It’s not that Booker is invincible, as was widely thought prior to the Special Senate Election last October. He is beatable. Steve Lonegan exposed the fallacies of the Booker myth and Patrick Murray documented that Booker’s support is shallow. Had Washington Republicans not followed Senator Ted Cruz’s lead to shut down the government in October and had State Comptroller Matt Boxer released his audit of Newark’s City Government which exposed millions of wasted taxpayer money and management practices that encourage fraud in September instead of this week, Lonegan might have pulled off the upset that Booker deserved.
There’s nothing wrong with 4 of the 5 Republicans reported to be looking to challenge Booker. Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick, Senator Minority Leader Tom Kean JR, Senator Mike Doherty or Assemblyman Jay Webber would all serve New Jersey well in the U.S. Senate.
That Darryl Isherwood included Assemblyman Chris Brown is his list of 5 Republican of potential candidates to challenge Booker is more of a reflection of Isherwood’s sense of humor than it is of Brown’s viability as a candidate for any office in the future. After blaming his Assembly running mate John Amodeo’s 39 vote loss on Governor Christie, Brown will be lottery winner lucky if he is even re-nominated for his Assembly seat in 2015. “What will Brown do after politics?” MMM asked a senior Republican strategist after the gaffe. “We’ll find out soon,” the strategist said with a laugh.
(Correction: As a commenter pointed out, Isherwood was referring to a different Assemblyman Chris Brown (the LD 8 Brown) than the one who blamed Christie for his running mate’s loss. My mistake makes my overall point. MMM readers are more informed than the average voter. How many knew there was even one Chris Brown in the Assembly prior to the LD 2 Brown’s gaffe? There isn’t a member of the legislature with the statewide name ID to compete with Booker~ Art)
Former Governor Jon Corzine will not face criminal charges for his role in the collapse of MF Global, the investment firm he led after leaving office in New Jersey, according to a report in the New York Post.
“After 18 months of investigation, the criminal probe into Jon Corzine is now being dropped,” a person with knowledge of the probe told The Post.
“There is no evidence of criminal wrongdoing,” this person said.
The Justice Department’s decision to drop the case is sure to come as a relief to Corzine, who has been widely blamed for MFG’s bankruptcy — as well as the misuse of some $1.6 billion in customers’ funds.
Last week, Corzine was hit with civil charges by the Commodities Futures Trading Commission in connection with the illegal tapping of the funds, which were improperly co-mingled with the MFG’s house money in the firm’s final days.
Those young campaign staffers do the darnedest things.
Anxious to promote President Obama’s endorsement of Newark Mayor Cory Booker for U.S. Senate earlier this week, a Booker staffer searched for a photo of Obama and Booker together to post of the campaign website. The problem, apparently the only time Booker and the President have been photographed together was at the 2009 rally for former Governor Jon Corzine’s failed reelection bid.
The kid was savvy enough to know that Booker really doesn’t want to be associated with the disgraced former governor who remains under investigation for the missing $1.2 billion in customer funds that disappeared during the MF Global collapse.
So he/she put a text box over Corzine’s head.
Lachlan Markay caught it and shared it with the world before the adults in the Booker campaign had it taken down.
Yet, good news for Trenton Democrats—the NJ Republicans are trying to lose
By Art Gallagher
State Senator Barbara Buono, the presumptive Democratic nominee for governor, received two doses of bad news today (so far) for her fledgling campaign to unseat Governor Chris Christie in November.
1) A Quinnipiac poll released today indicates that Buono has made no progress over the last month in increasing her dismal name recognition. 78% of those polled don’t know enough about Buono to form an opinion. That compares to 79% last month. Of the few who recognize her name, 43% have an unfavorable opinion.
Christie’s numbers remain amazingly strong. 67% approve of the job he is doing as governor. 66% says he deserves to be reelected. In a head to head match up with Buono, Christie wins 58%-26%, with 13% out to lunch.
2) Even worse for Buono, PolitickerNJ reports that she is likely to be the only major party gubernatorial candidate in the history of New Jersey’s matching funds campaign program not to qualify for the maximum amount. PolitickerNJ said that Buono has raised only $29,000 per week since she declared her candidacy in December. In order to earn the maximum $2 million in state matching funds for the primary, she would have to raise $216,000 per week over the next six weeks of the primary campaign.
Christie has opted out of the state matching funds program and has raised upwards of $5 million to date for the primary.
Trenton Republicans Trying to Lose
With Chrisite’s polling and financial numbers so strong, one would think that the Trenton Democrats that control the legislature would be concerned about Christie coattails. Trenton Republicans seem enthused about the prospect of taking control of the legislature, but so far their campaign is deploying the stupidest strategy imaginable.
I’m not a professional political strategist, I just play one of the Internet. In my not so humble opinion the NJ GOP‘s campaign against Corzine Democrats is the dumbest political strategy since Christine O’Donnell declared she is not a witch.
Two directors of the National Futures Association will propose that former New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine be banned from the industry when the group meets tomorrow, according to a report in The New York Post.
