Walsh Campaign Announces Endorsements From Singer, Kean and Rible

Howell Mayor Bob Walsh announced today that the 30th legislative district team of Senator Bob Singer, Assemblyman Sean Kean and Assemblyman Dave Rible have endorsed his candidacy for Freeholder.

The announcement can be viewed here.

• Tweet

MMM Year In Review – April

As is customary, April started with a joke.   This year the month of April ended with two jokes; the school board elections  and the President of the United States of America released his long form birth certificate.

After three years of study, Hopewell Township passed an ordinance regulating chicken sex.

A tongue in cheek post about who the Democrats could get to challenge Senator Joe Kyrillos when their endorsed candidate failed to submit his nominating petitions, generated more calls from Trenton than any other post of the year.

The worst joke of the month has consequences that will last at least a decade.  “Continuity of representation,” a political value in the mind of Rutgers professor Alan Rosenthal, trumped competitiveness and the state constitution in determining the lines of the new gerrymandered legislative map.

The stakes were so high that Governor Christie got personally involved in the negotiations regarding the map.  But Rosenthal’s was the only vote that counted.  The professor was not persuaded by the governor.

The map was so gerrymandered for the Democrats that Christie and the Republicans did not even try to win control of the legislature.  The governor, who came into office vowing to “turn Trenton upside down” transformed into the “compromiser in chief” in order to salvage what he could of his reform agenda.

While Rosenthal preserved the status quo for the Trenton trough swilling class, he unwittingly contributed to the creatation of a national Republican rock star, as Christie, freed up from having to work to win control of the legislature transferred his political attentions to the national stage.

The new map was no joke for many in Monmouth County. 

Senator Sean Kean of Wall was put into the same district as his friend, Senator Robert Singer of Lakewood.  After a few days of saber rattling about a primary for the seat, cooler heads prevailed as Kean agreed to go back to the Assembly to represent the safely Republican 30th district. 

Ocean County Republican Chairman George Gilmore told MMM that the Democrats put Singer and Kean in the same district in the hopes that the GOP would waste resources on a contentious primary in a safe district.  The real reason was that the Democrats were horrified at the prospect of Dan Jacobson returning to the legislature in the upper house.

Jacobson was preparing a fanatasy Republican primary challenge to Kean for Senate should Wall and Asbury Park remain in the same district.   The Democrats, who have never understood Monmouth County, didn’t realize the futility of such an endeavor.  But they knew Jacobson and they weren’t taking any chances.  So they put Senator Jennifer Beck in the same district as Jacobson, knowing that he would never challenge her in a primary.  Jacobson, through his newspaper, created Jennifer Beck.  Just ask him.

The new 11th district would be represented by Beck in the Senate and Mary Pat Angelini and Caroline Casagrande in the Assembly.  A district represented by three women.  A historic first. 

Assemblyman Dave Rible, formerly of the 11th,  was now in the 30th with Singer and Kean.

The new 12th district provided brief drama due to the fact that the lines created a senate vacancy.  Sam Thompson of Middlesex County and Ronald Dancer of Ocean County were the incumbent Assemblymen in the predominently Western Monmouth district.   The Monmouth GOP wanted to keep three senators.  Thompson wanted to move up. Freeholder Director Rob Clifton had long eyed Thompson’s seat in the assembly, but the senate vacancy presented an unexpected opportunity.  Always level headed and not one to needlessly rock the boat, Clifton let the Monmouth, Ocean, Middlesex and Burlington chairmen figure it out.  Thompson got the senate nod and Clifton joined the ticket with Dancer running for assembly.

The 13th district became even safer for Senator Joe Kyrillos.  Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon of Little Silver joined Kyrillos and Assemblywoman Amy Handlon in representing the district.   Marlboro Mayor Jon Hornick, a Democrat, had his ambitions put on hold by the map makers who put Marlboro into the 13th.

The Democrats did the best they could, but only put up nominal opposition in the Monmouth legislative districts and on the county level.

Former Howell Chair Norine Kelly passed away in April.

Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno threw Carl Lewis off the 8th legislative district ballot for Senate.

A team of six Red Bank Regional High School students won the national Cyber Patriot III competition in applied defense technology.

The Monmouth County Freeholders established term limits for boards and commissions.

• Tweet

Attack On Belmar Homeless Man Spurs Legislation

The horrendous attack of a Belmar homeless man, David Ivins, has already resulted in new legislation being proposed.

Monmouth County Republican Assembly Members Dave Rible and Mary Pat Angelini, along with Assembly Republican Conference Leader Jon Bramnick of Westfield, Union County, announced that they will sponsor legislation that will increase penalities for recording and distributing an assault:

• Tweet

Irish Americans Should Support Thomas Nast’s Induction Into The NJ Hall of Fame

So should the Assemblymen who are opposed to his nomination

Thomas Nast, the 19th century political cartoonist who gave Harper’s Weekly enough political influence to topple Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall and to sway the election of two presidents, Grant and Cleveland, has been nominated for the New Jersey Hall of Fame’s class of 2012.

Nast, who popularized the image of Santa Claus and the partisan symbols of Donkeys and Elephants for Democrats and Republicans had an undeniable and enduring impact on American culture.

Nast lived in Morristown for over 20 years, starting in 1872.

His nomination to the NJ Hall of Fame has generated controversy from the Irish Catholic community who contend the artist was a anti-Irish/anti-Catholic bigot because he frequently depicted the Irish as drunken apes and Catholic bishops as crocodiles.  Neil Cosgrove of New City, NY wrote in a Letter to the Editor in The Star Ledger that Nast is “the father of hateful and negative anti-Irish stereotypes that Irish-Americans continue to struggle against today.”

