With the Christiecrat wing of the Democratic Party taking power in Trenton, are we headed toward one-party government?"
The problem with this question is the tense is all wrong and the label is even more wrong. We have one-party government, because the Norcrosscrat wing of the Democratic Party took power in Trenton before Chris Christie was elected Governor and it is my belief that they suppressed the Corzine vote where they had the power to do so in order to help Christie beat Corzine.
Why did the Norcrosscrats prefer Christie to Corzine? During the eight years of McGreevey, Codey, and Corzine, George Norcross was one of many political bosses of one of many political machines in the state and even though he controlled more Assemblypersons and Senators than any one boss, the bosses in North and Central Jersey were closely aligned enough to keep him in check.
But during this time, U.S. Attorney Chris Christie successfully indicted and convicted a number of these bosses, dramatically reducing the amount of control that they had over electeds and other party leaders in their fiefdoms. Interestingly enough, despite being the most corrupt of the bunch, Norcross underwent the least amount of scrutiny of any of them and was able to increase his power and reach into other parts of the state as a result.
This chain of events led to the coup that overthrew Dick Codey as Senate President and passed over then-Assembly Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman and installed Steve Sweeney as Senate President and Sheila Oliver as Assembly Speaker. Despite the best efforts of people like Codey, former Assembly Majority Leader, and former Senate Majority Leader, Barbara Buono to take the Assembly and Senate back from the Norcrosscrats, as long as Norcross has his bloc of 6 Senators and 12 Assemblypersons and is able to play the North and Central Jersey political machines against one another, keeping them divided and weak, Norcrossippi is going to run New Jersey.
In what constitutes an article by Politico's standards, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's recent tantrum, which some have described as an audition for the VP slot with the seemingly inevitable Republican Presidential nominee (unless one of the other six candidates not named Herman Cain and hopefully named Michele Bachmann have something to say about it), Mitt Romney, about President Barack Obama's so-called failure to lead the so-called supercommittee to reach a deal on our country's budget deficit, was basically reprinted for public consumption, including Christie calling Obama "a bystander in the Oval Office" and asking him "What the hell are we paying you for?". His tirade goes further to say the following:
"In New Jersey, the reason [problems got solved] is because I called people into the room and said we're going to solve this problem and I had people of good will on the other side who said they believed it was their obligation, regardless of party, to get done things like pension and benefit reform," the governor said, adding, "Why the president of the United States refuses to do this is astonishing to me."
As obnoxious as Christie's entire tirade was, what bothered me most about the "article" was his stenographer's unwillingness or inability to compare and contrast the political dynamic here in New Jersey with what is going on in Washington and recognize that both are broken for very different reasons.
In Washington, there is a Republican minority in the Senate that can bring our entire government to a standstill by filibustering everything that comes before them and a majority in the House that passes legislation that is so extreme that there is no chance that it would ever survive a Senate committee much less get a vote in the Senate.
Meanwhile, in Trenton, we have Democratic "leadership" that is bought and paid for by party bosses who have more in common with our state's Republican Governor than our party's rank-and-file. As a result, we have a facade of bipartisanship presented to the general public and the lazy mass media, where the storyline is always that Christie presents an initiative in its purest, right-wing form, the Democratic leadership presents a modicum of resistance, making a little bit of noise in the process, Christie scales his initiative back slightly, and the Democratic leadership claims victory, delivers the votes needed for Christie's initiative to pass, while everyone else votes against it, lamenting its passage, while retaining the "high road" even though most, if not all of them, elected and recently re-elected the leadership that continues to enable Christie on each and every issue, while he crows about all of his "bipartisan" successes.
So who are the real bystanders? To be fair, I think that President Obama failed our country, once again, this summer when he refused to heed former President Bill Clinton's advice and unilaterally raise the debt ceiling on constitutional grounds and let the fight go from there. It was not as if the latest in what seems like an endless string of compromises earned him any more good will with the Republicans in Washington, who continue to block him on everything that he tries to do, than every other compromise before it.
