Kyrillos for U.S. Senate Campaign Kicks Off On Wednesday

State Senator Joe Kyrillos will officially launch his campaign for U.S. Senate with two events tomorrow.

The first event will be in Kyrillos’ hometown of Middletown;  11am at the Lincroft Inn, 700 Newman Springs Rd, Lincroft, NJ 07738.

In the afternoon, Kyrillos travels to Burlington County.   His 3PM event will be at the Gibson House-Evesham Community Center, 535 E.Main Street, Marlton, NJ 08053

• Tweet

Kyrillos Has Menendez’s Attention

U.S. Senator Robert Menendez reacted to State Senator Joe Kyrillos’ formal campaign announcement with a statement of his own, issued to Politickernj.

“New Jersey’s voters will have a very clear choice if Senator Kyrillos becomes the Republican nominee- Senator Bob Menendez who fights every day for middle class New Jersey families or long-time Trenton insider Joe Kyrillos- who sides with corporations and special interests over working families and seniors and panders to the most extreme elements of the Washington Republicans,” Menendez campaign strategist Brad Lawrence said in an emailed statement today.

Clearly, Menendez has read the polls and knows his job is at risk.  Recent polls indicate that Kyrillos has low name recognition outside of Monmouth County.  For an incumbent Senator to react like he did guarantees that Kyrillos’ announcement will get press conference.  Menendez, knowing he is vulnerable, has decided to try to define Kyrillos at the risk of increasing his name ID.

Menendez’s recent reversal on Magistrate Patty’s Shwartz’s nomination to the Third Circut Court of Appeals and his back peddling on the Internet Censorship Bill he is a sponsor of, are other indications that he knows his support is soft at best with New Jersey voters.

Menendez’s use of senatorial courtesy to block Shwartz’s nomination to the Appeals Court was met with fierce opposition in the legal community and speculation in the media that he was acting punitively because Shwartz’s boyfriend was the prosecutor who investigated him during his first campaign for Senate.  The senator latter reversed himself, saying that after a second interview Shwartz was satisfactory after all.

After the enormous outcry this week against the Protect IP  Internet censorship bill sponsored by Menendez in the Senate, lead by Wikipedia, Google, Craigslist and other major web sites, he tweeted, ”

• Tweet

Kryillos Will Make Senate Bid Official Today

The dean of the Monmouth County legislative delegation is running for United States Senate.

MMM has confirmed that State Senator Joe Kyrillos has completed his exploratory activity and will announce his candidacy to replace Robert Menendez in the United States Senate today.

Kyrillos has represented northern Monmouth County in the state legislature for over two decades.  The close friend and advisor of Governor Chris Christie is also a former NJ GOP State Chairman.  He chaired Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign in New Jersey in 2008 and was Christie’s campaign chairman in 2009.

Kyrillos established an U.S. Senate Exploratory Comittee last June to evaluate the viability of a potential campaign to unseat Menendez in a presidential election year.  His announcement today is an indication not only that he and his senior supporters see a path to victory, but that the highest levels of the NJ GOP believe that New Jersey’s 14 electoral votes are in play during the presidential election.

New Jersey has not elected a Republican U.S. Senator in 40 years and has not voted for a Republican presidential candidate since George H.W. Bush in 1988.

Republican pollster Adam Geller, who has consulted with the Kyrillos Exploratory Committee says Menedez is vulnerable.  Despite out polling Kyrillos, former Highlands Mayor Anna Little and a generic Republican, only 43% of New Jersey voters support the incumbent Senator.  “That is Jon Corzine territory,” Geller said in a memo to the Kyrillos committee last week.

• Tweet

Little For Senate: On Again

One day after The Star Ledger’s Auditor reported that Anna Little said she was going to look at the congressional redistricting map before deciding whether to run for U. S. Senate or take another run at Congress, she sent out fundraising email for her Senate campaign.

Please join me, my family & “Anna’s Army” as we begin this amazing journey to help New Jersey, America and each of our own families futures.

Thank you!

Anna Little
Conservative Republican Candidate
for the U.S. Senate (R-NJ) 

 

The redistricting map has not be determined yet.  Won’t be before Wednesday, at the earilest.

• Tweet

Little Backing Off Senate Bid

The Star Ledger’s Auditor reports that former Highlands Mayor and former Freeholder Anna Little is backing off her bid to challenge State Senator Joe Kyrillos for the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate next year.  Her eyes may be back on Congress.

For now, a tea party favorite, Anna Little, appears to be leaning toward a run, but she also has her eyes on Congress. She has set up a “Little for Senate” website, although she hasn’t declared her candidacy. “We’re thinking about looking at the redistricting maps before we do it,” she said.