Governor’s campaign not saying if they will accept taxpayer funding
Governor Christie’s reelection campaign announced today that they’ve raised $2.1 million since Christie announced he would seek a second term on November 26.
“Governor Christie’s campaign continues to gain momentum because New Jerseyans believe in his decisive leadership,” said campaign strategist Mike DuHaime. “This unprecedented financial support in such a short time demonstrates the overwhelming support from residents across the Garden State. Governor Christie has made tough choices to achieve real progress on meaningful reforms for all New Jerseyans. Whether it’s cutting taxes, improving education or pension and benefit reform, Governor Christie has fought for a middle-class reform agenda that protects taxpayers and reins in the cost of government.”
Yesterday, State Senator Barbara Buono, the only declared candidate for the Democratic nomination for Governor, announced that she raised $250,000 since she declared he candidacy on December 11. Buono said she intends to raise enough money to qualifiy for taxpayer matching funds for her campaign.
DuHaime told MMM that with the $2.1 million raised, Christie’s campaign has almost maxed out on what they could raise and accept matching funds. He declined to say if the Governor would participate in the matching funds program. “Great question. No announcement today,” said DuHaime.
Christie did accept matching funds during his 2009 campaign against Governor Jon Corzine.
Now that Newark Mayor Cory Booker has taken himself out the the gubernatorial race, everyone expects him to run for Frank Lautenberg’s U. S. Senate seat in 2014. A recent poll indicated that Booker would easily beat Lautenberg in a Democratic primary should the 88 year old senator make another run.
That hasn’t stopped Congressman Frank Pallone from calling Democratic County Chairs to remind them that he is still interested in the Senate seat he has long coveted but never had the guts to fight for.
Pallone best shot at becoming a Senator came and went in 2002 when he declined Governor Jim McGreevey’s offer to replace the disgraced Senator Robert Torricelli on the ballot against Doug Forrester. McGreevey brought Frank Lautenberg out of retirement and got the State Supreme Court to rewrite New Jersey’s election law so the switch could be made after the statutory deadline. The polls showing Forrester beating Toricelli scared Pallone off from giving up a easy victory in CD-6 in favor of his dream job in the Senate.
Lautenberg went on to clobber Forrester in 2002 and was elected again in 2008.
Pallone was passed over for the Senate in 2006 when Governor Jon Corzine chose Bob Menendez to replace him in the Senate. Menendez won his own term that November and was reelected last month. He is on the verge of becoming the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Pallone clearly wants to be a Senator, but his history indicates that he doesn’t have the fortitude to risk his cushy lifestyle as a congressman in order to fight for his dream. I hope he grows a pair and goes for it, because the race to replace him in the 6th Congressional District would be great for blog traffic.
WHO WOULD RUN FOR PALLONE’S CD-6 SEAT IF IT WAS VACANT?
As someone who has witnessed the destruction of my hometown and the devastation Sandy wrecked upon the lives of so many people I care about, I really don’t care if the partnership that Governor Chris Christie forged with President Barack Obama contributed to Obama’s reelection.
As I embraced my dear friend while we were standing in the wreckage of what used to be her mother’s home while she was crying, “she’s going to die,” the last thing I cared about was politics.
For over a week I’ve witness my neighbors’ possessions be piled into a garbage transfer station that used to be a parking lot and then be loaded into trailers be be trucked away. Soon many of those neighbors will be living in trailers in a park while someone else decides when, how and if their homes can be rebuilt.
I won’t complain that I haven’t slept in my own bed and there is no power at my house. I still have a house. My friends don’t. My friend, the mayor, his wife and three young children are sleeping on cots in a gymnasium.
I could care less that Christie wept when Bruce Springsteen called him a friend. I care even less that Obama facilitated the friendship.
I am comforted that Chris Christie is doing his job and doing it well. I am comforted that he assembled such a competent team to form his administration three years ago and that they work so well together.
I can’t imagine Jon Corzine, Richard Cody, Jim McGreevey, Christie Whitman, Jim Florio, Tom Kean or Brendan Byrne being as hands on or as competent as Christie has been in this crisis. I also can’t imagine Cory Booker doing the job that Christie has done or assembling as good a team to do it.
Chris Christie is doing his job and doing it well. He’s witnessed far more of the devastation to New Jersey than I have. I’m pleased that for the last weeks he hasn’t cared about politics either.
Pundits on both sides of the aisle are saying that if not for Hurricane Sandy, Obama may not have been reelected. That could be true. But given Obama’s record, the state of the world and the economy, the election should not have been close heading into the last weekend in October.
Obama said he will be a better president as a result of the campaign. He said he heard those who opposed him and his policies. I hope that proves to be true. We’ll know soon enough.
I don’t think Chris Christie will be a better governor because he has Obama’s cell number. I think it is more likely that Obama will be a better president because he has Chrisite’s number.
Do you approve the “Building Our Future Bond Act?” This bond act authorizes the state to issue bonds in the aggregate principal amount of $750 million to provide matching grants to New Jeresy’s colleges and universities. Money from the grants will be used to build, equip and expand higher education facilities for the purpose of increasing academic capacity.
