.....to talk about Family Planning Centers, their funding and women's access to health care. Assemblywoman Linda Stender and I met with Governor Christie and Lt Governor Guadagno for an hour this afternoon. It was a seemingly amiable and respectful exchange. Mr. Christie was interested in the statistics we gave him outlining the number and kinds of services provided at these centers. He did say that the Treasurer questioned the funding source we have in the bill, so we supplied him with the OLS analysis which confirmed our figures. No promises were made, but he did say we would have an answer sooner, rather than later. Both Assemblywoman Stender and I assured him that we would prefer taking this issue off his plate while giving back to uninsured women this important access for themselves and their families. However, though we thanked him for his courtesy during the meeting, we also made it clear that this is not an issue which can be easily dismissed. Women's access to health care is a priority and will continue to be!This funding must berestored.
Almost a dozen Democratic Assemblywomen stormed Chris Christie's office today to talk to him about restoring the $7.5 million for family planning his budget removed. Brava, to them. A bill restoring the funds passed both houses last week, but Christie is mum on whether he'll sign it into law. This is not the first time they've tried to get the governor's attention.
He wasn't there. Two of his aides met the women at the door, requesting they call in advance if they want to see him. Christie was at a private residence in Somerset County talking about his property tax cap plans at an event. Asw Valerie Huttle is one of the bill's sponsors:
We were dismissed, in my opinion, as we walked into the governor's office without any real sense of a schedule or 'I'm going to take care of this.'
The assemblywomen - joined by Asm John Burzichelli - made no appointment. But Linda Stender, another sponsor, said she tried Friday to make an appointment with (pro-choice) LG Kim Guadagno. Her call was never returned.
They're right to wonder. Christie has not distanced himself from on-the-record statements made by his GOP State Chair, Asm Jay Webber, that the $7.5 million in family planning funds simply funnels money to abortion providers. The bill specifically prohibits those funds paying for abortions, but anti-abortion activists, like Webber, complain 29 of the 58 clinics affected are run by Planned Parenthood.
The reality? More than 136,000 New Jerseyans are served in the family planning centers whose budgets are being slashed. They get screenings for breast and cervical cancer and for high blood pressure, for anemia and diabetes, for HIV/AIDS and for sexually transmitted infections. Many of their patients are uninsured; the clinics are their primary care. This includes women who get their birth control care there, and say they may have to go off birth control if they lose the clinic.
Know what you get if you have sexually-active people with no access to contraception? You get more abortions. Somebody tell Jay Webber. Somebody tell Chris Christie.
This past Thursday was a busy day for many of us, but if one just read the mainstream press, you might not have realized it.
It was Women's Healthcare Week, and many of our women legislators decided to mark the occasion by protesting Governor Christie's wiping out all the dollars ($7.5million) in the Family Planning budget. As has been noted before, this money is earmarked for uninsured or underinsured men and women who get HIV testing, cervical cancer screening, family planning information and general reproductive health care through these centers. Joined by Assemblywomen Valerie Huttle, Linda Stender, Linda Greenstein, Elise Evans, Cleopatra Tucker, Pam Lampitt, Annette Quijano, Mila Jasey, Joan Voss, and Connie Wagner, we held a well attended press conference, that is except the press! Though, NJN did stop in for a brief moment or two. Apporximately 50 pink shirt supporters joined us bringing along hundreds of signed post cards protesting these cuts! The cards were delivered to the Governor's office. Do you think he'll read them? In my remarks, I suggested some cuts to other programs withinthe budget to transfer much needed funds to this program. Let's see if the Governor will look at these re-ordering of priorities, and we'll know if this budget cut is a matter of dollars or a matter of philosophy!
My next stop was the Senate State Government Committee meeting to speak for my bill giving the Governor veto power over the minutes of the Passaic Valley Sewer Authority and the North District Water Commission. These were the only two commissions we could find which were State appointments with no governor veto power. I reminded the committee, that I started on this road several years ago and first coined the description "shadow governments" to describe these authorities. In 2007 when Assembly colleagues Gordon Johnson, Valerie Huttle and I first took a look at the PVSA, we found that over a six year period, they spent more than $13 million on legal fees, and more than $3 million on consultants. Included in the consultant fees was $100,00 for a well connected flak to produce a children's coloring book called, "Messy Marvin". Makes Brian Christiansen look like one of the pikers of the hangers on at the PVSA. It's all so outrageous!