The congressional redistricting map, which will reduce the number of congressional districts in New Jersey from 13 to 12, is expected to be announced this week.  

The Auditor also reported that former Roxbury councilman Tim Smith will not be a candidate and that State Senator Michael Doherty will probably not be a candidate.

• Tweet

Little Endorsements

• Tweet

Is New Jersey the next Delaware?

By Art Gallagher

Is New Jersey the next Delaware?   That’s the question Politickernj raised earlier this week regarding the 2012 U.S. Senate race in NJ.  Politckernj is wondering if the 2012 U.S. Senate race in New Jersey will be similar to the 2010 U.S. Senate race in Delaware.

The short answer to that question is no. An incumbent was not running in Delaware in 2010. 2012 is a presidential year. 2012 will not be a repeat of 2010.  New Jersey is not Delaware.  More on that later.

As you might imagine, I have a unique perspective about the differences between New Jersey and Delaware, which is not related to electoral politics.  If you’re a reader of this site or The Asbury Park Press, you’re probably aware that I was arrested in my home in Highlands after 10PM on Friday October 14 on a fugitive warrant out of Delaware.  I’ve been charged with two felony counts of theft over $100,000 and two misdemeanor counts of forgery.  The charges will not be further discussed on this site, other than to say that I am confident of a favorable outcome.

The real reason I was arrested on a fugitive warrant is that the Delaware attorney I had engaged to arrange my surrender in Delaware failed to communicate with the investigating detective in a timely manner.   I have a different attorney now.

3 hours vs. 3 weeks

So far the biggest difference between my experiences in New Jersey and Delaware is time.  I arrived, as scheduled, to surrender in Delaware this Wednesday at 11am and was on my way home by 2PM.   As in Monmouth County, most of that time was spent waiting. 

I wasn’t handcuffed, patted down or locked up in Delaware.  The actual processing, (being photographed, finger printed and signing some papers) took about 10 minutes.   Then my attorney and I hung out until the fugitive warrant was removed from the system. We waited for a Justice of the Peace to finish his lunch and to appear via video for my bail hearing. The video bail hearing took less than five minutes.  My bail was set at $12,000.

Technically, I was detained until my family members posted my bail.  But I wasn’t really detained.  My attorney and I waited in the lobby of the police station for the bail to be posted.  I was even allowed to step outside of the building for a smoke, twice.

After about 40 minutes, I signed the bail receipt and was released from my detention in the lobby.  It took about a ½ hour to meet up with my family members who had posted my bail.   The clock in the car read 1:46 and we were on our way home.

That entire experience is very different than what I experienced in New Jersey.

At about 10PM on Friday October 14 I was arrested at my home in Highlands.  I was frisked and handcuffed.

At the Highlands police station I asked to call an attorney.  “We’re not questioning you.  We’ll let you call your attorney when we know what you can tell him,” was the reply.   I was photographed by the arresting officer twice.   My belt, shoes, cash, wallet and blackberry were confiscated and I was put into a cell.

A few hours later a sergeant came into the holding area to tell me what was going on.  A Monmouth County judge had set my bail at $250,000 with no 10% option.  “But there’s really no bail,” he said, “even if you post the $250,000 the fugitive warrant is still in place and you’ll be arrested again.”   “Your wife called, we’ll let you call her back in the morning before we transfer you to the county jail.”  “What are the charges?” I asked.  “Some kind of theft,” was his answer.

I managed to get some sleep on the thin plastic mattress and with the lights on.  In the morning an officer sat with me while I called my wife from a police station line that was being recorded.  I was given access to my blackberry to read her phone numbers for my attorney, family members and friends that she should call. I sent a text to my attorney.

Then I was transferred to the Monmouth County Correctional Institution where I spent the next three weeks.

$12,000 vs. $250,000 or $150,000

Why my bail was set so high in Monmouth County compared to the bail required in Delaware (where I am not a resident and have no ties to the community) remains a mystery to me.

At my bail reduction hearing in Monmouth County, which occurred after I had already been incarcerated for almost two weeks, the judge who reduced my bail to $150,000 with no 10% option said that such bail would be appropriate for like charges levied in New Jersey. 

The Asbury Park Press reported this morning that a former attorney was arrested for stealing over $200,000 from a client.  Those charges are somewhat similar to those levied against me. The former attorney’s bail was set at $35,000.

On November 1, The Asbury Park Press reported that a Wall Township attorney and her paralegal were indicted after a three year long investigation for stealing $800,000 from wards whose interests they were assigned to protect.  The attorney and the paralegal were each released on $75,000 bail.

