As someone raised in New Jersey Bill Mahr was obviously influenced by our "politics".
The commentary below is clearly directed at the national situation......but, I dare say it applies mightily right here in our little state......especially if you look at our congressional delegation, legislature, governor and pretty much all of our elected county and local officials. They are bought and paid for by the folks with the cash....and it's pretty much, perfectly legal!
I say the Democratic party needs to be taken over by he actual PEOPLE......and let the Republicans have the votes and the money from the corporations!
The purpose of human life surely can't be to simply do what's good for corporations, can it? They are a legal formality designed to serve the common good. What we have now is a system of toxic malignancies destroying democracy and raping the body politic.
"Some very good Democrats stood up and supported this issue on the floor of the senate," said Wisniewski. "To hurl a broadside against the one party that stood up for this and say the effort wasn't good enough is throwing the baby out with the bath water."
Um, no it's not. It's not anything like that. There are no babies being thrown out here. As a clever friend put it on hearing the Chair's statement:
No, they are taking the baby out of the cold, slimy, dirty bath water and then giving it a big, warm hug with a fluffy nice towel.
The baby is the group of legislators who stood up for civil rights and equality.
The cold, slimy, dirty bath water is the party organization that refused to stand up for civil rights and equality.
What the Wiz should have said was "I understand where they're coming from." Or "we're going to continue to work to earn the support of all our members." Or even "I hope in time they'll reconsider their decision." Nope. None of the above.
Instead, he went on to say simply that "Not all of our members will agree with other members," though I'm not sure what point that's supposed to make. Well, guess what? Not all of your donors will agree with all of your members either. And when they don't, why would they want to give financial support to those members? (Answer: they wouldn't.)
But, they did, and do, and will continue to support the very good Democrats (and others) who stood up and supported this issue on the floor of the senate and elsewhere. It would have been far more productive and encouraging to hear the Chair acknowledge that fact, and to pledge to help heal the still-fresh wounds from the recent legislative loss.
A big tent doesn't just welcome the donations of time, money and support from a diversity of communities. It stands up for all those communities when it matters most, and works its hardest to keep them in the tent.
In discussions with Wall Street executives, Republicans are striving to make the case that they are banks' best hope of preventing President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats from cracking down on Wall Street.
GOP strategists hope to benefit from the reaction to the White House's populist rhetoric and proposals, which range from sharp critiques of bonuses to a tax on big Wall Street banks, caps on executive pay and curbs on business practices deemed too risky.
It includes discussion of an approach to Democratic contributor James Dimon, the chairman and chief executive of J.P. Morgan, who donated to Democrats in the past. The Huffington Post got reaction from Senator Frank Lautenberg:
"Criticism of a group or organization has to be weighed in terms of the total context," he said. "When you see someone like Dimon, who's a pretty outstanding business leader, I can't imagine that he's going to want to be isolated from the Democratic presence. That doesn't bother me."
But isn't arguing that you deserve Wall Street support politically perilous? "I think that's harmful to their interests, but I'm not their doctor," said Lautenberg.
HuffPost clarified that the question was about Democrats fighting for Wall Street support. Isn't that the wrong message? "I don't think so. I think that unless there's some really egregious behavior, I think that they should support us and I think that we should be willing to accept their help," he said.
Not much to say here. Wall Street owns both parties and the elite like it that way. I'm reduced to hoping the big bonuses help close New Jersey's budget gap. I do wonder, though, what would constitute "egregious behavior" towards Wall Street.
There has been a good deal written in the papers in the last few days about the farmland tax break that Jon Runyan is taking advantage of by raising a few donkeys. As I was searching through my computer this past weekend, I realized that's not his only involvement with donkeys.
Back in 2007, the Democrats were trying to take control of my home town, Evesham. Yes we had non-partisan municipal elections at the time, but it was clearly partisan slates of candidates running. Just before the election, I remembered that I attended a fundraiser for the slate of Democrats including Randy Brown, John McKenna and Chris Brown. I also remembered that there were some special guests, including one Jon Runyan and then I found this photo:
That's Runyan and other guests with the eventual winning Democratic ticket. And then there was this photo where he was interviewed while raising money for the Democrats on CSN Philadelphia:
"A big win and a clean sweep for Democrats," said Democratic State Chairman Joseph Cryan.