But Obama's willingness to capitulate to Republicans on every issue pales in comparison to what we have seen from the Democrats in Trenton who went so far as to let the Republican minority write the first budget that they would pass without even considering for a moment the possibility of a government shutdown like the one which took place when they could not reach an accord with then-Democratic Governor Jon "MF Global Clusterfuck" Corzine on their first budget. The pen/ben debacle was only the latest in an almost equally long string of capitulations that started before Christie was even sworn in as Governor, when 9 Democrats did not vote for marriage equality legislation that could have passed and been signed into law by Governor Clusterfuck (kudos to Rosi for making it not only acceptable, but cool, to use a word like clusterfuck in political discourse - this is second only to the omnipresence of the phrase "batshit crazy" that people like the aforementioned Congresswoman Bachmann have inspired).
Contested statewide Democratic primary elections do not happen very often here in New Jersey. Since I started paying close attention to New Jersey politics in 1997, there have only been four seriously contested statewide Democratic primary elections. In 1997, then-Woodbridge Mayor Jim McGreevey defeated Congressman Rob Andrews and Morris County Prosecutor Michael Murphy for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. In 2000, Jon Corzine bought more votes than his senatorial opponent, former Governor Jim Florio, was able to earn. In February 2008, Hillary Clinton defeated Barack Obama in the Presidential primary election. In June of that year, Andrews lost his second statewide primary election when he challenged the incumbent U.S. Senator, Frank Lautenberg.
It appears as if we will have a hotly contested Democratic gubernatorial primary election in 2013. The most likely candidates at the moment are State Senators Barbara Buono, Dick Codey, and Steve Sweeney. It is possible that other candidates could come out of the woodwork over the next year or so, but for the sake of this discussion, the names are less important than the questions that the current political dynamic in the state, which has Democratic Party bosses, including but not limited to Steve Adubato and George Norcross, closely aligned with Republican Governor Chris Christie, raises about how serious these bosses are about defeating Christie.
These bosses and their acolytes in the State legislature have enabled Christie to get more of his agenda passed than our last Democratic Governor, Corzine, and have never even come close to a government shutdown like the one which occurred as a result of the conflict between Corzine and then-Assembly Speaker, Joe Roberts, a Norcross minion, over whether the state sales tax should be increased, and if so, how the additional revenue should be spent. So it stands to reason that Adubato, Norcross et al would probably prefer to have one of their own (Steve Sweeney being the most likely candidate, but Assemblyman Louis Greenwald is another possibility) as Governor than Christie, but in lieu of that, it would not be safe to assume that they would prefer someone else, like Buono or Codey, over Christie.
The annual League of Municipalities Convention is really 3 things at once - an educational experience on better governance for new and veteran elected officials; a marketing opportunity for existing and would-be public sector vendors; and a networking opportunity for incumbent and future politicians. Having attended this week's convention in (at least) one of those capacities, here's a Lucky 7 recap of what I came away with, in no particular order:
1- Yes, the 2013 race for Governor has begun. While I'm not sure it will really take off until Congressional Redistricting is finished, it's pretty clear who the big 3 potential candidates are right now - Steve Sweeney, Barbara Buono and Dick Codey - each of whom have a solid core of supporters, with little crossover from one to the other. Honorable mention would go to Wiz, who shouldn't be counted out just yet. But, that's pretty much it.
Loretta Weinberg, a frequent contributor here, is a solid progressive with a good voting record. In isolation, I would have no problem with her being senator majority leader, or senate president for that matter. But being solid on the issues and voting the right way is not the be all and end all. By all reports, as she did in 2009, Senator Weinberg is siding with the Essex-Camden (Hudson) boss axis of Christiecrats to depose a true blue Democratic from leadership. She did it in 2009 to Dick Codey. Now she appears to be doing it to Barbara Buono. In 2009, she apparently got a committee chair out of it.