In comparison, my bail in Monmouth County seems like an injustice and I realize that I sound like I am complaining.  That is not my intention. It is a mystery.

This experience has been incredibly difficult for me, perhaps more so for those who love me.  It has been life altering, yet I have faith that in the long run it will be for the good.

Over the next few days or weeks I’ll be writing more about my experience and some of the other differences I have noticed between New Jersey and Delaware.  

I’ll get back to writing about the political happenings in Monmouth, the State and the Nation. I’ll be writing about some of the things I missed while was away.  I may write about topics other than politics too. 

I won’t be writing about the charges against me.  Comments about the charges will be removed and those commenters blocked.  There are other sites that will accommodate my naysayers.

I am happy to be back. 

I am extremely grateful to the many, many people who have supported me throughout this ordeal and to those who have been supportive since my release two weeks ago.   In times of crisis like the one I have faced, you quickly learn who your friends are.

I am grateful to, and for, my friends and family.

• Tweet

Menendez raises over $10 million

New Jersey Senator Has $6.9 million cash on hand

The Record’s Herb Jackson reports that U.S. Senator Robert Menendez has raised over $10 million in special interest contributions for his 2012 reelection campaign.   A look at the Senator’s FEC reports reveals that $5.3 million of that money was raised last quarter and that he had $6.9 million in cash on hand on September 30th.

Despite Menendez’s weak poll numbers, whoever the GOP nominates to challenge him will have a heavy lift.  New Jersey voters are split 40-38 percent over whether the Hudson County poll deserves another term, according to Quinnipiac, yet they favor him 43-39 percent over an unnamed Republican.

Most  All of the Republicans vying for the nomination are unnamed in the minds of New Jersey voters.  Joe Kyrillos, Mike Doherty and Anna Little are names well known in political circles and to readers of this site, but are not households names throughout New Jersey.   At the pace Menendez is raising money, the GOP nominee will likely need to raise $25 million or more to compete.

Little Impact

Anna Little’s fliration with the Senate race has many Republicans shaking their heads.  Others are scratching their heads.   Little’s FEC reports indicate no money raised in 2011 for her announced rematch against Frank Pallone. Yet Little has been sending fund raising letters,”paid for” by Anna Little for Congress 2012, the expenses for which are not reported, and is traveling the state and the country seeking support and singing God Bless America.

Should Little actually enter the Senate race and forsake a potential rematch against Pallone, her candidacy in the primary will ironically benefit State Senator Joe Kyrillos.   Little would split the hardline conservative/Tea Party/Loneganite vote with State Senator Mike Doherty, making what is already expected to be a smooth ride for Kyrillos, should he choose to seek the nomination, even easier than previously anticipated.

• Tweet

Independence Hall Tea Party PAC Plugs Anna Little For U.S. Senate

In an email to “Members and Friends,” Don Adams, President of the Independence Hall Tea Party PAC, declared that the PAC’s favorite candidate to challenge U.S. Senator Robert Menendez is Anna Little:

If you are unable to make lunch in Newark tomorrow, feel free to express your thoughts on the idea of Little running for U.S. Senate next year here in the comments.  I’m sure the word will get back to her.

Personally, I think Little should hold out for the Vice Presidential nomination.  If elected, she would be the first female Vice President of the United States that speaks fluent Spanish, was a Monmouth County Freeholder, Mayor of Highlands, and who lost to Frank Pallone.

• Tweet

Crowley Will Not Be A U.S. Senate Candidate

By Art Gallagher

Bio-tech entrepreneur and Navy intelligence reservist John Crowley will not be a candidate for the GOP nomination to challenge Senator Robert Menendez next year, according to his friend and political adviser Bill Spadea speaking to Politickernj.

Crowley stepped down as CEO of the firm he founded, Amicus Theraputics, in April in order to focus on “public policy, civic service and philanthropic endeavors.”  An “unnamed political adviser,”  said at the time that Crowley was likely to compete for the 2012 U.S. Senate nomination.

Earlier today Amicus announced that Crowley would be returning as CEO in August after his reserve duty with Naval Intelligence.

Last weekend The Star Ledger’s Auditor reported that someone was anonymously circulating opposition research about Crowely in an attempt to thrwart his candidacy.  Spadea told MMM that the Auditor piece had no impact on Crowley’s decision not to run, “if anything it was just the opposite.”   Spadea said that a Senate run “was not possible given the weight of John’s commitments to his family, to bringing new drugs to market and to the military.”

At this early stage, the Republican contest to challenge Menendez is shaping up to be a race between State Senators Joe Kyrillos (Monmouth) and Mike Doherty (Warren).

• Tweet