Steve Lonegan, Executive Director of the New Jersey Chapter of Americans for Prosperity and Governor Chris Christie’s opponent in the 2009 GOP gubernatorial primary, has come out in opposition to Christie’s nominees for the State Supreme Court.
Chatham Mayor Bruce Harris and First Assistant Attorney General Phillip Kwon were nominated by Christie in January. The Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled hearings on their nominations on March 22.
In a press release issue last night, Americans for Prosperity said that they expected to testify against the nominations and that it ” will be mobilizing its army of more than 60,000 citizen activists as part of its efforts to have impartial, originalist justices confirmed to the state’s highest court.”
“After careful review and consideration of these nominees, Americans for Prosperity cannot endorse their confirmation to the state’s highest court and will work to see that they are not confirmed by the state Senate,” Lonegan said.
“The governor was elected on the promise to change the makeup of the court by replacing activist justices with originalists who will interpret the law, not make law from the bench,” continued Lonegan, “and Americans for Prosperity was fully prepared to support him in achieving this goal.
“However, there is nothing in the backgrounds of either of these nominees to assure us that Mayor Harris or Mr. Kwon will practice judicial restraint and put a stop to this court’s endless usurpations of the powers of the other branches of government if seated on the Supreme Court.”
Kim Guadagno will not be the Acting Governor during Governor Chris Christie’s appearance of the Morning Joe Show tomorrow.
The show, which usually broadcasts from New York, requiring Christie to transfer the power of his office to the Lt. Governor for his frequent guest appearances, will be broadcast from Fort Lee High School tomorrow.
Christie is scheduled to appear on the MSNBC show at 7am.
Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley signed a gay marriage bill this afternoon which, if it takes effect as scheduled next January, will make the Old Line State the eighth to grant homosexuals the right to marry.
The bill passed the Maryland Senate last week, 25-22 and the state House 72-67, according to Politico.
Opponents of the measure are expected to gather the 56,000 signatures required to have a referendum in November.
Assemblyman Gilbert Wilson, D-Camden, has sponsored legislation that would compel genetic parternity testing of all infants at birth, according to a report on NJ.com. The cost of the test would be born by the parents or the insurer.
While Wilson said the measure applies to mothers and fathers alike, “mostly this should be geared towards the father because with the mother, of course, there is no doubt.”
The problem is not limited to guests on angst-ridden television talk shows, said Wilson, a Democrat from Camden County who goes by the nickname Whip.
“I’ve heard different stories about fathers who are raising children and paying support for a child and come to find out years later that it wasn’t their child,” he said. “It’s a devastating thing to find out.”
Wilson said the bill would allow men who turn out not be a child’s father to seek reimbursement for support or other expenses they have incurred raising the child.
Our liberal friends at Blue Jersey called the bill “man-centered, not kid-centered. Shame.”
It seems to me that the legislation is truth centered but nanny state centric.
The bill doesn’t seem to have much of a chance of becoming law according to the NJ.com piece.
Wilson might have a shot of getting Republican support for the bill if it granted either parent named on a birth certificate the authority to order such a test at his/her own expense….if they don’t already have that right.
The conspiracy theorists point to Brietbart’s speech at CPAC in February wherein he said he had video of Barak Obama in college that he would release during the heat of the presidential campaign to vette the president.
Here’s that portion of Breitbart’s CPAC address:
Later in the speech Breitbart said he had copies of emails that would prove that the mainstream media is conspiring with lefitist radicals to ensure Obama’s reelection and the destruction of the United States.
Here is the entire CPAC speech. The email comment is at about the 11:10 mark.
The Los Angeles coroner’s office is expected to perform an autopsy tomorrow.
Governor Chris Christie will hold a Town Hall meeting on Ocean Township next Tuesday, March 6, at 3PM. Doors open at 2PM.
The meeting will be held at the Ocean Township Community Gym, 1100 West Park Ave. Click here to get directions.
Seating is on a first come, first served basis and open to the public. The Governor’s office asks that those planning on attending RSVP by clicking here.
Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney leads Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum for the GOP presidential nomination by 40%-24% margin in the latest Rasmussen national survey of likely Republican primary voters.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is supported by 16% of Republicans. Texas Congressman Ron Paul has the support of 12%.
In Rasmussen’s Daily Tracking Poll, President Barack Obama leads Romney by 3%, 46-43. Obama beats Santorum by 4%, 46-42.
Conservative Commentor Andrew Breitbart died unexpectedly of natural causes early this morning. He was 43 years old.
From BigGovernment.com:
With a terrible feeling of pain and loss we announce the passing of Andrew Breitbart.
Andrew passed away unexpectedly from natural causes shortly after midnight this morning in Los Angeles.
We have lost a husband, a father, a son, a brother, a dear friend, a patriot and a happy warrior.
Andrew lived boldly, so that we more timid souls would dare to live freely and fully, and fight for the fragile liberty he showed us how to love.
Andrew recently wrote a new conclusion to his book, Righteous Indignation:
I love my job. I love fighting for what I believe in. I love having fun while doing it. I love reporting stories that the Complex refuses to report. I love fighting back, I love finding allies, and—famously—I enjoy making enemies.
Three years ago, I was mostly a behind-the-scenes guy who linked to stuff on a very popular website. I always wondered what it would be like to enter the public realm to fight for what I believe in. I’ve lost friends, perhaps dozens. But I’ve gained hundreds, thousands—who knows?—of allies. At the end of the day, I can look at myself in the mirror, and I sleep very well at night.
Andrew is at rest, yet the happy warrior lives on, in each of us.
A Quinnipiac University Poll released this morning indicates that New Jersey voters support same sex marriage by a 57%-37% margin. By 67%-28% respondents said they support Governor Christie’s proposal the issue be decided via referendum.
Voters are split, 48%-47%, over whether Christie did the right thing vetoing same sex marriage bill approved by the legislature earlier this year.
“The numbers are all over the lot,” said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, “Voter support for same-sex marriage goes up every time we ask, but about half of them think Christie was right to veto it. By better than 2-1, they like the governor’s proposal for a referendum.”
The numbers seem to be all over the lot on education reform as well.
By 50%-43% voters approve of the way Christie is handling education. 60% think limiting teacher tenure is a good idea and 72% think merit pay for good teachers is a good idea. Yet voters oppose school vouchers by 50%-44% and oppose expanding charter schools by 52%-41%.
New Jersey voters have a positive view of public school teachers, 57%-25% but an unfavorable view of the teachers union, NJEA, by a 46%-31%. Only 42% of union households have a favorable view of the NJEA.
Piscataway— Following a tour of New Jersey’s Cop2Cop crisis intervention program call center in Piscataway, Senator Joe Kyrillos (R- Monmouth) applauded the University of Medicine and Dentistry (UMDNJ) for providing professional, life saving crisis intervention services to New Jersey’s law enforcement officers:
“Cop2Cop, like its sister services Vet2Vet, Vets2Warriors, and Mom2Mom, fill a critical need for police officers dealing with significant psychological and emotional trauma as a result of their service to our state and communities,” said Kyrillos, who was the original prime sponsor of the legislation which established the program. “UMDNJ has done a fantastic job of running and promoting what was at its conception a truly innovative idea. This program is now a model for the nation that has helped to avert 187 suicides since its inception.”
Kyrillos toured the Piscataway facility with Cherie Castellano, Director of the Cop2Cop program and was introduced to many of counselors who respond to calls from those seeking help from the program.
Cop2Cop is an award winning, nationally recognized, first-of-its-kind program that utilizes former police officers to provide counseling and suicide prevention services to officers in crisis who call the hotline. It has three sister services that operate using a similar peer counseling model: Vet2Vet, aimed at veterans returning from active duty, Vets2Warriors, a new service modeled after Vet2Vet serving veterans nationwide, and Mom2Mom, providing crisis intervention services to parents of autistic children.