She's ruthless," said a source, pointing out that in 2009 Weinberg cut the deal with Norcross to back Sweeney for Senate president so she could land the chairmanship of the Senate Health Committee, and Weinberg's 2002 rejection of Joe Doria for speaker after he thought he had the Bergen senator in his corner.
Unless a miracle takes place this Tuesday and Republicans in LD1, LD3, and LD4 pull off major upsets, South Jersey party boss, George Norcross, will have more than enough votes to replace his primary adversary in the Assembly, Majority Leader Joe Cryan, with his top ally in the legislative body, Louis Greenwald, sending Cryan to the back bench.
What remains to be seen, however, is what Cryan will do once he is sent there. Will he unite with his fellow back bencher in the Senate, Dick Codey, to build an opposition movement that will contend not only for the Governor's office in 2013, but also all 120 legislative seats? As much as I would love to see this, I do not expect that this will happen. It is very possible that Dick Codey will run for Governor in 2013, but it is also possible that Cory Booker, Barbara Buono, and Steve Sweeney will run as well and it is unlikely that any of them will run opposition slates against the party lines that they do not win, which means that regardless of who wins the gubernatorial primary, there will not be much change in the legislative roster or its leadership.
If I am right about this, then Cryan will most likely remain on the back bench for most of the next decade. That is, unless he finds a new office for which to run or that office finds him. There have been times in the past decade when Cryan expressed an interest in running for Congress in the 7th district, but admitted that the current configuration of the district made it extremely difficult for a Democrat to win.
This is very true. Our best chance to win this district came in 2006 when a very popular Assemblywoman, Linda Stender, challenged a very unpopular Congressman Mike Ferguson in a year that Democrats were trending up and Republicans were trending down. However, despite these trends, Stender came a few thousand votes short of victory. Two years later, Stender did not run as strong of a campaign as she did in 2006 and faced a very popular State Senator, Leonard Lance. Despite huge turnout increases inspired by Barack Obama's candidacy, it was not enough for a Democrat to win the 7th and Lance defeated Stender by a much wider margin than Ferguson did two years earlier.
Soon after yesterday's NJ Senate session, engineered to get Republican legislators on the record item by item dismantling programs and funding many New Jerseyans must depend on, senators Steve Sweeney, Dick Codey (current and past Senate presidents) and Linda Greenstein sat down for an interview before 101.5's microphones. And somebody turned the video camera on.
Ironically, Sweeney muses on the Governor's power, even with a reach of several hundred miles away on vacation. NJ GOP was in lockstep, except for Jennifer Beck's return to at least a surface pro-women stance, joining the Democrats' attempt to override Christie's cutting out of funds for women's health and family planning programs. Codey complains about the gamesmanship of Christie's cutting his own budget, after the legislature returned it to him intact. Greenstein, for me, was the most effective, recalling some of the revolting things Republicans said on the Senate floor yesterday. That was Day #1 of this effort. Day #2 was scheduled to start 10am today, and is running late.
Deciminyan will be live-Tweeting it all day at @bluejersey.
This is entirely fair, and Justice Roberto Rivera-Soto had it coming.
Calling him "not fit to sit on the court any longer", Sen. Dick Codey today sent a letter to New Jersey's reluctant Supreme Court Justice, calling on him to resign, and do so immediately.
Last month, Rivera-Soto declared he would refuse to engage in court rulings. This week, he announced he won't seek renomination when his term expires later this year. Not that he'd have a chance in hell of getting that nomination without a howl of public protest. Codey's letter is harsh, and the harshness is deserved; what else do you say to a guy with a high-paying public job he categorically refuses to do? Quoting Sen. Codey's letter (read it here):
Your continued presence in what you have made the state's most luxurious and high-profile no-show job simply does nothing to serve the best interests of the public.
