What a difference a venue makes. When I covered the LD-16 legislative debate in Princeton a few weeks ago, they embraced transparency and allowed audio and video recording. At tonight’s LD-7 debate, no such recording was allowed. Both debates were run by the League of Women Voters, but I have a hunch that tonight’s no-recording policy was determined by the candidates of one of the parties. So I’ll have to report the old fashioned way, by using words instead of electrons.
Driving up to the school in Moorestown where the debate was being held, I was amazed to see the lawn littered with the GOP’s Orwellian yard signs on school property. The debate itself was very predictable with few surprises, and the Burlington County Times’ Dave Levinsky’s article summarizes it pretty well.
Certainly it can’t be the fact that we perennially elect Republican Diane Allen to the state senate. While once touted as a “moderate” Republican, Allen has put political expediency ahead of doing what’s right by joining Governor Christie in his war on women’s health care.
Certainly it can’t be the fact that we perennially elect Democratic Assemblyman Herb Conaway, who voted with the Governor’s politburo to strip collective bargaining rights from public workers.
Certainly it can’t be due to redistricting which took blue-collar Pennsauken out of the district and replaced it with Moorestown, where electing a Democrat occurs less often than appearances of Halley’s Comet.
Just because a district elects Democrats to some offices does not make it "left-leaning."
The Inquirer’s reporting on the races is detailed and informative. But throwing around terms like “left–leaning” for this Burlington County district that elects Republicans and Conservadems is just sloppy reporting.
This went up just before the weekend news roundup, so I'm pulling it up top for those who missed it. - Rosi
Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno may have been successful in denying the voters of the Eighth Legislative District a choice in their next state senator, but former candidate and nine time Olympic Gold Medal winner Carl Lewis still has his oar in the water (sorry for the mixed metaphor!) of New Jersey politics.
Blue Jersey caught up with the World's Fastest Man at a GOTV rally last night in Willingboro. Our interview is below. Carl Lewis explains why he's not a politician, he excoriates 7th District Senator Diane Allen for her politically-motivated vote against women, correlates the Occupy Movement with New Jersey politics, and explains why voting is important. Below the fold is a video of Lewis' remarks to the crowd.
“People, Not Politics.” That’s the tag line on the yard signs for the GOP candidates in the 7th Legislative District. And it’s about as misleading as Fox’s tag line, “Fair and Balanced.”
I’ve written before about how the head of the ticket, Senator Diane Allen, puts politics before people. Her silence during the Senate debate on women’s health care and her failure to vote to override the governor’s veto were clearly political and not in the best interests of the people of Burlington County. This course of action flies in the face of her past record of independence from the party hacks, but it seems that she has transformed into just another Republican who votes lock step with their Tea Party leaders. Putting politics ahead of people was also her choice in supporting the governor’s paean to the Koch brothers by promoting increases in respiratory diseases with the withdrawal from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
As bad as that is, her running mates are even more anti-people and pro-politics. Mount Laurel Mayor Jim Keenan, who flip-flopped on his position on the 2% property tax cap (perhaps under the influence of Trenton politicians?) is not in favor of allowing two people who are in love to marry. He and his running mate, businessman Chris Halgas, are strongly committed to marriage discrimination. Both subscribe to the failed premise that tax cuts promote jobs, thus putting corporations in front of people on their priority list. And I suppose their slogan is accurate if you consider the subset of people who are millionaires. All three support tax breaks for the wealthy while cutting services to the other 99%.
Allen, Keenan, and Halgas are certainly entitled to campaign on whatever platform their political masters gin up for them. But don’t give the voters Orwellian Doublespeak when you frame this pro-wealthy anti-middle class agenda as “People, Not Politics.”
John F. Kennedy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book Profiles in Courage documents the actions of eight politicians who had the chutzpah to speak out about what they thought was right, bucking the contemporary conventional wisdom and often at odds with their party. It’s too bad Senator Diane Allen didn’t emulate the heroes in this book.
Senator Allen, a long-time advocate for women’s health, opted to abandon her commitment and did not support overriding the governor’s veto that shut off funding for this important service.
Right off the bat, let’s establish that the amount of money that would have been allocated to women’s health is small. The governor’s veto shut off $7.5 million, or about 2½ hundredths of one percent of the budget, or stated differently, about 88 cents per New Jersey citizen.Peanuts in comparison to the billion dollars the governor threw away on the ARC tunnel or the $400 million he squandered on the Race to the Top debacle. This veto was not done for fiscal responsibility; it was done to placate the misogynistic Tea Party.
