TRENTON — State Sen. Joseph Kyrillos did not vote to buck the governor today when Democrats unsuccessfully tried to override his veto of the Port Authority legislation. But Kyrillos (R-Monmouth), who had been a personal friend of Christie’s and one of his chief allies in the Legislature, today demonstrated just how much their relationship has deteriorated… Read the rest of this entry »
Gov. Chris Christie has a remarkable winning streak going, one unmatched by any other New Jersey governor. He’s vetoed more than 350 bills during his five-plus years in Trenton, according to a Wall Street Journal count. And, in spite of the fact that the Legislature is controlled by the Democrats, a party other than his own,… Read the rest of this entry »
Tom Kean Jr.’s payback: NJ Senators who opposed him removed from leadership (via NJ.com)
TRENTON — State Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean Jr. has purged his leadership ranks of two men who attempted to oust him last year. Kean (R-Union) announced the Senate Republicans’ leadership team in a press release today. Absent from the list were…
Governor Chris Christie’s post-election attempt to replace Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean, Jr with Senator Kevin O’Toole was not a matter of Christie doing Senate President Steve Sweeney’s bidding, as has been widely perceived, but the culmination of a months long battle over differing strategies over how to wage the legislative campaign.
That Christie was unable to persuade Senate Republicans to dump Kean as their leader in favor of O’Toole was viewed by the media and political observers as a shocking act of defiance of the governor by the caucus viewed as obedient followers. But insiders say the united Republican front portrayed to the public masked an ongoing dispute between Kean’s and Christie’s political teams that resulted in Christie’s landslide reelection yielding no pick up of seats in the Senate.
Early on in the campaign, the Christie campaign concluded winning a majority in the State Senate, picking up 5 seats, was unlikely given the legislative map and the resources that South Jersey Democrats and their Independent Expenditure supporters were known to be deploying to defend their turf. Team Christie devised a strategy of winning a “functional majority,” by winning three Senate seats…District 14 (Middlesex and Mercer Counties) where former Senator Peter Inverso came out of retirement in an attempt to unseat Democrat Linda Greenstein, District 18 (Middlesex County), gubernatorial candidate Barbara Buono’s district where East Brunswick Mayor David Stahl switched parties to run as a Republican against Assemblyman Peter Barnes, and District 38 (Bergen County) where businessman/educator Fernando Alonso was out to defeat Democratic Senator Bob Gordon…and courting policy friendly Democrats…Senators Brian Stack and Sandra Cunningham of Hudson County…to deliver the 20th and 21st votes for a majority when needed during Christie’s second term.
Posted: December 3rd, 2013 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: 2013 Election, NJ Senate Republicans | Tags: 2013 Election, Chris Christie, NJ Legislature, NJ Senate Republicans, NJ State Senate, Tom Kean JR | 4 Comments »Senate President Steve Sweeney has been waging a little noticed campaign over the last few weeks to get Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean, Jr to commit not to accept campaign contributions from Ashbritt and other contractors who cleaned up New Jersey after Superstorm Sandy.
This morning, Sweeney ramped up the campaign with a video parody of the viral Harlem Shake.
Harlem Shake is owned by songwriter Harry Bauer Rodrigues, who records under the name “Baauer”and the record label Mad Decent.
The song’s viral popularity in recents weeks has spurred claims of copyright infringement on the part of artists whose voices are in the song who have not been credited or compensated by Baauer or Mad Decent, according to the New York Times On the flip side, Mad Decent and Baauer stand to collect millions of dollars from people, like Sweeney, who “steal” their song, according to Hollywood Reporter. YouTube and a company called INDMusic have created a program, ContentID, to track copyright piracy and collect from the offenders.
MMM wondered if Sweeney’s video was funded by New Jersey taxpayers and if the Senate President had obtained a license from Mad Decent for the use of the song. The YouTube channel that hosts the song is called NJSenDemsMajority, a similar name to the state funded website, njsendems.com.
MMM called Sweeney’s West Deptford and Trenton offices to find out. Within a half hour, a well known political hired gun who asked not to be named in this story called back.
Posted: March 11th, 2013 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: 2013 Election, NJ Democrats, NJ State Legislature | Tags: AshBritt, Harlem Shake, JR, NJ Senate Dems, NJ Senate Republicans, Steve Sweeney, Tom Kean, Trenton Shake | 5 Comments »© Copyright 2024 | MoreMonmouthMusings | All Rights Reserved