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.
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.
Governor Chris Christie is not the only Jersey Guy who announced yesterday that he is not running for president. On the Real Jersey Guys Radio Show with former Senator Dick LaRossa and Art Gallagher yesterday afternoon, Scott Sipprelle, last years GOP nominee for Congress in the 12th Congressional District, said he’s not running either.
Following suit, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin told Mark Levin that she’s also not running.
If you missed the show with Sipprelle, here’s a recording:
Look forward to a free ranging discussion. Possible topics will be the Occupy Wall Street protests, the state of the economy, the upcoming legislative elections and “Will Chris Christie run for President?”
The show, which is sponsored by Repatriot Radio, airs every Tuesday from 5PM -6PM on WIFI AM 1460 and here on the Internet.
Princeton – June 8, 2011 –The newly formed Lincoln Club of New Jersey wasted no time in jumping into the debate for New Jersey’s future by announcing its support for three challengers in the 2011 legislative elections, all of whom are first-time candidates for statewide office. Club President and 2010 Congressional candidate in NJ-12, Scott Sipprelle, said,” We cannot solve a problem by re-electing the problem. The time has come for a new breed of public servant, connected to the people, committed to problem-solving and willing to make the honest and difficult decisions required to restore our sickly state to health.”
Sipprelle continued, “There is a large void in American politics for new entrants, people who choose to enter the arena despite having limited resources and few political connections. The Board of Directors of the Lincoln Club has decided to provide support and assistance during this election cycle to send to Trenton three fresh faces committed to serving the public good. We strongly believe that these independent-thinking New Jerseyans, if elected, will work courageously to challenge the broken status quo.”
Lincoln Club Focus Candidates
Richard Kanka for Senate in District 14
Rich is a member of the Plumber and Pipe Fitters trade union and a member of the Hamilton Township School Board. Rich and his wife Maureen set a powerful example of problem-solving in the face of tragedy after their seven-year old daughter Megan was abducted and killed nearly two decades ago. The Kankas fought to enact a new law that required sex offenders to register with law enforcement and subsequently created the Megan Nicole Kanka Foundation to provide background checks to organizations that hire employees that work around children. Rich Kanka and his family are deeply committed to improving the quality of life in their community and state. Rich often says that he “likes to fix things” and has been successful in getting things done on the Hamilton school board without asking -or even knowing- whether his fellow members were Republicans or Democrats.
Marcia Silva for Assembly in District 18
Marcia is the former Assistant Prosecutor for Middlesex County, where she spent seven years taking dangerous criminals off the streets. She currently has her own law practice in her hometown of South River and she takes pride in providing pro bono legal assistance to local veterans groups. Marcia has witnessed first-hand the struggles of small businesses and the ideal that we call the American Dream. Her father immigrated from Brazil to New Jersey, where he labored as a factory worker until he was able to start his own small business. Starting with a small masonry operation, he eventually built a successful real estate company. Marcia is a single mother of two young children.
Shane Robinson for Assembly in District 19
Shane recently graduated from Sacred Heart University only to return to his home state of New Jersey to find, like many other young people, a distressingly unattractive job environment. Shane is the son of the Rev. Winston Robinson of Faith Fellowship Ministries, a large ministry in his hometown of Sayreville. As a young, underemployed African-American, Shane represents multiple different constituencies that have been hard hit by the economic downturn and which are also strikingly under-represented in the state legislature. His presence in Trenton would bring a fresh and youthful perspective to addressing the ills affecting our state. Shane serves on the Sayreville Board of Health and has remained active in politics as he continues to pursue employment opportunities.
About The Lincoln Club of New Jersey
The Lincoln Club of New Jersey is an independent political club engaged in ideas and actions for a better governance in New Jersey. More information at www.LC-NJ.org.