[snip]
As each day goes by, your actions create more and more problems for the people of New Jersey and the justice system. I ask you to do the honorable thing now and resign your seat so that we can continue with the business of the courts in the dignified manner which you have failed to uphold.
Codey's letter signals - again - the Senate's willingness to compromise on Gov. Christie's pick Anne Patterson, suggesting she could be considered for Rivera-Soto's job, once he's out of it.
Yesterday, on his first full day as Senate President, Steve Sweeney unveiled the new leaders of the committees in the Senate and their are some changes. Here is the full list:
Committee
Chair
Vice Chair
Budget and Appropriations
Paul Sarlo
Brian Stack
Commerce
Nia H. Gill
Ray Lesniak
Community and Urban Affairs
Jeff Van Drew
Ron Rice
Economic Growth
Ray Lesniak
Sandra Cunningham
Education
Teresa Ruiz
Jim Whelan
Environment and Energy
Bob Smith
Bob Gordon
Judiciary
Nicholas Scutari
John Girgenti
Labor
Fred Madden
Sandra Cunningham
Health, Human Services, and Senior Citizens
Loretta Weinberg
Joe Vitale
Law and Public Safety
John Girgenti
State Government, Wagering, Tourism and Historic Preservation
Jim Whelan
Bob Gordon
Transportation
Nicholas Sacco
Military and Veterans Affairs
Jim Beach
Jeff Vandrew
Legislative Oversight
Barbara Buono
Paul Sarlo has moved from chairing the Judiciary Committee to chairing Budget and Appropriations. As the first woman to be sworn in as Majority Leader, Barbara Buono moves from chairing budget to chairing Legislative oversight. Shirley Turner is no longer Education Chair, in favor of Teresa Ruiz. Joe Vitale has been replaced as chairman of the Health Committee with Loretta Weinberg. Ron Rice was replaced leading Community and Urban Affairs with Jeff Van Drew.
Sweeney added new committees would see their focus change. The Senate Environment Committee, which will also take up energy issues and be re-named the Senate Environment and Energy Committee, and the Senate State Government Committee, which will absorb the Wagering, Tourism and Historic Preservation Committee and be re-named the Senate State Government, Wagering, Tourism and Historic Preservation Committee. He has also created the Senate Military and Veterans Affairs Committee.
Dick Codey will not serve as the chair or vice chair of any committees in the 214th Legislature.
If you have ever testified on this issue, if this issue matters to you - gay, straight, married or single, at any age, this is a time to come to the statehouse in Trenton and make sure your legislature hears from you.
UPDATE #3: Statement from Speaker Joe Roberts:
As a strong supporter of marriage equality, I'm pleased to see the legislation will get a debate and a vote on Thursday in the Senate.
Our civil union law has failed to live up to even the most modest of hopes and encourages unequal treatment of same-sex couples and their children. We cannot tolerate anything less than equal treatment for all committed couples, so I hope the bill earns enough support to pass the Senate.
If the Senate approves it, I will take the extraordinary step of bringing the bill directly to the Assembly floor for a vote during our Monday voting session.
UPDATE #2: There is a call to action for this Thursday at 10:30am in front of the statehouse, to march between the statehouse and the statehouse annex, and then talk to legislators before the vote.
More details, address, parking, and reception after the vote, after the jump ...
UPDATE #1 2:10pm: With confirmation that the full Senate will hear bill S1967 Freedom of Religion and Equality in Civil Marriage Act, Senate President Dick Codey issues this statement:
Given the intensely personal nature of this issue, I think the people of this state deserve the right to a formal debate on the Senate floor. I'd like to commend both sides of this issue for their passionate advocacy thus far and the heartfelt testimony that we have heard.
The Senate voting session is scheduled for 2 pm on Thursday, January 7. Further information on accommodations for the media and the general public will be released tomorrow.
During the historic 7 hours of testimony on marriage equality in December, most if not all of the testimony against reforming our laws on marriage were religious arguments. They said, in essence:
I believe this, so therefore, your rights should be limited, because my belief tradition tells me they should.