And Jon Runyan helped to make it happen. So not only does Jon Runyan save money by raising donkeys, he has raised money to help elect them. George Gilmore will not be pleased.
One thing I enjoy reading and writing about is how government and candidates for office are using technology. A story in the NY Times says that Republicans in the House are kicking some serious Democrat donkey butt:
It may have been sort of a counterintuitive thought at one time, but it's become pretty well-established that Republicans on Capitol Hill have embraced Twitter more than Democrats.
But just how much congressional Republicans are out-Tweeting the Democrats may be a bit of a surprise. According to a new study from the public relations firm Fleishman-Hillard, House Republicans have pecked away on Twitter more than five times more frequently than their Democratic counterparts - sending out 29,162 tweets all told through Jan. 3, compared to 5,503 for Democrats.
In New Jersey, @Rep_Albio_Sires and @FrankPallone are our lone members on twitter in the House. @SenatorMenendez uses twitter from our Senate delegation, but the GOP clearly has more members utilizing the medium to communicate:
The study also found that about two-thirds of Congress' 132 active Tweeters are Republicans.
But what type of communicating they are doing offers the caveat to these numbers:
Many congressional Twitter users don't follow others or reTweet items, Mr. Senak said in an interview. "It can be more like one-way communication, which is not really what Twitter was designed for," he said. Mr. Senak, who writes a blog about the F.D.A., said curiosity about how lawmakers were discussing health care was a major reason he started the Twitter study.
If they're not utilizing the medium to create a dialogue, they're not getting the complete potential. See Cory Booker for an example of how you can harness the power of social media. But on top of that, it's troubling that our leaders aren't embracing new opportunities to interact with their consituents. I know it's hard to convey public policy in 140 characters, but if you use more words no one listens, are you better off passing up the opportunity at a captive audience? If you are on twitter, even though your member of Congress may not be, you can find and follow us @BlueJersey
Attorney General Anne Milgram announced that five more people, including a freeholder who is the husband of State Senator Teresa Ruiz, were indicted today for election fraud in connection with absentee ballots they collected and submitted as workers for Ruiz's 2007 campaign for the New Jersey Senate in the 29th District. Five other campaign workers for Ruiz were charged in four prior indictments...
According to Director Gramiccioni, Gonzalez, Caceres, Kowalski, Fernandez and Cruz are charged with tampering with documentation for messenger ballots, which are absentee ballots intended for use by homebound voters. They are charged with fraudulently submitting such ballots as votes in the Nov. 6, 2007 general election. The charges stem from an ongoing investigation by the Division of Criminal Justice Corruption Bureau and the Essex County Prosecutor's Office Corruption Unit.
"We charge that these campaign workers fraudulently submitted absentee ballots on behalf of residents who never received the ballots or had an opportunity to cast their votes," said Attorney General Milgram. "Election fraud is a serious crime, particularly when voters are disenfranchised."
It's an article of faith in the national progressive blogs I read that there is little or no real election fraud, and while their belief that Republicans are out to suppress votes might well be correct as far as I know, New Jersey is proving to me that there is real fraud. This is the third case of Democrats cheating with absentee ballots in recent years that I remember: The Penns Grove primary, the Atlantic City primary, and now a general election.
The good news is that these (alleged) criminals were caught (and charges brought by a Democratic-appointed Attorney General), but it seems to me that this is worst kind of corruption and law-breaking there is. However imperfect our campaigns are, they provide the ultimate check on incompetence and corruption in our political class. Unfortunately, while these people were caught, I have to believe this is going on elsewhere. Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is a trend.
Wow. What an election. The Statehouse. The Freeholder Boards. The Borough Halls. Across the State and across the board, Democrats lost big at the ballot box as New Jerseyans voted overwhelmingly for change.
This is particularly true here in Bergen County, where we Democrats are still trying to make sense of it all. Why did it happen? What are the implications? What should we do next?
It had nothing to do with Barack Obama or events in Washington. It had everything to do with the economy, corruption and Jon Corzine.
That the Democrats only lost one seat in the Assembly is testament to the fact that it was not a general anti-Democratic election. Corzine was never overwhelmingly popular in the state. He beat Franks for the senate seat by only 3%, while Gore was winning the state by 17%. He won the governor's race in 2005 by a comfortable, although not overwhelming margin. Things he did in office, such as the Turnpike proposal, the Carla Katz business, and his alienation of state workers, only made things worse for him.