The members of the Redistricting Commission must be appointed by June 15. The Auditor says he/she was told that Democratic State Chairman John Wisniewski plans to void the appointment of Belmar resident Maggie Moran to the commission. Moran, former Governor Corzine’s deputy chief of staff and campaign manager, was appointed to the commission by former Chairman Joe Cryan, at Pallone’s urging, as one of Cryan’s last acts before turning the chairmanship over to Wisniewski.
Moran, who is the wife of Belmar Mayor Matt Doherty, is supposed to be Pallone’s eyes and ears on the commission. Her removal would be a blow to Pallone, according to The Auditor, this year in particular as New Jersey is losing a congressional district. One incumbent congressman will lose his job regardless of the electoral outcome. The Auditor implies that Democratic boss George Norcross and Republican Governor Chris Christie would like that incumbent to be Pallone.
How would that work?
Pallone’s 6th district borders the 4th, 7th, 12th and 13th districts. He resides in Long Branch which is in the south east coastal part of the district.
While it is entirely possible in New Jersey that a gerrymandered district that includes Long Branch of Monmouth County could be combined with Clinton Township in Hunterdon County, home of 7th district Republican Congressman Leonard Lance or West New York, Hudson County, home of 13th district Democratic Congressman Albio Sires, neither scenario is likely.
Combining Pallone’s 6th with Rush Holt’s 12th would make sense based on geography as the 12th shares the largest border with the 6th. Even though neither Pallone or Holt is particularly well liked by Democratic leaders in New Jersey or Washington, it is unlikely that the Democrats would surrender a district without a fight.
Which would leave a match up between New Jersey’s two most senior congressmen, Pallone who has been in Congress since 1988 and 4th district Congressman Republican Chris Smith who has served since 1981. While it would be unusual that seniority be discarded as an incumbent protection consideration during a redistricting battle, an argument could be made along the lines of “continuity of representation.” Pallone first went to Congress as the representative of the 3rd district after the death of Congressman James Howard. Much of the pre-1992 3rd district is now part of the 4th.
Even with his $4 million war chest, it is hard to imagine Pallone beating Smith in a combined district that includes southeast Monmouth and portions of Republican Ocean and Burlington counties. Smith would dominate in his Mercer home turf.
Pallone vs. Smith would be a great race. It probably won’t happen. I’ll explain why at the end of this piece. But first let’s have some fun speculating about the fallout of such a district.
If Long Branch and Pallone are moved south into a district combined with portions of Smith’s (of Hamilton in Mercer County) 4th district, it would make sense that the Northern Monmouth portions of the present 6th district would be folded into the Rush Holt’s 12th district.
That would create an interesting race for the GOP nomination in the 12th. Diane Gooch, Mike Halfacre, Anna Little, and Scott Sipprelle could all be contenders for that nomination.
Little beat Gooch for the 6th district nomination primary by 83 votes before losing to Pallone by 11% in the 2010 general election. She declared that a loss of only 11% was a victory and launched her 2012 race against Pallone in the weirdest election night concession speech ever. Since election night 2010 Little has alienated herself from both her local Tea Party and establishment GOP supporters. She’s chomping at the bit for a rematch with both Gooch and Pallone, but she’s referred to as a “coo coo bird” by former supporters. A Pallone-Smith match up would wreck havoc on her delusions. Only Little, her family and Larry Cirignano, her escort/handler/manager/driver/tenant, believe Anna Little will ever be nominated for congress again.
Halfacre, the Mayor of Fair Haven, has been kicking himself for bowing out of the race for the 12th district nomination since Tea Party candidate David Corsi beat Sipprelle in Monmouth County in the 2010 primary. Sipprelle won the nomination by virtue of his margin of victory in Mercer, Middlesex, Somerset and Hunterdon before losing to Holt by 7% in the general.
Halfacre was the Tea Party favorite during his contentious race against Sipprelle for the party lines in 2010. Sipprelle won all the county party lines and Halfacre correctly concluded that a primary against Sipprelle without at least the Monmouth or Middlesex lines was not winnable. Corsi’s Monmouth victory naturally lead to “what ifs?” Little’s narrow victory over Gooch created additional “what ifs?”
