While Republicans approve. From the latest Monmouth poll:
Though Democrats run the Legislature, Democratic voters disapprove of the Legislature's performance, 52-25, while Republicans approve, 49-33.
The Drudgeian headline notwithstanding, this is big news. I can't recall a poll where any legislature, or congress for that matter, has been viewed with disfavor by voters of the party that controls it, while viewed favorably by voters of the opposite party.
This is a power negative indictment of the Sweeney/Oliver leadership and the cabal of political bosses, led by Norcross and Adubato, who control them. It is also a big thumbs down on Christiecrat office holders, such as Joe D and Brian Stack.
This clearly shows that it is not those who have been accused of being "radical leftists" who are out of step with the party, but the Christiecrats. But the Christiecrats have the power, and control the party in Trenton, in south Jersey and in Essex and Hudson counties. Until that power is broken, the view of the majority of Democrats in this state will not be reflected in Trenton.
This is going to be a quick diary because I have another event to run to in less than an hour. However, I will be back tomorrow morning to answer any questions or comments you may have.
First, I am proud to announce that I have been endorsed by Democracy for America. As one of 11 New Jersey candidates chosen, and just 1 of 2 not running for the State Legislature, I am honored and humbled to have received the endorsement of an awesome, forthright progressive organization. I have a picture of myself and Howard Dean from 2004 on my refrigerator; it is my hope that, when I am elected to the Berkeley Heights Township Council on November 8th, I can emulate his tell-it-like-it-is demeanor and open dialogue with his constituents.
My state Senator, Mike Doherty, is endorsing Ron Paul for President today at noon at the State House. The Democrats are staging a little welcome of their own to protest his arrival. No speeches, just a stand that the Tea Party that Ron Paul's candidacy represents is wrong-headed. If you want to join them, find them at Dem state HQ, 194-196 West State Street, Trenton.
I can't go, but I wish I could. If only to spot the misspelled signs that make their appearance at pretty much every Tea Party rally.
Ron Paul is commonly known as the intellectual godfather of the Tea Party movement. Paul, an interesting dude, is often referred to as the intellectual godfather of the Tea Party movement. I don't think Paul is any dummy, but the idea that there's any common understanding that the Tea Party movement has much intellectual heft only proves how nonsensical the idea of a 'liberal media' really is. The Tea Party was conceived and funded by people whose corporate interests directly benefit from the swing in policy the Tea Party proposes. And it's peopled by, well, many of my neighbors here in Hunterdon County. God's country, as the local Democratic Chair loves to remind people.
I have a love-hate relationship with the Tea Party. I like, and am charged-up by the fact that thousands of people who were for the most part non-voters who did not engage much with politics - but of course engaged with their communities all their lives as we all do - were encouraged to jump in. I have to like that; I'm a civic-engagement junkie myself. My appreciation of the movement does not in any way extend to its leaders. The Tea Party was conceived and funded by people whose corporate interests directly benefit from the swing in policy the Tea Party proposes. So, they can go to Hell. And, once they've got their followers hooked (and hook them, they do) they do nothing to encourage their people to think for themselves. Therein lies my strong dislike. I've been to a few big Tea Party gatherings And this brand of scary-assed crap is common.
Mike Doherty is my Senator. For now. Legislative redistricting blessedly lifted me out of his LD-23 and into LD-16. And I agree with Doherty on, I think, only one thing:
I don't think the United States should be the world's policeman. It's bankrupting the country and chewing up a lot of good young men.
Right on, right on. Beyond that, Mike Doherty and I don't have much in common. We won't be supporting the same presidential candidate. And the fact that Doherty doesn't agree with much in Paul's platform but is still aligning himself, has much to do with the fact that Doherty's looking for powerful friends and allies as he considers his next move to challenge Bob Menendez. Of course, Joseph Kyrillos also has that move in mind. And he already has a powerful friend.
