NBC Nightly News took a look at Grio's 100 current history maker and Newark Mayor Cory Booker. Brian Williams sat down for this interview with the Mayor:Here's more of Cory Booker on the Grio's 100 list, whose members they identify as history makers in the making. In the interview with Williams, Booker said he's not going to be one of those Dynastic Mayors that stays in place for 20 years because he doesn't believe it's good for the city. On the race topic, Booker said it's ridiculous to talk about a post racial America. He said we should celebrate that. In closing, Booker said he wants to be in a trench with people as noble or more noble than him doing the work to make America real. You can click on the video to see the interview yourself and if you want, Booker will be streaming his state of the city address live at 6pm tonight.
Updated by Jason: For his part, Angelo believes the article misconstrues his comments where he spoke about concerns being raised in general attributing them to speaking about Adler. He said he would never ascribe that term to the Congressman.
Politico had a story about the DNC Winter meeting held in Washington last Friday and the concerns party leaders have about the climate they are facing. Some of those concerns came from New Jersey:
New Jersey Democratic State Committee Executive Director Rob Angelo lamented that some moderate Democratic elected officials in his state are "freaking out" about being pegged as overly liberal heading into November.
Angelo said after the meeting that he was referring to lawmakers like John Adler, the freshman Democrat from a suburban district in his state.
"Certainly, people are nervous," he said. "The momentum cycle shifts so quickly now."
Some of the concern voiced by party leaders focused on Democrats staying home because of their dissatisfaction. Maybe the Democrats chances would improve and their own people would be more motivated if they could get things done and delivered on some of the promises they have made.The Democrats are going to be left holding the bag because they're "freaking out" rather than governing as they were elected to do. They're reacting to the situation, not leading a path through the tough waters. And they're reacting very poorly at that.
Each week, Blue Jersey Radio streams LIVE with New Jersey's latest political buzz, interviews with newsmakers, and your stimulating calls.
This week: Our guest is Congressman Donald M. Payne, NJ-10, who's not only Newark's long-serving representative, but also the new Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. He'll be talking about the CBC Foundation, what his role will be, and what role it plays in progressive politics. Plus, we'll catch up on his perspective of all that's going on in Washington.
With a great guest like this, it's tough to decide where to start - so help us out. What should we ask the good Congressman?
Drop your questions in the comments, then tune in and join the conversation!
Some parts of SJ are still struggling with the last storm's damage.
Westwood Marine is laid to rest in snowy Arlington Cemetary
Marine Sgt. Christopher Hrbek was killed last month by an explosive device in Afghanistan. Hrbek, whose stepfather and brothers are firefighters, also served three combat tours in Iraq within six years. He had been planning to become a drill sergeant at Parris Island, SC. Rest in peace.
Garden State Equality closes the gay ATM to political parties
Donations will now be only to those politicians who are working for the same things the group is, to avoid situations where its donations filter to politicians working directly against the interests of the people it represents.
After 5-hour grilling, Paula Dow makes it through the Judiciary Committee
Among the issues Christie's AG nominee dealt with Monday was an hour-long discussion with Sen. Nia Gill about former Newark councilwoman Dana Rone, and whether Dow's opposition to removing her from office after her conviction for obstruction of justice was politically motivated. She also went head-to-head with Sen. Nicholas Scutari over a proposal to alleviate witness intimidation.
Also approved by Senate Judiciary Committee, Major General Glenn Rieth, to continue leading the NJ National Guard, a Corzine holdover.
Star Ledger likes the reform to public worker salaries and benefits driven by Christie, but want them to go further to contain rising salaries, and change collective bargaining rules they say tilt toward unions.
NAACP wants Lesniak and Bateman out of the affordable housing reform business
Both Senators, says NAACP, should recuse themselves instead of drafting policy change because both their law firms represent dozens of towns throughout the state. The Senators are prime sponsors of a bill that would dismantle COAH and change the responsibilities town have for creating housing low-income people can afford. NAACP's view of their bill is that it would create more economic and racial segregation. Lesniak flatly denies conflict of interest, and Bateman says his firm benefits from COAH as it iss, and would actually lose business if COAH was ended.
Leonard Lance gets a challenge from the right
"My opponent's family career is government and politics - and my career is windows and doors," says David Larson of Tewksbury. The political neophyte, who raises quarterhorses to supplement his window business, is opening a campaign HQ in Green Brook this week. He's pro-life, "womb-to-tomb", disparages Lance's career & family ties in politics, and he's talking teaparty.
Joe Vas gets a court date
The ex-Assemblyman is facing charges in campaign finance corruption, along with 5 co-defendants. Ah, remember the days when Vas was touted as a reformer? Sigh.
"They understand the importance of executing the blocking and tackling of political campaigns," said National Republican Congressional Committee Communications Director Ken Spain
Huh? I know that politics is a contact sport, but what blocking and tackling will Jon Runyan be doing of John Adler if he wins his party's nomination. There have been successful candidates with a football background like Jack Kemp, Steve Largent, Heath Shuler and JC Watts. But then you also have unsuccessful campaigns like that of Lynn Swann. Runyan's ability to articulate a message, have the resources necessary and connect with the voters will determine his success or failure. Runyan may turn out to be a good candidate, but his ability to block and tackle won't be a factor.
Pointing to the colossal N.J. sting operation in July and the fallout in Hudson, Corzine said that accepting campaign contributions in cash in exchange for favors is highly unacceptable.
"None of this is attractive," Corzine said. "The discussion of it undermines the credibility of government in the public's mind and makes even stronger the argument that we need to take steps to give people assurance that this behavior is going to change."
