Middletown, May 2…The Senate Banking Committee held a hearing last week to investigate the collapse of MF Global Holdings, a major financial commodities brokerage firm.
The collapse of MF Global, also under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the FBI, federal prosecutors, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, resulted in the loss of $1.6 billion of investors’ funds.
In his questioning, Banking Committee member U.S. Senator Bob Menendez asked whether there were “structural problems” that led to the collapse. Terrance Duffy, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Executive Chairman responded, “There is nothing structurally wrong.”
“MF Global was poorly capitalized, had liquidity problems, was highly leveraged; was that the harbinger of its doom?” Menendez continued during his questioning.
Menendez avoided mentioning former CEO of MF Global Jon Corzine, who may face potential legal liability in the wake of the collapse and who appointed Menendez to his current position in the United States Senate.
See no evil. Hear no evil. Menendez whiffs on asking the tough questions and the obvious role his mentor Jon Corzine played in MF Global’s collapse.
Previously, the Star Ledger’s auditor shed light on the Menendez duck: “Menendez [is] not keen to question Jon Corzine on MF Global scandal on Senate Banking committee.”
The column continued, saying Menendez doesn’t want to be “questioning the man who handed him his current job.”
Click here to watch the full webcast of the hearing…
Middletown— State Senator Joe Kyrillos (R- Monmouth), prime sponsor of the “School Children First Act” which reforms New Jersey’s tenure system for educators, issued the following statement regarding reports that several Cherry Hill elementary school teachers and aides were recorded bullying a student with autism:
While at least one teacher’s aide was dismissed by school officials, the father of this student alleges, and news accounts confirm, that other teachers and aides involved were simply reassigned.
If true, the incident is an indictment of our current system of tenure protections in public education.
There is no instance in which it is acceptable for a teacher to bully or abuse a student in that manner, nor when a witness to such behavior should not report their colleagues’ misconduct to school administrators.
Nobody directly involved with the abuse of Akian Chaifetz, or who witnessed the abuse without reporting it, should be employed in a classroom. We need to reform protections to ensure that these individuals can be swiftly terminated, rather than just shuffled around.
Middletown – April 12… Today, New Jersey State Senator Joe Kyrillos’ campaign for U.S. Senate against Bob Menendez made public the results of its first filing with the Federal Election Commission.
Putting Senator Kyrillos’ fundraising among the ranks of top tier incumbents and challengers alike for U.S. Senate seats around the country, the campaign revealed that it had raised over $1.75 million as of its first deadline on March 31st, 2012, from almost 2,000 individual donors – 90% of whom are New Jersey-based contributors. The campaign reported $1.4 million cash on hand.
Kyrillos’ strong fundraising report comes on the same day the results of the most recent Quinnipiac University Poll were made public, showing Kyrillos closing in on Menendez – who is still only at 44% on the ballot. Maurice Carroll, Director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute said, “Menendez’s numbers are lackluster, to say the least … This race could get interesting.’” Incumbents polling under 45% are in significant danger and Menendez has been consistently under 45% in recent public polling. This is Jon Corzine territory.
PolitickerNJ reports, “State Sen. Joe Kyrillos’ campaign for U.S. Senate has picked up steam over the past month with a new poll showing the Republican within 9 points of incumbent Democrat Bob Menendez.”
Senator Kyrillos said, “I am gratified and humbled not only by the amount we have raised for our effort thus far, but by the depth and breadth of support from my fellow New Jerseyans. As I have traveled this great state and met with individual New Jersey taxpayers and families, the message couldn’t be clearer: we simply cannot afford more politics as usual. Bob Menendez offers us only more of the same: more taxes, more spending and more job-killing regulation. I have worked alongside Governor Christie and like-minded reformers to change New Jersey for the better and I am confident that this, our first, fundraising effort demonstrates that we will have the resources necessary to take this fight to our opponent and bring the same kind of change to Washington in November.”
The Quinnipiac poll released this morning has some encouraging news for State Senator Joe Kyrillos and his supporters as they campaign to unseat U.S. Senator Bob Menendez in November.
Menendez’s lead over Monmouth County’s favorite son is down to single digits, 44%-35%, with 18% undecided or not saying. A February poll by Quinnipiac had the race at 49%-34% .
Menendez’s favorability and familiarity ratings remain anemic for an incumbent. 35% of voters have a favorable opinion of Menendez, 27% have an unfavorable view and 37% haven’t heard enough about him. In February, 38% approved of Menendez, 24% didn’t and 36% didn’t know enough. If this trend holds, Menendez is in trouble.
