The Bayshore Tea Party Group is preparing a primary slate to challenge 13th district legislators, Senator Joe Kyrillos and Assembly Members Amy Handlin and Declan O’Scanlon, and county office holders, Sheriff Shaun Golden and Freeholders Tom Arnone and Serena DiMaso, according to the group’s co-founder Barbara Gonzalez.
Gonzalez told MoreMonmouthMusings that the group has six candidates who are clearing their potential candidacies with their families and employers. She wouldn’t name any of the candidates but expects to make a formal announcement next week. If the slate declares, they will bypass the Monmouth GOP convention on March 23 and file to run in the June 4 Republican primary.
Gonzalez said that former Highlands Mayor Anna Little, who twice ran and won in Congressional primaries with the group’s backing, is not one of the candidates.
Last week, utility provider JCP&L announced it was investing $200 million this year to improve it electric support system in an effort to improve service reliability. Deputy Assembly Republican Leader Amy Handlin today asked why JCP&L did not disclose at the same time that it had filed for a 4.5 percent rate increase to recover costs from Superstorm Sandy and other storms which was revealed the next day.
“On Thursday, JCP&L was out front with the news that it was investing $200 million to improve its infrastructure and that ratepayers wouldn’t be affected because the costs were already part of the company’s yearly budget,” said Handlin, R-Monmouth. “At the end of the day on Friday, the utility then informs the public it is filing for a 4.5 percent increase to cover cleanup costs from previous storms. JCP&L is badly misinformed if it thought that tidbit would escape public notice.
“Good public relations starts with being upfront about everything, including an increase request that will be passed onto ratepayers,” said Handlin, who has been critical of the utility’s efforts in restoring lost power over the last two years. “Ratepayers deserve to see improvements to the critical framework in JCP&L’s system and have assurances that their infrastructure is reliable before a rate increase is even entertained.
“JCP&L should focus on improving its performance to its customers,” stated Handlin. “On Wall Street, bad news is often revealed after the closing bell. For customers of JCP&L, there is no closing bell. They just want to know the lights are on.”
Last year, the Division of Rate Counsel filed a petition contending JCP&L is earning a profit exceeding 12 percent in New Jersey – far above the allowable 8.5 percent.
Handlin pointed out that PSE&G, the state’s largest utility provider, recently announced it was seeking the BPU’s approval to spend $3.9 billion over the next 10 years to protect and improve its electric and gas systems against severe weather conditions.
Matthew Morehead, Dog Groomer and candidate for Assembly. facebook photo
Matthew Morehead, owner of Sudzy Puppy Dog Grooming, Middletown, and Allison Friedman an attorney from Aberdeen(according to the Truth, Justice and American Wayall at once blog) will be nominated by the Monmouth Democrats for Assembly in the 13th legislative district this morning in Asbury Park. Assuming they are unchallenged in the June 4 primary, they will likely face incumbent Republicans Amy Handlin and Declan O’Scanlon in November.
Morehead is a long term Middletown and Monmouth County Democratic activist. He was passed over by the party in his previous bids to run for Assembly.
Friedman is unknown. The State Judicary’s website has no record of an Allison Friedman licensed to practice law in New Jersey.
Their nominating convention is on Saturday, but the Monmouth County Democrats are still searching for candidates to run for the legislature and sheriff. Today’s “soft deadline” for candidates to come forward could be extended beyond the convention. Chairman Vin Gopal’s quest to be the first county party to officially annoint Senator Barbara Buono with the gubernatorial nomination will end up being a self-inflicted wound if he doesn’t have a full slate to announce on Saturday afternoon.
With the official deadline for candidates to file their petitions not until April 1 and with Buono the only serious candidate for governor (there are two other announced candidates, former Glen Ridge Governor Carl Bergmanson and union carpenter Willie Araujo of Edison), Gopal’s decision to hold his convention a month earlier than normal looks silly.
BILL WOULD INCREASE MAXIMUM ETHICS FINES TO $10,000 – AS RECOMMENDED BY RECENT COMPTROLLER REPORT
Assemblywoman Amy H. Handlin introduced legislation yesterday imposing larger fines against unethical local public officials after a recent State Comptroller investigation showed current penalties did not deter a local official from improperly using his government position and gain substantial profit in a land deal.
“It’s no longer a shock when public officials act in their own interests instead of the public good. With penalties set so low, it’s more surprising that we don’t see officials improperly profiting from public service more frequently,” Handlin, R-Monmouth, said. “To an unscrupulous official with $1 million at stake, a $500 penalty is just a sunken cost that would barely budge the bottom line.”
A recent Comptroller’s report determined a Chesterfield Township committeeman improperly used his government position in facilitating a private land deal that brought him substantial profit. The report recommended increasing maximum fines for violations of the Local Government Ethics Law from $500 to $10,000. Handlin’s proposal would implement those increased penalties.
“I agree with Comptroller Matt Boxer’s call to bring ethics penalties for local officials in line with those for state employees, especially now that New Jersey is undergoing a massive rebuilding effort mixing planning decisions and tens of billions of federal funding,” Handlin, R-Monmouth, said. “Rebuilding our state after Hurricane Sandy is too important to be tainted by corruption. We need a loud message and strong deterrents against self-serving politicians who violate the public’s trust to earn a buck.”
