I think Christie’s enjoying the job more than Corzine did

• Tweet

Governor Chris Christie Vetoes Establishment of Full Racing Schedule for Monmouth Park and the Meadowlands

Governor’s Action Necessary Pending Legislative Resolution on Horse Racing Recommendations

Trenton, NJ – Governor Chris Christie today vetoed the New Jersey Racing Commission’s establishment of a full standardbred and thoroughbred racing schedule for Monmouth Park and the Meadowlands, as the Administration continues its review of recommendations to end annual taxpayer subsidies for the horse racing industry and make it self-sustaining.

The Racing Commission’s action at its November 10 meeting establishing a full race schedule for 2011 conflicts with the primary recommendation contained in a supplemental report under review by the Administration to substantially reduce the number of live racing days at Monmouth Park and the Meadowlands Racetrack for next year. At the November 10 meeting, the Racing Commission approved a request from the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority to establish the full race meeting schedule for next year.

Governor Christie’s veto is not critical of the Commission or the NJSEA for doing what is currently statutorily required, as the Administration is considering scaled-down race meets among possible solutions for making the horse racing industry self-sustaining. The Governor’s veto was necessary pending a legislative resolution on horse racing recommendations and solutions.

“While the recommendation is being reviewed, it would be inappropriate to approve the NJSEA’s request to race 141 Thoroughbred races dates at Monmouth Park and 141 Standardbred races dates at the Meadowlands Racetrack particularly in light of the taxpayer subsidies required to sustain such a lengthy race calendar,” Governor Christie said in his veto letter, dated today.

“An appropriate solution for the state-owned racetracks, which does not unduly burden the taxpayers of this State, must be reached before a schedule for the 2011 racing season can be approved,” the Governor wrote.

• Tweet

Grading the Governor

By Art Gallagher

Tom Moran is the editorial page editor of the Star Ledger and the reporter who unwittingly made Governor Chris Christie a YouTube sensation.

Moran decided that its time to grade the Governor.  In a column published on Sunday, the pernicious pundit acknowledges that independent polls indicate that the voters are rating the Governor with A’s and B’s. He spends the rest of the column telling the voters (us) why they (we) are wrong about Christie. Moran say Christie only gets a C.

It’s a good thing that New Jersey pays little heed to Moran. If we did, Chris Daggett would be Governor and Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver would be taken seriously.

Moran gives Christie high marks for courage, calling the Governor a cage fighter for his cause.  Despite this A, Moran gives Christie demerits for failing to compromise.  This has been a theme of Moran’s throughout the year. Christie came to Trenton promising to turn the place upside down.  Moran wants him to be nice while breaking the furniture.

Moran even gives the Governor a B on the budget, even though he calls Christie’s claim that he plugged an $11 billion budget hole “farcical.”

On the 2% property tax cap, Moran says Christie will earn a spot on the honor roll if it works, but so far it hasn’t. Duh. It hasn’t even gone into effect yet, and the “tool kit” negotiations with the Democratic legislative leadership are ongoing. Moran criticises Christie for not caving and accepting Oliver’s and Senate President Steve Sweeney’s first offer.

Moran takes Christie to task for calling Oliver a liar over her assertion that she tried to meet with Christie over the “tool kit.”

Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver was shocked when she learned that the governor had accused her of lying.

“That has irreparably affected my ability to work with this governor,” she says. “For him to cast aspersions on my integrity and say I would lie? That did it. That showed me I really cannot have a trusting relationship with this governor. Because he will distort the truth. He will stand up and lie.

“It was a game changer for me, a total game changer.”

Will Oliver’s resignation as Speaker be forthcoming?  If she can’t or won’t work with the Governor she has no business being Speaker.   Oliver should be grateful that the Governor and most of the media gave her (and Moran) a pass when she called the Governor racist in an earlier Moran column.

Moran seems to think it is a problem for Christie that Oliver and U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg “hate his guts.” 

U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg felt this sting as well. After he criticized the governor for killing the Hudson River tunnel project, the governor lashed out.

“All he knows how to do is blow hot air,” Christie said. “So I don’t really care what Frank Lautenberg has to say about much of anything.”

This is the downside of the governor’s straight talk. He has to work with Oliver and Lautenberg, like it or not. And now they both seem to hate his guts.

“Look, I worked with Tom Kean and Christie Whitman, and had no problems,” Lautenberg says. “This is really unusual. There’s been hardly any communication from his office, and I’m on the Appropriations Committee. I put my heart and soul into this, and to have someone calling me names and trying to shame me? It’s incomprehensible.”

Lautenberg is old and has been very sick for most of the year. He can be forgiven for not noticing that Christie is not Tom Kean or Christie Whitman.  Now that he’s woken up, he’ll start comprehending, if his heart and soul are really in his job.  How effective has he been for us on the Appropriations Committee anyway?

Moran is right about one thing.  Christie hasn’t delivered yet.  But that is not the measure by which to grade a Governor 11 months into his term.  Moran is a liberal ideologue masquerading as a moderate.  Like ideologues on the right who are critical of Christie because he hasn’t fixed all the inequities of New Jersey government in 11 months, he is driven only by his own narrow agenda.