And as outrageous, is it took several years to get this bill posted in committee. Since Governor Christie has rightly made an issue of these "shadow governments" which spend millions of our tax dollars and user fees with very little accountability, this bill should pass both houses before the summer break.
Next was the Judiciary Committee meeting where we approved the nominations of Lori Grifa as the Commissioner of Community Affairs and Harold Wirths as the Commissioner of Labor & Workforce Development. Acting Commissioner Wirths was closely questioned about his lack of experience (he has been a Republican county Freeholder) in the area of labor relations. I was concerned with his continuing in his Freeholder position while serving as an "acting commissioner". Asked OLS for an opinion on the subject, and they said it was important to get an Ethics Board ruling. It was claimed that such a ruling had been forthcoming last February which gave him permission as long he turned down his Freeholder salary. I still believe this could be a court challenge, but since he was resigning both his elected position and his service on a bank board with his confirmation, it became moot. Both nominees now move to the full Senate for a vote.
We all know we have a reduced statehouse press corps., and they were covering the Millionaire's Tax hearing and the Lesniak theater action for the voucher bill held on the statehouse lawn. Curious juxtaposition! Several hundred religious and private school students were brought to Trenton to support the Lesniak/Kean bill. I didn't hear anyone from the Governor's office refer to them as "Drug Mules" or denounce them as youngsters who had no idea why they were there. Don't get me wrong - I think it was great that these young people got to see their government in action! They probably learned more that day than they would in classrooms. I do, however, think the Governor's "double standard" is quite evident! Students who support Christie's initiatives can get the day off from school, but those students who disagree with his cuts to public schools deserve to be derided and insulted.
The prior Monday, I had the great pleasure of joining Senator Ray Lesniak for our book signing at Kean College for "What's Love Got to Do With it", about the fight for Marriage Equality in the New Jersey State Senate. It's a beautiful book with wonderful pictures and contains many of the words which were shared on January 7, 2010. There were more than 100 people who turned out for this event at the new Kean Human Rights Institute. My thanks to Ray for including me in this adventure. Yes I know: Lesniak & Weinberg - definitely an odd couple - but fun nevertheless!
So all this while the very much smaller group of print media folks were elsewhere. And how about Channel 12? Do they ever really cover New Jersey News live? Seems every time I turn them on they are doing the "Weather on the Ones" or the "Pet Doctor". We need to keep NJN. They are the only statewide New Jersey television news. I've written to the administration to try and find out if anyone has actually worked on a plan to transition NJN into a private company. And what happens to their state owned assets? Lots of unanswered questions here, but we must work to preserve this NJ television news.
Talk about grandstanding. If you listen to Republicans, many of the nominations from the Governor during lame duck were completely unexpected, came out of nowhere and are cause for uproar. Take for example Ed McBride, the Governor's former chief of staff to a judgeship in Burlington County who the GOP says was a complete surprise and pushed them over the line. The reality is far from that and indicates grandstanding to score political points. Call it the surprise they had advance notice of:
So, let's go back. On November 12, Christie and Corzine met face to face for the first time since the election. They were joined by the ArchBishop of Newark, because the meeting took place after the blue mass. There, they discussed transition and according to Corzine some appointments the Governor was hoping to make in the coming weeks before leaving office.
Was there an actual agreement? hard to say. But if there was at least a gentlemen's agreement, at some point it deteriorated. Perhaps it was the sheer number of nominations and appointments Corzine asked for: 180. The Christie people feel that this is an attempt to jam through unpopular appointments at the 11th hour. Or perhaps it was the nomination of Chief of Staff Ed McBride to a judgeship. Here is where this gets tricky. The Corzine camp says it was made clear as early that Newark meeting that McBride was one of the appointments he'd like to make. They think for Christie's people to object now is disingenuous.
Separately, Blue Jersey has also been told that the Governor conveyed his intention to nominate McBride in that very first meeting. Not only did Christie and his team know, but sources in the Governor's Office confirm to BlueJersey that Christie's senior staff was directly informed of Corzine Chief of Staff Ed McBride's judicial nomination several days before the nomination was dropped. In addition, we're also told that McBride personally reached out to each member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, both Demcorat and Republican, days before the nomination was filed.