As I've said many times, the party would have been better off with Dick Codey in '05, and again this year. Corzine was a better senator than governor.
The economy was certainly a factor, and cannot be blamed on Corzine. But he was governor when it hit. That's politics.
The corruption in New Jersey, particularly in the state senate, and particularly involving several Democrats, did not help. The state senate needs to be reformed. And the bossism in places like Camden and Essex counties did not help.
All this, I believe contributed to a low turnout. Corzine was killed in Ocean and Monmouth counties, and that was where turnout was heaviest. He actually held his own in Bergen, but apparently lost Middlesex, which says alot.
We need to move on, and prepare for what could be a challenging legislative election in 2011, after redistricting. Democrats might actually benefit from not having one of their own in the governor's office. And we need to start considering candidates to run against Christie in 2013. Codey's age, and the fact that he may be deposed by the bosses, might count him out. But that's a discussion for another day.
The final numbers on registered voters eligible to cast ballots in Tuesday's election show 1,766,669 New Jerseyans list themselves as Democrats and 1,061,899 signed up as Republicans. Another 2,393,679 consider themselves as unaffiliated and 2,633 are registered under other parties.
Nearly half of the registered voters are unaffiliated. The total number of registered voters at 5.22 million this year is down from 5.33 million last year for the Presidential election. Many of those people that are registered have either requested to vote early or already cast their ballot:
100,770 of those registered have already voted by mail, state Secretary of State Nina Mitchell Wells said as she announced the figures Friday at Rutgers University in New Brunswick. She said county clerks had issued 179,142 Vote by Mail ballots as of Thursday.
Here is what the Division of Elections had to say about people still wanting to use a vote-by-mail ballot:
"There is still time to apply for and vote using a vote-by-mail ballot, however, you must complete the application and return the voted ballot in person because the deadline for mailed applications has passed," said Robert Giles, director of the Division of Elections. "Registered voters may apply for a vote-by-mail ballot in person with a county clerk until 3 p.m. on Monday, November 2. To be accepted, all vote-by-mail ballots must be returned to your county Board of Election by 8 p.m. on Tuesday, November 3 (Election Day)."
The key will be who turns out comes Tuesday. We're in the heart of the Get Out the Vote operations for these campaigns, what are you doing to help make sure everyone casts their ballot.
Former Vice President Al Gore will speak at the Democratic State Conference in Atlantic City on Friday, Sept. 25, at the dinner honoring Governor Jon Corzine.
The conference is Thursday, Sept. 24 - Saturday, Sept. 26, at Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City.
Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joseph Ferriero, under indictment on federal corruption charges, will resign on January 22, and has called a special election to pick a successor. Ferriero says he is ending his leave of absence effective immediately so that he can help raise money for the party's January 17 fundraising event.
---snip---
Ferriero says that while he had "strenuous disagreements with a few members of the party including (State Sen.) Loretta Weinberg and (U.S. Rep.) Steve Rothman," he said "we are all Democrats that want what is in the best interest of the party."
He's also calling for a special county committee meeting on January 22 and a special election for his successor. What is interesting is that earlier today, the Record noted that Buzzy Dressel and Loretta Weinberg were not too thrilled with the idea of Michael Kasparian (who has close and longstanding ties to Ferriero) being elected as the next BCDO Chariman.
While I am not sure that there is as strong of an overall dissent as the Record noted earlier - especially because I have no idea whether this includes or is in addition to the Real Bergen Democrats - we will now at least know the outcome in a few weeks.
As I've been pretty vocal about what a dragged out process would lead to in terms of morale and potential electoral disaster, Ferriero's statement points out that doing what is right for the party is the most important thing. He may very well be found not guilty. But guilt or innocence should have no bearing on what the overall process would do to tarnish the Democratic Party's image here in an area that the Party is making some good gains.
I'm sure committee members will quickly support one of the two (or maybe more) candidates, and things will get pretty tense before the 22nd. As it should, because the future direction as well as the reputation of the BCDO is at stake here - which could very well have an impact on the Gubernatorial race in addition to the local races.
It's been a long journey for those of us on Barack Obama's historic campaign, and it's been a privilege to serve as Co-Chair of his New Jersey State Campaign.
Together, we are all going to bring the change our families need at the polls today. I just wanted to share with you a short video we've put together which highlights the road we've taken.