The NJEA is having a news conference in Trenton today to propose education reforms including “significant reform of the tenure system.”   That is remarkable.  Even if the proposed reforms are full of loop holes, which as a Jersey cynic I suspect they will be, the fact that the NJEA has entered the reform conversation is truly remarkable.  Chris Christie made that happen.

Civil Service and binding arbitration is going to be reformed.  Mayors and councils are going to be unbound from the ties that have driven property taxes to catastrophic levels and be empowered to truly manage their communities rather than rubber stamp state mandates. That is unbelievable. Chris Christie made that happen.

The 2% property tax cap, even with its exceptions, will truly force a reduction in the size of government, especially when inflation kicks in. Share services will become a reality out of necessity, rather than something community leaders pay lip service to during elections.

Chris Christie has changed the tone and transformed the direction of government in New Jersey. “Changed has arrived” he declared in his inaugural address.  He is deliverying change.  Trenton is not quite upside down yet, but it is surely tilted.  He can’t be graded by the old score card, because he has changed the game in New Jersey and given Governors throughout the nation, and our leaders in Washington new rules.

Rather than a report card, lets judge Christie with a scorecard.

Christie is leading by a wide margin as the first quarter of his term comes to a close.  Yet, the opposition of special interests and trough swillers have been studying the films and making adjustments.  The final minutes of the quarter are critical as the effectiveness of the tool kit will be determined.  Next year, the second quarter, is when the real heavy lifitng will start. Legislative redistricting, the budget and the legislative election will dominate the agenda.  Municipal budgets drawn under the 2% cap will dominate the news.  As the economy improves, if it does, “we don’t have the money” will not work as well in forcing reforms.

Christie gets an A for his first year.  Next year will be the real test.  Mid-terms will be in November.  If the voters give Christie and A or B in the form of a Republican legislature, we’ll find out what “turning Trenton upside down” really means.

• Tweet

Fireworks, Standing Ovation at Christie’s Parispanny Town Hall Meeting

Governor Chris Christie held his 15th Town Hall meeting since September in Parispanny yesterday afternoon.

NJ’s mainstream media was anticipating a good show and YouTube moments because the Governor had dubbed Parispanny School Superintendent Leroy Seitz “the poster boy for greed and arrogance” at an earlier Town Hall meeting.  Seitz had renegotiated his contract with the Parsipanny Board of Education in order to avoid the pay cap that Christie is imposing effective in February.

Christie delivered.  NJ.com , Politickernj, and the Daily Record each have reports.

• Tweet

Brian Aitken serving seven years for transporting guns, perhaps legally

Brian Aitkin, photo from Free Brian Aitkin facebook page

By Art Gallagher

Brain Aitken was sentenced to seven years in prison for transporting unloaded and disassembled guns in the trunk of his car. The arresting officer suggested that Aitken store the guns in his father’s safe, but they wouldn’t fit, so he was arrested, tried, convicted and sentenced to seven years in state prison.

According to the reports brought to my attention by MMM readers, here, here and here, Aitken had purchased the firearms legally while residing in Colorado. He had sought and followed guidance from the New Jersey State Police on how to legally transport the guns during his move back to New Jersey.

Aitken turned down pleas bargain offers from the Burlington County prosecutors office because he believed he had carefully followed the law. 

The judge presiding over Aitken’s case, James Morely, declined to instruct the jury about exemptions to the concealed carry law for transporting guns during a move between residences.  Aitken’s attorney raised the issue during closing arguments but not during the evidentiary phase of the trail.  The jury requested the exemption information multiple times during deliberations.  Morely declined to provide the information.

Morely did not issue Aitken’s sentence.  He was removed from the bench after the verdict was delivered and before the sentencing because Governor Chris Christie declined to reappoint him, reportedly because of his judgement in a case involving a Moorestown NJ police officer having sex with cows.  Judge Michael J. Haas issued Aitken’s sentence.

Evan Nappen of Eatontown is Aitken’s attorney. Nappen’s summary of the facts of the case can be found here.

Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll has written Governor Christie asking for an immediate pardon or commutation of Aitken’s sentence.  Carroll’s letter can be found here.

Reports are that Governor Christie is reviewing the pardon/commutation request.  The media campaign that Aitken’s family is waging is so compelling that the questions, “how could this happen?” and “what facts are missing from this story?” must be addressed.   Christie’s office should conduct a thorough and expeditious review.

For more information, see the Free Brain Aitken facebook page and BrianDAitken.com.

• Tweet

NJN will remain on the air

Governor Chris Christie told the Star Ledger that NJN, New Jersey public television and radio stations, will remain on the air after January 1st if legislation that allows negotiations with a private entity to take over the station is passed before the end of the year.   Senate President Steve Sweeney, (Reagan Democrat) has a bill before the legislature that would create a bi-partisan commission to manage the transfer to a private entity.  Senator Joe Kyrillos has proposed a bill that would empower the State Treasurer to manage the transfer.

State funding for the network is scheduled to expire on December 31. Layoff notices went out to the station’s 130 employees last month.