We thought we were rid of him in 2009. We sent him back to Wall Street where he destroyed the company that hired him as CEO and he destroyed the businesses and savings of thousands of investors when $1.2 billion of their money went missing. He testified before a congressional committee that he simply does not know where the money is. MF’ing Jon Corzine.
Yet the ghost of Jon Corzine in on the ballot twice this November. Once, if Joe Kyrillos has his way, in the form of Bob Menendez, the man Corzine made a Senator.
Perhaps more dangerous to our fiscal health than Bob Menendez is the insidious alliance of trough swillers who are hoping New Jersey voters don’t notice that ballot question #1 is Corzine Economics and Governance.
Imagine this is a personal expenditure. It is. If not for you, for your children or grandchildren.
Imagine your income has been down for a few years and its lower that what you expected it would be so far this year. Your credit rating has been downgraded. Your savings have been depleted and you don’t know that you’re going to be able to make ends meet at the end of the year. Not that hard to imagine. Many New Jerseyans are living through that nightmare. Our state government is going through exactly that.
Then imagine that a group of politicians, unions, business groups, colleges, gas and electric companies, water companies, insurance companies…pretty much everyone who supported Corzine’s plan to sell or lease our highways and his plan to borrow $450 million to fund stem cell research comes along and asks you to guarantee a $750 million loan to build, equip and expand facilities on college campuses.
Again, not hard to imagine because its happening. The group is called Building our Future: Yes on #1. Its list of donors smells like #2 if you’re concerned our New Jersey’s fiscal health and your own.
As of October 10 the group’s donors had kicked in $900,000 to persuade you to vote for their largess, according to The Star Ledger.
Most of Building our Future’s donors have a financial stake in the passage of referendum, which could create dozens of large construction projects on college campuses across the state.
The group’s first donors include: PSE&G ($200,000), New Jersey Carpenter Contractor Network ($100,000), New Jersey Resources ($100,000), Northeast Regional Council of Carpenters PAC ($100,000), New Jersey State Electrical Workers ($100,000) and the American Federal of Teachers New Jersey ($10,000).
William Paterson University was the first higher education institution to donate to the cause, with a $33,000 check, according to the ELEC filing. University officials said the money came from private donations to the William Paterson Foundation, the school’s nonprofit fund raising arm.
This group knows how to raise money. $900,000 since they were formed in August. They also know how to spend it. Save money? Not so much. Their web site cost over $18,000.
The Corzine connections to the group run deep.
Maggie Moran was the first chairperson of the group, according to their ELEC reports. Moran was Corzine’s Chief of Staff when he served in the U.S. Senate. She was his Deputy Chief of Staff while he was governor. Laura Matos was the group’s first treasurer. Matos served in the governor’s office for Jim McGreevey, Dick Cody and Corzine. Moran and Matos are now partners at M Public Affairs, Inc. Building our Future: Yes on #1 shares office space with M Public Affairs in Lake Como. Building our Future: Yes on #1 and M Public Affairs have the same phone number. Of the $188,000 Building our Future: Yes on #1 spent through October 9, $55,000, including the $18K web site, was paid to M Public Affairs.
The new chairman of Building our Future is union leader William T. Mullen. The new treasurer is John Duthie who is also the treasurer of the NJ State Laborers PAC and the Laborer’s International Union of North America.
The Corzine connections run deep.
We couldn’t afford Jon Corzine when he was governor and we can’t afford his borrow and overspend policies now.
The duplicity of Bob Menendez and the creation of Middle Class ghettos
During Bob Menendez’s first year in the U.S. Senate, 2006, there was a health care bill before the Senate designed to make insurance premiums more affordable for small businesses. The bill would have allowed small businesses to join together as larger groups in order to enjoy the economies of scale in their insurance purchases that large corporations enjoy. Chambers of commerce and other business associations would have been allowed to form groups to decrease the cost of health insurance so that more of the members could afford to insure the health of more of the employees and families.
At the time, I was a leader of the Northern Monmouth Chamber of Commerce and a member of the National Federation of Independent Business. The company I owned was paying 100% of the insurance premiums of its employees. Premiums were raising at about 13% per year. It was getting difficult to continue to provide health insurance. Potential hires who did not need insurance because their spouse’s employer provided it became the most attractive candidates to employ. Increasing insurance premiums consumed what would have been raises to loyal employees.
NFIB was lobbying hard for the bill. It had already passed the Republican House and President Bush had indicated he would sign the bill if it passed in the Senate. The Republican Senate majority support for the bill but the Democrats were filibustering. NFIP worked its members to contact their Democratic Senators asking that they stop the filibuster and allow the bill to be voted on.
I wrote Mendendez and Senator Frank Lautenberg asking that they support the bill. As I expected, they didn’t and the bill never made it to the Senate floor vote. Lautenberg wrote back thanking me for contacting him. Menendez wrote back telling me why he supported the bill that he voted to defeat.
Menendez’s reelection campaign is just as duplicitous as his letter to me in June of 2006.
The theme of our junior senator’s campaign is The Middle Class Is Under Attack. He says he’s fighting for the Middle Class and wants to rebuild the economy from the “middle out.”
