Holt Bolts

Congressman Rush Holt announced this afternoon that h.e will not seek a 9th term in the House of Representatives.   In a statement posted on facebook, the rocket scientist/Jeopardy champion said it was a honor to serve and that there are no hidden motives in his decision to retire. “For a variety of reasons, personal and professional, all of them positive and optimistic, the end of this year seems to me to be the right time to step aside and ask the voters to select the next representative.”

Holt couldn’t debate healthcare with Rhoda Chodosh.  He certainly doesn’t want to debate Dr. Alieta Eck this fall.

Holt was a candidate for U.S. Senate for the Democratic nomination in the Special Election to replace the late Senator Frank Lautenberg last summer, losing then Newark Mayor Cory Booker, the winner of the nomination and the seat, and Congressman Frank Pallone.

Democrats are lining up to compete for the nomination to replace Holt in the 12 district which includes parts of Mercer, Middlesex, Somerset and Union Counties and is considered a safe Democratic district by most political experts.

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Bill Spadea Can Win In November

By Harold Kane, Monroe Township

There is an old cliché in New Jersey Politics. The cliché states “When it is the Republicans to lose, they will lose.” The district 16 special election this year will be theirs to lose unless they wake up. The electoral composition of the district has radically changed since the 2010 census. In 2007 the Republican Assembly candidates won 58-42. With the elimination of parts of Somerset and Morris counties and the inclusion of South Brunswick and the Princetons the Republicans managed to win the 2011 Assembly race 52-48, a drop of 12 points. The special election will be to replace the deceased Peter Biondi. At first the Republican “leadership” offered William Mennen of Tewksbury, but he didn’t live in the district. Mennen said that he would move, but then changed his mind. They then offered Donna Simon, a councilperson from Readington. Ms. Simon has absolutely no name recognition outside of Readington. The name recognition becomes even more important in the 2012 general election in that the Democrats will have Barack Obama at the top of their ticket. With Obama every Democrat and Democrat leaner in Middlesex and Mercer counties will be coming out of the woodwork to vote. The Republicans have a candidate that can overcome the Democrat advantage in the special Assembly Election. That candidate is Bill Spadea of Princeton. Spadea has run for Congress garnering 40% of the vote which is twice what the “experts” said that he would get. He is a party activist with great name recognition in precisely the portion of district 16 where it is needed most. Spadea has already assembled a campaign team with many years of experience. This is in comparison to Simon. Exactly when was the last time the Somerset/Hunterdon Republican parties had to fight for an Assembly seat? A Democrat victory in the 16^th would further impede Governor Christie from achieving his goals.

The Republican chairpersons in Somerset County (Al Gaburo), Hunterdon County (Henry Kuhl), and Mercer County (Dave Fried, Maria Bua) need to put their support behind Spadea at the special convention this month. Spadea can win in November, Simon cannot!

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2012 Predictions

Serena DiMaso will be elected Monmouth County Freeholder at the Title 19 convention of the Monmouth GOP Committee on January 14.   Bob Walsh will withdraw during his speech before the convention.

Bill Spadea defeats Donna Simon and John Saccenti at a Title 19 convention of the 16th legislative district to fill the assembly seat vacated by the death of Peter Biondi.  After recounts and law suits, the November special election for the seat is declared a tie between Spadea and Democratic Princeton Committeewoman Sue Nemeth.  Another special election is scheduled for January of 2013.

Joe Oxley will be named Township Administrator and In House Attorney for Wall Township.  The appointment will forward a statewide trend of municipalities hiring either attorneys or engineers as their administrators as a cost saving measure.   Oxley is reelected GOP County Chairman by acclamation.  Senator Jennifer Beck will give the nominating speech.  Christine Hanlon will be Vice Chair.

Middletown will get a new Parks and Recreation Director.  It won’t be Linda Baum or Pam Brightbill.

Jim McGreevey is ordained an Episcopal priest.

Jon Corzine remembers where he put the $1.2 billion.

