Hot Pants

If all press is good press, then Anna Little’s fledgling U.S. Senate campaign got a boost this morning when  The Star Ledger’s PolitFact gave her claims about Senator Robert Menendez’s spending and borrowing record a “MOSTLY FALSE” rating on the TRUTH-O-METER.

Little avoided the “PANTS ON FIRE” designation the Ledger gives for completely false claims, but earned the newly created Hot Pants designation from MMM.

What is most surprising about this morning’s PolitiFact post is that it has been up at NJ.com for two hours and it doesn’t have any comments from Rullo supporters, yet.

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Menendez Denies Retribution In Blocking Shwartz’s Appointment To Appeals Court

Senator Robert Menendez denies he is preventing Federal Magistrate Patty Shwartz’s appointment to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals because her boyfriend is the federal prosecutor who lead the corruption investigation into the senator during his 2006 campaign, according to a report at Politico.

Menendez said it wasn’t appropriate to debate a potential judges qualifications in the press, before he went on to malign Shwartz:

“It is incredibly disappointing and unfortunate that my real concerns over the suitability of Judge Shwartz to serve a lifetime appointment as circuit court judge have been spun as some petty political vendetta by some of her supporters,” Menendez said in a statement to POLITICO.

“I proceeded to ask her substantive legal questions and was not fully satisfied with her responses,” Menendez said. “In my opinion, Judge Shwartz did not adequately demonstrate the breadth of knowledge of constitutional law and pivotal Supreme Court decisions such as Citizens United that we should expect from a United States Circuit Court judge.”

“In the interview with Judge Shwartz, in my opinion, she misapplied the application of strict scrutiny versus rational basis review to the questions at hand,” Menendez added. “She did not express substantive knowledge as to the scope of the rights of corporations under the Constitution or jurisprudence on the constitutional limits of Executive Branch powers.

Menendez lied to me personally and didn’t respond when I called him on it,  in the months after Jon Corzine appointed him to the Senate.  Thus my bias makes it difficult to believe anything he says.  He’s just not trustworthy.

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For Democratic U.S. Senators, it’s not what you know or who you know, it’s who you have sex with.

Character, scholarship, temperament and a demonstrated ability to do the job.  One would hope that those are the most important qualities our U.S. Senators consider when they participate in the vetting of potential federal judges.

Evidently, who potential judges share their beds and bodies with are a more important consideration to New Jersey’s U.S. Senators; Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez.

Two weeks ago we read the news that Lautenberg passed over candidates expected to be nominated for federal judgeships in New Jersey and “out of nowhere” endorsed New York Senator Chuck Schumer’s brother-in-law to sit on New Jersey’s District Court.

Today we read that Menendez is using  senatorial courtesy to block the nomination of U.S. Magistrate Patty Shwartz to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.

Shwartz has been in a relationship with James Nobile for two decades, according to The New York Times.  Nobile is the head of the New Jersey U.S. Attorney’s public corruption unit which investigated Menendez in 2006 while the Hudson County pol was running for his own term as Senator after having been appointed by Governor Jon Corzine.

Menendez was elected despite the news of the investigation.  The investigation has been closed with no charges filed.

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Lautenberg Recommends Schumer’s Brother-in-law For Federal Bench

New Jersey is “stunned”

New Jersey was stunned that U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg recommended U.S Senator Chuck Schumer’s brother-in-law to be a federal judge, according to a headline in the NYPost.

I live in New Jersey and I’m not stunned.  Are you stunned?

Lautenberg  and Senator Robert Menendez recommended Kevin McNulty of Short Hills for a federal judgeship in October.  President Obama nominated McNulty for a seat on the New Jersey District bench on December 16th.

McNulty, a Director of the Newark firm, Gibbons, PC is married to Schumer’s sister Fran.

The Post says that McNulty was a last minute choice of Lautenberg who had been actively considering other candidates and that the choice was made to keep New Jersey’s senior citizen senator in the good graces of Schumer who will help him stave off a movement within the Democratic party to challenge his nomination for reelection in 2014.

Lautenberg will be 88 years old in January.  He’ll be 90 on election day 2014.  96 at the end of another term, should he be reelected and survive.

Lautenberg’s staff denied that politics was involved with the McNulty appointment.  The senator didn’t even know McNulty was related to Schumer when his name first came up for a judicial appointment in 2009.  Maybe he forgot.

Schumer’s staff denied that he had anything to do with the nomination.

The point of the story seems to be that Lautenberg is running for another term.  Not even Frank Pallone is stunned by that news. 

The other point would be that a candidate for the bench other than McNulty was stunned. Oh well.

