As Sharon notes NJ Dems are taking the traditional NJ Dem action: At the first sign of trouble, they circle the firing squad.  This time, it’s Governor Corzine and his budget that they are shooting at.

“I don’t see any enthusiasm for this budget on either side of the aisle,” said State Sen. Wayne Bryant (D., Camden), powerful chairman of the Budget and Appropriations Committee. Corzine should prepare to make some “serious adjustments” before the budget’s approval in June, he said.

According to an article in the Gloucester County Times, some Democrats are breaking ranks to criticize the budget and decry the sales tax hike. State Sen. Stephen Sweeney and Assemblyman John Burzichelli are both looking to scuttle key provisions of this budget:

Two Democrats confirmed lawmakers are looking to pare down Corzine’s $1.8 billion payment into the state pension system, trim his expanded list of items covered by the sales tax and hope for better-than-expected income tax collections in order to avoid a hike.

Hope? Hope for better-than-expected tax collections? That’s a budget strategy? I hate to tell you, folks, but “hope” just doesn’t work as part of a logical, well-thought-out plan for anything. Especially when data just doesn’t back it up; The Office of Legislative Services advised the Assembly Budget Committee last week that they expect New Jersey to take in $186 million less than Corzine estimated over the rest of this fiscal year and the next. So much for hoping for more money to show up in the mailbox- it may be even less.

It’s time for serious solutions, not crossing our fingers.

Even though this isn’t relevant to New Jersey politics.  I was just wondering if there were other people from the blue jersey community planning on attending the Darfur rally in D.C. on April 30th. 

As I wrote earlier, there was about to be a resignation on the Princeton Township Committee. The Princeton Township Democratic Municipal Committee unanimously endorsed a replacement for that position – Chad Goerner. One of Mr. Goerner’s opponents for the replacement, Scott Craver, had sent out a press release blasting the PCDO leadership and removing his name from consideration for the position. Upon hearing that Mr Goerner had received the endorsement, the committee person then reversed course – and decided to not resign, choosing to instead have the party fill the position through a primary.

This Monday was the deadline for submitting petitions to run in the primary. Both Chad Goerner and Scott Carver filed to run, but no Republican in the Township filed.

The county chair, Rich McClellan, had to decide which candidate (if any, or both) to place in the official party column. Princeton Township mayor Phyllis Marchand, among others, lobbied McClellan to place Mr. Carver on the column, despite the fact that the municipal committee unanimously endorsed Chad through an open, democratic process.

Fortunately, Rich McClellan chose to respect the will of the grassroots Democrats in Princeton, who gave Chad a plurality of support in a PCDO endorsement vote and unanimous support in the Princeton Township Municipal Committee, rather than going with the hand-picked successor of a few elected officials. Chad Goerner will be listed as the lone candidate in the official Democratic party column.

The Princeton Community Democratic Organization will host Tom Byrne, former Democratic State Chair, who will discuss New Jersey politics and political bosses on May 21. For more details check out the events calendar.  PCDO meetings are free and open to the public. BlueJersey readers are invited! 

The talk is entitled, “NJ Democratic Party Bosses:  What do they do?  How did they get power?  How do their dealings affect our state’s policies and finances?

Remember when Michael Cino (NJ-5 Republican primary opponent of Scott Garrett) threatened us with a lawsuit for repeating things that were in the press? If you don’t you can read all about it here. And here. And here. And here.

Short story: Cino tried to blackmail Corzine a few years back: ”We have so much dirt on him we can’t decide which to throw out first.” He got upset that we repeated that fact, and threatened to sue. Repeatedly.

That was almost two months ago and I thought they had gotten over it. I was wrong. Earlier today I received more threats of a lawsuit from Cino’s campaign manager in an instant message exchange we had:

miata7: I’m going to request one more time that you pull all those lies off your website  our case is strong  and you think you may be in a strong position but you are not.

me: I’m going to request that the next time you want to contact me, you do so through an attorney. Please do not email or instant message me any more.

miata7: give me your attorneys name
miata7: I will call him and send him a letter

me: you can send it to me. I’ll forward it if I need to.

miata7: Listen man  do yourself a favor  give me your attorney’s name let me talk to him and forward to him the Court cases

me: Don’t assume it’s a man, and I’ll forward it along if I think it’s worth the time. I’m pretty familiar with the case law.

miata7: ok  let me get some info for you
miata7: give me your name and address so I can send it to my attorney

me: (gave name and address)

miata7: send me email  Im going to find this stuff  we have to sue you man  Im sorry  I wish you would just make it simple

me: The next time you contact me by email or IM about this topic, I will block your screen name and add your email to my junk mail filter. If you want to talk about other things, that’s fine. This is the last time I’m going to say this.

miata7: DREAM ON
miata7: Only one “m” in defamatory  we will have the lawyers correct that.

(He has been blocked and added to my spam filter, so unfortunately I probably won’t be able to report on any more of these fun exchanges unless I actually get a letter from an attorney. Stay tuned…)

Poll Hint: It’s not Ann Coulter

Update: Wow. You guys are creative with those tags.

About 400 Trenton High students will skip school tomorrow. The gang problem has gotten so bad that kids are afraid to go to school and parents are afraid to send them.

The presense of the Bloods and Crips gangs has increased recently in the city, and the violence is spreading to nearby towns of Hamilton, Ewing, Lawrenceville and even Princeton. The rival Bloods factions: the Sex Money Murder Bloods and Gangster Killer Bloods have in recent weeks been involved in several murders. Many of these murders occured in broad daylight and some residents are afraid to walk outside now, even during the day.

Recently, a suspected gang member accused of murder got back on the streets after posting $50,000 cash for his $500,000 bail. Mayor Doug Palmer asked “Where’s a guy who doesn’t have a job get $50,000?” Good question. Perhaps the cocaine traffic ring wasn’t completely snuffed out last year.

Attorney General Farber has said she will speed up from 3 years to 4 months the time it takes for shooting cases to go to trial. “It doesn’t work if police arrest people involved in gang and drug violence if they are able to get out of jail in three or four days because they are able to post bail and if it takes two to three years to prosecute their cases,” she said.

That’s a start. Action must be taken – and soon. It’s bad enough that they don’t have enough books, computers or teachers. It’s bad enough they go to school in a run-down building that’s sorely in need of renovation. The least we should provide our children is a place where they can feel safe and learn. They’re already at a disadvantage and have enough challenges to overcome. Survival should not be one of them.