Senator Joe Kyrillos will be the GOP nominee for U.S. Senator, defeating Anna Little and Joseph Rudy Rullo in the primary. 

Congressman Steve Rothman defeats Congressman Bill Pascrell in the Democratic primary for the 9th Congressional District nomination.  In the only surprise of the primary, former Bergen County GOP Freeholder Anthony Cassano, who had agreed to take one for the team in the 9th, was defeated when the Bergen County Tea Party Group organized a write-in campaign for Anna Little.  Little was on the ballot as a U.S. Senate candidate.  Having lost the Senate nomination to Joe Kyrillos, Little accepts the nomination, asks Kyrillos to host a fundraiser for her, and promises to move into the district if she wins.   She doesn’t.

Maggie Moran defeats Vin Gopal and Frank “LaHornica” LaRocca in a close election for the Monmouth County Democratic Chairmanship.

James Hogan of Long Branch is the GOP nominee for Congress in New Jersey’s 6th Congressional District.  Frank Pallone is reelected by 8%.

Jordan Rickards of North Brunswick  is the GOP nominee for Congress in New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District.  Rush Holt is reelected by 15%.

On August 28, the second day of the Republican National Convention, the National Weather Service warns that Hurricane Chris is heading towards the Jersey Shore.  Acting Governor Kim Guadagno gets on TV and says, “Get the heck off of the beach please.”

Mitt Romney will be the GOP nominee for President of the United States.  New Jersey Governor Chris Christie will be the Vice Presidential nominee.

President Obama nominates Vice President Joe Biden to be Secretary of State.  Biden submits his resignation as VP effective upon both houses of congress confirming his successor.  President Obama nominates Hillary Clinton as Vice President.   Speaker of the House John Boehner refuses to schedule confirmation hearings for the VP nomination on the constitutional grounds that their is no vacancy in the office.   Obama makes them both recess appointments.  Clinton is nominated for VP at the Democratic National Convention and Secretary of State Biden spends October in China.

Despite losing their home states of Massachusetts and New Jersey, the Romney-Christie ticket wins the electoral college by one vote, 270-269.   The winning vote comes from Maine, one of two states that awards electoral votes by congressional district.  Romney-Christie lose Maine 3-1 but win the election.  Obama-Clinton file suit to challenge Maine’s method of awarding electoral votes.  Romney-Christie counter with a suit in Nebraska, which they won 4 electoral votes to 1, using the same arguments that Obama-Clinton use in Maine.  The U.S. Supreme Court decides both cases for the plaintiffs, 5-4, and determined that in all future presidential elections that electoral votes are awarded on a winner take all basis nationally.  Tea Party leader Dwight Kehoe calls for the impeachment of the Justices who voted affirmatively, claiming that they don’t understand the 10th Amendment.

Robert Menendez defeats Joe Kyrillos for U.S. Senate by 1%.

U. S. Senator Frank Lautenberg resigns.   In one of his last acts as Governor before ascending to the Vice Presidency, Chris Christie appoints Kyrillos to Lautenberg’s Senate seat.

What do you think will happen?

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Bye Bye Mennen. Really

Hunterdon County Freeholder William Mennen, heir to the Mennen deodorant fortune, has dropped his bid to to run for the 16th district Assembly seat vacated by the untimely death of Assemblyman Peter Biondi, according to a report on Politickernj.

Mennen was the GOP establishment choice for the seat.  He does not live in the district.  A proposed legal challenge from Bill Spadea, Princeton, also running, doomed Mennen’s candidacy.

Spadea still faces competition.  Donna Simon, a Readington Township Committeewoman announced her candidacy upon Mennen’s withdrawal, according to Politickernj.  South Brunswick Health Board Member John Saccenti is also running.

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Bye Mennen

By Harold Kane

Hunterdon County Freeholder William Mennen wants to run for the NJ State Assembly from the 16^th district. However Mr. Mennen has a problem in that he does not live in D16. To rectify this situation he plans to move shortly into the 16^th district.