Pay-to-play, or commercial bribery, gets at defining what might be legal in today's context, but to the public, it looks pretty unethical on any basis, he said.
He also made this observation:
"People need to be very focused on the quality and character of the candidates," Corzine said. "At the end of the day, if somebody wants to cheat, we can probably write the strictest laws in the world and you will still find people circumventing those kinds of challenges."
That would be more convincing if he didn't go out of his way to excuse those who circumvent the law:
Corzine said he feels [Jersey City Mayor] Healy should absolutely not resign based on the available facts. Healy has made his case that he did nothing wrong within the context of the law, he said.
If our reformers excuse people like this, no wonder there's no achievements on the corruption front.
Personally, this is a great thing to see, as the Democratic Party (both on the local, state and national levels) have taken progressives for granted - using us as an ATM (or in this instance as coined by someone who I will certainly credit when I remember, a gAyTM) to elect their candidates because "the other party is worse" but then offering little in the way of real change.
"Better than the alternative" has gotten real old real quick - we have had large majorities as well as the Governorship here in NJ for quite some time now - and a good number of progressive issues and causes have gotten little traction. On the Federal level, this is the same story - first it was "we need a majority", then it was "we need a bigger House majority and 60 Senate seats", and even then it took a shitstorm to even get the repeal of DADT on the agenda.
The Democratic Party (again, here in NJ as well as on a national level) should see this as yet another sign of a wake up call. No longer are progressives happy to work and donate to the party structure only to get pushed aside. The rise of the national netroots has given progressives the ability to donate and promote individual candidates based on views, support of issues or to reward for "going to bat" for progressive causes.
Amazingly, equality is one that has to be pushed for over and over and over again - and is one that is pushed aside or given half-hearted "separate but equal" actions.
National and State Democratic Party leaders should sit up and take notice - the progressive netroots and grassroots has been kicked around for long enough, and has been able to organize in one of the few ways that elected officials react to - money and donations. The tired excuses and lack of support by those who made promises in order to gain support and election will most certainly come back and bite them over time.
It may not be this November, but you can bet this is more of a blueprint for future netroots and grassroots campaigns and less of an aberration. The state and national Democratic Parties can ignore this or write it off, but they do so at their own peril.
From Star Ledger's editorial this morning calling for voting machines that can produce a paper record of the vote, a physical record which can be checked against the tally of the voting machine's computer. Quoting Rep. Rush Holt:
Otherwise, in the words of Rep. Rush Holt (D-12th Dist.), "we have faith-based voting."
LEGISLATIVE UPDATES: Last week I wrote about our several year sojourn to bring the many "shadow governments" in New Jersey (such as the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission) into the sunlight along with veto power for the Governor. But this past week has been really interesting. I've had the opportunity to try to translate into law these very fashionable words, "transparency and accountability." I dropped two new bills to update the almost 20 year old Open Public Meetings Act (known as the Senator Byron Baer Sunshine Law) and the Open Public Records Act which we just named in honor of the late open government advocate, Martin O'Shea. Both laws needed to reflect the technology advances which didn't even exist when they were originally passed. For instance, the new OPMA will prohibit texting and emailing between and among elected officials during business meetings. One councilmember will no longer be able to discuss business with another councilmember on his/her blackberry during a meeting. Among other things, the new OPRA law will allow record requests to be filled by email or fax. By calling attention to these bills, we can help foster a culture that elected officials and record custodians will say "Yes" to the public's requests rather than looking for a reasons to say "No". Everything we do is owned by the public in one way or another, and the public's right to know what we're doing should be paramount.
The Senate Health & Human Services & Senior Service Committee, which I now chair, released a bill sponsored by Senator Bob Gordon and I requiring all hospitals to have public conflict of interest policies for Boards of Trustees which must include rules to govern when a member has a conflict in the awarding of hospital contracts. The bill requires the conflict of interest policy to be published on the hospital's web page and sets very strict parameters for board members. Doug Duchek, the CEO of Englewood Hospital, testified in support of the bill and announced that Englewood does not allow any of its board members to sell goods or services to the hospital. Good idea! Let's keep an eye on this one. I have a feeling that there might be a move to try to undermine its intent.
We also dropped the bill to straighten out that awful initiative law which puts a 10 year moratorium on the petitioning for a local government change to go before the voters. Senator Joseph Vitale of Middlesex joined me in sponsoring this reversal of our "lame duck" mistake which was an anti-democratic attempt to thwart some good government reformers in New Brunswick. I know Senator Theresa Ruiz will also sign on as a co-sponsor. Let's ask Senator Jim Whelan to post this asap in the State Government Committee.
So it's been quite a week capped off with a big birthday celebration for me. (February 6th was also Assemblywoman Bonnie Watson Coleman's birthday - happy birthday, my friend.) Thank you Blue Jersey for headlining my 75th birthday. The celebrations started when a group of my Bergen political women friends planned a great dinner. We drank plenty of wine; told many good political stories about some Bergen luminaries; and had lots of laughs. The next night was dinner out with son and girlfriend. And Sunday I found time to host my annual super bowl gathering. Wednesday, we're going to L.A. for a few days for a big family celebration. So I plan to enjoy every minute of all these parties. It is a little weird, cause the number of these years seems like they should belong to someone else. Life is still so full of more goals to reach; more adventures to share; the enjoyment of love of family and "best friends"; and most of all fun to share with all of them and with you!! Thank you for making it a special time for me. Thank you for helping to ready the next generation of leaders.