Whether or not the Governor should have made appointments before lame duck is a separate issue from whether the Republicans are just trying to score political points and run out the clock before he can make the appointments and nominations. And even though two wrongs don't make a right, the 257 lame duck nominations the GOP approved when Don DiFrancesco left office in 2001 shows that they know how the game has been played and only have born again opposition to it because of how Corzine is now leading the way. To act like they didn't know is beyond disingenuous. This is the surprise they all knew about in advance. Doesn't that mean it's not really a surprise at all?
Linda Stender has recorded a PSA encouraging women to learn more about heart disease:
The PSA coincides with "American Heart Month" and the American Heart Association's "Go Red for Women" campaign, which seeks to raise women's awareness of cardiovascular disease - the number one killer of women in America.
About 450,000 women die annually from heart disease and stroke, including nearly 14,000 in New Jersey. Although heart disease is normally associated with men, it is also the No. 1 killer of women over the age of 20, according to the heart association.
"My immediate plan is to seek another term to the legislature, and I have great support from the state chair, my county chair, and I've got very good working relationships with my delegation members," she said. "There's a lot of important work to be done, we're in a tough time in our economy and state and I'll be looking forward to taking on those challenges."
"I have a long personal friendship and admiration of Senator Lance and it had nothing to do with Assemblywoman Stender," said Lesniak. "If she wants to run for re-election she has my support."
I wasn't really that surprised by Lesniak's comments in support of Lance because Legislators are notorious for their glowing praise of each other, but apparently others were. I'm sure some people who were hoping for a shot at the Stender Assembly seat won't be to thrilled about her decision as they will have to wait a little longer. Stender also spoke about her most recent Congressional effort:
Today, Stender sought to dispel the notion that her campaign failed in large part because of internal divisions and pressure from outside groups to take on out-of-state staff and focus on less pertinent issues like birth control.
"That stuff is nonsense. It's concocting drama in the aftermath," said Stender, referring to contentions that EMILY's List officials had pressured her to put Washington, DC-based staffers in control of the campaign.
While Stender acknowledged that there was tension between her Garden State staffers and those brought in from Washington, she did not consider it a decisive factor. She pointed out that her narrow loss last year was often blamed on the fact that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) offered too little help, too late.
"Last year the post-mortem was that I lost because I didn't have help from DC. This year I did and the post-mortem is that's the reason I lost," she said.
Post-mortems are a sad duty in any world, in no small way because it means "after death." The death in this case are the hopes of thousands of volunteers, donors and staff to send Linda Stender to Congress to represent New Jersey's 7th Congressional District.
This has been a four year effort for many of us, starting before Linda even decided to run in 2006. It is hard for some of us because we know Linda personally and like her very much, and worked so hard and invested so much in getting her to the finish line.
In 2006 we came within 1.5 percent of the vote against a three term Republican named Mike Ferguson. It was a stunningly unexpected effort that shocked the national party which gave secondary support to the campaign while dumping millions in others where the margin was seven points or more.
In 2008 Linda lost by a little less than nine percent, a stunning defeat in a race where we saw polls putting Stender even or just behind State Senator Leonard Lance in the days before the election. It was made all the more stunning in that 2008 was a better year for Democrats than 2006, yet the Stender campaign fell far behinds its previous result.
How could that happen? Lance didn't run a great campaign. Stender had lots more money. The DCCC dropped over a million dollars into the district, while the NRCC walked away and focused on NJ3. Registration for Democrats jumped dramatically. And then there was that guy running for President who brought Democratic turnout to amazing levels. The environment couldn't have been better.
But she lost anyway.
Because, as near as we can tell, they forgot all the lessons of 2006 that got them close. Instead of building on the energy and volunteers from the previous election they brought in an entirely new team from outside the district, ignored the organizations like Democracy for America that supported Stender in 2006, and blew off local expertise in favor of a cookie-cutter campaign.
The Star-Ledger's Gabriel Gluck says that Leonard Lance owes a thank you - wait for it - to Kate Whitman's well-financed primary challenge.
