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.
Assembly candidate Shane Robinson and LG Kim Guadagno. That's a light fixture over Guadagno's head. She's not wearing a crown.
By Shane Robinson
Yesterday, Fitch downgraded New Jersey’s credit rating from AA to AA-. The reasons they cited were unfunded pension and benefit liabilities, a structurally imbalanced state budget, and reserve balances that “are expected to remain narrow, offering limited flexibility to absorb unforeseen needs.”This is just the most recent example of how New Jersey cannot afford to continue electing politicians like John Wisniewski any longer. Mr. Wisniewski and his colleagues have been standing in the way of important reforms that would help get our state back on a sound financial footing. His tax and spend policies have bankrupted our state, and have made New Jersey an increasingly unaffordable state to live in. People are leaving New Jersey in droves, because of the cost of living, lack of jobs, and the unwillingness of certain Trenton politicians to take the necessary steps to fix what ails our state.
It has become very clear that John Wisniewski doesn’t have the right solutions for New Jersey. Maybe he’s too busy with his job as state Democrat Party Chairman to see how much New Jersey working families are struggling or to come up with anything that puts New Jerseyans back to work. We need leaders who are going to fight every day for an affordable state. We need leaders who understand that in order to help New Jersey’s families, we have to keep their taxes low, stop spending money we don’t have, and make it easier for businesses to operate and stay in New Jersey.
It’s time for some new blood in Trenton. John Wisniewski represents the old tax, spend, and tax again policies that have failed our state and caused our credit rating to be downgraded. I’m running for the New Jersey State Assembly because I understand what New Jerseyans have been going through, and will fight to make New Jersey affordable again.
Shane Robinson is a GOP candidate for Assembly from the 19th Legislative District.
While pandering to his audience at a recent union rally, Democratic Party leader John Wisniewski said the state should raise the state’s income tax and otherwise “find a way” to pay all of its $3.5 billion pension obligation this year. He said, “It’s about keeping a promise.”
If that’s the case, why didn’t Assemblyman Wisniewski and his party make the annual required pension payments when Democrats controlled the Legislature and governor’s office for eight years?
The assemblyman has proposed raising the income tax on our state’s highest-income earners, also our job creators, as a “solution” to funding the $3.5 billion payment. Democrats admit such a tax hike would only garner $500 million.
Yet they have targeted that $500 million to fund $9 billion worth of programs, which also include property tax relief ($2.1 billion), schools ($1.6 billion), job incentives ($800 million), municipal aid ($445 million), preschool funding ($400 million), Medicaid ($300 million) and nursing homes ($70 million).
Seems Assemblyman Wisniewski is using the same type of warped mathematical calculations used to “balance” the state budget over the past decade — which has led us to the brink of fiscal ruin. Of course, if he can seriously explain how $500 million will fund $9 billion, I’m willing to listen. However, we need the answer by June 30, when a balanced budget is due.
I’m confident the various groups Democrats pander to are smart enough to see through this sham and demand the kind of serious reform that will benefit everyone in the long term. I know our taxpayers do.
(TRENTON) — Assemblyman John Wisniewski, the Democratic Co-Chair of the Legislative Apportionment Commission, issued the following statement on the Tea Party’s court challenge to the recently approved redistricting map:
“We are extremely confident in the constitutionality of the recently adopted map, which underwent a through review by not only our attorneys, but former Attorney General John Farmer, who served as counsel to the 11th member of the commission.
“This is a map that not only met traditional redistricting criteria but improved upon compactness, competitiveness and one-person, one-vote standards and will ultimately be found constitutional,” said Wisniewski (D-Middlesex).
The New Jersey State Democratic Party will be celebrating their victory in the redistricting battle on Wednesday evening at the Heldrich in New Brunswick, the same hotel where the Redistricting Commission was holed up for the last week of negotiations with “11th member,” Dr. Alan Rosenthal of Rutgers.
State Democratic Chairman John Wisniewski sent the following message to the Democratic faithful this morning:
By now you’ve probably heard the news. The tiebreaking 11th member has chosen the Democratic Legislative map proposal that will be in place for the next 10 years. This is a monumental victory for our Party and it’s time to celebrate with Democrats from across New Jersey at the 2011 Jefferson Jackson Dinner this Wednesday night, April 6th at the Heldrich in New Brunswick.
There’s still time to reserve your seat NOW by going online to deleted by MMM. If Wisniewski wants the contact info printed here he can buy an ad.
This will be a great night to energize our party and I hope you will be there with our guest speaker Governor Martin O’Malley of Maryland, who has been a strong voice for Democratic values across the nation as the Chairman of the Democratic Governors Association.
Video of O’Malley deleted contact artvg at aol.com for ad sales.
The victory with the adoption of our Democratic map at yesterday’s meeting of the Legislative Reapportionment Commission in Trenton ensures progressive, forward-looking and inclusive state government for the next decade. The Democratic momentum is building and we’re well on our way down the path to victory in November.
I hope to see you as we celebrate this Wednesday Night.
Governor Chris Christie will be Chris Wallace’s guest on FoxNews Sunday
At noon on local Fox station, Channel 9, Senator Joe Kyrillos faces off with Assemblyman John Wisniewski, the NJ Democratic chairman regarding Governor Christie’s State of the State message. Later on the same show, Fair Haven Mayor Mike Halfacre goes toe to toe with Bryan Miller of Cease fire NJ regarding political rhetoric and gun control.
