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.
What would happen if a left leaning group forced all Democrats to sign a pledge to push for marriage equality, single payer healthcare like "Medicare for all", a tax rate of 60% on all income over $2,000,000 or free pre-school education for anyone anywhere? And what would happen if that group ran primaries against every single Democrat whose agenda wasn't precisely in line with that pledge - regardless of what the political climate was, what their constituents wanted or more important, ran against the United States (or State) Constitution that they swore to support and defend?
Well, this is precisely what the Republican Party is doing with Grover Norquist and his "tax pledge". Here in New Jersey, every single Republican member of Congress (and one Democrat) has signed this pledge - regardless of the fact that tax cuts for the wealthy don't create jobs and kill the economy. At a time when faux "patriotism™" has taken over the right wing, it is simply amazing that all but seven Republican Representatives and all but seven Republican Senators have publically pledged allegiance and sworn their loyalty to a special interest group whose purpose has been proven time and time again to hurt America and stifle the economy.
Like many of you, there are times when I get very, very frustrated with the leaders of my own party. I see the New Jersey Democratic leaders abandon their working-class base; I see the President capitulate more to the Tea Baggers than to liberal base in debt ceiling negotiations. And I get more than a little annoyed...
It's times like this that I am glad to remind myself of why I am a Democrat:
The idea that this country would even consider cutting funding to higher education in the middle of a severe economic downturn is simply insane. Over 8.5 million students received Pell Grants last year; more than 3/4 of the students came from families making below $30,000 a year. These grants are their ticket to stability and economic prosperity - which will, in turn, help our economy and reduce the deficit.
Impressive young people like Victor Sanchez here cannot do this on their own. They are not asking for a handout; they're asking us to make an investment that will pay for itself many times over.
Democrats get this; Republicans don't. As frustrated as I can get, there is clearly no comparison between the two parties. And this is why I remain a loyal donkey.
On Monday, Max Pizarro wrote a post about the Democratic Party's veto override votes, quoting pollster Patrick Murray in indicating that this was mainly to get the Republicans (and Christie) on record for supporting draconian cuts to funding that would help New Jerseyans all across the state in need.
Now, I agree that this was a big reason for what some are calling "kabuki theater" - given that the New Jersey Governor has the power of a line item veto, more power (in general) than many other states afford their Governors, a state Republican Party that has consistently fallen in line with what this particular Governor wants, and this particular Governor who has consistently acted in a confrontational and belligerent manner when it comes to supporting those who support him and punishing those who don't.
I also agree that it was a necessary step - one that should have been done last year as well as opposed to Senate President Sweeney delivering a handful of Democratic votes for a budget that Christie crafted, instead of acting as the leader of the Party in charge of the Senate and crafting their own budget. And I also agree that it was fairly obvious that (1) Christie was going to veto these items, (2) an override vote would (and should) be held, and (3) the vote would fail. This is not a shock. The fact that anyone would be shocked at the outcome is really the shock here.
I've also seen a lot of criticism hurled at Sweeney for not negotiating the budget items (either before or after) the odious pension and benefit bill that he shephered through. And to me - that isn't the issue. Quite honestly, I doubt that the budget items or the pension/benefit bill would be something that Sweeney and the Legislative Democrats would go to the mat on if Christie refused to negotiate, so I don't know that would have worked.
But what would have worked is not bringing those bills to the floor in the first place - something that I doubt would have been voted on or passed if Dick Codey was still Senate President, for example.
That being said, this is a time where the State Democratic Party needs to figure out what their plan is - what is next. They came up with a budget and didn't get many of the things that are sorely needed. They passed a millionaire's tax that was vetoed. They have seen very clearly that the State Republican Party will obstruct, bloviate and talk out of both sides of their mouths, so there will be little to no help there. They have also been saddled with the actions of their elected and unelected leaders - Sweeney, Oliver, Adubato, Norcross and a revolving door of a few Democrats who are good on most issues but detrimental on a few big issues.
In short - the State Democratic Party (even down to a local level, as Bergen County is at a similar crossroads, but for different reasons) needs to look inward, find out what they are all about, what they stand for, who they represent and what their way forward is. Because at this point, they have a very uphill battle - both legislatively and in regaining the trust of many New Jerseyans.
We don't always talk about our ads. And we take ads from all kinds of businesses, campaigns, issue groups, and candidates. (Want to talk advertising?)
But this one is a little different. PCCC - that's Progressive Change Campaign Committee - is run by AdamGreen, a friend of some of ours here, and the former Communications Director of the state Democratic Party. PCCC's pretty alert to what's been going down in New Jersey since the dealmaking that led to the intentional weakening of public worker bargaining, and the fractures this produced in the Democratic Party. And they put their campaign together partly in intel from Blue Jersey.