In a profile by Maya Rao of Senator Allen that appeared in this weekend’s Philadelphia Inquirer, the headline claims that this debate “puts some female GOP lawmakers in a tough position.” Rao quotes Allen saying this “was my mini-protest.”
I’m sorry, Senator. This was not a protest. It was a cop-out.
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.
A few weeks ago, I sat through some long and grueling sessions of the New Jersey Senate as the Democrats tried unsuccessfully to override Governor Christie's draconian vetoes. While millionaires enjoy an exemption from the Shared Sacrifice mantra, Christie cut essential services like support for blind children, legal help to the indigent, and seniors' assistance.
During the two days of Senate deliberations, most of the senators spoke up and stated their positions. The Democrats presented heart wrenching stories about constituents who would be harmed by the Governor's cuts while the Republicans tried to justify not using the small surplus in the 2012 budget to fund these programs, many of which had relatively small dollar costs.
Diane Allen just blew through a considerable amount of the goodwill and community support rightly extended to her while she battled cancer. How'd she do that? She sat for two days of tough and unpleasant veto override discussions ... and did absolutely nothing. She didn't vote in lockstep with Gov. Christie, as her colleagues did. She didn't vote at all. She sat there for two full days, not engaging. Staring at the screen of her laptop (I'm not kidding) and avoiding eye contact. Abstaining (counts as "no"). Allen - one of 4 co-chairs, along with Loretta Weinberg, of the Women's Legislative Caucus. Allen - who's flip-flopped before, giving up low-income Jersey girls when her rich, white, male governor yanked her home. Allen - cancer survivor, whose inaction widens the crack for other women with cancer to fall through. And, I might add, a woman who knows better, letting Sen. Cardinale claim Planned Parenthood promotes child prostitution, and saying nothing.
And that, as my father used to say, is chickenshit.
Allen deserves to lose the respect of her colleagues in both parties in the Senate, and women in her District should know the votes she sat through. While Diane Allen was battling cancer, her seat in the Senate was held for her for all the months she couldn't show up. And her colleagues, constituents, and anybody who covers NJ politics (including us) held a quiet vigil, hoping for the best health outcome. People were pulling for her, and she deserved nothing less.
But among the votes Allen Farmvilled through (or whatev) was Weinberg's "determined effort" to overturn Christie's de-funding of family planning & women's health clinics that would in turn then be eligible for 9-1 matching funds from the federal government. A return of $67.5 million on an input of $7.5 million. Not much of what Allen eventually said about her 2 days of Clarence Thomasing makes sense. Her statement to politickernj is baffling, as was her statement today, at the end.
If Diane Allen's chief concern is that New Jersey's broke, she contradicts herself, going along with the governor's pissing away $67.5M in health care dollars. I'm surprised at Allen, a prime sponsor of the Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights. A sometimes-ally. But that doesn't excuse this.
Allen, you should know, gets health care on your dime - the same that state workers get. But you won't hear her complain about that.
Allen is the beneficiary of excellenthealth care and the best screening for her tough oral cancer that money can buy. And Allen let slide health care for women with none of the privileges and deference she enjoys, and a standard of living far below what NJ taxpayers help Allen to live at. Planning to help women avoid unwanted pregnancies, so all babies get the best start possible. Maternal & infant health. Doctor time to spot illness early so it's treatable.
And yes, Diane Allen. Early detection for cancer.
Voters in LD-7, especially women, should know there is an alternative: Democrat Dr. Gail Cook, educator, mayor of Beverly and an ovarian cancer survivor. Dr. Cook's running mates are Assemblyman Herb Conaway, a medical doctor, and up-and-comer Troy Singleton. Conaway voted last year for Loretta Weinberg's legislation that would have restored women's health care services, but Christie vetoed the bill. And all three support restoration of those funds. If you want to make a donation to Dr. Cook's team, the info's on her website.
Ask my wife. Or ask any of my friends. I rarely get mad. I'm one of those folks who "goes with the flow" no matter what happens around me. So why was I feeling so livid when I left the Senate session today?
At that session, several dozen of Governor Christie's line item vetoes came under consideration for override. In the end, none were overridden.
While continuing to give tax breaks to millionaires, the governor panders to the Tea Party by slashing funds for women's health, legal services to the indigent, help for the blind and dyslexic, and Medicaid assistance for poor families.