Michael Aron, the station’s senior political correspondent, told MMM that the network’s annual budget is roughly $20 million, including $7 million in in-kind contributions from the State for rent on its facilities and other fixed assets. The cash contribution from the State coffers was $4 million in 2010.

Christie’s original plan under the current state budget was for NJN’s licenses to be sold or transfered to a private entity.  Officials now want the state to retain ownership of the license and enter into a management agreement with a consortium of broadcasters to provide content, according to the Star Ledger report.

• Tweet

Christie on Education

Governor Chris Christie is the keynote speaker at the Foundation for Excellence in Education’s  National Summit on Eduction Reform this evening.

The following are excerpts of his prepared remarks:

Excerpted Remarks of Governor Chris Christie

to the Foundation for Excellence in Education

 

November 30, 2010

 

…

I know this…I would not be standing here today if it wasn’t for the fact that my parents had the opportunity to send me to the public schools that gave me the best possible education I could have.

 

In each one of us, there is a certain God-given ability, but that God-given ability will only take us so far.

 

We need someone to nurture it and draw it out of us. We see this happening today in the best schools, in the best homes and with the best teachers and parents.

 

But it also has to happen each and every day in what are now the worst schools by nurturing children who do not come from the best homes.  We have to draw out and empower parents.  And we have to demand that the teachers, the principals and the administrators put these children first.

 

Not themselves.

 

If we do not do this…If we do not change what is happening in our mediocre and poor performing schools, then we are failing our children. And continuing to play the blame game and to make excuses only makes the adults feel better.

 

It does nothing for our children.

…

 

I’m going to fight as hard as I can against those who believe that what we’re fighting for is the status quo.

 

Because it is not acceptable to let a teacher who can’t teach stay in the classroom.  It is not acceptable that a child who is neglected in one of our schools must just accept it because of their zip code.  It is not acceptable that parents who can’t afford to send their children to a private school, or aren’t lucky enough to draw a good lottery number, have no choice but to be resigned to the fact that the difference between a successful future for their child and prison has already been predetermined.

 

No parent should ever have to stand up in that awful moment, with their child’s future on the line, and be powerless to change the outcome.  It is the terrible complacency of those who defend the status quo, those who accept these choices and circumstances for our children, that we must stand against.

 

This is the fight. It is not a Democratic fight. It is not a Republican fight.

 

This is a fight where Republicans and Democrats can stand united.  One where President Obama, Mayor Booker, Bill Gates and I can all stand in agreement.

It is a fight for our children.

 

And yes, sometimes the fight will be angry.  Sometimes the fight will be loud.  Sometimes the fight will draw tears. And still, sometimes the fight will require embrace.

 

There is nothing more important to the future of our country than this fight, because this is the fight that will define all of the other fights. This is why we all must have the stomach and the strength to take it on.

 …

 

We cannot let this moment pass us by.  We cannot let the enthusiasm and the intensity with which our leaders have been discussing education reform diminish.

…

 

Failure is not an option.  Which is why I would rather lose an election and lose my career, rather than look back and realize that I did not do enough, or that I put myself and my career ahead of the future lives of the children of New Jersey.

• Tweet

Support Small Businesses: Don’t Pay By American Express

Leave home without it

Written for the first Small Business Saturday in 2010 and reposted

By Art Gallagher

American Express has created a self serving campaign to support small businesses by encouraging shoppers to patronize such establishments tomorrow.  Today is known as Black Friday.  Monday has become known as Cyber Monday.  The two days are the busiest shopping days of the year.  Amex wants to make the Saturday after Thanksgiving a new shopping day.

While the goal is laudable, this campaign will serve American Express at the expense of the small businesses they are purporting to support.   As most small business owners know, the fees that American Express charge businesses that accept their card are often 50-150% higher than the fees other credit card companies charge.

Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

“It’s an amazing world” ~ Christie disses Palin

By Art Gallagher

Governor Chris Chrisite dissed former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin last night during his appearance on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon.  Asked by Fallon if he thought Palin could be President, Christie shook his head and said, “It’s an amazing world.”  Fallon followed up with “Crazier things have happened?”  Christie said, “I don’t know, it’s an amazing world.”

Christie’s dislike of Palin has been well known in Republican circles for quite some time.  He did not invite her to participate in his successful gubernatorial campaign last year and he instructed New Jersey’s Republican congressional candidates this year that his support was contingent upon Palin not being invited to New Jersey.  Palin cancelled an appearance in Ocean County for Jon Runyan during the last week of the 2010 campaign.

His slight of Palin during the Fallon show was the first public show of dislike between the national Republcian “rock stars.”

• Tweet

Vote For Frank Pallone

Politickernj has a poll running, “Who is the Democrats’ best 2013 candidate for governor?” that includes Congressman Frank Pallone.

Governor is probably the only higher office that Pallone would run for because can run in an odd-year election and not risk his congressional seat.  He declined to risk his seat to take Senator Robert Torricelli’s place on the ballot in 2002.

The only way Pallone could win the Democratic nomination for Governor in 2013 is if no one else wanted to run against Chris Christie.

• Tweet