PCCC's looking down the line at 2013, and looking for your name on a petition seeking support for a better candidate than Sweeney when it comes time for Democrats to choose a candidate for Governor.
We're now watching, sadly, a perfect example of how the game of government is played in the United States. It follows a standard pattern that is repeated over and over again, and yet the Democrats don't seem to get it.
Step 1: The Republican claim there is an armageddon coming if we don't solve some non-threatening or non-vital problem that offends their partisan positions. In this case it was the fact that workers for the state and local governments in New Jersey were getting paid a good wage and solid benefits package for doing their jobs.
Step 2: Some idiot Democrat decides that the best way to seem like a "serious thinker" and "bipartisan reach across the aisle" statesman takes up the mantle and starts hammering the issue. Nationally this is Joe Lieberman's job. Here at home we have Steve Sweeney and the Adubatos.
Step 3: The media lauds the aforementioned idiot Democrat for being serious, and the GOP moves the goalposts even farther right. The idiot Democrat follows in the hopes of more plaudits. In this case, legislation to cut pensions and benefits without even attempting to go to the bargaining table.
Step 4: The entire Republican caucus votes to support the now far right bill, along with the idiot Democrat and some of his fellow suckers. The bill becomes law, and the media lauds all these Republicans and Democratic suckers heroes of the world! See pension and benefits bill.
Step 5: The Democratic suckers come up with a simple and positive plan that will do something good, and look forward to Republicans following through with good will from the bipartisan reach-around they just had. At the least the Republicans will leave something for the Dems! In this case, the Dems put up a budget more than $3 billion less than the 2006 budget, which included items that would help make New Jersey healthier and more successful. Sweeney expected Christie to at least negotiate (ha, we don't bargain anymore, Steve!) any line item vetoes.
Step 6: The Republicans pull a switcheroo, and refuse to even consider the Democratic suckers program, providing no bipartisan cover and slapping Democrats around publicly. In this case the abuse lamped on the budget, and Christie's abusive and arrogant use of the line item veto to take out pretty much any dollar that helps people.
Step 7: The Democratic suckers are shocked, shocked that the Republicans could be so cold and callous. The Democratic suckers cry foul, and suggest that they were betrayed. See Sweeney with NJ.com and Adubato.
Step 8: The Democratic suckers can't believe that their base, working class and liberal Democrats, are mad at them and not the Republicans. It's the GOP that was mendacious -- the Democratic suckers were innocent dupes of those meanies. See FirstAmend07.
Step 9: There is no step 9. The Democratic suckers just forget that steps 1-8 happened and then line up to get screwed over again on the next issue. Wait a few months and we'll see what that is.
We have 2 Quotes of the Day today, both from Rachel Maddow's commentary last night, on Sweeney, in a segment called Democrats Doing it wrong in New Jersey. The first laments NJ's sad-assed Democratic performance of the last few weeks, compared to a more heroic midwest state:
New Jersey, you are not Wisconsin.
And as for Christie punking Sweeney and the block of Dems who voted with him, and his 'fightin' words' about Christie after that, Maddow says this:
The time for fighting, generally, is between the opening bell and the closing one. You can fight and win, you can fight and lose but lose forward like Wisconsin Democrats did, fighting like hell and thereby inspiring the people that they fight for. But if you instead assume the fetal position during the fight (inaudible) and then come up fighting once it's all over, the technical term for that is "too late". On union rights or on any of what are supposed to be core Democratic Party principles, if you surrender and you still get beaten up, you're doing it wrong.
Here's the video:
Couldn't scrub the short ad. Just deal with it. Vid clocks in at 8:01, with what's behind the Minnesota budget. shut-down leading, the fight for right in Wisconsin, and the failure to fight for right in NJ. Want to skip right to NJ? Skip to the 4:55 mark.
Last week was depressing. On Thursday night, I sat in the New Jersey State Assembly chamber for over 12 hours to witness Chris Christie's greatest political victory in his disastrous reign as our governor.
No doubt, he will continue to brag about his "leadership" ability and the "bipartisan" support he got for the stripping of collective bargaining rights from state workers.
I watched as assembly members I like and admire, people like Lou Greenwald, Pam Lampitt, and Herb Conaway, voted to affirm the path taken not only by Chris Christie, but also Scott Walker, Rick Scott, Rick Snyder, and others of their ilk.
Public workers, meet your betrayers. Here, for your future reference, are the names of the Democratic legislators who sold you, the middle class public workers of NJ, out in the name of phony "reform."
Over the next few weeks, Blue Jersey will be taking a long, hard look at the careers of these folks - stay tuned.
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