What’s the concern about Eatontown mayor’s job?

By Art Gallagher

Eatontown Mayor Dennis Connelly

The Asbury Park Press is peddling a story about Eatontown Mayor Dennis Connelly’s recent employment as the manager of the Motor Vehicle Commission office in Freehold.  But other than a gadfly’s complaint about the position being a patronage job, The Asbury Park Press did not back up their sensational headline, Concern raised over Eatontown mayor’s new job, with any concerns.

What is the concern?  It is a patronage job.  If a Democrat is elected governor next year, Connelly, a Republican, will be out of the job.  A Democrat will be appointed to that job.  Will The Asbury Park Press be concerned then?

Connelly did not try to hide that he had taken a job with MVC.  He announced it on facebook.

Last year, Freehold Borough Councilman Kevin Kane was a Democratic candidate for County Clerk.  He got trounced by Clerk Christine Hanlon, the incumbent Republican.  Four months later Kane landed a $65,000 per year job for Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop.  Kane is boosting his pension credits from being a part time councilman with his new job.  The Asbury Press did not express any concern about Kane’s new job.  The Jersey Jounal/NJ.com was concerned.

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Monmouth Dems Have A Freeholder Primary

Democrat Chairman Vin Gopal blames MMM publisher Art Gallagher for his primary fight

By Art Gallagher

Monmouth Dem Freeholder candidates Brenda Sue Fulton and Matt Doherty face a primary challenge from Bernie Sanders supporters Angelica Ashford and Laury Wills

The two Democrat nominees for Monmouth County Freeholder will be decided by voters in the Democrat Primary on June 4 as two candidates affiliated with the Bernie Sanders for President campaign filed to run for the nominations on Monday in Freehold.

Angelica Ashford of Manalapan and Laury Wills of Little Silver will be running against Belmar Mayor Matt Doherty and Brenda Sue Fulton in the Democrat primary.  Doherty and Fulton are the choice of Monmouth Democrat Chairman Vin Gopal and will be bracketed on the primary ballot with the Hillary Clinton for President campaign.

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Anatomy of a Media Fabricated News Story – Gannett Style

By Tom DeSeno

This morning (March 2^nd 2016) people in the shore area in the central part of New Jersey woke up to an editorial in the Asbury Park Press, the only daily newspaper that serves two large counties, viciously attacking Governor Christie and demanding his resignation.

“Wow” the people of Monmouth and Ocean counties must have thought.   “This editorial staff must have really put a great deal of independent thought into this, to be this hard on the Governor,” they must have thought.

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Asbury Park Press Calls For Christie To Resign

graphic via writerbeat.com

Calling Governor Christie an embarrassment and a disgrace, The Asbury Park Press  and five other Gannet newspapers in New Jersey, called The Donald’s new backdrop to step down in an editorial posted last night.

While the APP has captured the sentiment of much of New Jersey, Christie resigning is about as likely as Senate President Steve Sweeney giving Judge David Bauman a confirmation hearing for his nomination to the State Supreme Court.  It’s not going to happen.  The only way Christie gives up the perks of his office voluntarily before the end of his term is if he is elected or appointed to a senior position in the Trump Administration.

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Asbury Park Press Endorses Hanlon For County Clerk

Monmouth County Clerk Christine Giordano Hanlon

The Asbury Park Press endorsed Monmouth County Clerk Christine Giordano Hanlon for her own five year term.

Hanlon became Acting Clerk on April 1st upon M.Claire French’s retirement and Clerk on May 18 when the New Jersey State Senate unanimously confirmed her nomination. Except for incorrectly referring to Hanlon as still Acting Clerk, APP nailed the endorsement.

Our endorsement goes to Hanlon, 47, of Ocean Township, who during her short tenure has made the office’s services more convenient to the community through satellite offices and a mobile facility. She also has improved the clerk’s website and more widely disseminated information about the clerk’s role. She deserves a full term.

APP correctly noted that Hanlon’s education and distinguished legal career makes her more suited for the position than the background of her opponent, Freehold Councilman Kevin Kane.  Kane is the operations manager of his father’s janitorial service.

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Zipprich blames Republicans for his DUI becoming public

Red Bank Councilman likes to have it both ways

What do Ed McKenna and Ed Zipprich have in common besides the same first name and being Red Bank Democrats? They both have a record of driving the wrong way on the Garden State Parkway after consuming too much alcohol.

The Red Bank Police should put a DUI check on River Rd on Sunday afternoon as McKenna is holding a fundraiser for Zipprich and his running mates at his home from 4-6.  Red Bank Taxi and Red Bank Limo should make sure their drivers are on standby.  The State Police should increase patrols at Exit 109.

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The Monmouth Dems Finally Have An Idea

Democratic Mayors Pan Their Freeholder Candidates’ Call For A County Ethics Board

By Art Gallagher

Democratic Freeholder Candidates Larry Luttrell and Joe Grillo with Congressman Frank Pallone and campaign volunteers

The Monmouth County Democrats have finally put forth a proposal to improve County Government.

It is not a new idea. It is not even a good idea. But at least they have put forth an idea for debate instead of spreading the lies and baseless character assassinations that have comprised their campaign so far this year.

Their campaign had been wholly negative; primarily baseless character attacks on Freeholder Director Lillian Burry.  They lied and said Burry hired an unqualified campaign worker for a mental health position.  Even after their lawsuit alleging that Burry had a conflict of interest over the Andrew Lucas farmland preservation deal was thrown out of court, they continue to beat that drum.  The GOP controlled Freeholder Board has cleaned house at Brookdale Community College since former President Peter Burnham was caught with his hands in the cookie jar. Yet the Democrats have been blaming Burry for Burnham’s transgressions.