But the self funding Sipprelle did not spend any money to defeat Corsi. Gooch took victory over Little for granted in the primary. Given how contentious the Sipprelle-Halfacre county conventions/screenings were, it is likely that a primary between to two would have been bloody and expensive. Halfacre couldn’t have matched Sipprelle’s money.
Halfacre would have a heavy lift to regain his Tea Party support. If either Gooch or Sipprelle seek the nomination, he would have a heavier lift to raise the money necessary to compete. After Little’s victory in the 2010 primary, it will be a long time before any candidate or county party organization takes a Tea Party challenge for granted. Halfacre’s best hope for a nomination against Holt is for both Gooch and Sipprelle to conclude that 2012, a presidential year with Obama leading the ticket, is not the year to take on Holt.
Both Gooch and Sipprelle are staying in front of the party faithful. Gooch with Strong New Jersey and Sipprelle with the Lincoln Club of New Jersey, organizations each has founded since losing their respective races. Gooch has been open about wanting to run for congress again, depending on how the districts are drawn. Sipprelle has been coy about a future candidacy.
A Gooch-Sipprelle primary defies imagination. Given the money both could spend on such a race, a deal would likely be brokered by the state and county party chairmen before it would occur. But if ego got the better of either of them, it would be quite a race. A more sensible sceanario would be for one of the millionaires to take on U.S . Senator Robert Menendez while the other takes on Holt.
So while redistricting Pallone and Smith into the same district could make the Republican nomination contest in the Holt’s district more interesting, a Pallone-Smith battle is unlikely even should a district be drawn that way. Should such a district be drawn look for Pallone to retire from the House and use his hefty war chest as a down payment for a statewide race for Governor in 2013.
Pallone’s $4 million war chest would clear the field of Democratic candidates for Governor, unless Chris Christie isn’t a candidate or has anemic poll numbers, neither of which is likely. Christie would love to defeat Pallone, which he would but it would probably be a close race. Pallone would then run for U.S. Senate in 2014, assuming Frank Lautenberg finally retires.
State Sen. Shirley Turner’s recent proposal to hit the state’s top taxpayers with a new “millionaires tax” is dangerous nonsense straight out of the soak-the-rich economic playbook. “It’s really about fairness,” said Turner (D-Mercer). “This governor has coddled the wealthy, but they need to pay their fair share.”
Leaving aside the fundamental question of why her proposed 10.75 percent top tax rate is the “fair” level, there is a more glaring problem with Turner’s proposal: It will make fiscal problems in New Jersey far worse.
New Jersey is in a deep financial hole because our politicians have spent money without ever evaluating whether the funding source is competitive and sustainable. The resulting debate about how to resolve these structural imbalances has become a spirited fight, as it deserves to be.
But regardless of one’s philosophical leanings or party affiliation, we should all be able to agree on one thing: We must do everything possible to encourage work and investment in New Jersey in order to fuel the economic furnace that generates government’s desperately needed tax revenues.
Politicians love the notion that they can merely increase your tax rate and generate a proportionally equivalent increase in tax revenues. But this is not the way the world really works.
Taxes change behavior. Drivers will cross state lines to save on gasoline tax. Taxpayers move to Florida to save on their income tax. When a special tax on millionaires a few years ago in Maryland failed to deliver its expected revenue boost, Democratic Gov. Martin O’Malley decided against bringing it back, focusing instead on spending cuts to balance his state’s budget.
Closer to home, New York state enacted a surtax on its top earners in 2009 as an emergency measure to help manage through the recession. Today, despite a recovering economy, New York’s underlying fiscal problems are worse than ever.
Recognizing that tax surcharges don’t solve problems, only prolong them, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has decided against extending the surtax.
