Governor Chris Christie takes his “I’m not running for president” tour to Iowa today to speak at an education summit and to headline a fundraiser for Congressman Steve King.
The education summit will also feature Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Iowa U.S. Senator Tom Harkin. In addition to the speakers, the 1500 attendees of the conference organized by Iowa Governor Terry Branstad will listen to panel discussions on recruiting top talent to be teachers, how states can have meaningful education reform and a look at other educational systems around the world.
King will seek reelection in a newly formed Iowa district that includes approximately half of his current district. Like New Jersey, Iowa lost a congressional seat in the 2010. Former Iowa First Lady Christine Vilsack is expected to be King’s Democratic opponent in 2012. Vilsack’s husband is U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack.
Phyllis Siegal, 76, standing, and Connie Kopelov, 84, were the first of over 800 same sex couples married in Manhattan yesterday, the first day that same-sex marriages were sanctioned in New York, according to multiple news reports. The couple has been together for 23 years.
New York is issuing marriage licenses and performing ceremonies for couples who do not reside in the state, including states like New Jersey that do not recognise same sex marriages. Does that mean the couples are married when they are in New York but unmarried when they are in New Jersey?
Frank Pallone at 2010 Highlands Clamfest. This year's Clamfest is August 4-7
Congressman Frank Pallone raised $206,050.06 for his 2012 reelection effort during the quarter that ended on June 30, 2011. His campaign spent $111,008.79 in the quarter, earned interest of $1080.13 and ended the quarter with $3,223,144.24 in cash, according to the Pallone for Congress FEC Form 3 filed on July 15.
Among the campaign’s expenditures is a $614 per month auto lease, gas and tolls. Someone apparently had a fender bender with the $614 per month car. The campaign spent over $900 at Tony’s Auto Body in Long Branch.
Former Governor Jon Corzine’s campaign contributions have not entirely dried up. Corzine gave Pallone $2500 in the quarter.
One of Pallone’s contributors raised my eyebrows. Jacob “Josh” Elkes, a stalwart Monmouth GOP supporter and Acting Chairman of Brookdale Community College gave Pallone $250 in June.
Eileen Kean, former President of the Neptune Township Republican Club and sister of State Senator Sean Kean, gave Pallone $250. As a lobbyist, campaign contributions are part of the cost of doing business for Kean.
(Blogger’s note: This is the 1000th post on MMM since the site was relaunched at this domain in September of last year. Thank you readers, advertisers, contributors and commenters.)
This is one of those stories I thought twice about writing because I don’t want to give “the bad guys” any smart ideas. I’ve always thought journalists who reported a crime, particularly a financial crime, and then described in detail how the crime was committed were being irresponsible. I decided to run with it in order to faciliate the end of the abuse.
Two Middletown former employees who retired in the spring of this year have applied for unemployment compensation and been granted the weekly checks by the Department of Labor and Workforce Development, in addition to their pensions, over the objections of Middletown Township, according to Administrator Anthony Mercantante. A third retiree who retired in late 2010 has been collecting unemployment compensation for most of this year.
Unlike private sector unemployment compensation whereby the employers pay a percentage of their payroll as an “insurance premium” to the Department of Labor, Middletown in being billed by DOL for the entire amount that the “unemployed retirees” are collecting, according to Mercantante. Thus Middletown taxpayers are paying these former employees not to work and paying their pensions.
This is an offensive new twist on double dipping.
Mercantante said that the Department of Labor informed the township that the unemployment compensation was granted to the retirees because they claimed they would not have retired had the township not announced a layoff plan.
No one from the Department of Labor and Workforce Development was available to comment when I called this afternoon. I will follow up with them on Monday.
In the meantime, officials from other municipalities that have confronted the same situation are encouraged to use the comments section of this post to report the abuse. Readers who are members of the Christie administration, legislators and members of the media, please take note.
Sweeney's childishness manifest with an outbreak of acne. Photo credit APP.com
Three weeks after his profanity laced rant over Governor Chris Christie’s budget cuts, during which he threatened violence towards the Governor, Senate President Steve Sweeney says he’s still too angry to engage in the State’s business and “jokingly” says he hasn’t talked to Christie yet because there might not be enough troopers available to police the eventual face to face they’ll have.
Christie has proposed legislation that would reverse the cuts to “transitional aid” for New Jersey’s distressed urban areas. Sweeny said “people will die” as a result of those cuts, yet he has taken no action on the reversal Christie proposed.
As a State employee, Sweeney has first class health insurance. He should use it and get some anger management treatment.
Sweeney told NJPM that shared services and education reform are next up on the Statehouse agenda, but not before he gets over his issues.
Sweeney also said he’s suspicious of Christie’s budget. He thinks Christie designed a budget that will get New Jersey’s fiscal house in order so that he can lower taxes in the next budget. In other words, Sweeney suspects Christie of working to keep his campaign promises.
The New York Timesis reporting that President Obama and House Speaker Boehner are close to stiking a that would enact substaintial spending cuts and seek future tax revenues through a tax overhaul:
The Obama administration has informed Democratic Congressional leaders that President Obama and Speaker John A. Boehner were starting to close in on a major budget deal that would enact substantial spending cuts and seek future revenues through a tax overhaul, Congressional officials said Thursday.
With the government staring at a potential default in less than two weeks, the officials said the administration on Wednesday night notified top members of Congress that a bargain with Mr. Boehner could be imminent. The Congressional leaders, whose help Mr. Obama would need to bring a compromise forward, were told that the new revenue tied to the looming agreement to increase the debt limit by Aug. 2 would be produced in 2012 through a tax code rewrite that would lower individual and corporate rates, close loopholes, end tax breaks and make other adjustments to produce revenue gains.
Posted: July 21st, 2011 | Author:Art Gallagher | Filed under:Uncategorized | Comments Off on Obama, Boehner Close To Budget-Debt Deal
Politico published a paraphase of what Governor Chris Christie told top GOP donors including Home Depot founder Ken Langone on Tuesday:
I’m not running, but I came because Langone is so aggressive, he basically just physically shook me into doing it. I’ve weighed this carefully; I didn’t dismiss it out of hand. There were four considerations:
1) One question was: Where’s my wife? She’s not enthused.
2) The second is: I looked ahead at the potential for two years of running, and not seeing my kids. If I won, six years of not seeing them. If I won a second term, 10 years of not seeing them. Missing my kids growing up is a big deal to me, and it was a big reason. The wife was the biggest. The children were the second.
3) I’m staying in New Jersey. I am not just going to quit halfway through my term. The people trusted me, and I feel like I owe that trust and faith some fidelity.
4) And fourth: Could I win? Could I really do it? I think I would win – not saying I would win, but I could win.
I brought my oldest son today because, first of all, I wanted him to wake up early. And, second of all, to have to put on his one suit and tie. But I wanted him to listen because if I did run, which I’m not going to – but if I did in the future – it’s going to affect him. There’s six people in the family – I’m just one.
I recognize that not all of you would immediately commit, but it certainly makes me realize that if I were to run, and had this group were behind me, I certainly wouldn’t have any problem raising money.
