A Week to be Thankful

primaries come first (0.00 / 0)

As long as the bosses of the Senate President and Assembly Speaker are in bed with Governor Christie, I think that standing up to him is going to be very difficult.  I don't think that the media is as biased as it is lazy.  And as long as we have a President who is willing to compromise anything and everything to gain nothing, the GOP is going to continue to overreach.

However, with legislative primary elections only a little more than seven months away and no statewide race at the top of the ballot, the turnout is likely to be low enough for progressives to be able to make a difference if we target antiprogressive Democratic legislators.

Obviously, some districts are going to be changed in the redistricting process, but I don't believe that we can or should wait until that process has been completed before we start thinking about who should be targeted.  As is, we do not have much time.  We cannot afford to lose anymore.

District 1

As conservative as Jeff Van Drew is, I don't foresee a progressive alternative being able to win in a district as conservative as this one and his more moderate Assembly running mates benefit from having him at the top of the ticket.

District 3, 4, 5, and 6

Senators Sweeney, Madden, Norcross, and Beach are the core of the Norcross machine and while Norcross was the only one who was not a Senator when the marriage equality vote was taken, unless someone has a compelling argument to the contrary, I believe that it is safe to assume that he would have voted NO like Madden did or abstained like Sweeney and Beach did.

The complicated aspect of challenging them is their Assembly running mates.  Because former Assembly Speaker Roberts refused to allow the Assembly to vote on the issue of marriage equality, we have no way of knowing which ones would have voted with the rest of the Norcross machine and which ones would have gone against it the way that LD2 Senator Jim Whelan did.

Because it is essential that any Senate challenges be accompanied by a full slate of downticket candidates, I think that Assemblypersons Burzicelli, Riley, Moriarty, Fuentes, Wilson, Greenwald, and Lampitt should be given the opportunity to run on a progressive slate, possibly as a Senate challenger, but I think that it is highly unlikely that any of them would take us up on such an offer.

District 15

Assuming Shirley Turner chooses to run for re-election, I believe that we should reach out to both Assemblypersons Bonnie Watson Coleman and Reed Gusciora to take her on in a primary election.  Both should be primed for an opportunity to move up to the Senate with Watson Coleman passed over for Assembly Speaker in favor of a far less experienced Sheila Oliver and with Reed Gusciora passed over for Assembly Judiciary Committee Chair in favor of anti-choice Peter Barnes III.

District 18

This is definitely a tricky call.  Buono and Diegnan are both very good with Diegnan being an early endorser of Howard Dean's Presidential candidacy in 2003, but the idea of Barnes, who is anti-choice, being Judiciary Committee Chair is pretty onerous.  That said, unless a progressive from Edison like Mitch Manzella or the PCCC's Adam Green came out of the woodwork to challenge Barnes and he had the support of Buono and Diegnan, I think that this would be a far too tough needle to thread.  I am definitely open to being convinced otherwise if someone wants to make an alternative argument.

Districts 28 and 29

Ron Rice Sr. has been a visible and vocal opponent of both marriage equality and needle exchange.  He has also been targeted in the past by both Mayor Booker and machine boss, Steve Adubato, and survived.

I remember that when Assemblyman Ralph Caputo was an Essex County Freeholder, he was the only Democrat on the Board who would listen to our friends at Essex County DFA when they were taking a stand on the voting machine issue.  As much as I would like to see him get the chance to take Rice Sr. down, I don't foresee anybody outside of Newark who can do that, but I could be wrong about this.

The ideal progressive alternative to Rice Sr. is Ron Rice Jr., who has lit up the blogosphere of late by being the lone voice from the City of Newark, including but not limited to its Mayor, Cory Booker, who seems to be in a battle with his good friend, President Obama, over who can piss off more progressives, willing to take on Governor Christie over his proposal to use part of the $100 million that was given to the city by Facebook inventor, Mark Zuckerberg, to fill gaps in state aid.  His exact words were:

Is our Governor on crack? No seriously, is he smoking or drinking something that is illegal or at least detrimental to one's health? He goes on Oprah and touts the 100 million Zuckerberg gift and now argues that it should be used to make up for HIS Abbott dollars cuts to the Newark school district? Chris Christie is insane!!!!

Unfortunately, as much as I would love to see Ron take his Dad on, I am pretty sure that it is not going to happen.

District 29 is to the Adubato machine what the South Jersey districts described above are to the Norcross machine.  In addition to having the Assembly Speaker in his back pocket, Adubato also controls Senator Ruiz and Assemblypersons Coutinho and Spencer.  All 3 should be targeted, but finding candidates in this part of Newark who are willing to take on the Adubato machine will definitely be easier said than done.

Districts 31, 32, and 33

Hudson County is a cesspool.  The only progressive that I am aware of in the entire county is Jersey City Councilman, Steven Fulop, and he is focused solely on running for Mayor.  If there are 9 Fulop allies throughout the county who could be convinced to run for Assembly and Senate in these three districts, it would be wonderful, but probably as unlikely as finding 3 people in LD29 who are willing to take on Steve Adubato's people.

District 34

Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver ran with Leroy Jones and Peter Eagler in 2003 when Jones and the Adubato machine conspired to try to take Nia Gill down after she supported now-Assemblyman Tom Giblin against Adubato's lackey, Joe DiVincenzo in the 2002 County Executive primary election.  I would love to see Gill and Giblin return the favor by running off the line with another Assembly candidate of their own, but I don't foresee that happenning unless the entire Assembly turns on Oliver over the next month or so.

District 35

Draft Jeff Gardner for State Senate.  Nuff said?

District 36

There should be a huge bull's eye on Paul Sarlo's back with both Democrats and Republicans targeting him now that he no longer is protected by former Bergen County bossman, Joe Ferriero.  Assemblyman Gary Schaer is a very conservative Democrat who lobbied both Democrats and Republicans to put him on their ticket when former GOP Assemblyman Paul DiGaetano of Nutley chose to run for Governor in 2005 instead of re-election to the Assembly and would only be deserving of progressive support if he was willing to take Paul Sarlo on in a Senatorial primary election.

Nutley is probably going to be removed from this district during redistricting to prevent DiGaetano from being able to take Sarlo on in the general election.  It will be interesting to see what town will replace it.  My guess is that it will be a Bergen County town since Sarlo is on the legislative redistricting commission and would want to have as much control over the district as possible.

However, if Passaic County Chair, John Currie, wanted to make a play for having another Democratic Senate seat since Bergen County currently has three, he could fight to have Clifton added to the district, which would probably require the removal of one or more of the smaller Bergen County towns.  A progressive Municipal Chair from Hawthorne who may or may not have Currie's ear may want to try to encourage this line of thinking.

If Clifton were added to the district, I would love to see Clifton Municipal Chairwoman, Lauren Murphy, take on Sarlo, Passaic Municipal Chairwoman, Ritzy Moralez, take on Schaer, and a progressive woman from the Bergen County part of the district recruited to run for the other Assembly seat.

---

by: Bertin Lefkovic @ Sat Nov 27, 2010 at 04:01:20 AM UTC