The good news is the McNulty appears to be qualified to be a federal judge.  The Schumer-McNulty’s do not appear to have bought political influence.  McNulty has made on $2000 in federal campaign contributionssince 2000; $500 to Jon Corzine’s senatorial election campaign and $1500 to his firms PAC.  Fran Schumer gave another $500 to Corzine in 2000.

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Little Opening A U.S. Senate Campaign Account. Shakeup In Her Army

By Art Gallagher

Anna Little, the former Mayor of Highlands, former Freeholder and the 2010 GOP nominee in the 6th Congressional district is one step closer to challenging Monmouth County State Senator Joe Kyrillos for the GOP 2012 U.S. Senate nomination.

Little told Politickernj that she would be filing with the FEC today to open a campaign account for her U.S. Senate bid.

An embarrasing Little For Senate fundraising letter dated November 28, arrived in former donors’ mail boxes this week.

Atlantic Highlands Municipal Chairwoman Jane Frotten has resigned as Little’s campaign treasurer.  Atlantic Highlands Mayor Fred Rast has resigned as president of Anna’s Army Foundation,  “a non-profit educational foundation created in the image of Anna Little and her campaign for Congress in the 6th Congressional District of NJ.”

Until recently, the race for the Republican nomination to challenge Senator Robert Menendez was seen as battle between Kyrillos and fellow State Senator Michael Doherty.  Kyrillos has a Senate Exploritory Committee.  Doherty has been traveling the state touting his Fair School Funding plan.  MMM has learned from very reliable sources that Doherty is leaning against entering the Senate primary.   If Doherty does stay out of the race, a head to head match up between Kyrillos and Little could be in the making.

Little should take a reality check and reconsider before her dreams of a political future are irreparably shattered.

Little made a name for herself with the stunning upset victory over Diane Gooch in the primary for the 6th congressional district nomination in 2010.   Little’s margin of victory was 84 votes out of roughly 14,000 cast.

What Little has failed to realize, and she stops talking to anyone who tells her the truth, is that she didn’t win that primary so much as Gooch lost it.

Not that her victory was an accident.  The strategy of the Little primary campaign was to sneak up from behind.  I know because I, then still a close confidant of Little, helped design the strategy.   None of the “experts” took Little’s challenge of the county party lines and the uber funded Gooch seriously going into the primary.  That was the key to victory.  Build a ground game to bring out new voters and count on the fact that the “experts” don’t see the Tea Party wave coming.   Even the Tea Parties were shocked by the depth of the 2010 tsunami.  David Corsi’s inexplicable primary victory over Scott Sipprelle in the Monmouth County portion of the 12th congressional district proves that the party establishment was caught with their pants around their ankles.

They won’t be caught off guard again.

The Gooch campaign’s primary strategy was to ignore Little and run against incumbent Congressman Frank Pallone.   It was a good strategy for a conventional time.   Conventional times ended in 2010 before the establishment realized it.

It wasn’t until the final weekend of the 2010 primary campaign when Little managed to get onto TV, that the Gooch campaign realized that they might have a problem.  They tried legal maneuvers, that failed, to get Little’s ads pulled.  It was too late to respond.   Little had successfully used the “surprise them” and  “get the last word” strategies that we had successfully used in Highlands campaigns many times.

The problem with a “don’t let them see you coming” playbook is that it only works once.

A key political operative with close ties to both Gooch and Kyrillos has been keeping a close eye on Little since she declared her rematch with Pallone on election night 2010.

“She won’t get a free ride next time,” said the operative on the condition of anonymity, “we had a thick opposition research file on her in 2010 but didn’t use it because we weren’t taking her seriously and didn’t want to hurt her needlessly.  The file has gotten a lot thicker in the last year.”

With their discharge from Anna’s Army, Frotten and Rast join the growing brigade of Monmouth County politicos who will no longer go to battle for Little. 

Roughly a year ago, this blog compared Little to Jon Corzine over a policy position she took in one of her final acts as the mayor of Highlands.   Unfortunately, it is becoming apparent that Little also shares a personality trait with the former governor.  She surrounds herself with people who tell her what she wants to hear and burns bridges with those who tell her what she needs to hear.

Little had a bright political future ahead of her on election night in 2010.   Then she started talking. 

She declared her rematch with Pallone, announced the formation of Anna’s Army and challenged Gooch, who had funded independent anti-Pallone ads, to a rematch.  She failed to thank her supporters, Tea Party and establishment, who were caught off guard by her lack of humility. 

She’s on the verge of crossing a line from which there will be no return.   She should reconsider and start mending fences.  Many of her old friends are forgiving.