American Conservative Union, the folks who put on the CPAC conventions and who have since 1971 been rating the conservatism of members of Congress have rated the conservatism of New Jersey’s state legislators.
ACU tracked the votes on 11 pieces of legislation for Assembly members and 9 votes in the Senate. Those who voted the way ACU favored 100% of the time were declared “Defenders of Liberty.” Those who voted with ACU on 80% or more of the bills earned the designation “ACU Conservative.”
Those legsilators who never voted the way ACU favored, most of the Democrats, earned the designation “True Liberals of the Garden State.”
Some of the results in the Monmouth County delegation, Districts 11, 12, 13 and 30, are surprising. At least they are to me.
If you asked me to predict who among the Monmouth County delegation would have earned a 100% conservative, “Defender of Liberty” designation I would have guessed only 11th District Assemblywoman Caroline Cassagrande. I would have guessed wrong. Cassagrande didn’t even make the 80% “ACU Conservative” cut. She voted the ACU way 8 of 11 times for a 73% rating. The 3 votes Cassagrande cast that did not meet ACU approval were for 1) for legislation that requires businesses to post notices that employees have the right to be free from gender inequality, 2) for legislation that would ban treating waste water from fracking and 3) a bill that provided tax credits for electric car charging stations.
Monmouth County Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon is making statewide waves and generating statewide headlines in his quest to prove that red light cameras are not safety devices, but revenue generating ripoffs.
O’Scanlon makes a compelling case, backed up with engineering, that yellow lights should be timed for actual speeds that motorists are driving, rather than by the posted speed limits. He convinced MMM that’s he’s right on the issue, and that might be the subject of a future post. Read one of these articles if you want to bone up on that issue now. What prompted my call to O’Scanlon was politics, not policy.
There are no red light cameras in O’Scanlon’s legislative district, the 13th in Northern Monmouth County.
As the Assembly Republican Budget Officer, O’Scanlon has one of the highest, if not the highest, statewide profile of his fellow Republicans in the Assembly.
The last time O’Scanlon made statewide headlines on a issue not related to the budget he was speaking out in favor of medical marijuana and against towns that were using zoning laws to keep happy medicine dispensaries and farms outside of their boundaries. MMM’s unscientific poll indicated that his position on 420 could cause a 180 among his supporters in the 13th.
I wondered if O’Scanlon might have political ambitions that, in addition to his commitment to doing the right thing, are motivating his activities outside of his district.
Swarmy swindler Solomon Dwek told federal investigators in 2006 that Joe Oxley, Joe Kyrillos and Amy Handlin were in his pocket, according to a Star Ledgerreport posted on NJ.com Monday night.
Dwek’s claims became public in an FBI report prepared in August of 2006 that was recently released after former Hudson County Assemblyman Louis Manzo unsuccessfully sued the U. S Attorney’s office to recover $100,000 in legal fees that resulted from his July 2009 Operation Bid Rig arrest. Manzo had been indicted twice in the Bid Rig III scandal but all charges against him were eventually dismissed, according to Bob Ingle and Michael Symons writing in their just released biography of Chris Christie.
Dwek alleged that Oxley, while Monmouth County Sheriff, tipped him off about upcoming foreclosures two weeks before the information became public, thereby giving Dwek an advantage in purchasing the properties before the foreclosure auctions. The FBI’s subsequent investigation of Oxley found no wrong doing.
Oxley is the Monmouth County GOP Chairman until Tuesday evening. He has been nominated by Governor Chris Christie to be a Superior Court Judge. Christie was U.S. Attorney during the investigation of Oxley.
Assemblyman Rob Clifton will join Senators Joe Kyrillos and Jennifer Beck, and his Assembly colleagues Mary Pat Angelini, Amy Handlin, and Dave Rible in endorsing GOP State Committeewoman Christine Hanlon as the next Monmouth County GOP Chair.
A formal announcement is expected later today or tomorrow.
Clifton’s endorsement will give Hanlon the formal support of 6 of the 9 member of the Monmouth County Legislative Delegation. Assembly members Sean Kean, Declan O’Scanlon and Caroline Casagrande have yet to express a preference for either Hanlon or her opponent, former Senate President John Bennett.
With all the attention and excitement being paid to Joe Kyrillo’s U.S. Senate candidacy and a new map that most think makes Frank Pallone even harder to beat, there is little if any talk about a GOP candidate in the 6th Congressional District.
So let’s throw some names out there and have then have a poll. I start with names that come to mind. Please add names in the comments. Over the weekend I’ll create a poll.
Former Highlands Mayor Anna Little
Selika Josiah Gore, Marlboro
Matawan Councilwoman Toni Marie Angelini
Matawan Councilman Tom Fitzsimmons
Assemblywoman Amy Handlin
Atlantic Highlands Councilman Peter Doyle
Keyport Mayor Bob McLeod
Former Middletown Committeeman Tom Wilkens
Middletown Mayor Tony Fiore
Hazlet Committeeman Scott Aagre
James Hogan of Long Branch
Oceanport Councilman Joe Irace
Former Freeholder Bill Barham
Former Assemblyman, triCityNews Publisher Dan Jacobson
The filing deadline is April 2.