Active duty members of all branches of the military will embark on a 172 mile run through New Jersey this weekend to honor every New Jersey service member killed in Operations Iraqi Freedom, Enduring Freedom and New Dawn.
The 4th annual NJ Run For The Fallen will commence with an opening ceremony on Friday morning at 8am at Cape May Lighthouse and close at the NJ Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Holmdel on Sunday afternoon at 4. Along the route, groups of 3 members of the military will carry a flag while running 7 miles at the miliatry pace of 8 miles per minute. Each mile of the run is dedicated to a NJ Hero. A 172 mile trail is to be created with flags and personal biographical cards for each fallen soldier from New Jersey.
More information, including the route and schedule can be found here.
Bill Shea, the young retired State Trooper with a disability pension who is challenging Freeholder Director John Curley for a seat on the Monmouth County Board of Freeholders, called for a 20% across the board reduction in county government spending yesterday. Shea’s running mate, former Hazlet Mayor Kevin Lavan, said Shea’s proposal “is not out of the realm of possibility” and would depend on the results of a county audit.
Shea and Lavan were speaking yesterday to the Asbury Park Press Editorial Board where they appeared along side Curley and Freeholder Serena DiMaso. DiMaso and Lavan are competing to complete the unexpired term of Assemblyman Rob Clifton who resigned in January upon taking office in Trenton. DiMaso was elected by the GOP County Committee to serve in the seat until the general election results are certified.
Curley and DiMaso said such cuts would be impossible to achieve, according to APP. They said such cuts would annihilate small county departments and cripple to county’s efforts to reduce municipal spending with shared services.
As some national polls show President Obama widening his lead in his race for another term, much has been made about the sampling weights that pollsters use. Analysts on the left insists the polls are accurate. nalysts on the right say the polls are inaccurately favoring Obama by assuming his supporters will come out on election day in the same numbers as they did in 2008.
But its not just weighting that reveals a pollster’s bias. The way the question is asked also makes a difference.
In a Monmouth University/Asbury Park Press poll about the 2013 New Jersey gubernatorial race released this morning, pollster Patrick Murray asked if voters were “bothered” with how Governor Chris Christie interacts with his critics and detractors.
Thinking about Chris Christie’s style and not his policies, does the way he speaks to or about people who disagree with him bother you personally or not bother you? [If BOTHER: Is that a lot or just a little?]
63% of respondents said they weren’t bothered by Christie’s style. 23% said they were bothered a LOT and 11% said they were bothered a LITTLE. Given the way Murray asked the question, one could conclude that 74% of New Jersey voters are indifferent about Christie’s style.
In his narrative of the poll, which sets the tone for how much of the lazy lefty media covers it, Murray highlights his spin on Christie’s style.
“NEW JERSEY ON CHRISTIE’S STYLE: ‘MEH!’ ” is Murray’s headline. His opening sentence:
Governor Chris Christie’s job approval rating has ticked up a few points in the latest Monmouth University/Asbury Park Press Polland few New Jerseyans are particularly bothered by the way he deals with people who disagree with him.
Notice the use of the word few.
Christie’s numbers are the highest they ever been in a Monmouth poll. 55% of registered voters approve of the governor’s performance. 36% do not approve.
Yet Murray spins the results to read that a few people like him better and a few people are bothered about how he talks to people who don’t agree with him. The few who are bothered take top billing over the fact disclosed but not reported that Christie’s numbers are better than ever in Murray’s poll.
To their credit, PolitickerNJ cut through Murray’s spin and covers the poll results very well. They reported the real news of the poll results; New Jersey’s sagging economy is not hurting Christie’s popularity with voters and that of potential Democratic challengers in 2013, only Newark Mayor Cory Booker and former acting Governor Richard Codey have sufficient name recognition to be considered credible candidates for governor next year.
What if instead of asking if voters were bothered by Christie’s style, Murray asked if they liked his style? If Murray had done that, the headline would be:
Last week Kyrillos for U.S. Senate campaign manager Chapin Fay said the campaign planned to win every county that Chris Christie won in 2009, plus Bergen County, which Christie narrowly lost.
Kyrillos will need to comeback stronger than Bucky Dent’s 1978 Yankees in order for that to happen, if the Monmouth University-Gannett poll released this morning in on the mark. U.S. Senator Bob Menendez has widened his lead over Kyrillos from 9 points in July to 15 points today.
“I’m the moderate in this race,” Kyrillos declared to just under 2000 Bergen County Republican and Independent voters on a tele-town hall last week. While his message seemed to resonate with participants on the call who expressed their concerns for jobs, the skyrocketing national debt and gridlock in Washington, Kyillos’s message that he is ” a different kind of Republican,” as he is called in one of his TV ads, does not seem to be landing with Independents throughout the state who now favor Menendez 42% to 26%. In a July Monmouth poll, Kyrillos and Menendez were tied among Independents at 32% each.
President Obama’s coattails seem to be the determining factor in the U.S. Senate race. Obama was always expected to win New Jersey, but the Kyrillos camp believed that if Obama’s margin of victory was less than 10%, that Menendez could be beaten. Obama is widened his lead in New Jersey from 8 points in July to 15 points today, according to the poll.
It seems to me that if Obama had been vetted by the press and his opponents in 2008, and this audio came out, either Hillary Clinton or John McCain would be running for reelection now.
In a column titled The Hypocrisy of the Far Right published in the local Patches, Monmouth County Democratic Chairman Vin Gopal says Romney is getting a pass.
Really Vin? Really?
It seems to me that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who for weeks lied to the American people with his claim that Romney didn’t pay taxes at all, is the one who is getting a pass.
Gopal says Limbaugh, Coulter and Hannity have “hijacked” the Republican Party:
So why does Mitt Romney get a pass? Because the Republican Party has been hijacked by Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh and their friends, who dedicate every second of their “news” programs in destroying the character of our President.
Really Vin? Really?
Destroying Obama’s character? The Obama camp accused Romney of being responsible for woman’s death!
Romney paid $1.9 million in taxes in 2011. More than he had to pay, because he did not fully take advantage of the charitable giving deduction. He did not deduct all $4 million + of the charitable donations he made. How much coverage is that getting in the mainstream media?
Who in American political history has every gotten a bigger pass than Obama?
