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.
What's the most important election issue this year in the small South Jersey town of Moorestown? It just got redistricted from the Eighth to the Seventh Legislative District, so could it be the epic battle between incumbent doctor/lawyer/legislator Herb Conaway and the flip-flopping mayor of neighboring Mount Laurel, Jim Keenan? Not by a long shot.
Six years ago, the township topped Money magazine's list of best places to live. The main east-west thoroughfare, Route 38, does not pass through the center of town, so Moorestown does not suffer the noise and pollution of through traffic like many other New Jersey towns its size. Known for its excellent schools, charming houses, and its Quaker roots, the town has been dry for almost a century.
And while the downtown area is often bustling with craft shows, parades, or other stereotypical small town America activities, the Moorestown Mall sits at the edge of town and attracts visitors from all over South Jersey.
Now, the owners of the mall want to draw more consumers by opening restaurants that serve alcohol. With competition from nearby malls and on-line shopping, the current owners of the nearly half-century old icon have managed to put together two ballot initiatives that would allow sales of liquor and provide licenses to restaurants to do so. Despite the fact that a similar referendum was voted down four years ago, and despite the fact that such referenda can be held only every five years, the courts have ruled that this initiative is worded sufficiently differently that it qualifies for the ballot.
So driving through Moorestown in the weeks before the election, you certainly see lots of yard signs for the legislative candidates. But the big issue is YES or NO on liquor licenses. Will the residents succumb to the promised $4 million in revenue that would come from approval? Or will they retain the laid-back charm that has been part of this South Jersey gem for decades?
The Carl Lewis saga continues to play out in the 9-time-Olympic Champ's favor, despite the Burlington Republican machine's concerted efforts to have him throw off the ballot. The BurlCoGOP likes things the quick-n-easy way for reasons too numerous to name here.
Anyway check of this video where Carl discusses issues like education, the millionaire's tax and jobs. Nadia Comaneci and Doctor Freud come as well.
We posted over this last night with an update about the Dem state conference changes - sorry, deciminyan - so I'm pulling it up top for a bit. - Rosi
For many years, my wife and I have been lucky enough to take a week's vacation every summer on Long Beach Island. We look forward to a time of relaxation and enjoyment of the pristine beaches. But during his first term in office, Congressman Jon Runyan is working to take that pleasure away from us.
Working in lock-step with his Republican colleagues, Runyan is actively promoting off-shore oil drilling in the Atlantic and providing the wealthy oil companies (i.e his campaign contributors) with more financial benefits - as if they need them.
To be fair, Runyan is delivering on campaign promises. I don't understand why Ocean County residents would vote for someone who will put their tourism industry in jeopardy, but they did.
Now Runyan is making it even more attractive for oil companies to drill. He voted on a bill to allow these companies to obtain new leases, even while they owe the government payments for fines from previous sins. And while he's voting to cut Medicare in the (false) name of fiscal responsibility, he also voted against elimination of taxpayer subsidies to oil companies.
Drilling off the Atlantic coast is not the way to solve our insatiable lust for energy. It's not a matter of whether an oil spill will devastate Atlantic beaches, it's just a matter of when and how badly.
Our vacations on LBI have become even more cherished over the last couple of years, as we have started a family tradition of having our grandson (and his parents!) visit us at the beach each summer. They live 300 miles from the nearest ocean, so this is a special time for our grandson as well as us. Let's hope that Runyan's pro-oil, anti-tourism approach magically avoids Murphy's Law and that we don't see a repeat of the BP disaster in our back yard. For our grandson's sake and the sake of all those kids who love the beach.
How many more years will my son and grandson be able to enjoy LBI if Oilman Runyan has his way?
Early this morning, I learned through a friend that Governor Christie would be holding a Town Hall meeting in nearby Moorestown. After seeing how liberal bloggers have been treated at Republican events in the last few days, I decided to go, but with some trepidation. But Moorestonians are good and welcoming people. So I left my Obama shirt at home and decided to venture into Christie land - the belly of the beast.
Liberal talk radio is having a field day with mainstream Republican senatorial candidate Christine O'Donnell's admission that she dabbled in witchcraft a decade or so ago. The talking heads are suggesting that Ms. O'Donnell secure the services of exorcist-turned-governor Bobby Jindal to "cure" her of this malady.