So, it looks like this is the end of the road for the on again, off again, on again, off again, doomed-to-fail campaign of former Olympic gold medalist and Willingboro, NJ hometown hero Carl Lewis. On Thursday, 9/22, a three member panel of the the Third Circuit Court of Appeals denied Lewis' eligibility to serve in the State Senate because he does not meet the residency requirements.
I am not a political professional. I am an accountant by trade, and I specialize in auditing. In the course of my work, when about to embark on a audit, the first thing we do is a risk assessment on the area being reviewed. We start by asking, "What can go wrong?". Brainstorm the scenarios from worst case to least bad. From there, we construct our plan.
I would think that a person considering running for political office, or encouraging another to run for office, would do a similar due diligence. I would be wrong.
Apparently, the geniuses in the Democratic party of New Jersey did not bother to do this due diligence when they drafted Mr. Lewis to run for Senate. I was excited about his candidacy and hopeful to see a Democrat take a seat that had historically been Republican. However, when I learned that Lewis, although he has owned homes in Burlington County, New Jersey since 2006, had for the most part lived in California, and voted in California in 2009, my hopes sunk.
Maybe you've seen this already, or read the pullout quote half your constituency has already posted on their facebook.
But maybe you don't realize that what Elizabeth Warren said at a garden-variety campaign house party in Andover, Massachusetts is an infusion of right-thinking lifeblood that can be helpful to you as you speak to voters in your own campaigns, and as you consider how to battle the regressive policies of a GOP-controlled U.S. House of Representatives or a Governor with one eye on the White House.
This is progressive economics clearly and cleanly spoken. It's what we sent you to Washington, and to Trenton, for. Some of you should see this, some of you need to. I hope it inspires you as much as it did me.
What did you see, my brown-eyed Son?
What did you see, my darling young one?
I saw a Red Knight, all covered in Armor,
Charge through a Blue Family, Broken Asunder!
I saw Family moaning, and say What a Headache
With heads all pushed, down in the sand
I saw union clans, counciling caution,
As their ranks were pushed so close to the edge...
And its a hard, Its a Hard
Its a Hard Rain Gonna Fall
(@Jay_Lass: I am hearing very positive preliminary results from the DNC election. This is good news for Babs, pending confirmation by Babs herself. - promoted by Jay Lassiter)
Until 2 years ago, the DNC had never had a member - there are more than 400 across the country - who is a transgender person. In 2009, Babs Casbar Siperstein (yes, Siperstein like the paint company) from Edison, New Jersey & a member of the Blue Jersey community, became the first. Tomorrow, if she wins a party election at the DNC Fall Meeting in Chicago, she will become the first out transgender person ever on the DNC's Executive Committee.
Babs, who has been a Democratic contributor for about 10 years, didn't always feel as accepted in Party circles as she's beginning to now. About the national Dems of past years, she says:
All they knew about 'trans' was baby drag queens. They didn't know. So they needed to be educated. It's 100% better now. Rather than confront or turn people off I tried to engage in a positive way.
As most of you know just by looking around, New Jersey was damaged during Hurricane Irene this weekend. Some communities were hit harder than others. In my neck of the woods, no municipality was hit harder than Spring Lake-- a wealthy resort community. When Mother Nature strikes, she does not know the difference between rich and poor. The boardwalk was destroyed during Irene and unlike many shore towns, Spring Lake cannot rebuild in time for the influx of tourists this weekend.
Unless you're living in a cave and are cut off from the outside world, you probably are aware that a hurricane is coming to New Jersey. The press coverage is relentless, and credit should be given to those reporters who are providing helpful hints on how to deal with the pending disaster.
By all accounts, Irene is predicted to be one of the worst natural disasters to hit New Jersey in a long time. There will be millions of dollars of damage, lots of inconvenience as we are diverted from our daily routine, and, tragically an inevitable loss of life.
The 22 Democrats who broke away from the party and sided with Christie have lost support. What if anything can they do to fix their damaged relationship? The better start clicking their heels together and hope they can get back to the Party by Nov. Check out the new Christie-crat mascot...
http://defenderofthemiddleclas...