As you drive up Route 38 in Burlington County, you will go through a spate of "M" towns: Maple Shade, Moorestown, Mount Laurel, and Mount Holly. Two of these "M" towns, Moorestown and Mount Laurel, were recently moved from District 8 to District 7 as a result of the decennial legislative redistricting. So we went from a totally Christie Republican set of legislators to a mixed group. The seventh district is currently represented by a Republican senator (Diane Allen) and two Democratic assemblymen (Herb Conaway and Jack Connors.)
As part of their introduction to the M&M towns, the candidates for Assembly met with the Mount Laurel Democratic Club this evening. Since Assemblyman Connors is retiring, Troy Singleton is joining Assemblyman Conaway on the ticket and both men appeared at the Democratic Club meeting tonight. The Democratic senate candidate, Mayor Gail Cook of the City of Beverly, was unable to participate due to a conflicting city council meeting.
Hi, Blue Jersey. We're jubiliant. Governor Christie's office called Valerie Vainieri Huttle's office and Mary Pat Angelini's office earlier this morning to tell them he has just signed the Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights, and Governor Christie's spokesperson Michael Drewniak has now confirmed it to the press.
Thank you and God bless you, Valerie Vainieri Huttle, Barbara Buono, Mary Pat Angelini, Diane Allen and Loretta Weinberg, the prime sponsors of the law.
Thank each and every one of you, our wonderful partners at Blue Jersey, so deeply much for your partnership on this and so many other landmark laws we've passed together over the years. You know, one year ago tomorrow, January 7, 2010, the state Senate voted down marriage equality.
We regrouped and passed the strongest possible anti-bullying law by far - a law that will make every bit of a difference in our society as marriage equality will - and we'll win that too. Stay tuned on that one.
Resilience, as they say, is the key to winning civil rights. You can give in, you can give out, but you can never give up. And you never do, Blue Jersey. Again, thank you so much for your vital role in helping with this law, which will improve the lives of our kids forever.
Here are some highlights of the new law.
America's first anti-bullying law that sets statewide deadlines for incidents of bullying to be reported, investigated and resolved.
Under the new law, teachers and other school personnel must report incidents of bullying to principals on the same day as a bullying incident. An investigation of the bullying must begin within one school day. A school must complete its investigation of bullying within 10 school days, after which there must be a resolution of the situation.
America's first anti-bullying law to provide for an anti-bullying coordinator in every district, and an anti-bullying specialist in every school to lead an anti-bullying team that also includes the principal, a teacher and a parent.
America's first anti-bullying law to grade every school on how well it is countering bullying - and to require that every school post its grade on the home page of its website. Also on the home page of its website, every school must post contact information for its anti-bullying specialist.
America's first anti-bullying law to ensure quality control in anti-bullying training by requiring the involvement of experts from academia and the not-for-profit sector.
America's first anti-bullying law to provide training to teachers in suicide prevention specifically with regard to students from communities at high risk for suicide.
America's first anti-bullying law to apply not only to students in grades K-12, but also to higher education. Public universities in New Jersey will have to distribute their anti-bullying policies to all students within seven days of the start of the fall semester.
The law applies to extracurricular school-related settings, such as cyberbullying, school buses, school-sponsored functions and to bullying off school grounds that carries over into school.
The law requires a school to notify the parents of all students involved in an incident, including the parents of the bully and the bullied student, and offers counseling and intervention services.
The law mandates year-round anti-bullying instruction appropriate to each grade, and an annual Week of Respect in every school that will feature anti-bullying programming.
The law applies to all bullied students. In addition to protecting students based on the categories of actual or perceived race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity or expression, the law has clear language protecting students bullied for any other reason.
What A way For Bergen County Dems To End The Year! Big headlines in The Record about McNerney and two of his top aides getting big salary increases! Seems that "our" County Executive gave up $10,000 of his salary (originally $134,617) as a "gesture", since budget problems required furloughs for rank and file county workers during 20010. So the Democrats lost anyway. I campaigned for Dennis and the Democratic Freeholders, and now I'm embarrassed by him and, therefore, by my party and my own participation in his campaign.
According to The Record, Dennis' $10,000 "gift" to the taxpayers of Bergen County was somehow restored to his salary on December 14th along with raises for his two "top" aides, Brian Hague from Middlesex County and Lynne Hurwiitz, the Municipal Chair of Hackensack. Brian received a "promotion" his last two weeks in office along with a raise of $17,000 and Lynne was also "promoted with a raise of more thant $22,000". And to add to my own feeling of dismay, Mr. McNerney "didn't even know about" these raises (including his own) until a reporter called him. How pathetic an answer!