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Menendez raises over $10 million

New Jersey Senator Has $6.9 million cash on hand

The Record’s Herb Jackson reports that U.S. Senator Robert Menendez has raised over $10 million in special interest contributions for his 2012 reelection campaign.   A look at the Senator’s FEC reports reveals that $5.3 million of that money was raised last quarter and that he had $6.9 million in cash on hand on September 30th.

Despite Menendez’s weak poll numbers, whoever the GOP nominates to challenge him will have a heavy lift.  New Jersey voters are split 40-38 percent over whether the Hudson County poll deserves another term, according to Quinnipiac, yet they favor him 43-39 percent over an unnamed Republican.

Most  All of the Republicans vying for the nomination are unnamed in the minds of New Jersey voters.  Joe Kyrillos, Mike Doherty and Anna Little are names well known in political circles and to readers of this site, but are not households names throughout New Jersey.   At the pace Menendez is raising money, the GOP nominee will likely need to raise $25 million or more to compete.

Little Impact

Anna Little’s fliration with the Senate race has many Republicans shaking their heads.  Others are scratching their heads.   Little’s FEC reports indicate no money raised in 2011 for her announced rematch against Frank Pallone. Yet Little has been sending fund raising letters,”paid for” by Anna Little for Congress 2012, the expenses for which are not reported, and is traveling the state and the country seeking support and singing God Bless America.

Should Little actually enter the Senate race and forsake a potential rematch against Pallone, her candidacy in the primary will ironically benefit State Senator Joe Kyrillos.   Little would split the hardline conservative/Tea Party/Loneganite vote with State Senator Mike Doherty, making what is already expected to be a smooth ride for Kyrillos, should he choose to seek the nomination, even easier than previously anticipated.

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Little “Leaning” Towards U.S. Senate Race

Former Highlands Mayor and former Freeholder Anna Little is considering a primary run for the GOP nomination to challenge U.S. Senator Robert Menendez in 2012.

An announcement posted on TPATH, a website run by Tea Party activist Dwight Kehoe, declared that Little is running:

Breaking News – (TPATH)  Anna Little, one of New Jersey’s most dynamic supporters of the Constitution and smaller government, has set her sights on the US Senate race in 2012.

Anna announced today that her battle to unseat one of Obama’s most ardent supporters, Robert Menendez, will run hand in hand with the battle to save America by making Obama a one term President. She intends to use all her resources, energy and considerable enthusiasm towards that goal.

 
The Anna Little For Senate Campaign
Will be holding its first campaign meeting this coming:
Tuesday
November 15, 2011
at 5:00PM
Keyport IHOP.

Little’s spokesman Larry Cirgnano told Politickernj that the 2010 6th Congressional District nominee is “leaning” towards the Senate race.

State Senator Joe Kyrillos has established an exploratory committee for the Senate nomination and is considered the front runner by GOP insiders.  State Senator Michael Doherty and former Roxbury Mayor Tim Smith are also expected to compete for the nomination.  Jets owner Woody Johnson has been rumored to be considering a run.

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Suddenly Somebody Cares About LD 13

New Jersey Democrats are suddenly taking an interest in the 13th legislative district according to a normally reliable source familiar with the state wide campaign.

Word is that U.S. Senator Bob Menendezis feeling a bit vulnerable with his weak showing in the FDU poll  released this morning and with the possibility that Governor Chris Christie could be the Presidential candidate next year when  needs Obama coattails to get reelected.  He wants the Monmouth Democrats to rough up Senator Joe Kyrillos and make him spend some money.

Assembly Majority Leader Joe Cryan want to take a run at Declan O’Scanlon, if not to beat him this time, to at least weaken him for a future contest against Marlboro Mayor Jon Hornick.  Cryan will be in the district raising money twice in the next two weeks.

Unless I’ve been fed misinformation, which usually doesn’t start until the last two weeks of the campaign, expect 2 or 3 negative mailers on behalf of the 13th district Democrats.

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Does Congressional Seniority Matter? Should It Trump Competitiveness?

In a piece published at Politickernj and on his Real Numbers blog, Monmouth University Polling Director Patrick Murray argues that district competitiveness should be less of a consideration in drawing the new congressional map than he argued it should have been in the state legislative map.

Murray says that no other state uses competitiveness as a criteria for drawing their maps and that New Jersey would be at a disadvantage if it did so.

“If you were expecting me to argue the same for the Congressional redistricting process, though, you would be wrong.  The influence of any state’s delegation is based largely on their influence with the upper echelons of Congressional leadership.  Absolute seniority in itself is not important, but some degree of longevity is necessary for members of our delegation to establish those important relationships.

