Tom Kean Jr. in a fight he just can’t win: Moran

Tom Kean Jr. in a fight he just can’t win: Moran (via NJ.com)

It was Christmas season, a light snow covered the ground, and all across New Jersey children were mailing letters to Santa Claus swearing they had been good. But in the state Senate, a political brawl was breaking out, one that guarantees the New Year…

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Christie nominates Cliff Moore to the Monmouth County Tax Board

Cliff Moore

Governor Chris Christie has nominated Clifford J. Moore, III of Hazlet to the Monmouth County Board of Taxation.

If confirmed by the State Senate, Moore will replace Daniel M. Kelly of Little Silver on the board.  Kelly resigned last month due to professional commitments.

Moore is the president of the Keyport Bayfront Business Cooperative , past president of the Northern Monmouth Chamber of Commerce, and co-chair of the Hazlet Business Owners Association Economic Development Committee. Moore ran for Hazlet Township Committee, as a Democrat, last November.  He is an owner of seven business in Hazlet and Keyport.

The Monmouth County Board of Taxation is comprised of four Republicans and three Democrats. Moore is taking a Democratic seat. The party of the incumbent governor holds the majority.

Matthew S. Clark, the Monmouth County Tax Administrator, said that the commissioners have a “broader, taller responsibility” than they have had in years past, as Monmouth is the first county in New Jersey to implement the Assessment Demonstration Program signed into law by Governor Christie in March.   The Assessment Demonstration Program is “true property tax reform,” according to Clark, which includes online appeals and creates assessment precision.  The online appeals process is a shared service that the Tax Board is offering to other counties to generate revenue and reduce the tax burden on Monmouth County property owners.

The commissioners hear tax appeal cases, certify property tax rates, certify the county’s equalization table, oversee the administration of county tax assessments, and certify the annual added assessments from Monmouth’s municipalities.

Commissioners on the Tax Board earn a salary of $18,000 per year.  Clark did not know if new commissioners receive health benefits are part of their compensation.   The Governor’s press office as yet to respond to an inquiry regarding health benefits for tax commissioners.

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Christie Presser Live At 1PM (or there abouts)

Governor Chris Christie will be announcing some more personnel changes for his coming second term. The press conference is scheduled for 1PM and can be viewed live here:

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Gov. Christie speaks at drug court ceremony, volunteers at soup kitchen

Gov. Christie speaks at drug court ceremony, volunteers at soup kitchen (via NJ.com)

PATERSON — Donning an apron and plastic gloves, Gov. Chris Christie helped serve lunch at a community kitchen today, after speaking at a drug court graduation ceremony. “It’s all interconnected,” Christie said, standing in the cafeteria at Eva…

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Christie: We’re all one of God’s creations

Excerpts of Governor Chris Christie’s remarks at the Passaic County Superior Court’s drug court graduation this morning.

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Bridgegate: What difference does it make?

Some members of New Jersey’s press corps, along with Senator Loretta Weinberg, Assemblyman John Wisniewski and the Democratic National Committee seem think they finally have an issue to thwart Governor Chris Christie’s rising star.   They’re hoping traffic jams in Fort Lee will prevent Christie from becoming President of the United States.

The Star Ledger has an article this morning quoting Democrats and academics saying “the scandal” could hurt Chrisite’s national ambitions.

But questions about the incident have fueled a scandal that even Christie’s masterful team of brand managers can’t make go away.

The Record’s Charles Stile writes that “Christie won’t easily shake GWB flap.”

Stile and The Star Ledger’s reporters have it wrong.  Christie deftly accepted “ultimate responsibility” for the mistakes made in Fort Lee last September, while deflecting blame, at his press conference on the matter on Friday. As NJTV’s Michael Aron said on Reporters Roundtable, the issue is ‘fundamentally over.”   If the ‘Bridgegate’ story gets any ink at all in 2014 and beyond, it will be deep in the back pages.