There is one other issue he must face that a moving van cannot resolve. That is the NJ State constitution requirement that the candidate live in the district for one year before Election Day. Since the election is less than one year away, Mennen is not-qualified to run in the 16^th district. However, Mennen does not plan to let some minor irritant such as the constitution get in the way of his run for office.

Mennen has used his inherited fortune to hire Alan Zakin to be his spokesperson. According to Zakin, the 14^th amendment to the US Constitution is violated when voters cannot vote for who they want. The Equal Protection clause of the 14^th amendment was written to preclude voter suppression of former slaves. In this case no one in the 16^th district is being denied the right to vote. Voting is being encouraged. Zakin’s argument is a perversion of the US Constitution. The state of NJ is well within its rights to set a reasonable time frame for a candidate’s residency. If Mennen had a grasp on reality he would have moved into the 16^th district before November 2 since the new districts were determined this past spring. But he didn’t, and now he thinks that he can buy a nomination.

The Republican parties in the 16^th district portion of Hunterdon, Somerset, Mercer, and Middlesex counties have the opportunity to nominate a highly qualified candidate for the 16^th district Assembly seat and that candidate should be Bill Spadea of Princeton.

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Bill Spadea Announces Run for New Jersey Assembly

Joined by Former Romney Counsel Charlie Spies for February 2012 Special Convention

PRINCETON, NJ (November 30, 2011) —  Princeton Township resident Bill Spadea has officially declared his candidacy for the vacant New Jersey Assembly seat in the newly redrawn 16^th Legislative District by filing the necessary documents on Friday, November 25.   The vacant Assembly seat was held by longtime public servant, Assemblyman Pete Biondi, who sadly passed away two days following his re-election this month. 

Mr. Spadea will vie for the party’s nomination at the special four-county convention, which will happen within 35 days of the swearing in of the new Assembly on January 10, 2012.  The vote at the convention will determine who will fulfill a one-year term for the vacant Assembly seat.  Mr. Spadea will also participate in the June 5, 2012 primary to become the 16^th Legislative District’s Republican candidate for the NJ legislative special election on November 6, 2012.

“Pete Biondi was a great legislator, public servant, community leader and patriot. So many business and political leaders asked and encouraged me to consider this run to do right by Pete’s legacy of public service. I was so honored by their request that I felt compelled to step up,” said Spadea.

Mr. Spadea’s campaign is off to a strong start, enlisting the support of prominent GOP attorney Charlie Spies.  Mr. Spies, head of Clark Hill PLC’s national Political Law practice, served as CFO and Counsel for Governor Mitt Romney’s 2008 Presidential campaign, as well as counsel for the Republican Governors Association in 2006 and the Republican National Committee in 2004.  Spies stated, “Bill is a dynamic and enthusiastic candidate. His conservative principles, business background and organizational success make him the right man at the right time for New Jersey.”

Princeton Township is one of the eight new municipalities that will be a part of the new 16^th Legislative District in January 2012.  It was also one of the first municipalities to vote to consolidate with another municipality this month.  The consolidation of Princeton Township and Princeton Borough will be historic for the state of New Jersey.

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Bill Spadea has worked in New Jersey as a senior executive in the real estate industry for the past 15 years.  Additionally, he is an on-air political analyst and Republican strategist for several New York Region television stations. Mr. Spadea served in the United States Marine Corps Reserve from 1991 to 1999.  He ran for U.S. Congress in New Jersey’s 12^th district and earned more than 115,000 votes (40%) in 2004 running against the heavily-funded incumbent Rush Holt.  He is the co-founder and past-president of Building the New Majority, a grassroots political organization focused on helping NJ citizen-legislators win local campaigns.  Mr. Spadea lives in Princeton with his wife Jodi and their two children, who attend Princeton public schools – where he serves on the Zoning Board, is a coach for little league, chairs the annual Veteran’s Day event, and serves as master of ceremony for the annual Memorial Day Parade/Service.

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LD 16 Assembly Race: A Classic Grassroots vs. Establishment Matchup

The 16th legislative district Assembly vacancy caused by the untimely death of Assemblyman Peter Biondi is resulting in yet another NJ Republican grassroots vs. establishment, conservative vs. moderate, battle.

