Debt, Division and Dishonesty: Barack Obama has failed

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Big Bird, Binders and Bayonets

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Has anyone seen Charles Measley?

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Clint Eastwood: “There’s not much time left and the future of our country is at stake”

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Vote NO to more debt. Vote NO on Public Question #1

By State Senator Michael J. Doherty

On November 6^th, New Jersey voters should vote NO on Public Question #1, which seeks authorization for the state government to borrow $750 million “to build, equip and expand higher education facilities.”  The New Jersey Constitution does not allow our state government to borrow money unless the voters approve.  As a result, the state legislature was forced to put the $750 million borrowing plan on the November 6^th ballot in the form of a public question.

The United States federal government is drowning in debt.  Earlier this year, our national debt surpassed $16 trillion.  According to the Congressional Budget Office, this debt problem will only grow worse in the future.   

Like the federal government, New Jersey state government is also drowning in debt.  According to its Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, New Jersey state government has over $40.5 billion in outstanding debt.  According to www.StateBudgetSolutions.org, when other obligations such as future pension and health benefit payments for public employees are included, New Jersey state government has a total debt of $258 billion.  New Jersey’s total debt is now the fifth highest in the nation after California, New York, Texas and Illinois.  That debt burden comes to about $30,000 per resident, or about $120,000 for a family of four.  County and municipal debts add even more to the total government debt burden facing New Jersey residents.

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Monmouth Dems Outraise Monmouth GOP

In their first quarters as party chairmen, Democrat Vin Gopal bested Republican John Bennett in the fundraising battle by over $10,000.

According to their reports filed with the NJ Election Law Enforcement Commission, the Monmouth County Democrats raised $38,647.50. and spent $28,096.01.  The Democrats started the quarter with only $957 in cash. As of September 30th they had $11,509.

The Monmouth GOP ended the quarter with almost $2,000 less cash than it had when Bennett was elected.  The GOP reported raising $28,296 and spending $30,284.  Former Chairman Joe Oxley left Bennett with $34,790.  Of the $28K  Bennett raised, $6000 was donated by the Election Fund of Assemblyman Dave Rible and $3000 was donated by Senator Jennifer Beck’s campaign account.

Gopal’s large donors were Local Union 400 IBEW ($3500), the Middletown Democrats ($1850), Plumbers and Pipe fitters Local Union #9 ($1000) and the Uliano Law Firm of West Long Branch ($1500).

Gopal raised $20,710 in contributions of $300 or less.  Bennett raised $9,802 in donations of $300 or less.

“The Monmouth County Democrats are organizing at a grassroots level because residents across the county are beginning to realize there is a very clear difference between the two political parties,” said Gopal,   “At our convention last June, we had a turnout of over 90% of our county committee with hundreds of new county committee members entering the political process, many of them first time contributors to our party,”

” With party standard bearers like Barack Obama, Bob Menendez and Frank Pallone, people see that we are building and we are organizing.  The Monmouth County Democratic Party is fighting for middle-class taxpayers, fighting for small business owners and working to protect our environment.  There is a clear difference between the two county parties and our messages and people across the county are beginning to recognize these differences.”

Bennett did not return a call for comment.

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Corzine Economics: The $750 million Bond Question

Do you approve the “Building Our Future Bond Act?” This bond act authorizes the state to issue bonds in the aggregate principal amount of $750 million to provide matching grants to New Jeresy’s colleges and universities. Money from the grants will be used to build, equip and expand higher education facilities for the purpose of increasing academic capacity.

We thought we were rid of him in 2009.  We sent him back to Wall Street where he destroyed the company that hired him as CEO and he destroyed the businesses and savings of thousands of investors when $1.2 billion of their money went missing.   He testified before a congressional committee that he simply does not know where the money is.  MF’ing Jon Corzine.

Yet the ghost of Jon Corzine in on the ballot twice this November.  Once, if Joe Kyrillos has his way, in the form of Bob Menendez, the man Corzine made a Senator.

Perhaps more dangerous to our fiscal health than Bob Menendez is the insidious alliance of trough swillers who are hoping New Jersey voters don’t notice that ballot question #1 is Corzine Economics and Governance.

Imagine this is a personal expenditure.  It is.  If not for you, for your children or grandchildren.

Imagine your income has been down for a few years and its lower that what you expected it would be so far this year.  Your credit rating has been downgraded.  Your savings have been depleted and you don’t know that you’re going to be able to make ends meet at the end of the year.  Not that hard to imagine.  Many New Jerseyans are living through that nightmare.  Our state government is going through exactly that.

Then imagine that a group of politicians, unions, business groups, colleges, gas and electric companies, water companies, insurance companies…pretty much everyone who supported Corzine’s plan to sell or lease our highways and his plan to borrow $450 million to fund stem cell research comes along and asks you to guarantee a $750 million loan to build, equip and expand facilities on college campuses.

Again, not hard to imagine because its happening.  The group is called Building our Future: Yes on #1.  Its list of donors smells like #2 if you’re concerned our New Jersey’s fiscal health and your own.

As of October 10 the group’s donors had kicked in $900,000 to persuade you to vote for their largess, according to The Star Ledger.

Most of Building our Future’s donors have a financial stake in the passage of referendum, which could create dozens of large construction projects on college campuses across the state.

The group’s first donors include: PSE&G ($200,000), New Jersey Carpenter Contractor Network ($100,000), New Jersey Resources ($100,000), Northeast Regional Council of Carpenters PAC ($100,000), New Jersey State Electrical Workers ($100,000) and the American Federal of Teachers New Jersey ($10,000).