Democratic candidate Joe Grillo told The Asbury Park Press that he wants to reinstate a County Ethics Board.   I know I’m being generous by saying this is a proposal to improve County Government instead of calling it an excuse to keep talking about the baseless allegations they are making about Burry.  But what the heck.  MMM is fair and biased. Let’s play along and debunk the idea on its merits.

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Depressing scene at Brookdale Job Fair

By Art Gallagher
[email protected]

Hundreds of middle-aged people looking for work at Brookdale this morning. April 4, 2014

When I was readying to leave the house this morning,  my wife asked if I was working on a story.  “No, I’m looking for a job,” I replied.  Her head snapped up in surprise. In all the years she’s known me I’ve never said those words.  I’ve always been the owner, or early in our relationship, an unmanageable top producing salesman.

The truth is I wasn’t sure what I was doing when I headed into the job fair at Brookdale Community College this morning.  I met a NJ.com reporter who got the ax yesterday, effective in September, in the overflowing parking lot outside of Collins Arena.  “Working a story or looking for a job?” I asked him.  “A little of both,” he replied before getting called away to cover a fatal car accident in Howell.

I was doing a little of both too. I’m having more fun building this business, MMM, than I had in building any of the others I’ve built or help build, but the revenue is not coming fast enough.  If the big media companies are contracting, there’s no harm in taking a look at what is out there, especially if I can make a story out of it and meet potential advertisers.

“Ha, you’re here looking for advertisers,” a recruiter from Town Square Media said to me when I introduced myself and asked her what an Integrated Sales Person was. She got me, but if Town Square wants to buy MMM, give me a radio show, blog and a fat check, I’ll listen.  An Integrated Sales Person sells ad for websites, radio shows and other mediums, I found out.  I’m now looking for one of those.  The recruiter either wasn’t aggressive or quickly sized me up as not a good fit. Probably both.

The Asbury Park Press’s recruiter was telling visitors to their booth that they weren’t hiring until they finish their across the street move in Neptune. Why were they there? Gannett would have to write a really big check and give me more authority than any corporate nudnik would consider in order to get me to fix that mess.

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2014 Predictions

Happy New Year MMM readers!  2014 has been a great year so far!

Here’s what we expect in the year ahead.

Senator Cory Booker will narrowly defeat Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick in the U.S. Senate election.  Bramnick will be the instant front runner for the GOP gubernatorial nomination in the 2016 special election.

Marlboro Mayor Jonathan Hornik will be a speaker at numerous Democratic Clubs throughout New Jersey and will establish himself as a major fundraiser for Democratic candidates on the municipal and county levels.  Hornik will proclaim that the only thing he is running for is reelection as Marlboro’s mayor in 2015.

The 11 incumbent New Jersey Congressmen running for reelection will win. The Republican nominee in the third congressional district seat currently held by Congressman Jon Runyon, who is not seeking a third term, will be elected.  Tommy DeSeno will write a column complaining about gerrymandered districts.

Senate President Steve Sweeney will keep picking on Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean, Jr. 

Governor Chris Christie will have more public appearances in Iowa, South Carolina, Texas and Florida, combined, than he will have Town Hall Meetings in New Jersey.

Anna Little will seek the Republican nomination for Congress in the 6th district, hoping for a third shot at Congressman Frank Pallone.  Little will lose at the Monmouth and Middlesex nominating conventions and wage a primary. The Bayshore Tea Party Group will sit out the 6th district primary, citing their commitment to Dr. Alieta Eck’s campaign in the 12th district.  Eck will be unopposed for the 12th district nomination to take on Congressman Rush Holt.

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Winners and Losers of 2013, Part 3

Monmouth County’s Biggest Losers

Vin Gopal. When you’re twenty-eight years old and the most popular governor in the nation singles you out as a practitioner of the “politics of yesterday,” twice in four months, you’re having a bad year.

Worse for the Monmouth County Democratic Chairman, he doesn’t have the juice to enforce the retribution he promised to Sea Bright Mayor Dina Long and Long Branch Mayor Adam Schneider, two Monmouth County Democrats who endorsed Governor Chris Christie’s reelection.

When you’re a twenty-eight year old County Chairman and the elite statewide power players of your party convene for dinner in your county, twice, and you’re not invited, you’re having a bad year.

When, after a devastating county-wide electoral loss, a member of your party leaks your declaration of victory taking credit for wins in races you lost and for a victory in a non-partisan election you weren’t involved in, you’re having a bad year.

But none of those things are what landed Vin Gopal on MMM’s biggest loser list.

Gopal in on this list because of his reckless, mean-spirited and false attempted character assassination of a Republican candidate for Red Bank Borough Council.

Gopal launched his inaccurate attack against Sean DiSomma in a press release late on a Friday afternoon in October.   He encouraged reporters to print his allegations on over the weekend and do their fact checking on Monday, after the story had legs.  Some did, to their own detriment.

In his desperate zeal to win in a Democratic town where he was losing, Gopal ruined his credibility with members of the media who had come to rely upon him as a reliable source.

The Bayshore Tea Party Group.  Once respected as a powerful and principled political force, Barbara Gonzalez , Bob Gordon and their shrunken band of zealots traded their welcome at Republican power tables where they could have made a difference for the road less taken of self-righteous irrelevancy.

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