Since few other states use competitiveness to guide their redistricting process, New Jersey would be put at a disadvantage if it did.  Even if it made a concerted effort, our commission could probably only create 3 to 5 truly competitive districts – out of 435 nationwide.  While that might boost voter turnout in those districts, it would do little to increase the influence of New Jersey as a whole. Influence that we sorely need, considering how little we get back in federal spending for every tax dollar we send to Washington.”
 

While this argument is consistent with conventional thinking about congress, I’m not sure that it matches up with the current reality in Washington. 

It certainly does not match up with the current reality of the New Jersey congressional delegation, by Murray’s own words in the last sentence.  If we are getting so little back from Washington with our current delegation, most of whom have significant longevity, what good is their seniority doing us?  Would be do much worse, or any worse, with a bunch of freshmen?

In the current congress, the freshmen are running the show, much to the chagrin of the left wing media, the White House and everyone else who thinks congressmen should go to Washington to compromise rather than to do what they promised their constituents they would do during the campaigns.

New Jersey congressmen have an inauspicious history of leadership and influence.  Donald Payne and Frank Pallone are the most senior Democrats in the New Jersey delegation.  Neither have ever been leaders of note in Washington. Neither has an impressive record of getting legislation passed.

Republican Chris Smith is the longest serving member of the New Jersey delegation.  No one can deny that Smith is a leader.  He has had more legislation passed that any other member of congress.  His influence as a human rights advocate and champion of the unborn is global.  However, he is not a congressional leader.  Even with his 30 years on the hill and Republicans back in power, he is not a committee chairman or even a sub-committee chairman.

Robert Menendez has been an exception to New Jersey’s lack of congressional leadership.  He catapulted over Pallone, Payne and many other Democrats throughout the country in establishing himself as a congressional leader, eventually becoming the third highest ranking Democrat in congress before moving up to the Senate.

Worse for New Jersey residents than the lack of influence in congress that our representatives have, is some members’ lack of concern for the will of their constituents.  As Murray said during his appearance on the Real Jersey Guys Radio show on August 2, New Jersey members of congress vote however they want, regardless of how constituents feel about an issue, because gerrymandering has made their jobs so safe.

This is clearly the case in Monmouth County, the majority of which is divided between Frank Pallone’s 6th district and Rush Holt’s 12th.  Murray accurately portrays the 6th and 12th as among the most gerrymandered districts.  As a result of how these districts have been drawn in the past, much of Monmouth County is essentially disenfranchised from congressional representation.  One could easily make an argument that the suburban areas of Pallone and Holt’s districts do not have a congressman, while the urban areas have two.

Murray and I agree that congressmen need incentive to serve and represent their constituents.  There is no incentive like competition.   The congressional redistricting commission should make competiveness a prime consideration in drawing the new map.  Without competition, seniority is not all that is cracked up to be, as New Jersey’s congressional delegation has clearly demonstrated.

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Linker Drops Out of U.S. Senate Race

Political newcomer Ian Linker, the only declared candidate for the GOP nomination to challenge Senator Robert Menendez in 2012, terminated his candidacy due to his wife’s health.

In a statement posted on the Ridgewood Blog this evening, Linker said:

I launched my campaign for the U.S. Senate because America is on an unsustainable course. And for the future of our country I could not sit idly by and allow politicians to destroy the last best hope for freedom on earth. Without bold, principled leadership in Washington, America could become, in the not-to-distant future, a second-rate power along the lines of a half dozen European countries now facing severe crises. Career politicians more concerned about their own reelection have failed to solve our problems and have in many cases actually caused them. They have brought America to the brink.

My family inspired me to run for the U.S. Senate. Now, I must exit this race for them as well.

About eight years ago my wife was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. Over the years, her illness has been relatively under control until very recently when it began to rapidly progress. I have been dedicating as much time as possible to my family, which has been to the detriment of my campaign. My family must be my priority and to run an effective U.S. Senate campaign I would be neglecting my duties as a father and as a husband given my wife’s current condition. With two young children at home, I have a moral obligation to take care of my family before anything else and must put off running for political office at this time.

I hope, and pray, that Republicans in New Jersey nominate a principled conservative for the U.S. Senate in 2012 who cares about making a positive difference for our future. I would look forward to supporting this individual to the fullest extent possible.

I want to thank all the wonderful folks who supported me during my brief campaign and I look forward to seeing and working with you all in the future

State Senator Joe Kyrillos, a potential candidate for the NJ GOP 2012 U.S. Senate nomination said, ” I had a nice lunch with Ian over the summer and found him to be a bright and good man.  I am sorry to hear about his wife’s condition.”

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