Dr. Alieta Eck is not likely to be a U.S. Senator come October 17. She’s yet to choose a campaign manager for her primary race against Steve Lonegan in the August 13 special primary. She does not have a fundraising base nor the personal wealth to pay for a statewide campaign.
Lots of New Jerseyans lost personal wealth when Jon Corzine was governor. Eck told me she lost $200,000 to Corzine in the MF Global debacle. Fortunately she got $180,000 back, but that won’t fund a statewide primary or general election.
Based upon my interview with her, I don’t think she is quite ready to debate Lonegan, or the eventual Democratic nominee, most likely Cory Booker, on any issue other the healthcare, yet. But that could change. Eck is smart.
The Special Senate Primaries will go forward on August 13 and New Jersey will elect a new U.S. Senator in a Special Election on October 16.
The New Jersey Supreme Court effectively upheld the Appellate Division’s ruling that Governor Christie acted legally in calling for the Special Election yesterday when they declined to hear an appeal of the lower Court’s ruling.
The Special Election had been challenged by Marie Corfield, Joe Grillo and Joseph Danielson. Somerset County Democratic Chairwoman Peg Schaffer was their attorney.
Corfield is a Democratic Assembly candidate from the 16th district (Hunterdon, Middlesex, Mercer and Somerset counties). She lost a special Assembly election to Republican Donna Simon last November. Corfield first came into the public eye when the YouTube video of her exchange with Christie at a 2010 Town Hall meeting went viral.
Grillo is the Executive Director of the Monmouth County Democratic Organization. Danielson is the Chairman of the Franklin Township (Somerset County) Democratic Committee.
The Appellate Division’s ruling can be found here.
Now that she survived Steve Lonegan’s challenge to her petitions, it worth getting to know the political novice who was able to get 2,285 nominating signatures in three days, Dr. Alieta Eck. That was a task that was too much for many seasoned politicians.
From the looks of how the Special Election Senate race is shaping up, Newark Mayor Cory Booker is going to win in a landslide anyway. Booker has a huge lead over Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver and Congressmen Frank Pallone and Rush Holt in the independent polls for the Democratic nomination. Lonegan is within striking distance of Pallone, Holt and Oliver in the Monmouth University Poll released last Friday, but loses to Booker by 16 points.
The only hope for a Republican to win the Senate seat in October is for someone other than Booker to be the Democratic nominee or for Booker to be badly wounded, politically, in a bloody Democratic primary. That doesn’t look like it is going to happen.
So far, Pallone and Holt are playing nice. Pallone is sending out emails asking people to recruit their friends to ‘Like’ his facebook page and volunteer for his campaign. Holt is posting on facebook asking non-Democrats to change parties in order to vote for him in the primary. If Oliver is doing anything, we haven’t noticed.
No one is mentioning all the shootings in Newark this week, that, if they were happening in Marlboro or Newtown, CT would be making national news. No one is asking Booker for his travel schedule or where he spends his weekends. Pallone tried to make an issue of Booker’s relationship with Governor Chris Christie, but Democrats seem to like Christie more than they like Pallone. No one is making an issue of Booker’s relationship with Wall Street, because Wall Street is investing a ton of money in Newark.
Our friend Matt Rooney at Save Jersey reports that New Jersey’s Superior Court’s Appellate Division ruled that the Special Election for U. S. Senate called by Governor Christie passes legal muster.
Rooney says that an appeal to the State Supreme Court is possible.
Somerset County Democratic Chairwoman Peg Schaffer filed an emergency lawsuit yesterday with the NJ Superior Court Appellate Division to stop the Special Primary and Election that Governor Chris Christie called on Tuesday, according to a report on PolitickerNJ.
The Special Primary is scheduled for August 13. The Special Election is scheduled for October 16. Democratic and Republican Primary candidates must submit petitions with 1000 valid signatures by 4pm on Monday June 10 in order to get on the ballot. Independent or third party candidates must file petitions with 1000 valid signatures by August 13.
NorthJersey.com reports that the Appellate Court has ruled that the suit can proceed.
The plaintiffs are Marie Corfield, Joe Grillo and Joseph Danielson.
PolitickerNJ is reporting that “several Republican sources” told them that Governor Chris Christie could appoint former State Attorney General David Samson to New Jersey’s vacant U.S. Senate seat as early as today.
Samson would be a placeholder, meaning that he would not run in the Special Election Christie called for October 16 to retain the seat.
Samson was Attorney General during the first year of the McGreevey administration. He served in Governor Tom Kean’s administration as General Counsel to the NJ Turnpike Authority and as Chairman of the Governor’s Commission on the Laws Governing the University of Medicine and Dentistry (UMDNJ). In the Florio administration, Samson was a member of the Governor’s Commission on Health Care Costs.
Samson was counsel to Christie’s 2009 gubernatorial campaign and Chairman of Christie’s Transition Team. Christie nominated Samson to Chair the Port Authority of New York/New Jersey, a position he has held since February of 2011.
Christie was U.S. Attorney while Samson was State Attorney General. Both of their lives were threatened by the Latin Kings street gang.
Samson is a founding member of the Wolf and Samson law firm. The firm has offices in West Orange, New York and Trenton.
It’s not even close to her turn and she’s not a white male. That’s only two good reasons that Governor Chris Christie should appoint one of New Jersey’s Rising Stars to the U.S. Senate.
Assemblywoman Caroline Casagrande is smart, articulate, conservative and happy. Voters love happy conservatives. Angry conservatives are scary to moderates and Independent voters. Happy conservatives appeal to moderates and Independent voters.
Casagrande’s pro-growth, pro-family, pro-women conservative policy positions belong on the national stage. She could help rebrand the Republican Party with her fellow Penn State alumnus Senator Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire. Imagine that. Two Northeast female Republican U.S. Senators.
Steve Lonegan, a scary angry conservative, has declared he’s running in the Special Republican Primary for U.S. Senate. Lonegan could win a primary against a moderate Jon Bramnick, Tom Kean Jr or Joe Kyrillos. He can’t beat Cory Booker, Frank Pallone or Rush Holt in October.
Bramnick, Kean or Kyrillos are not likely to be able to gear up fast enough to beat Booker in October either.
If Caroline Casagrande were the temporary U.S. Senator, Lonegan would have no philosophical justification to challenge her. None. Republicans best chance of winning the Senate seat in October, and again next November, is if we coalesce behind a conservative woman now.
Casagrande has already caught the eye of many national leaders. Earlier this year she was asked to be on the national leadership team of the Susan B. Anthony List. In 2010 she traveled to Nepal as a delegate of the American Council of Young Political Leaders, a State Department sponsored organization that creates opportunities for the next generation of political leaders. She’s been invited to travel to Israel this summer by the American Jewish Council.
Casagrande would be an out of the box choice. She would appeal to both the conservative and moderate wings of the Party. She would appeal to Independent voters, Reagan Democrats, women and small business owners and employees, i.e., most of the New Jersey electorate. She would be a fresh face that the local and national media would appreciate and cover.
Governor Chris Christie announced this afternoon that there will be a special election to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Frank Lautenberg’s seat for October 16. A primary will be held on August 13.
Christie has not yet decided who he will appoint the to fill the seat until October 16. He said he expects to make the appointment in time for the Senate’s voting session next week.
Christie said he didn’t think it was right that he make an appointment through November 2014.