News coverage focused on those people (even though plenty clergy in favor showed up), who while they feel strongly, were trying to apply private beliefs to public civic questions, claiming equality would endanger their religious freedom. In fact the reverse is true; clergy who are accepting and ready to perform marriage for same-sex couples cannot do that now. And opponents are only a slice of where New Jersey's faith community is on marriage equality. A letter - with a far broader representation New Jersey's religious leaders - in strong support of marriage equality, and signed by 120 clergy from 19 faiths, was sent today to Senate President Dick Codey and Speaker Joe Roberts. The letter asks that both leaders put the marriage equality bill to a vote before their full respective houses in this legislative session, without precondition.
It's a good letter; tough and direct. It points out that New Jersey's current marriage law is not religiously neutral but reflects the beliefs of leaders of a particular religion opposing marriage equality. And stands behind Republican Senator Bill Baroni's amendment to even further strengthen strong protections for religious freedom - ensuring no religious organization or facility can be sued because it follows its own conscience in which marriages it will accommodate, and which it will not. That America has never let one religious doctrine determine secular law, pointing out - as Asm Reed Gusciora did in his Dec. 7 testimony - that the state provides for divorce even though some traditions find it impermissible, and that New Jersey would never ban civil divorce.
And then it gently asks the state to "get out of our sanctuaries and uphold our religious freedom as clergy to marry whom we wish, or don't wish, under State law."
Full letter's under the fold. Is your family's faith tradition on this list? Or its leaders?
"Obviously there's a lot of punting going on," he said. "Sounds like a ballgame, and somebody's got to decide who's going to take the kick."
Codey said he will talk with other senators, but added they may not be willing to vote because of a perceived lack of support in the Assembly.
It's just a game they're playing with people's lives to avoid taking a stand. They'll say they can't have a vote because there is a perceived lack of support. But they won't make people go on the record and take a stand on whether they support or not because they won't call a vote. Many people have made statements along the way and have not lived up to their words, so how do you know where they truly stand until the chips are down. Since Dick Codey is one of the more integral players in the game, maybe he should take his own advice and decide to take the kick already. There are only a few players who can step up and make it happen.
Dick Codey is outraged. He's afraid that our national government is overly politicized. Specifically, he's concerned that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is mishandling her position:
While I recognize that you are a dedicated and well-meaning public servant, I believe that you simply do not have the proper law enforcement qualifications and counterterrorism background to head the nation's very delicate homeland security operations. It's time that the United States move away from political appointees and former governors, and put the Office of Homeland Security in the hands of individuals with real law-enforcement and counterterrorism experience.
I had a few people during the big snowstorm ask me why a state of Emergency wasn't declared, as if I would have some inside knowledge. I joked that Dick Codey was acting Governor (I only knew this because I had seen a press release come out that he was signing a bill) and there probably wasn't that much snow in West Orange. Apparently I wasn't very far off with that one, according to the Auditor:
When the big snow hit last weekend, it smacked right into New Jersey's odd rules of gubernatorial succession. Corzine was trying to get to California to visit his son's family. At home in Essex County, Senate President Richard Codey was waiting for word that Corzine had cleared Garden State airspace so he could reprise his understudy role as acting governor and oversee the state's response to the incoming nor'easter.
Then there was governor-elect Christie, at home in Morris County with basically no role whatsoever because he hasn't taken office yet (although people have started calling him governor and he seems to be playing the part already).
The result: a little confusion, Jersey-style.
Corzine's flight was delayed more than two hours. During that time, Codey's staff told The Auditor, they did not know whether their governor was THE governor or if Corzine was - and who, if anyone, was watching the storm response and preparing for a possible state of emergency.
In the end, no emergency declaration was necessary, and it was Codey who officially made that decision.