This is a little unusual a thing for us to talk about here. We don't usually make ourselves about doing the Democrats' business for them, but this just came across my desk and started throwing sparks.
The White House is looking for interns.
Usually, these kinds of notices go out along infrastructural party lines - Dems email Dems, GOPs call other GOPs. But this notice was forwarded to me by an activist - labor rights & healthcare advocate and Plainfield community activist (Blue Jersey community member) DottieG. And she got it through another activist who is about as hooked in to the infrastructural Democrats as anyone I know personally - Babs Casbar (who blogs here as Babs NJSD). Babs, a businesswoman, climbed into her position in the Democratic Party strictly through her activism on gay and transgender rights. Babs is a former NJ Stonewall Dems president, now Dep. Vice Chair of NJDSC. But nationally, she's also the first transgender person ever appointed to the DNC, and now vice-chairs the Eastern DNC caucus. (She's still the onlytransgender member of the DNC).
So, given that this call for young interns landed in my inbox via these two Jersey girls, I thought - - why shouldn't the call for White House interns - a plum get for any young politico - go through progressive lines and not just party lines?
Want to work at the White House next Spring? Have an accomplished young activist to recommend? Jump and I'll tell you how.
NJ-Can, a newly formed group that is after the mis-leading democratic leadership of New Jersey. The group has a petition to remove Sweeney and Oliver from their leadership posts. Another step will be the push to have Christie recalled from office. Electing people who represent the interests of hardworking N.J. residents by supporting candidates and write-ins is another goal from the group. the idea of getting people INVOLVED is part of their mission statement and I am on board with that!!! www.defenderofthemiddleclass.com
I was supposed to be at this training, talking blogs. I had to cancel because of an accident, so apologies to the Monmouth Dems. I heard great feedback on your training - congratulations. - promoted by Rosi
Sometimes we seem to forget what the State Committee, Elected Officials, and County Leadership can do to build our team, write our playbook and foster our talent. More importantly, we often forget our responsibility as democrats to help ourselves! In Monmouth County we are setting ourselves on a track to implement an aggressive countywide organization with well trained party leadership, elected officials and party activists. On Monday, August 8th State Committee Communications Director (and social-media-guru) Jason Springer, Congressman Pallone and myself joined the Monmouth County Democrats for a a free training on how to use social-media to involve young people in the party, organize around a idea and better communicate our message.
Under Chairman Scudiery's leadership, Monmouth County has hosted a series of free trainings for elected officials, municipal chairs, activists and volunteers. Topics have included an ELEC training, candidates campaign training and advance fundraising. Not only were they free for the people attending, but were held at no cost to the county party.
Back in the spring, I posted a diary about my time in Wisconsin recalling a Republican state senator who voted on a "budget-repair" bill that ended collective bargaining for public employees. I felt then that the chance to be a part of history and participate in a recall. Should things work out today, and the Wisconsin Democrats time things right, I very well might be back in Wisconsin this fall to recall Scott Walker himself.
Democrats were successful in Wisconsin for the first two rounds of the recalls. We successfully filed recall petitions against 6 of 8 eligible Republican state senators and all of the "fake Democrats" lost in the primaries (Wisconsin does not have partisan voter registration). Our ultimate success or failure comes down to today-- election day. If Democrats do not vote, then the Koch brothers get the message loud and clear that they can use their money to tamper with elections. They've funded some dirty tricks in Wisconsin lately, and don't assume that we will not see them in November, as Christie is an ally of theirs.
This is such an interesting coda to the diary I wrote last night. In my read, it's both sad and inspiring. For sure, Joe Lieberman didn't deserve Stephen, who is a candidate for office right now Berkeley Heights Township Council - Rosi
I read Rosi's article on the front page of Blue Jersey with great interest. It was wonderful to see how she and so many NJ-DFA members came up to Connecticut to support a progressive Democrat in Ned Lamont.
However, I have a confession to make: not only was I not among them, but at the time I was trying to help his opponent win renomination. It was a futile effort on my part, and one I now regret.
