Another Front Opens in Battle Against COVID-19: NJ’s Senior Residences, Nursing Homes

By Sheila Noonan, NJ Spotlight

New Jersey’s battle to blunt the impact of COVID-19 is more complicated now that state officials have traced a half-dozen cases — including three deaths — to people in senior residences, facilities that shelter some of the most vulnerable citizens.

State officials announced the connection to elder-care facilities Thursday during their daily press briefing, which revealed an additional 318 cases of COVID-19 diagnosed overnight and four more deaths. Three of those fatalities involved residents at two nursing homes, in Essex and Hudson counties. (New Jersey now has 742 positive cases in all — ranging in age from three to 95 — nine of whom have died.)

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COVID-19’s Impact on Upcoming Elections in New Jersey

Gov. Murphy postpones many elections, calls for mail-in balloting; his executive order will affect 34 separate elections in municipalities with close to 730,000 registered voters

By Colleen O’Dea, NJ Spotlight

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy yesterday postponed upcoming local and school board elections until May 12 and ordered that all elections on that date be conducted completely by mail-in balloting to help stem the spread of COVID-19.

The only change Murphy ordered so far affecting the June primary is allowing candidates to file their nominating petitions online, but he didn’t rule out the possibility of having that election conducted by mail statewide if necessary.

“We have no timetable to make any assessment on the June 2 election, but obviously it’s at the top of mind,” Murphy said during his daily briefing on the pandemic. “If we need to act and adjust that in any way, we will do so on a timely basis.”

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State to Reopen Woodbury Hospital and Others to Help with Coronavirus Surge

By LILO H. STAINTON , NJ Spotlight

New Jersey health officials plan to expand hospital capacity by nearly 800 beds in the coming weeks to help prepare for a likely patient surge related to the growing coronavirus epidemic and to keep cases of the resulting COVID-19 disease from overwhelming the state’s health care system.

State Department of Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli announced Wednesday that work was underway to immediately add a total of 260 beds at three acute care hospitals that had recently downsized; while the DOH did not provide specifics, she said 199 beds would be at a north Jersey facility, 11 in central Jersey and 50 in the state’s southern region. Capacity for another 227 patients would be added in the weeks to come, she said.

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Get Election Results Live At MoreMonmouthMusings

Thanks to our friends at NJSpotlight and NJ News Commons, New Jersey election results will be available up to the minute on MoreMonmouthMusings.

Through NJSpotlight’s widget readers can view live results in the Presidential race in New Jersey by county and Congressional races by district. A widget will also be updating the statewide results of Ballot Questions 1 and 2.

MMM editor Art Gallagher will be reporting on the County and Municipal races  live from Monmouth GOP’s headquarters at the American Hotel in Freehold.

The polls close at 8pm.  We’ll report results and updates and we get them.

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Opinion: Christie and Sweeney Have More in Common Than Ambition

photo via Gov Christie’s website

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Analysis: U.S. Attorney’s Trail Shows Hoboken Charges More Serious

Analysis: U.S. Attorney’s Trail Shows Hoboken Charges More Serious (via NJSpotlight)

With subpoenaed documents trickling in to investigators and a third Christie appointee taking the Fifth Amendment, legal experts are debating which charges Christie appointees are likely to face, how evidence of a coverup could bolster a corruption…

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NJ Candidates, Political PACs Break the Bank, Breaking Records for Spending

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Opinion: Same-Sex Marriage Poses No Political Threat to Gov. Christie

Opinion: Same-Sex Marriage Poses No Political Threat to Gov. Christie (via NJSpotlight)

While New Jersey’s gay community is understandably encouraged by the recent Superior Court decision declaring a prohibition on same-sex marriage unconstitutional, the cold reality is that the stronger hand is still held by its chief opponent, Gov.…

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Redrawing the State Legislative Districts

By Art Gallagher

The US. Census Bureau will not release the data required for the State Apportionment Commission to do their work for another month.  The commission is holding its organizational meeting today in Trenton.

At NJ Spotlight, Mark Magyar takes a comprehensive look at New Jersey’s population shifts based upon the 2000 census data and the 2009 population projections published by the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development.  Magyar’s piece is likely to be the most widely read article on State Street today.  His conclusions:

Based on an analysis of population projections, when the new legislative map is drawn we can expect to see a configuration more favorable to Republicans. We could very well see one Democratic district in the urban northeast replaced by a solidly GOP district, most likely somewhere in the middle of South Jersey. That is what happened in 1991 when Republican commission members persuaded the neutral tie-breaker to take the Democratic 30th District in Essex and plop it in the middle of Burlington and Ocean counties where it immediately became a Republican bastion for Senator Bob Singer of Lakewood and Assemblyman Joseph Malone of Bordentown, each first elected in 1993.

If Democrats decide to give up an urban northeast district as part of a retrenchment strategy, it will most likely end up in South Jersey The question for both party’s strategists is whether they want to make the new district a Republican stronghold and allow the the South Jersey incumbents from both parties to consolidate their bases, or use the new district to try to create more competitive districts — an approach that presumably would give the GOP a better chance to gain the seats they need to win back the legislature.

 

 

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