William Paterson University was the first higher education institution to donate to the cause, with a $33,000 check, according to the ELEC filing. University officials said the money came from private donations to the William Paterson Foundation, the school’s nonprofit fund raising arm.

This group knows how to raise money. $900,000 since they were formed in August.  They also know how to spend it.  Save money?  Not so much.  Their web site cost over $18,000.

The Corzine connections to the group run deep.

Maggie Moran was the first chairperson of the group, according to their ELEC reports.  Moran was Corzine’s Chief of Staff when he served in the U.S. Senate. She was his Deputy Chief of Staff while he was governor. Laura Matos was the group’s first treasurer. Matos served in the governor’s office for Jim McGreevey, Dick Cody and Corzine.  Moran and Matos are now partners at M Public Affairs, Inc.  Building our Future: Yes on #1 shares office space with M Public Affairs in Lake Como.  Building our Future: Yes on #1 and M Public Affairs have the same phone number.  Of the $188,000 Building our Future: Yes on #1 spent through October 9, $55,000, including the $18K web site, was paid to M Public Affairs.

The new chairman of Building our Future is union leader William T. Mullen.  The new treasurer is John Duthie who is also the treasurer of the NJ State Laborers PAC and the Laborer’s International Union of North America.

The Corzine connections run deep.

We couldn’t afford Jon Corzine when he was governor and we can’t afford his borrow and overspend policies now.

Vote No on #1.

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Anna Little’s Congressional campaign has successfully responded to the Federal Election Commission’s requests.

On three separate occasions in late August, financial analysts from the FEC wrote to the treasurer of the Republican candidate’s principal campaign committee,  “Friends of Anna Little”, formally requesting information essential to the full public disclosure of federal election campaign finances.  Anna Little is the challenger for New Jersey’s Sixth U.S. Congressional District’s seat.

Letters from the FEC dated 24 August (Ref-1) and 27 August (Ref-2) were similarly themed, indicating that the campaign had provided improper information for an unspecified number of contributors of more than two-hundred dollars ($200) in the “April 2012 Quarterly Report” (Ref-3) and “12 Day Pre-Primary Report” (Ref-4), respectively. The Commission cited that it is unacceptable to have entries with the employer and occupation of “Cash Contributions/Cash Contributions”, “N/A / N/A”, “None/None”, or “Self-employed/Self”. To satisfy the formal requests of the Commission, on 9 October the “Friends of Anna Little” filed documents (Ref-5) and (Ref-6) that provided the missing information that was obtainable along with a description of those best efforts that the Committee made to obtain it otherwise.

The third letter from the FEC, dated 28 August (Ref-7) will raise both your eyebrows, as the Commission points out the serious defects in the Committee’s July 2012 Quarterly Report (Ref-8), including a negative cash balance. The dull-witted among us may immediately conclude that the Committee’s treasurer is “trying to get away with something” because a negative cash balance indicates that somebody has overdrawn an account. However, giving the briefest thought to the matter would reveal the inherent contradiction, “the treasurer illicitly takes the money, but faithfully reports the taking to the FEC for public disclosure.” If one were to apply Occam’s razor, or just some plain common sense, one should conclude that the treasurer simply blundered while filling-out of the form. To further his blunder, he submitted the form without reviewing it. To make his blunder complete, he has no doubt become a recipient of the hairy eyeball (and probably more) from his wife, Anna Little, the candidate. It is clear that the “Friends of Anna Little” recognized the problem and have addressed it, as evidenced by the amended filing (Ref-9) of 19 October.

Since the time of the writing of the three letters, the calendar quarter has ended. In keeping with public disclosure, the “Friend of Anna Little” submitted the September 2012 Quarterly Report (Ref-10) on 14 October. It should be readily obvious to the most casual observer that Anna Little is truly dedicated to governmental openness, honesty, and transparency even when such reveal her warts.

This ends my energetic language. References follow.

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Christie defends Oxley nomination

State Street Wire, the pay sister site of Politickernj, is reporting that Governor Chris Christie said that the controversy State Senator Ray Lesniak is making over former Monmouth County Sheriff Joe Oxley’s nomination as a Superior Court Judge is “just another excuse” by Lesniak and the Democrats not to give Christie’s judicial nominations confirmation hearings.

Lesniak wants the FBI’s files from their investigation into Solomon Dwek’s allegations that Oxley, while sheriff, tipped off the real estate swindler to foreclosures in Monmouth County prior to the information becoming public.  Oxley has refused to authorize the release of the files and the Justice Department has declined Lesniak’s appeal that the public interest outweighs Oxley’s privacy.

Christie said that his successor as US Attorney, Paul Fishman, found “no factual basis” in Dwek’s claims.

Christie said he knows first-hand how the data provided by cooperating witnesses can be.

“Sometimes it can be reliable, sometimes it can be fiction,” he said.  “I think it’s unfair to put that kind of fiction on the public stream.”

Christie said that the judiciary committee should do its job and hold a confirmation hearing for Oxley.

Oxley has referred requests for comment to the governor’s office.

As a practicing attorney, Oxley could have legitimate reasons, including attorney-client privilege, for refusing to authorize the release of his recorded conversations.

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Hard hitting Kyrillos Ad

Joe Kyrillos released another TV ad today that ties Bob Menendez to Jon Corzine’s failed economic strategies.

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