There is a small bit of truth there - Lance may have built a bit of name-recognition in the primary. It didn't help him with fund-raising - the most salient indication of whether or not a candidate has the support of his or her district. If anything, it showed him that he could win an under-funded district-wide race.
Ingrid Reed of the Eagleton Institute has another explanation, though:
"We had less people going to the polls and you had 20,000 more people registered," Reed said. On Tuesday, 279,000 people voted in the district, which covers parts of Union, Middlesex, Somerset and Hunterdon counties, compared with 280,000 in 1984.
So how do you explain registering an additional 20,000 voters and then not getting them to the polls? With Obama at the top of the ticket and Lautenberg's steady presence a silent endorsement, Stender just didn't energize people at all. She didn't turn people against Lance and she didn't make people want her as their Representative. In short, she failed.
Stender is a Spender. Or maybe not. I don't know where she spent her money, time, or creative energy.
It certainly doesn't seem like she did it in the 2008 campaign. And what advantages she had!
Money. Fame. More Ds than Rs in the 7th. An idiot R president with an approval rating just a bit higher than his IQ. The Obama NJ blue wave. But she had three distinct disadvantages: 1-The DCCC ran her campaign. 2- Abby Curran as a campaign manager and 3- She ran against Leonard Lance.
A campaign that was run on New Jersey turf, needs to be run by New Jersey rules. And this campaign was most definitely not. It seemed to be run by the politico-techno hack crew of the DCCC. And they did a poor job.
The 2006 campaign seemed to be run like the Rush Holt campaigns of 1998 and 2000---fun, creative, energetic,---with a seemingly endless crew of Democratic volunteers willing to cut a vein for Linda Stender. Stender reached out everywhere to every county in the district. She even kicked ass in the very Republican western section of New Jersey in Hunterdon County. Rosie Efthim and the DFA crew gave Linda a substantial higher bump in 2006, from mediocre Brozak campaign of 2004. Nathan Rudy and his DumpMike.com crew did wonders for her, too in Union and Somerset. Back then, Stender reached out to progressives, regular Dems, Republicans and all over the 7th. People looked forward having her come to town.
But the 2008 campaign, seemed lackluster, boring, unresponsive and too out of touch. For example, some DCCC politico-techno hack cut the ad accusing Lance of being part of the Whitman pension bond scheme. Bad judgment to treat Lance like any other Republican. He is not. If you're in New Jersey, you know not to do that. But, if you're a hack D staffer from out of state, you just run it by the DCCC Playbook. And like Paul Mulshine pointed out, that lie did not play well. And when you have a campaign manager that neither returns calls nor seeks out the counsel of central NJ's finest Democratic activists and elected folks, your campaign is gonna miss a big piece of the volunteer pie.
Stender could have beaten Lance. Tough, but winnable. Had she kept to the same campaign strategy from '06, she would have had a better chance. For all the independence Lance shows in the Seabnte in NJ in his largely Republican district, he won't have the same freedom and opportunity in DC as part of the extreme R minority party in Congress. And his first vote will be for a man as Speaker of The House who voted with Bush more than 95% of the time. That's what she should have spent her time telling people. But she didn't. Instead, she spent all her time trying to tag Lance as a spender, a right-wing ideologue, and out of touch with the district.
She will not get a chance to run for Conrgess again. Now, she can spend her time in Trenton. Maybe Stender is a spendthrift.
Obama should win with little difficulty in this reliably Democratic state, but two House seats are tossups, and a third is a potential upset. In the 3rd District, GOP Rep. H. James Saxton is retiring after 12 terms, but Democratic challenger John Adler, a state senator from Cherry Hill, has strong party backing and has assembled one of the best field organizations in the country against Chris Myers, a Lockheed Martin executive and Republican mayor of Medford.
The 7th District, also a GOP-created vacancy, had been viewed as friendlier to Republicans, but Democratic state legislator Linda Stender has proven a tough competitor against state Sen. Leonard Lance. Republicans are less worried about, but still distracted by, the 5th District race, featuring Dennis Shulman, a blind rabbi endorsed by New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (I), against GOP Rep. Scott Garrett. Democratic Sen. Frank Lautenberg is expected to win easily over former congressman Dick Zimmer.