We, Democrats - and they are mostly responsible hardworking officials - owe an apology to the taxpayers of Bergen for this unseemly behavior on the part of our top county official. This column will serve as my personal apology for the time and effort I put in to Dennis McNerney's campaign and to the residents of Bergen County for this travesty.
"I'm going to return it - probably" saiid Mr. McNerney. And if he does, along with the unseemly raises to the "top aides", I will apologize for my apology! I would also ask the incoming County Executive Kathe Donovan, to investigate exactly how raises are granted in Bergen County without the County Executive even "knowing about them". Interesting!
Speaking of the new County Executive, she is coming in to office with enormous good willl. I hope her actions will always justify that confidence. However, her first two appointments for County Administrator and Chief of Staff went to two Fair Lawn councilmembers. Without passing judgment on their qualifications, I do believe their service on the Council should end pretty quickly. It is difficult to avoid problems when trying to serve two constituencies like this. Their terms of office do not end until 2013, so I hope they will be asked to resign well before then.
Sorry for spending so much time on politics in my own County of Bergen, but these actions required some extra spotlight.
This was posted just under the news roundup, so I'm pulling it up top again. - promoted by Rosi
Some days in Trenton are better than others. For the sake of thousands of kids who are gay (or fat or smart or whatever else might get him/her bullied) yesterday at the state house was quite possibly life-saving.
Our year was marked in January by the NJ Legislature's failure to do the right thing on marriage equality, and as our year turned cold again, 2010 was marked by the loss of 18-year-old Tyler Clementi, who threw himself off the George Washington Bridge after two people he knew appeared to betray him. (A federal higher-education anti-harrassment bill, introduced by Frank Lautenberg in the Senate and Rush Holt in the House, is named for Tyler Clementi).
But today was a sweet victory in NJ, something to be Thankful for as we sit down and think about our gratitudes later this week, for the kids - all kinds of kids - who may now benefit from our renewed commitment to respect them, particularly at the places where they go to learn. The Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights passed both houses of the legislature today. It requires anti-bullying programs in public schools and codes of conduct in our colleges and universities.
We owe special thanks to: Prime Sponsors in the Assembly Valerie Vainieri Huttle & Mary Pat Angelini and in the Senate Barbara Buono, Diane Allen & Loretta Weinberg. Sponsors include Steve Sweeney, Senate President, Senate Republican Leader Tom Kean, Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver & Assembly Republican Leader Alex DeCroce.
All that's needed now is a signature from Gov. Chris Christie. Here's some early response, after the jump. Please add your own if the spirit moves you.
It's official, Blue Jersey! This Monday, November 22, appropriately during Thanksgiving week, the full New Jersey Assembly and the full New Jersey Senate will vote on the Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights.
The Assembly session begins at 1:00 pm, and the Senate session at 2:00 pm. Both houses are voting on a lot of bills on Monday, with the Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights scheduled for the middle of the pack in each house, though that can change and be moved up earlier in each bloc.
All of us at Garden State Equality would be honored if you'd meet us Monday at 1:00 pm in front of the State House Annex, 125 West State Street. This is a big, big achievement for Blue Jersey as much as it is for anyone else. Frequent Blue Jersey writers Valerie Vainieri Huttle and Barbara Buono, and Blue Jersey front pager Loretta Weinberg, are among the prime sponsors (love you, Valerie, Barbara and Loretta!). So many others at Blue Jersey have worked relentlessly to call attention to the necessity for this landmark bill.
We'll hold a news conference with legislators at the State House right after the second chamber votes. And then we'll head to the Marriott for what we anticipate will be a happy, happy evening.
Shehecheyanu - thank you, God, for bringing us to this moment.
Hi, Blue Jerseyans. Legislation doesn't move much faster than this in Trenton. This Monday, November 15th, both the Senate Education Committee and the Assembly Education Committee will hold hearings and vote on our bipartisan Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights.
Garden State Equality is holding a full day of lobbying Monday around the hearings. Please join us. We ask you to wear purple, ie a purple shirt, sweater or something else purple, the color to remember bullied students who took their lives. We'll have anti-bullying signs and stickers.
Here's Monday's schedule:
Meet 9:30 am in front of the State House Annex.
10:00 am in Committee Room 6 -- Senate Education Committee hearing and vote. We've lined up compelling witnesses who have not yet told their stories of being bullied, of having loved ones bullied -- and some who tried to take their lives because they were bullied. They really need our support.