The new LD 16 is comprised of parts of Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex and Somerset Counties.  Somerset dominates the district.  The Somerset GOP is dominated by Princeton Public Affairs Group, perhaps the most powerful lobbying firm in Trenton. The current Somerset GOP Chairman, Alfred Gaburo, is a senior executive at PPAG.  The former Somerset GOP Chair, Dale Florio, founded PPAG.

PPAG’s Republican members have deep roots in the NJ GOP establishment dating back to the Whitman-DiFranceso-Haytaian era.   PPAG’s Democrats have equally deep roots in their party.  PPAG and their clients are prominent among the “Who’s Who” of New Jersey.  It doesn’t get more establishment than PPAG.

The Somerset GOP has lined up behind Hunterdon County Freeholder William Mennen to fill Biondi’s Assembly seat, according to Politickernj.  Mennen lives in Tewskbury, part of the new 23rd legislative district.  He will move into the 16th.  Most probably he will move into a Hunterdon County town in the 16th, as his Somerset County support is very likely the result of a deal between the Hunterdon and Somerset GOP chairs.   The other LD 16 legislators, Senator Christopher “Kip” Bateman and newly elected Jack Ciattarelli hail from Somerset.  Ciattarelli is a Somerset County Freeholder.  He was nominated for Assembly after incumbent Denise Coyle was redistricted out of the district and decided to retire rather than move.

You really need a score card to keep track of the players in this district.  Biondi’s death and Coyle’s decision not to move really messed up Dr. Alan Rosenthal’s theory of continuity of representation, at least as it applies to LD 16.

Mennen is an heir of the deodorant company that was founded in Newark in 1878 and moved to Morristown in 1953.  He is the great-great grandson of company founder Gerhard H. Mennen.

The company, which was sold to Colgate-Palmolive in 1992, donated the land for the William G. Mennen Sports Arena to Morris County in 1973.  G. Mennan “Soapy” Williams, grandson Mennen’s founder, was the Democratic governor of Michigan from January 1, 1949 through January 1, 1961.  You don’t get much more establishment than Mennen.

Challenging Mennen and the establishment will be grassroots activist Bill Spadea of Princeton.  Princeton is in the Mercer County part of LD 16, but the Mercer and Middlesex GOP organizations have little say in the race.  They are minority portions of the district and the counties are Democratic strongholds.

Spadea was the 2004 GOP nominee for Congress against Rush Holt.  In 2008, Spadea and his friend, biotech executive John Crowley, founded Building a New Majority, who’s stated mission is to develop Republican candidates for local, county and state offices through direct financial contributions and grassroots support.  The organization’s pragmatic mission was widely considered  to be the  building of a network to support Crowley’s political ambitions to be a U.S. Senator, which have waned in recent years.

Spadea sent an email to Building a New Majority members last night announcing that he was stepping down as President to prepare for the LD 16 Assembly race.

While an activist with strong conservative credentials and relationships, Spadea is not a fire breathing RINO hunter in the Lonegan tradition.   Through Building a New Majority he has sought to be a bridge between to the establishment and the more conservative grassroots Republicans.  His bridge building could work against him in a primary.  Establishment voters will automatically support Mennen.  Conservatives may hold Spadea’s support of Rudy Guiliani in the 2008 presidential primary against him.

Spadea’s conservative supporters are already positioning him as the real conservative over the moderate Mennan.  However that could prove to be a tough sell.  Mennen’s record of fiscal conservatism as a Hunterdon County Freeholder is solid.

Spadea has little hope of winning at a convention to replace Biondi.  If he is able to raise money to fund a competitive primary against likely incumbent Mennen, he will face a very uphill battle in a presidential year where Mennen will likely be sharing the line with the Mitt Romney, another heir of a Michigan governor, who will have likely have already locked up the GOP presidential nomination.