Kyrillos remains largely unknown, but the trends are in his favor. In today’s poll 14% view Kyrillos favorably, 6% don’t and 79% don’t know enough about him. In February 82% didn’t know enough about Kyrillos to form an opinion, 11% approved of him and 6% didn’t.
Perhaps more encouraging for Kyrillos than the head to head numbers against Menendez are the poll results of the presidential campaign.
Quinnipiac says that Barack Obama leads Mitt Romney by 9 points in New Jersey, 49%-40%. The presidential race in NJ tightens to 49%-42% if Governor Chris Christie is the VP nominee.
Obama won the popular vote in New Jersey by 15% in 2008. NJ’s GOP leadership expects that he will take our electoral votes again. However, they believe that if the race is within single digits, that Kyrillos can unseat Menendez.
The big story in yesterday’s Asbury Park Press was the political spat between southern Jersey lawmakers and U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg over the proposed Rutgers-Rowan merger. Large photos of State Senate President Sweeney and Lautenberg covered most of the front page.
In case you haven’t been following, Governor Chris Christie has proposed reorganizing Rutgers, Rowan and the University of Medicine and Dentistry. Rutgers-Camden would become part of Rowan. Rowan would get a medical school associated with George Norcross Univeristy Cooper University Hospital. Robert Wood Johnson Hospital would become part of a medical school at Rutgers-New Brunswick, and it will be a while before there are more UMDNJ indictments.
MMM hasn’t been following it all that much. Our young legal eagle friends at Save Jersey don’t like it because they think it will devalue their law degrees if they apply to a firm that doesn’t know the difference between Rutgers-Camden and Rutgers-Newark. And then there’s the two idiots who don’t like the deal…that former Navy SEAL that ran for Assembly who got into it with Christie at a Town Hall meeting and Lautenberg.
If not for the idiot SEAL and the idiot U. S. Senator nobody from New Jersey who isn’t directly affected by the merger would know about it, except for news junkies like us.
Lautenberg wrote to U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan alleging the proposed merger is improper and copied U.S. Attorney General Eric “Fast and Furious” Holder and New Jersey’s U.S. Attorney Paul “New Jersey is not corrupt” Fishman, thereby implying that the merger is criminal.
Having already used “idiot” and “numb-nuts” with great fanfare, Christie’s team dubbed Lautenberg’s letter as “outrageous,” “uninformed,” and “bizarre.”
None of that was front page newsworthy. It took Norcross and Sweeney launching Sweeney’s 2014 campaign for Launtenberg’s job to make the front page of the APP.
Wednesday morning Sweeney emailed a scathing open letter attacking Lautenberg for opposing the merger and for his failure as a U.S. Senator to bring home Washington money for New Jersey’s higher education institutions. Several other south Jersey lawmakers, including two Republicans, signed with letter with Sweeney. Norcross later sent a statement calling Lautenberg a “great Senator for north Jersey” who has failed southern New Jersey to the same email list.
The Sweeney/Norcross statements are not really about the Rutger-Rowan merger. The real message is that Lautenberg’s career is coming to an end. That message has been confirmed by the silence of Democratic leaders who have staid out of this fight. U.S. Senator Bob Menendez, Assembly Speaker Sheilia Oliver, Democratic State Chairman John Wisniewski, and Newark Mayor Cory Booker have all been silent. No one is backing up Lautenberg.
The message to Lautenberg…prepare for retirement… just don’t quit and let Christie appoint your replacement. The message to Democratic donors…don’t give to Lautenberg’s 2014 reelection campaign.
So, the point of the last 460 words is that The Asbury Park Press made the 2014 race for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate front page news yesterday. That wouldn’t be so bad if there were not a U.S. Senate election between two relatively unknown candidates, U.S. Senator Bob Mendendez and State Senator Joe Kyrillos this year.
U.S. Senator Bob Menendez is having a Twitter Town Hall meeting tomorrow to tweet about the state of oil and gas prices. State Senator Joe Kyrillos, the presumptive GOP nominee challenging Menendez this fall is crashing the twarty and encouraging his supporters to do the same.
Calling the event The First Debate, Kyrillos will be joining the Twitter Town Hall to directly answer questions from @JoeKyrillos2012.
The twarty starts tomorrow, Wednesday March 28 at 3:30 pm. Twitter users can tweet their questions with the hashtag #AskMenendez.
