Real Clear Politics: CD-6 A Toss UP!? APP: Pallone Leads By Nearly 2-1

Murray’s Poll Means Different Things To Different People

Real Clear Politics looked at the Monmouth University poll released yesterday and moved the NJ-6 race between Frank Pallone and Anna Little from “Likely Dem” to “Toss Up” . 

Meanwhile, the APP ( All Phoney Palloney?) read Patrick Murray’s poll and wrote a headline claiming that Pallone is leading Little “by nearly 2-1.”   2-1?  Murray said Pallone has a 12% lead.   2-1 would be a 33% lead. 12% is not nearly 33%.

Even my own analysis on Murray’s poll has been bothering me:

Murray classifies a likely voter as someone who has voted in 2 of the last four general elections.  Of the 333,519 registered voters in CD-6, 60,053 voted in 2 of the four last general elections; 23,750 (40%) Democrats, 27,791 (46%) Independents and 8,512 (14%) Republicans, according to GOP records of voter activity.

CD-6 has 333,544 registered voters.  In the last five elections, an average of 157,000 people voted.  The average is 144,000 if you don’t count the 2008 presidential election (254,543 voters) and the 2007 state legislative election(96,950 voters).  Yet, only 60,053 people voted in 2 of the last four elections, the criteria Murray used to select “likely voters.”   Granted, Murray used a different list than I did to measure who voted in 2 of the last 4 elections.  If there is a wide disparity between the two, my analysis of his poll is as flawed as the APP headline.  I think I’ll ask him about his list.

Incidentally, Real Clear Politics also rates the CD-3 race between Jon Runyan and John Adler as a toss up.  RCP rates Scott Sipprelle’s race against Rush Holt as “Leans Dem.”  I find the CD-12 rating hard to believe.  I’m not on the ground in CD-12 as much as I like to be, but I wake up every morning to “I’m Scott Sipprelle and I approved this message.”

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Neptune Township Gets $725K For Cops. Pallone Had Nothing To Do With It

Phoney Palloney Is At It Again,  Asbury Park Press  Falls For It (Willingly?) Again

By Art Gallagher

The United States Department of Justice announced their Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) grants on Thursday.  They awarded $298 million to fund the hiring and retaining of 1,388 state, local and tribal law enforcement officers by 379 police and sheriffs departments in 49 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.  The funding will be administered by the department’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), and is being awarded under the COPS Hiring Program.  

The Neptune Township Police Department was among the 379 departments nationwide to get a grant, $725,000.  They applied and met the criteria.

Phoney Palloney told the Asbury Park Press about the grant and they wrote a storythat made it sound like Pallone had something to do with Neptune getting the grant.

New Brunswick, also in Pallone’s 6th congressional district, got almost $1.6 million in COPS funds.  That amount wasn’t mentioned in the APP article, nor did Gannett’s outlet that covers New Brunswick, mycentraljersey.com mention it.  Pallone must have polling data that tells him he needs free press support in Monmouth, but not in Middlesex.

Just as we saw with the coverage of Pallone’s Fish Tales , his $400 million fish counting stimulus that will never be passed by congress, the Asbury Park Press is in the tank for Frank Pallone.  They’re not fair and biased.  They’re just biased, pretending not to be.  They’re unfair and biased.

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Pallone’s Fish Tales

By Art Gallagher

It’s official, The Asbury Park Press is in the tank for Frank Pallone.

Phoney Pallone had a press conference in Keyport today where he announced that he is proposing the $400 million Coastal Jobs Creation Act aimed at boosting the state’s commercial and recreational fishing industries mainly by keeping closer tabs on fishing stocks through a research partnership with Rutgers University.

As someone commented on the APP site, $400 million to count fish?  I know something about counting fish  This bill is a lot of bunker.

This legislation will never become law and Phoney Pallone knows it.  Today’s press conference was to give the APP an opportunity to write a Pallone friendly story.

Here’s a list of all the bills that Pallone has sponored in the 111th Congress (the one that is currently in session.)  There are 25 bills on the list.  One became law, one passed the House and went nowhere from there, one was reported by committee and now Nancy Pelosi has to decide what she needs from Pallone in order to post it.   The other 22 bills were introduced and referred to committee.   That’s it.  

This bill is one of the 22 that is buried in committee.  Pallone introduced it on March 23.   The House Natural Resources Committee, which Pallone sits on with Rush Holt,  held a hearing on the bill on July 27.  No further action has been taken.

Why is this news?  Nothing happened regarding this bill today, other than Frank Pallone making a phoney campaign appearance.

It took me all of two minutes to find this information about the bill.  I wonder if  APP reporter Jim McConville bothered to research the bill before writing his story.

I wonder why I wasn’t invited to the press conference.  Maybe because I would have  asked a question like this,

” Congressman, you introduced this legislation back in March of this year.  The House Natural Resources Committee, which both you and Rush Holt are members of, held a hearing on this bill on July 27 and no further action has been taken.  Why are you holding a press conference about the bill today?”

That’s a fair question.  Right?

Or maybe I would have asked this:

“Congressman, you introduced this legislation in March. Your committee held a hearing on it in July.  The purpose of the bill is To promote coastal jobs creation, promote sustainable fisheries and fishing communities, revitalize waterfronts, and for other purposes.

Why didn’t you use your considerable influence as a senior member of congress to get this bill passed so that funds would be  available to save the Baykeepers Oyster Restoration Program here in Keyport.

Back in August, Pallone told the NY Post’s Ken Moran that this bill (which will never become law) would save fishermen a $15-$25 license fee that is scheduled to go into effect next year.   I might have asked Pallone why the government is going to borrow $400 million to count fish when fisherman can fund the registry with their licenses, if I had been invited to the press conference today.

If McConville asked any questions like these, he didn’t write about it in his story.  Maybe tomorrow in the print edition.

More likely, the APP is falling for Pallone’s fish tales, hook, line and sinker.

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