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On The Debt Ceiling Debate

“A Republic, if you can keep it”  ~ Benjamin Franklin

By Bill Spadea

The debt ceiling crisis is an economic and political crossroads for America. We stand on the precipice of losing our economic and personal freedom as Democrats and Republicans in Congress consider raising the nation’s debt ceiling.

Americans are clearly entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness – although the interpretation of that seems to be a bit broader outside of the libertarian movement, any system designed to help those who cannot help themselves still has to be affordable and sustainable. Remember that the wealth used has to be created by someone else. Through the raging debate in Washington it seems that the truth about our economic system is being ignored by politicians and pundits – that no system on Earth has provided so much to so many as capitalism.

That said, providing for those who can’t provide for themselves is as worthy goal – and one that should be mostly encouraged on the private side (yes this was on the increase during the Bush years due to tax cuts for wealthier Americans who do most of the charitable giving). Following private charity is the help afforded people at the local level, churches and shelters helping the destitute and the abandoned get back to a stable life. Only in the worst case scenarios should the federal government get involved. It’s simply not the appropriate role and as we’ve seen from the results, when you subsidize it, you get more than you bargained for in the first place.

I don’t know about you but when six figure government workers are afforded a lifetime pension and health care in the name of a social compact and entitlement we’ve got a serious problem. The Democrats have continued to move the bar higher to apply these government handouts at the expense of hard working Americans to dramatically increase standards of living – not to provide sustenance to the destitute.

The Democratic philosophy is to provide service and tangible items for people – give the starving man a fish…the conservative/classical liberal position is to teach him to fish. Not to oversimplify but one reason that the vitriol is so palpable recently is because we’re facing our fundamental philosophical differences and it’s scaring many of the folks in DC. I’m sure you heard that the President lost him temper at the congressional leaders yesterday. This is further evidence of the panic engulfing the political elite as the reality that the power they are so desperately clinging to is only sustainable if the American people continue to allow them to spend us into oblivion.
Sensible-minded leaders are finally standing up and saying enough. Thankfully, Congressional leaders like Ron Paul, Michelle Bachmann and Scott Garrett possess the courage and fortitude to stand up to the weak-minded Republicans ready to collapse on our core principles and the Democrats who are fighting to preserve an ever-expanding and intrusive government. They, along with many of their courageous colleagues in the House and Senate, and millions of working Americans, are finally saying enough of the endless borrowing, enough of the bloated spending, enough of the waste, the abuse and the fraud that has become our federal government.

The change is coming whether we like it or not, the unsustainable welfare state is coming to a close. If we redirect our efforts now to job creation and empowering folks that can be productive to make a better life for themselves and their families we’ll surely reduce the number of recipients for the various entitlement programs. As far as social security – without an ‘opt out’ for younger workers it is essentially a theft of their hard earned money which serves to deny free working people the right to protect their own future. We all know that the system will be broke in a decade or so based on the rising number of recipients compared to the number of earners. It’s a simple math problem. ‘Privatizing’ is a political buzz word intended to create a level of fear among voters. Those voters in turn keep sending the same thieves back to Washington to make the situation worse. Either we face the reality of the dire situation now or later but we’ll face it for sure. If we deal with it now – specifically adopt a plan like the one proposed by Pat Toomey on the Senate side we have a shot at a balanced budget, without shirking our responsibility to debt service, military pay and social security payments. The President is being disingenuous at best when he threatens to skip social security payments. His extreme partisan ideology has given us trillions in new debt and layers of regulation and bureaucracy that are choking the private sector.

The longer we wait to deal with the debt as adults the better the chance we’ll have passed a point of no return when more Americans are living off the work of others – and just as the communist system collapsed in on itself, the American experiment will surely come to a close when the production stops. Congressman Paul Ryan had a very strong message in front of a group in Chicago a few weeks back – essentially saying we shouldn’t be talking about ‘shared scarcity’ – we should be talking about creating a new prosperity – creating jobs and fostering economic growth. The government cannot create wealth – only redistribute what is created in the private sector. We’re at a back-to-basics moment – time to act and force a course correction before we’re all living in shared poverty.

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