New Jersey, which has an identical tax rate to New York’s on its top incomes, will have a top rate that is 57 percent higher than our neighbor in 2012 if Turner has her way.
The lesson across states wrestling with revenue shortfalls is clear: Raising taxes is no panacea because wealth is mobile.
New Jersey’s residents are the most highly taxed in the nation, and employers are steering clear of the state as a result. New Jersey lost more than 10,000 jobs per month in 2009, and job erosion continued into 2010 despite an economic recovery that added 1 million jobs nationally.
New Jersey currently generates a startling 41 percent of its income tax receipts from the top 1 percent of its taxpayers, a precarious reliance that the rating agency Standard & Poor’s said could contribute to “revenue volatility,” as it downgraded the state’s credit rating.
Turner needs to confront the hard truth: There is a limit to how much businesses and high-income residents can be taxed before they simply move away, taking our best hope for new investment, jobs and economic growth with them.
Turner says let the voters decide on the millionaires tax, punting tax policy to a ballot referendum. She might be surprised by the result.
Last November, one state did put a referendum on its ballot to implement a special tax of 9 percent on incomes greater than $500,000. It happened in Washington state, one of eight states with no income tax at all. That state has also been a relative stalwart economically. Washington voters rejected the special tax by a nearly 2-to-1 margin.
As a result of the recent U.S. Census, Washington will gain a seat in the House of Representatives, owing to its large population growth over the past decade, while New Jersey will lose a seat after a population gain below the national average.
Citizens vote with their pocketbooks and also with their feet.
When will New Jersey politicians learn that lesson?
Scott Sipprelle is president of the Lincoln Club of New Jersey and was the 2010 Republican candidate for Congress in the state’s 12th Congressional District
Newly Constituted Political Club Plans Greater Engagement and Relevance
Princeton, NJ – Feb. 23 – The annual re-organization meeting of the Republican Association of Princeton was no ordinary affair on Wednesday night. Many new members in a crowd of 100 assembled at the Nassau Club in Princeton to elect Scott Sipprelle as the club’s new President and to approve an amendment to the organization’s by-laws that broadens the reach of the organization beyond the Princetons while ushering in a new name, “The Lincoln Club of New Jersey.”
In a room filled with many supporters of Sipprelle’s 2010 Congressional campaign for the NJ-12 seat in the US Congress, the incoming President described his vision. “Good government is about our values and it requires good, and sometimes difficult, choices about the way we live. It is not just about doing what is most expedient to win one election.” Sipprelle vowed to expand the efforts of the Lincoln Club in the area of issues education and community engagement, while also working to support the strongest Republican candidates for local, state, and federal office in New Jersey.
Along with Sipprelle, a new slate of officers and directors was elected for one year terms. The new governing body hails from five different towns in Mercer, Middlesex, and Monmouth counties.
The Lincoln Club of New Jersey is an independent political club that educates the public on critical issues, promotes initiatives to build healthier communities, and advocates for good government by supporting the most qualified Republican candidates for local, state, and federal office in New Jersey.
It is comical to see our political class seized anew in a surreal debate about whether it is “possible” to cut $100 billion from an annual expenditure of $3.7 trillion without irrevocably harming babies or cratering the economy. It got me thinking about how we even arrived at this strange place where our elected representatives are spending 65% more than we are collecting in revenues every year. Somewhere along the way spending money in Washington DC became less about “necessity” and more about something else entirely.
So, here is another amazing fact to ponder: in the very near future we will be spending more virtual money in online fantasy worlds than will be spent by real consumers in the world formerly known as reality. Members of the online game FooPets breed and adopt dogs and cats and spend, on average, nearly as much money on their cyber puppies and kittens as actual pet owners in the real world. The nearly one million unique residents of a 3D virtual world called Second Life can buy everything from private islands to suggestive lingerie using a currency called Linden dollars. In an ominous development, Chinese authorities have recently barred a merger of their online and virtual economies. It seems that players who were particularly adept at accumulating wealth in the online world were selling this virtual game wealth for hard cash to rich players who would use the currency to boost their status and prestige in order to attract gorgeous pixel-based avatars.