East Brunswick- Former Highlands Mayor Anna Little easily defeated Ernesto Cullari for the Middlesex GOP endorsement for Congress from New Jersey’s 6 district. The final tally was 149 to 48. The convention was held at East Brunswick High School.
Cullari was awarded the Monmouth County GOP endorsement on March 16. The nomination will be decided by Republicans at the polls on June 5th. The primary victor will take on Congressman Frank Pallone in the November 6 general election.
The convention unanimously endorsed State Senator Joe Kyrillos for U.S. Senator. Assemblywoman Donna Simon was endorsed in the special election for State Assembly from the 16th legislative district.
In a three way race for two Freeholder nominations, former Superior Court Judge Roger Daley was the big winner with 319 votes. Daley has twice previously served on the Middlesex County Freeholder Board. Edison businessman Sam Khan won the second Freeholder nomination over North Brunswick financial consultant Carlo DiLalla.
Kyrillos Secures Yet Another Unanimous County Endorsement
Ocean County – March 20… Today, the Ocean County Republican Organization endorsed Senator Joe Kyrillos for United States Senate. This is Senator Kyrillos’ sixth unanimous county organization endorsement.
Ocean County Republican Organization Chairman George Gilmore said, “Joe Kyrillos is the leader that will make Ocean County proud in the United States Senate. Ocean County families are struggling with high taxes and out-of-control gas prices. Joe has a proven record of cutting taxes and fighting to reduce spending and that is exactly what we need to get our economy moving again. I am proud to support Joe Kyrillos for U.S. Senate.”
Senator Joe Kyrillos said, “I am honored and humbled to have the support of Chairman Gilmore and the Ocean County Republican Organization endorsement. New Jersey families and small businesses are struggling with higher taxes and job killing regulations from Washington. The Obama/Menendez plan to tax our way to a stronger economy is failing and is just more of the same. We need to cut taxes so families can keep more of what they earn and small businesses can invest and create jobs. In Washington, I will put families and small businesses first and I look forward to making the people of Ocean County and all of New Jersey proud.”
Kyrillos has also been endorsed by Governor Chris Christie and the Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cumberland, Gloucester, and Monmouth County Republican Organizations.
Senator Joseph M. Kyrillos, Jr., 51, is married to Susan Doctorian Kyrillos and they live in Middletown with their children Max and Georgia. He began serving New Jersey’s 13th Legislative District in 1988 when he was elected to the General Assembly. After spending two terms in the Assembly he was elected to the Senate where he has served since 1993. In addition to his official duties, the Senator is employed as Senior Managing Director of Colliers International, the commercial real estate services firm with offices in New York and Parsippany. He is also an advisor to the Newport Capital Group in Red Bank, NJ.
Kyrillos has a New Jersey style welcome for the Vice President
I wonder how much of Corzine’s missing $1.2 billion will end up in Menendez’s coffers.
“It’s disturbing that Joe Biden gets his economic advice from non-other than Jon Corzine, the same man that nearly bankrupted New Jersey and has since bankrupted MF Global,” said Senator Joe Kyrillos. “Corzine is also the same man that appointed Bob Menendez to the Senate. No wonder our economy is in so much trouble.”
Since Bob Menendez was appointed by Jon Corzine to fill his seat in the Senate, the national debt has jumped from $8.1 trillion to $15.3 trillion, the annual deficit has grown from $250 billion to over $1 trillion and unemployment has risen from 4.7% to 8.3%.
“The Corzine-Biden-Menendez economic team promises nothing but more of the same – more spending, more debt, more job-killing regulations. With a record like that why would anyone listen to what they say?” added Kyrillos.
Anna Little announced her candidacy for Congress from the 6th district this morning in an email blast that also sought petition signatures, campaign volunteers and donations.
Little claimed that support from unnamed “GOP leaders” was instrumental in her decision to abandon her U.S. Senate primary campaign against Joe Kyrillos in favor of a congressional campaign:
During the past week, GOP leaders have offered us their support to run in Congressional District 6. You earned this opportunity by winning the GOP Primary, off the line, in 2010. By offering us their support this year, the GOP is respecting the wishes of grass roots New Jerseyans. This is a tremendous opportunity to continue what you started in 2010.
After many meetings, planning, and discussions with grass roots patriots, we have concluded that continuing what we started in 2010, to defeat Frank Pallone, will best serve the interests of the people of the State of NJ and the grass roots conservative movement statewide.
Little lost the Monmouth County Republican endorsement for congress from the sixth district to political newcomer, Ernesto Cullari on Friday morning. The Middlesex County GOP convenes on March 24th to award their endorsement.