There's a lot to discuss about Christine O'Donnell, but liberals should know better that religion is not one of them.
find out why beneath the fold
I posted a diary on Saturday with pictures of the great reception Senator Weinberg received in Moorestown while raising awareness for breast cancer. The Corzine campaign put out a video with some comments from women who were with the Senator:I think it's a really well done video and like I said Saturday, Weinberg got a great reception. People seemed to appreciate the talk about the mammogram issue. Meanwhile, the Governor kept the focus on mammograms as well, hosting a roundtable today:
"While I have worked to expand healthcare to cover more kids and passed the paid family leave law to ensure workers can care for sick relatives or newborns, Chris Christie would side with the big insurance companies by giving them free-rein to drop coverage for critical procedures like mammograms," Corzine said during a roundtable discussion today with breast cancer survivors to mark National Mammography Day. "The insurance companies don't need a governor, New Jersey families do."
They had Monmouth County Freeholder Amy Mallet, who was diagnosed with breast cancer at age nineteen,there as well to talk about the importance of mammograms.
I decided to take a drive over to the street fair in Moorestown today where Lieutenant Governor Candidate Loretta Weinberg was walking around and talking to attendees. Here's a report from Lisa, posted over at the Corzine Blog:
We are feeling so great about the event today that we are going to carry it forward. As you know, we have been having women- women phone banks every Wednesday evening. Beginning this week, we are going to have our Women's phone banks include a "Mammos Matter" theme. We will be outfitting our local field office with pink tablecloths, pink pencils as well as eating pink food. Women are responding to the need to keep the NJ mandate for insurance companies to pay for our Mammograms. They are responding to the need to keep Jon Corzine as our governor.
As we walked Moorestown today we visited the "Soft Pretzel Factory" on Main Street. They have a large pink ribbon in their window, so it was a natural stop for us. Senator Weinberg was gracious and purchased us some delicious soft pretzels. During the month of October (Breast Cancer Awareness Month) ,The Soft Pretzel Factory is donating half of their proceeds to the Susan B. Koman Foundation. I stopped in and asked if they would make us some pretzels in the shape of breast- cancer awareness ribbons. They said of course. We plan to keep these in stock at our field office and serve "pink" mustard with them.
I enjoyed my pretzel compliments of the Senator and although I didn't have pink, I wore my red Rutgers shirt since that was the closest I had and it's homecoming day too. Here is a picture right as the Senator arrived:
There were classic cars that lined Main Street in Moorestown including this one promoting breast cancer awareness as well:
The rain as she arrived could not dampen people's spirits as Weinberg appeared to get a very good reception from what I was able to see. I'll put more pictures below the fold.
After last week's post titled "Stacking the Deck in Burlco", I honestly didn't think I'd be writing about Burlington County shenanigans for a while. My Magic 8 ball was wrong.
The Burlington County Democratic Committee and Moorestown Democratic Committee held a mock caucus and straw poll in Moorestown this past Saturday.
...the Burlington County Democratic Committee in conjunction with the Moorestown Democratic Committee will be hosting a mock caucus for Democratic activists in the county with surrogate speakers for the Democratic Party's presidential candidates on hand to persuade the voters to support their candidate. [...]
"A non-binding straw poll will determine a winner for the Democratic ticket through this mock-caucus."
About 100-125 people turned out. Surrogates spoke on behalf of their candidates. A good time was had.
And at the end they had the caucus portion of the event. People broke up into different corners of the room depending on their preferred candidate. According to one attendee (the Edwards surrogate), Obama had about 60% of the support, Clinton had 25% and Edwards had 15%. But we don't know what the real results were because the votes were not counted. How did they expect to "determine a winner" through a "mock-caucus" without, you know, counting votes? Why go through all that trouble of advertising and drawing people out to the event, having them break up into groups and then not counting? It defies logic and common sense.
Several caucus attendees emailed Blue Jersey to suggest that there was no count taken because party leaders (who have endorsed Clinton) saw that the result would not be favorable to their candidate. It would be unfortunate if that's the case, but it's almost too hard to believe that anyone would take something like this so seriously that they would fear the results.
I already expect that like last time some feathers were ruffled, certain important people will tell me off-line that I'm blowing things out of proportion. Save it and redirect that energy where it's deserved, because I'm not the one changing the rules halfway through the game.