But we know that you cannot really hold back the advance of technology. So, it got me thinking…how about this novel idea to solve our nation’s fiscal problems: for so long as is necessary to restore a balance between expenses and revenues, the Congress is only allowed to appropriate a new virtual currency called Fedbits? This new monetary unit, unregulated by annoyances like debt ceilings, interest rates, or the Federal Reserve, could be used to purchase an unlimited inventory of items in an online Congressionally-run supermarket. In order to secure passage of this landmark legislation, each Congressman would also be entitled to earmark a certain quantity of Fedbits to any constituent or special interest of his choosing.
Anyone want to buy a romantic lighted gazebo to go along with their private island?
Scott Sipprelle is the principal of Westland Ventures, LLC. Scott was the Republican nominee for Congress from New Jersey’s 12th congressional district in 2010.
Don’t blame Sarah Palin or the Tea Parties. Blame Sheriff Clarence Dupnik
By Art Gallagher
If the news reports are accurate, the heinous acts of 22 year old Jared Loughner in Arizona were not political. They were sick acts of a very mentally ill young man.
The most sane commentary I have read or heard about the tragdey in Tucson was on facebook.
“The tragic failure of responsible people — parents, teachers, police and others who encountered this troubled young man all through his pre-teen and teen years to intervene effectively is the real cause of the tragedy in Tucson. His symptoms were clear and compelling, yet little or nothing that we know of was done.
Having worked with troubled young people, I know there are hundreds, if not thousands more like him. The army could turn him down, but that didn’t stop him from buying a fearsome assault weapon. No wonder our jail population has risen 725% since 1958, while our total population has only risen 79% in that time. Far too many of us just don’t care — until it is too late.
The brightest light in Tucson is 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green, who gave her life while showing the rest of us how to live. Born on 9/11, she had recently recently received her first Holy Communion, and was eager to learn what we all need to learn to restore America’s greatness. There were other heroes here, but she was the brightest light of all. Let us never forget her.”
Scott Sipprelle said:
“It is desperately irresponsible to claim that Gabby Giffords was a victim of violent political speech. This committed and thoughtful public servant was gunned down by a deranged person, one who rambled nonsense about the government taking away “grammar” and of having a colorful bird on his shoulder. Let’s channel our energy to find out where all of this mental illness is coming from.
I am struck by the haunting similarities to the young, white, confused, disillusioned Columbine killers, who used almost exactly the same words about living in a dream-like state. Seems to me that mental illness, especially among the young and relatively privileged, has gotten much worse.
This guy didn’t have the mental stability to be adhering to any political dogma…far left, right, or anything in between.”
True to their “never waste a good crisis” philosophy, the left stream media and their allies in the Democratic leadership are blaming the tragedy on “vitriolic political rhetoric” from the right and from the Tea Party movement. That is why various Tea Party leaders are wisely issuing statements, just as they did when the leftist were waging their PR campaign that attempted to paint the Tea Parties as racists.
The Tea Parties aren’t racists and they aren’t violent. They are previously apathetic average Americans who have woken up, garnerd their political power and started to reverse the progressive/socialist/free spending agenda that has taken over our various governments.
The left would rather that previously apathetic average Americans go back to sleep. They won’t.
Congressman James Clyburn spent 10 minutes on FoxNews Sunday this morning blaming the Arizona tradegy on speech he would rather silence. Democratic Pima Arizona County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik is trying to become a national figure by blaming the shooting on bigotry, vitriol and Sarah Palin.
Both Clyburn and Dupnik are egomaniacal morons.
We’ve come to expect this bs from Clyburn, the third highest ranking Democrat in congress. Strangely, Clyburn also used his FoxNews commentary about the Gabrielle Gifford’s shooting to call for members of congress to be exempt from the TSA’s federal fondling program.