Lets hope that field organization pulls Adler across the finish line in NJ-3 and the Republicans are so distracted by the Shulman campaign in the 5th, they lose both NJ-5 and NJ-7. Best of luck to all of our campaigns.
With less than a week to go until Election Day, all of us here at the Linda Stender campaign are excited to kick off our Change Express tour across the 7th District, which will include a very special visit from President Bill Clinton!
Starting October 29th, Linda has been barnstorming a bunch of train stops across the 7th to share her message of change. Due to high gas prices, more people than ever are taking mass transit to get to work, yet many of New Jersey's citizens have lost their jobs due to the recent economic crisis. And, President Clinton is coming to New Jersey to help send Linda Stender to Congress to fight for the change we need. After eight years of failed Bush policies, we need strong Democrats like Barack Obama and Linda Stender in Washington to fight for middle class families.
Linda with Governor Dick Codey and the staff of the Reo Diner in Woodbridge!
Here are some of the next few scheduled stops on the tour!
Tewksbury Candidate Forum Thursday, October 30th
7PM to 8:00PM
Old Turnpike School
171 Old Turnpike Road
Califon
Meet n' greet at Bound Brook Train Stop Friday, October 31st
6:30AM to 7:30AM
Bound Brook
Rally for Change with President Bill Clinton Saturday, November 1st
12:30 PM
Union County College
Commons Area
1033 Springfield Avenue
Cranford
Free tickets are available at the following locations:
Campaign HQ 256 South Ave
Fanwood
Somerset Victory '08 1910 Washington Valley Rd
Martinsville
Hunterdon Dem HQ 155 Main Street
Flemington
Middlesex Dem HQ 231 Bridge St, Bldg F
Metuchen
(Parking space is limited for this event, so we encourage all that plan to attend to please carpool!)
Linda cares passionately about the issues affecting New Jersey's middle class families, and she would love to hear from you. You can either stop by the stations listed above, or you can visit our website to find out where Linda will be next!
With the final week before Election Day ahead of us, Linda needs your help more than ever! We are pulling out all the stops, and we look forward to working with you help get out the vote until you enter the voting booth! You can sign up to volunteer here to make calls and knock on doors until Tuesday, November 4th! Any time you can give will make a huge difference on Election Day.
Today, Linda Stender announced President Bill Clinton will headline a "Rally for Change" for her campaign this Saturday, November 1. The rally will support the entire New Jersey Democratic ticket and her campaign for Congress in New Jersey's 7th District.
WHAT: Rally for Change with Linda Stender and special guest President Bill Clinton
WHERE: Union County College
Commons Area
1033 Springfield Avenue
Cranford
WHEN: 12:30 PM
If you have the opportunity to go, please consider posting about your experiences here at Blue Jersey.
I signed up at MyBO, and proceeded to create canvass events in my area, joined all the groups around my area.
I get at least 4-5 emails every day about recruiting people for PA, enough already. Obama is up in PA almost as much as in New Jersey.
I kept hearing about how Obama thought the down ticket races are so important, but come on enough is enough. Obama sent an email out to Obama supporters in NJ-11, asking them to vote for Frank Lautenberg, with no mention of Tom Wyka, whats up with that ?
Is Obama coat tails going to make up the split for Tom Wyka, or Dennis Shulman, could Linda Stender use 80 more canvassers ? What about Adler.. hes up in the polls, but gheesh.
SO My friends and I have run roll playing training sessions for people that have never canvassed before. But I had one lady in Livingston quit after an hour, and I paired her with an experienced canvasser. SIGH.
I see 4 Congressional races that in the right conditions, coat tails, that we could flip, and with Obama leading Tom Wyka in NJ-11, thats going to be important.
But PA is in good shape in the polls, when do I get my best peole back? Nov 5th?
Linda Stender commented on the strategy of her opponent and independent groups to use rhymes and songs against her saying they insult the voters of the 7th Congressional District, but did find a silver lining:
"I'm very popular amongst the third grade set because of the nursery rhyme nature of the campaign that's been run. The kids are always happy to see me, because they know the ads,"
3rd District: The race in this district from the Camden suburbs into rural Burlington County is for an open seat. State Senator John Adler is a thoughtful, moderate Democrat who has helped ban smoking and curb predatory lending. The Republican is Chris Myers, the mayor of Medford Township who has held executive positions at Lockheed Martin. Mr. Myers has a businessman's view of what needs to be done in Washington. Mr. Adler would focus more on the middle class, including tax relief. We endorse John Adler.