Approximately 12:30 pm, i.e. right after the Senate Education Committee hearing, on the State House steps -- press conference and rally featuring bullied students and families of bullied students. We'll also serve free sandwiches and soda to attendees.
2:00 pm, back in Committee Room 6 -- Assembly Education Committee hearing and vote.
Some more fantastic news on our bipartisan Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights. (See video below) Two weeks ago , as you know, the bill was introduced with 43 Assembly sponsors - now up to 46, five more Assembly members than needed for passage. Today was the first day since then that the Senate had a quorum and that the chief Senate sponsors, Barbara Buono, Diane Allen and Loretta Weinberg, could officially introduce the bill. In truly awesome news, the bill was introduced today with 28 Senate sponsors, seven more Senators than needed for passage. The sponsors include 11 of the Senate's 16 Republicans. We hope to have additional news on the bill's progress soon. This legislation is going to help every student whose life has been made hell by bullying. We are overjoyed.
After our 11:00 am news conference today on the Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights - it was a packed house of Democratic legislators, Republican legislators and journalists, including Jay Lassiter for Blue Jersey - Valerie Vainieri Huttle went into the Assembly, circulated the sponsor sheet and guess what? 43 signatures! 43 sponsors, two more than the 41 votes required for passage.
All of us who've worked on the bill are a teary with happiness. We owe much to Valerie and her chief of staff Phil Meisner and legislative staffer Andrea Katz, to Mary Pat Angelini and her chief of staff Ryan Sharpe, and on the Senate side to Barbara Buono and her chief of staff Anthony Reznik. Thanks as well to former Division on Civil Rights Director Frank Vespa-Papaleo, director of the New Jersey Coalition on Bullying Awareness and Prevention Stuart Green, director of the New Jersey Anti-Defamation League Etzion Neuer, Garden State Equality vice chair Luanne Peterpaul and our colleagues at the Gender Rights Advocacy Association of New Jersey.
And thank you, Blue Jersey, for being the unwavering progressive voice as always for the most vulnerable in our society.
By the way, there would have been more Assembly sponsors today, but time ran out - so look for more in the days to come. So far we have much of the Democratic Caucus, plus Republican leader Alex DeCroce and Republican conference leader Jon Bramnick among other Republicans.
On the Senate side, today wasn't a quorum day for the bill to be formally introduced there - that will be after the election. But the Senators who have announced their support for the bill so far include prime sponsors Barbara Buono, Diane Allen and Loretta Weinberg, plus Jennifer Beck, Paul Sarlo, Raymond Lesniak, Steve Sweeney, Dick Codey,
Jim Beach and Jeff Van Drew - and we have only just begun.
Again, we warmly embrace the support of all legislators, whether they supported us on previous bills or not. The dignity and safety of New Jersey's kids are at stake. And with bipartisan support, we are on our way to passing a bill that will improve students lives greatly.
As Rodgers and Hammerstein expressed in their 1949 musical South Pacific, bullying and discrimination are linked together, start at an early age, and can be a "learned" activity influenced by family members. Altering our NJ school environment is an essential step.
Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle (D-37) and Senator Barbara Buono (D-18) will introduce on Monday the eagerly anticipated harrassment, intimidation and bullying (HIB) awareness and prevention legislation. It is expected that it will have bipartisan support, including Assemblywoman Pat Angelini (R-11), and Senators Diane Allen (R-7) and Thomas Goodwin (R-14).
Their bill is squarely aimed at the school environment where discrimination and bullying often begin. It will provide that training on HIB be a part of the training required for public school teaching staff members in suicide prevention. It will create a fund for state grants to school districts. It will include sections on enforcement and response to HIB and on accountability of schools, districts and the state. It will also require the addition of an anti-bullying policy and enforcement mechanism to the student code of conduct of every public college and university. A link to the full bill will be posted in this diary as soon as it is introduced in the legislature.
On Friday President Obama released his video It Gets Better. In it he says "When I was a young adult, I faced the jokes and taunting that too many of our youth face today, and I considered suicide as a way out. One of my co-workers recognized that I was hurting. She cared enough to push me to seek help." This NJ bill will be a critical step in preventing and providing support for so many people who, like President Obama, know the pain and trauma bullying can cause. Kudos to Valerie Vainieri Huttle, Barbara Buono and all who helped shape the bill. We wish it a successful and speedy trip on the way to enactment.
