By Tommy DeSeno
John Loffredo (Forward Asbury Park ticket) and Amy Quinn (One Asbury ticket) are the top guns in the Asbury Park City Council race. That’s not news for me; I’ve known it for years and have let them both know they should be together.
In fact, I thought it was a foregone conclusion that they would run together since it makes so much sense. Had I known they would overlook the obvious I would have lobbied them vigorously over the past 4 years to create a political marriage (or civil union, if that’s your preference).
Just look at the last election. Tickets make it easier for candidates to win, particularly weaker candidates, but Amy Quinn fell just short of being elected while running as an independent. That means she carries a great deal of support on her own, perhaps as much as any individual candidate running this year.
How Loffredo didn’t see the benefits of scooping up Quinn and all her support befuddles me. She was clearly the off-season prize; the league’s most valuable free agent. How Quinn didn’t see the benefits of picking up support from the team who won for the past dozen years amazed me more. It’s like she passed up an opportunity with the Yankees to start her own team. That hasn’t worked out well for the Mets, has it?
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Posted: May 10th, 2013 | Author: admin | Filed under: 2013 Election, Asbury Park | Tags: Amy Quinn, Asbury Park, Asbury Pulp, John Loffredo, John Moor, Kevin Sanders, Tommy DeSeno | 3 Comments »
By Tommy DeSeno, first posted on Ricochet.com
This story requires one to consider social mores, conservatism, government powers, libertarianism, class, classlessness, tradition, expression, subsidiarity, humility, pride and manners. In other words, it’s practically the reason Ricochet.com was created.
My beloved little city of Asbury Park, NJ made national headlines in 2010 when a local storekeeper, while attempting to drum up business, made a push for the City by the Sea to have a nude beach. The measure was ultimately rejected. That it was seriously considered at all shows how liberal Bruce Springsteen’s adopted hometown has become (of the 5,418 registered voters, only 390 are Republican).
What a difference two years makes though. Former councilwoman and Republican Committeewoman Louise Murray has found a 50 year old ordinance on the books that says people in Asbury Park may not wear bathing suits on the boardwalk. At a recent council meeting she pleaded with the City to once again enforce it. Her plea has been picked up as newsworthy locally, regionally, and nationally now that Drudge has given it a headline. The City Council is considering her request.
I don’t know if there is a social conservative backlash to the Obama Administration going on in this country but this might actually be proof of it. Here is an exchange between Ms. Murray and Asbury Park Deputy Mayor John Loffredo as reported by a local website, www. moremonmouthmusings.net:
“I’ll be darned if I want to be standing at a bar and have somebody slither up in a Speedo or bikini that shouldn’t be in a bathing suit,” Murray said. “It’s disgraceful … I implore you to enforce this, but do not amend it.”
Deputy Mayor John Loffredo responded, “I honestly don’t disagree with you.”
Why is that exchange important? Loffredo is one of New Jersey’s first openly gay elected politicians and a Democrat. He’s a liberal. He supports Asbury Park’s annual Gay Pride Parade (and you know how they dress marching in that). Yet he doesn’t disagree with Ms. Murray about this. A shift in social mores?
A bit of history about Asbury Park for context. It was founded as a Methodist retreat in the late 1800s. It had been a dry town where certain sports were originally banned as they might attract bettors. This one square mile City still has nearly 40 churches. So full of elegance was it that when I was a boy people would dress up to walk downtown and women working at the local department store were forbidden from wearing pants.
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Posted: June 26th, 2012 | Author: admin | Filed under: Asbury Park, Asbury Park Sun, Tommy DeSeno | Tags: Asbury Park, Banana Hammock, bathing suits, Beach attire, Democrat, Gays, hairy rear, John Loffredo, Libeitarian, Louise Murray, manners, Republican, Social conservative, Tommy DeSeno | 3 Comments »