It’s doubtful that the subpoenas that Wisniewski, as Chairman of the Assembly Transportation Committee, issued will result in any smoking gun that proves that Christie or anyone in his inner circle other than Port Authority’s Bill Baroni or David Wildstein knew about the George Washington Bridge lane closures that tied up traffic in Fort Lee for a few days is September.  Even if a smoking gun is discovered, as Hillary Clinton would shout, “What difference does it make?”

Now that Christie is a legitimate presidential contender, the front runner in the early polls, it is perfectly appropriate that the press and his opponents attempt to make mountains out of traffic jams and other mole hills as part of the vetting process for a president.  Barack Obama got a pass from the press and his opponents in 2008 and 2012. Look what that got us.

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Baroni Is Edged Out Of Port Authority

Governor Chris Christie has announced that former State Senator Bill Barnoni has resigned as Deputy Executive Director of the Port Authority of NY/NJ.

Deborah Gramiccioni has been tapped to replace Baroni.  Gramiccioni is a long time Christie staffer, going back to his tenure as U.S. Attorney.  She is the wife of Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni.

Christie said he had been planning to the change ” a while back.” He said that Baroni offered his resignation and he accepted given the “distraction” over ‘Bridgegate.”

Christie said that Baroni had acknowledged that ” a mistake was made” regarding the George Washington Bridge closure last September, and that Baroni has taken responsibility for it.

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Governor Christie Press Conference At 11 AM

There will be ‘Bridgegate’ questions

Governor Chris Christie has called a press conference for 11am this morning to announce personnel changes in his administration.

‘Bridgegate’, the controversy over lane closures on the George Washington Bridge last September, will likely be the hot topic the press corps wants to talk about, unless Christie declares the press conference ‘on topic’ or restricted to questions about his new appointments or nominations.  Christie has done this on occasion and then lambasted reporters who asked off topic questions.  Any reporter who lets him get away with that today, if he tries it, will deserve to be called an idiot.

Democrats are alleging that the lane closures were political retribution against Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, a Democrat, for failing to endorse Christie’s reelection.

At his press conference on December 2 announcing Kevin O’Dowd’s nomination to be State Attorney General, Christie blew off questions about the GWB lane closures by joking that he was incognito, moving the cones to close the lanes.  But his joke did not satisfy Assemblyman John Wisniewski who is acting as if he finally has an issue with which to take down Christie, politically.

Christie’s men at the Port Authority, the bi-state agency that manages the GWB, said the lane closures were part of a traffic study. David Wildstein ordered the closure/study and has resigned.  Bill Baroni gave testimony to Wisniewski’s Assembly Transportation Committee justifying the study.  Wisniewski called Baroni’s testimony “less than truthful.”   New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s guy at the Port Authority, Executive Director Patrick Foye, threw Wildstein and Barnoni under a bus in his testimony before Wisniewski’s committee.  Wisniewski has called for Baroni’s resignation and has subpoenaed emails and memos from Port Authority.

The issue is beginning to get legs in the national political press as a possible threat to Christie’s 2016 presidential prospects.  A pro-Hillary Clinton Super PAC is producing ads on the issue.

Tune in at 11 to see if Christie can put this issue behind him before it becomes a distraction to his second term, his chairmanship of the Republican Governors Association and to his 2016 presidential prospects.

UPDATE: BARONI RESIGNED.

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Chris Christie, Hillary Clinton neck-and neck in mock 2016 race, new polls show

Chris Christie, Hillary Clinton neck-andneck in mock 2016 race, new polls show (via NJ.com)

TRENTON — A pair of new nationwide polls show Gov. Chris Christie and Hillary Clinton neck-and-neck in a hypothetical 2016 presidential matchup. Fresh off a landslide re-election victory, the Republican governor leads the former Secretary of State…

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Opinion: Can the Democrats Cash in on George Washington ‘Bridgegate’?

Opinion: Can the Democrats Cash in on George Washington ‘Bridgegate’? (via NJSpotlight)

By any measure, the last four years of Democratic control of the Legislature yielded the party little political benefit. But the Democrats may be able to recover some lost ground, courtesy of what started as a hellacious tie-up on the George Washington…

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