Five years ago tonight was maybe the best night I ever had in politics. Best victory party ever. Best crashing of the gate. But it didn't happen in New Jersey.
Five years ago, I was in a crowded print shop hastily slapped into a campaign HQ for Ned Lamont's upstart primary challenge to Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman, who functioned - along with others like Rob Andrews of NJ - as a chief propagandist for George Bush's big lie of WMD's in Iraq. This was Bridgeport, Connecticut. I got pulled in by Jim Dean, DFA Chair and brother of founder Howard Dean. The Deans were a study in brotherly self-control. Howard, then-Chair at DNC, couldn't get near endorsing one Dem over another, but he had just run for President on the same anti-War platform 2 years earlier. Jim was all-in. So was DFA.
Bridgeport Lamont HQ was an undulating mosaic of open laptops, pizza boxes and water bottles, TV cameramen stepping over canvassers on 10-minute break, and people speaking in half-sentence shorthand. DFA signs everywhere, SEIU's purple bus parked outside. A woman came over to yell me back onto the phone bank. But one of the CT bloggers told her that every time I got on my computer, New Jerseyans piled into cars pointed at the Nutmeg State (one of those was future NJ Senate candidate, and my DFA compatriot Jeff Gardner).
Yesterday I had the pleasure of catching up with one of the best public servants New Jersey has ever produced.
He is not well-known even in Democratic circles, let alone the state of New Jersey, and he last served in public office when Leonid Brezhnev was Premier of the USSR.
Frank Herbert, however is definitely not someone to forget, particularly if you're a New Jersey Democrat or - even more so - a progressive.
You see, Frank Herbert did 2 things that New Jerseyans and progressives should forever be grateful for:
1) He pushed for and got the Legislature to pass the law that created New Jersey Transit, a system that provides business and social lifelines for hundreds of thousands of our residents.
2) He is the only candidate in New Jersey history to win a Federal election as a write-in candidate. In doing so, he saved the Democratic Party from nominating a Holocaust-denying, KKK-loving extremist.
22,439 people were arrested in New Jersey for possessing less than 50 grams* of cannabis in 2009.
FreedomIsGreen.Com, a local blog devoted to advancing more enlightened cannabis policy in New Jersey is reporting an an intriguing new bill on the Assembly docket that would decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana in the Garden State.
The bill, which already has 18 co-sponsors (5 from the GOP) was introduced by Assemblymen Reed Gusciora (D-Mercer) and Michael Patrick Carroll (R-Morris), the same bi-partisan duo that introduced the state's nascent medical marijuana law.
The title of this piece is contradictory. After all, it in and of itself, is a generalization.
But I'll still go out on a limb and make a generalization - In any of New Jersey's 40 legislative districts it is better to elect a Democrat than to elect a Republican in the upcoming election.
The Tea Party GOP is fond of citing the concept of American Exceptionalism as justification for everything from prioritizing war over diplomacy to cutting taxes for the wealthy. Arguably, the twentieth century was, indeed, the century of American Exceptionalism.
In that century, we fought and won the War to End All Wars, and followed it up with the development and deployment of weapons of mass destruction to end the next war.
In the twentieth century, America exploited the fruits of the Industrial Revolution, developing a manufacturing economy that paid decent wages thanks to regulation and strong unions. We eradicated the scourges of yellow fever and polio and put a man on the moon. Not only did we win the space race, but we also won the Cold War, thanks in part to the Soviet Union's draining their resources on an ill-advised war in Afghanistan. We developed an educational system with institutions from pre-school to post-graduate that attracted people from all over the world. We invented the transistor and the Internet and made Silicon Valley an engine of growth, opportunity, and prosperity.
The common thread that ties this success story together is government. Government grants for education boosted innovation. Government regulation on fuel economy, the environment, and workplace safety were catalysts for economic growth. Government research and development grants to spur innovation helped a few large corporations and spawned thousands of small ones. Millions of Americans were able to realize the dream of home ownership.