Dupnik should get off TV blaming political rhetoric for the murders and attempted murders that happened on his watch. The media talking heads should not be letting Dupnik get away with this crap. If he wants to go on TV, the so called journalists should ask him why a U.S. Congresswoman and a Federal Judge were appearing in public without even one police officer present, especially if there is so much anger and bigotry in his county as he claims. Let him explain that to the parents and brother of Christina Green.
The truth is blaming Dupnik, Palin or anyone else other than Loughner won’t make any difference. It won’t raise the dead or heal the wounded.
We should all heed Howard’s words and not look the other way when we encounter an obviously troubled person of any age. We should heed Sipprelle’s words and focus on the health and well being of young people instead of trying to score political points and silence those we don’t agree with.
Avoiding the hassle and hoping for the best is negligence. Not wanting to get involved is endangerment.
As the nation muddles through anxious days of economic uncertainty and rage-filled political arguments over tax policy, it would serve us all well to look back to an earlier time of similar malaise. The 1970’s in America were marked by high inflation and unemployment, rising taxes and a stagnant stock market that was eroding the well-being of the middle class. Recall this was also a time when marginal income tax rates rose as high as 70% and the effective capital gains tax rate was 50%.
But President Jimmy Carter had an idea. He believed an increase in the capital gains tax to match the marginal tax on income made sense not only as a matter of economic policy, but also as a matter of fairness in order to stop the giveaway to “fat-cats.” The President of the American Electronics Association had a different idea, grounded in his experience as an entrepreneur. He traveled to Washington looking for an advocate to embrace an entirely different approach. The way out, he believed, was to slash capital gains taxes in order to encourage risk-taking investments in innovative new companies that would capitalize on technical developments across a broad cross-section of American industry. Why would anyone invest under a regime where if you lose, you keep 100% of your loss, but if you succeed the Federal Government takes 50%?
A baby-faced young Republican Congressman from Wisconsin, Bill Steiger, eagerly took up the cause. Originally elected to the Wisconsin legislature at 22, he had been the youngest member of Congress when first elected in 1966 at age 28, and frequently mistaken for a page. Steiger was a conservative, but molded in the Lincolnian tradition that government needed to do the, “desirable things which the individuals of a people cannot do, or cannot well do, for themselves.” Steiger had sponsored the legislation which created the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) in order to address the unacceptable rate of annual on-the-job deaths (14 thousand) and accidents (over 2 million) that characterized the American workplace of the early 1970’s.
Steiger embraced capital gains reductions with a passion, offering a counter-proposal to slash the capital gains tax by 50%. Despite harsh attacks that portrayed the proposal as a program to benefit the rich, Steiger fought back hard, not on ideological grounds but by the use of hard empirical data. Even President Carter’s Head of the Office of Science and Technology Policy admitted that more than 300 high-technology companies had been started in 1968, when capital-gains taxes were low, and by the mid 1970’s there were no similar start-ups whatsoever.
Against all expectations, the political climate on capital gains taxes changed dramatically. To even Steiger’s surprise, he was able to garner enough Democratic support that President Carter ultimately signed the Steiger Amendment into law in November 1978, effectively slashing the capital gains tax to 28%. Tragically, Bill Steiger died of a heart attack at age 40, a mere month after his legislative milestone became law.
Within several years America was experiencing an innovation boom of historic dimensions. Venture capital funding, which had bounced along at $50mm per year in the 1970’s exploded to over $1 billion per year. Iconic American companies like Apple Computer, FedEx, and Sun Microsystems were launched. America’s technology revolution, which would change the destinty of the nation and the planet, had as its seed the wise tax policy promoted by a forgotten Congressman.
Pallone’s 6th district borders the 4th, 7th, 12th and 13th districts. He resides in Long Branch which is in the south east coastal part of the district.