of which will be released later this year, and that his commitment to that project and his partners was the major stumbling block to mounting his second campaign for public office.

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Samson Complaint Tests Independence Of Embattled Ethics Commission

Samson Complaint Tests Independence Of Embattled Ethics Commission (via NJSpotlight)

In a case that will mark the first test of the state Ethics Commission’s ability to handle charges against top Christie administration appointees, the New Jersey Working Families Alliance yesterday filed conflict-of-interest allegations against Port…

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