This promises to be an historic night. And I hope you will join us at 8 p.m. at the Liberty House this evening for a Victory Party. The party will be at 82 Audrey Zapp Drive in Jersey City.
If you haven't already voted for Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Frank Lautenberg you still have time. The polls close at 8 pm. If you've already voted, please reach out to your friends, family and neighbors and remind them to do the same and vote for the entire Democratic Team.
Apparently there is a bit of an enthusiasm gap in Somerset County. The main Democratic campaign office in Martinsville is packed, every identified voter in the county has been lit dropped, people are on every phone reminding people to vote, and they are actually working to find things for the overflow volunteers to do.
Word is that the Republican office has less than a half dozen people, and the parking lot in front of the Lance office is nearly empty.
Courtesy of a NJ Democratic State Committee Press Release:
This year, we have 556,000 newly-registered Democratic voters; an unprecedented surge fueled by anti-Bush sentiment, pro-Democrat support, Obama enthusiasm, young voters and the growing recognition of the importance of the election.
The partisan advantage in New Jersey is now totals 1.6 million Democrats to less than 1 million Republicans. Last year, the party split was 1 million Democrats to 830,000 Republicans.
Democrats now have the voter-registration advantage in 15 counties to 6 counties for the GOP. Last year, the split was 11 to 10 in favor of Democrats
The ongoing ratio of new party registrations is Three To One in favor of Democrats.
Let's hope these numbers help candidates up and down the ballot on Election Day.
Securing the votes in Congress to pass real immigration solutions into law isn't going to be easy. The next President - no matter who wins - will need to lead his own party first to get it done.
But Terry was born on December 7th, 1999. He has never NOT KNOWN a time when George W. Bush wasn't President.
And we've been sitting on the couch after Adam gets home from work, watching the DVR playback of the convention highlights... both of us WEEPING LIKE CHILDREN. Holding hands, looking at each other occasionally, realising that we LOST OUR GODDAMNED COUNTRY when they stole that election... and we knew it, we knew we knew it, but we DIDN'T KNOW what we didn't know.
Oh, we railed, we thundered at the television, we shushed each other because the baby was sleeping, then we'd go out to the patio and whisper-shout at the heavens at the INJUSTICE of it all...
But we just DIDN'T REALISE what would happen -- HOW COULD WE???
And we sit on the couch watching this Democratic Convention...
A case study for New Jersey municipalities - promoted by Hopeful
Even if you live in a different part of the state, what has been happening in Cherry Hill is probably connected in some respects to your own local government and municipalities. Indulge me, North and Central Jersey readers, and tell me if this isn't also the current story of Toms River, Freehold, Hamilton, and several such townships, as well as a past story for Jersey City, Newark, and other urban areas. The problems that face Cherry Hill, and the role of the progressive movement in providing possible solutions, has relevance in such statewide cities and towns. Many Blue Jersey posters either live in or near Cherry Hill, too.
OK, first of all it's weird to have Republicans in control of South Plainfield. The town is solidly Democratic, but the Rs won on the old anti-tax message like they usually do.
A standing-room-only crowd spilled out of the entrance to the council chambers Tuesday night at borough hall as citizens, municipal employees and even Boy Scouts awaited their chance to address the council and probe its proposed tax increase. ...
Republicans maintained that a $100 tax increase for the average homeowner would keep the borough on firm financial footing during shaky economic times. Democrats left still believing that the GOP plan was too great a tax increase, settled on too quickly.
Republicans call to increase taxes, Democrats call for lower taxes.
The whole world is turned upside down and backwards.
From the way Republican State Senator Gerald "Gerry" Cardinale (the leading obstructionist in New Jersey's legislature) talks about ethics, you'd think he was a spotless, blameless white knight of New Jersey politics. After all, he chaired the Ethics Committee in Trenton when the Republicans ruled the roost, and is on record as saying "I can't be bought with a trip". Furthermore, Cardinale has ceaselessly railed against New Jersey's Democratic Party, blaming Governor Corzine, State Senate President Codey, Speaker Roberts and numerous government officials for New Jersey's problems. The real "problem", though is with hypocrites like Gerry Cardinale, who will say and do anything for a vote - or a free vacation. As the old saying goes, "People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones", and this axiom is true for Cardinale.