5th District: Residents in this stretch from northeast Bergen County to rural northwestern New Jersey are represented by Scott Garrett, one of the most conservative members of Congress. Mr. Garrett supports constitutional amendments to ban abortion, even in cases of rape and incest. He backs President Bush?s tax cuts for the wealthy and limited aid for the poor.
We endorse Dennis Shulman, a Democrat who is a rabbi and psychologist. Mr. Shulman says he would work to mitigate global warming. He would also take an interest in psychological counseling and educational opportunities for veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan.
7th District: In the race for the open seat in this central state region, Republican Leonard Lance and Democrat Linda Stender are both excellent candidates.
Mr. Lance has a fine record in the State Senate, where as Republican leader he won praise from both parties for his fiscal conservatism and his thoughtful views on social issues. Ms. Stender is a progressive Democrat who would make a worthy member of Congress. But Mr. Lance's leadership qualities and his voice of moderation are needed now in Congress and in the Republican Party. We endorse Leonard Lance.
The campaigns filed their October 1 to October 15 Federal Election Committee results yesterday. Here's New Jersey's three top takeaway district results with a brief analysis of each at the end.
NJ3 -- John Adler (D) and Chris Myers (R)
Adler raised $139,996.28 and has $834,477.68 cash on hand after spending $578,484.62.
Myers raised $149,028.00 and has $217,296.02 cash on hand after spending $219,564.30.
As of October 15, Adler has about $600,000 more to spend in the last three weeks of the election. That's a big advantage, even with the NRCC running ads on New York radio. If I had to handicap the three races based on the public polls we've seen and the money race, I have to go with this one as the most likely to flip.
NJ5 -- Dennis Shulman (D) and Scott Garrett (R)
Shulman raised $79,952.13 and has $126,580.91 cash on hand after spending $179,434.31.
Garrett raised $74,756.29 and has $410,984.95 cash on hand after spending $234,548.97.
As of October 15, Garrett has about $220,000 more to spend in the last three weeks of the election, but the filing also notes Shulman raised more money leading into the election. I am surprised that Garrett, who people think is in danger, is not raising all that much money compared to other competitive NJ campaigns.
This is still a real long-shot for the Dems, but it is withing striking distance. Even the national Republicans say that in a wave election -- and national polls are hinting at a wave -- NJ5 could flip.
NJ7 -- Linda Stender (D) and Leonard Lance (R)
Stender raised $152,705.29 and has $304,481.42 cash on hand after spending $350,509.83.
Lance raised $139,240.00 and has $274,817.74 cash on hand after spending $191260.80.
As of October 15, Stenderhas about $160,000 more to spend in the last three weeks of the election, a lot less than I would have expected. With her huge fundraising advantage I would have expected her to have a larger cushion. However, the DCCC is spending for Stender and the NRCC appears to be absent for Lance.
According to the 48 hour reports (every major contribution has to be reported within 48 hours) Stender raised $41,000 between 10/16 and 10/21, and Lance raised $44,000 between 10/16 and 10/23 so the cash coming in is pretty even, too.
I put this one a close second to NJ3, and likely to flip. I have been thinking that Stender's campaign has been overly focused on reproductive choice in her ads at the expense of economic and international turmoil, but Lance felt he had to respond this week with a "I'm pro-choice" TV ad and a group of Republican women to defend him. His polls or anecdotes must suggest it's got traction.
So, in the comments, how are we going to do in these districts?
According to Daily Kos, the Republicans have put out a "Death List" of districts that are at risk. Their worst designation is "Seat is likely to go unless significant turn of events."
NJ3, where John Adler (D) is battling Chris Myers (R), and NJ7, where Linda Stender is fighting Leonard Lance (R), are at this level. The Republicans expect to lose these seats.
Even more amazing is that NJ5, where Dennis Shulman (D) is taking on the notorious tax cheat Scott Garrett (R), is listed as "Leaning Republican, if there's a wave, some could be in trouble."
The Republicans are thinking we're going to pull two seats and maybe three right here in NJ. Pretty amazing.