The governmental traffic jam also was cleared up. Corzine got to California and his office issued a statement applauding the cleanup efforts. Codey was in charge. Meanwhile Christie and his wife and kids joined the family's plow guy to dig out their place in Mendham.
Codey said he did a quick personal inspection of road conditions Saturday night. "I checked out the highway when I went to the Seton Hall game," he said. "It was fine."
Honestly, it wasn't fine. Many roads still had lanes covered for over a week because of the lackluster job that was done removing snow until the heavy rains melted it this past weekend. Some parts of the state had to cancel school for multiple days.
Yet we find out that there was a disconnect and confusion over who should even declare how bad the snow was. Just another reason why we now have an elected Lieutenant Governor. Ultimately there was no state of emergency, just congratulations for the hard work of those during the storm. I think one should have been declared and a better job should have been done on many roads. Yes people worked hard during a bad storm, but the roads in West Orange on the way to Newark are not a barometer for how successful or flawed efforts around the state may have been and how serious a storm those efforts were facing.
Steve Sweeney, who spent his summer lining up votes and making agreements, was - as expected - voted President of the NJ State Senate a little more than an hour ago.
Walking out of the 2nd floor caucus room, here's what Codey had to say about what happened behind closed doors, as he was forced to give up the role of Senate President that he has held since 2002. Star-Ledger:
A lot of blood on the floor there.
Big day at the statehouse today. The lame duckiest. Leadership votes: Sheila Oliver's the new Speaker of the Assembly, first African-American woman elected to that office. Joe Cryan is the new Majority Leader. Mike Doherty is sworn in to the Senate.
And more than 300 supporters of marriage equality crowded into the statehouse, beating out the opposition by 4-1. Pictures here.And here.
Chris Christie, with whom we disagree on nearly everything - including marriage equality - nevertheless manages to understand the fundamentals of the lame duck session which begins on Monday:
He's going to respect the prerogatives of the people who voted on November 3rd, and I certainly respect his prerogative. It's a four year term. It's not a three year, 10 month term.
Christie was talking about his former opponent, Jon Corzine, and the power he still wields until that cold day in January. But it's just as true of Dick Codey, Senate President.
Steve Sweeney thinks he's got the Senate Presidency sewn up. Maybe he does. But no matter how the leadership vote goes, that comes in mere days, Dick Codey is Senate President, and presides over the Senate in lame duck. And unlike Corzine, Codey is not going anywhere.
Senator Codey - you are one of Marriage Equalities powerhouse backers. I hope you're working the phones, and talking to your Senators, particularly since Steve Sweeney's disappointing wind shift last night.
To the 20,000 municipal leaders conferencing in Atlantic City right now - if you read this, and support equality, please make your feelings known to every Senator and Assemblyman you see on the floor today. Including senators Codey, Sweeney and Sarlo. Don't underestimate your power to represent us.
PolitickerNJ has two interesting articles on the upcoming Assembly and Senate leadership votes on November 23. Sheila Oliver appears to be the next Assembly Speaker and is pushing for a marriage equality bill vote now:
"If the bill stands a chance, it stands a chance now," Oliver said. "Gov. Christie isn't going to sign any bill on his desk to this effect and there are concerns now with how anti-groups have pumped up the volume across the state. Legislators are afraid to move forward, but I think that there should be an opportunity to vote up or down. Without question, in the assembly, there are a significant number of members who would not support the bill.
"I support the bill because I believe gay marriage is a civil rights issue," added Oliver, who also favors up or down lame duck session votes on a long languishing wrongful death bill, and on a bill enabling people who are adopted to have access to their birth ceritificates.
She says she has not spoken with Bonnie Watson Coleman recently. The second interesting article is about Dick Codey and redistricting:
"I intend to make one of those appointments and leave a second appointment for Steve," former Gov. Codey told PolitickerNJ.com.
That sounds like good news to me, because it suggests Codey doesn't intend to stay in the Senate Presidency with Republican votes.
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