This Irish-American Catholic hasn’t struggled against stereotypes today, or any other day that I can remember.

Three New Jersey Assemblymen have jumped on the anti-Nast bandwagon.  NorthJersey.com reports that Wayne DeAngelo (D-Mercer) and Dave Rible (R-Monmouth) have called on the NJ Hall of Fame to withdraw the nomination.  Scott Rumana (R-Passaic) issued a press release echoing DeAngelo.

Pardon. Franchise. Columbia.-"Shall I trust these men, and not this man?" ~ Harper's Weekly, August 5, 1865

The Assemblymen and the Ancient Order of Hibernians have it wrong. Nast was not a bigot.  Far from it.  His political art, starting during the Civil War and through Reconstruction was fervently pro-equality for Blacks and other minorities.

'"The Chinese Question.' Columbia- "Hands off, gentleman! American means fair play for all men."' ~ Harpers Weekly, February 18, 1871

Nast’s anti-Irish and anti-Catholic cartoons were political, not ethnic or religious.

Morton Keller, Professor of History at Brandies University addressed Nast’s anti-Irish, anti-Catholic work on the centennial of the cartoonist death:

It may be asked why Nast’s sympathy for blacks, Indians, and Chinese did not extend to the Irish and Catholicism. Mid-nineteenth century liberals—and Nast certainly was one of them—regarded the Catholic church as the fount of anti-modernism and fanaticism. (See fig. 16.) This attitude was reinforced by the commitment of many Irish-Americans to the Democratic party, hostility to abolition, and Negrophobia. The intertwining of his hostility to the Church, the Irish, and the Tweed Ring suggest that for him this was another chapter in the ongoing struggle to preserve the American Union, and Lincoln’s new birth of freedom, from its enemies. In this sense the Confederates, the anti-Reconstruction, pro-Johnson Democrats, and the Tweed Ring and the Catholic church were parts of a collective whole. It stirred in Nast the peak of his distinctive mix of artistic inventiveness and political passion. (See figs. 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, and 22.)

These drawings spoke to the political and social concerns of the core urban constituency of wartime and postwar Republicanism: Protestant farmers, professional and businessmen, shopkeepers, artisans.

This is Nast’s third year as a nominee for the New Jersey Hall of Fame.  He’s up against tough competition in the “General” category.  If not for the controversy, I would have chosen between Milton Friedman, Joyce Carol Oates or Governor Tom Kean.

But I voted for Nast and hope you do too.  My fellow Irishmen from the Ancient Order of Hibernians should have researched Nast before making a PC stink and acting like Tommy DeSeno with his rants about how Italian-Americans are depicted in the movies.   If the controversy the Hibernians created over Nast puts him over the top of the voting and into The Hall, it will be just comeuppance.

Vote here.

• Tweet

PBA Goes After Rible

By Art Gallagher

The Asbury Park Press is reporting that Michael A. Deroian of PBA Local 314 of the Monmouth County Sheriff’s Office has issued union charges against Assemblyman Dave Rible.

Derion says Rible’s vote for pension and benefit reforms violated his PBA oath:

“… and I do further promise – and declare I will not – by word, deed, sign or token – injure a fellow member of this Association.”

Rible retired on disability from the Wall Township Police Department in 1998.  He remains a member of the union.

It seems to me that Derion’s charges do more to injure Rible than Rible’s vote to save the pensions did to injure any PBA member.

I’m a supporter of the police, but I find that oath scary.

• Tweet

Done Deal: Singer, Kean and Rible comprise the 30th District Ticket

By Art Gallagher

Senators Robert Singer and Sean Kean have come to an agreement that has Singer running for Senate in the new 30th legislative district and Kean running for Assembly.  Assemblyman Dave Rible will complete the Monmouth-Ocean GOP ticket in the district.

“It has been an honor and a privilege to serve as the Senator for coastal Monmouth County’s 11th District for the last four years,” said Senator Kean.  “I care deeply about this state and refuse to let a political hit job by the Democratic redistricting commissioners derail my desire to serve.  I have been in the trenches of Governor Christie’s efforts to bring fiscal discipline and property tax relief to the most highly taxed people in America since the beginning.  That is a fight on which I have no intention of giving up.  After a great deal of thought and consultation with family, friends, and supporters, I have decided to seek election to the Assembly in the new 30th District.  Bob Singer and I have a great working relationship representing adjacent districts in the Senate and a tremendous amount of mutual respect.  I look forward to working with him for the good of our newly shared constituents in Monmouth and Ocean Counties.”

Singer said he looks forward running with Kean in the upcoming campaign.  “Sean is a talented legislator who works hard for the people he represents,” said Singer.  “We need him in the Legislature to stand with the taxpayers after the damage done to New Jersey by ten years of unchecked Democratic control of Trenton.  I want to thank him for putting the needs of the people we serve and party unity ahead of personal ambition, and look forward to serving with him and Assemblyman Rible in our new district.”

• Tweet

Assemblyman Dave Rible has issued the following statement on the passing of Duncan Thecker

“I am terribly saddened to announce the passing of Duncan Thecker. Duncan was a business icon who rose from a concrete salesman to become the leader of one of the most successful manufacturing companies in Monmouth County. Duncan helped create the Republican Party.  He was committed to the Party and improving lives of residents of Monmouth County. Monmouth County and the state of New Jersey is a better place because of the efforts of Duncan Thecker. Duncan was a generous philanthropist, a wise businessman, and I was fortunate to call him one of my best friends.”

• Tweet