Tom Wilson's best chance at keeping his job may be for Brian Levine to win the Republican nomination for Governor. Sources close to the two leading candidates, Christopher Christie and Steven Lonegan, say that Wilson is a goner with no hope of holding on as GOP State Chairman after the June primary. Another candidate, Richard Merkt, called for Wilson's ouster last year. By tradition, the winner of the gubernatorial primary gets to pick the new state party chairman.
If Wally is right, you'll have to catch him while you can. He'll probably be the one still fishing for emails while his party tries to take power despite him.
As if the NJ GOP doesn't have enough to legitimately complain about, now they don't like the scheduling of the Governor. Charles Stile gives us the details:
Governor Corzine's offered to raise Republican lawmakers' awareness of his $28.9 billion budget last Tuesday morning - the same time Republicans had scheduled an event to raise money.
Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce complained that the scheduling conflict was no accident.
"He asked me to come in at 9 this morning, knowing full well I had a fund-raiser with my members at the Trenton Marriott hotel. You don't do things like that," the Morris County Republican said. The $1,500-a-plate reception, co-sponsored by the Senate Republicans, was attended by Christopher J. Christie, front-runner for the Republican nomination for governor.
Let me say, I don't care when they choose to raise money and I think it's unrealistic of them to cancel the fundraiser at the last minute. The Republicans could have just kept their mouths shut and raised their money. They had the option to cancel the fundraiser and meet with the Governor. They chose to go with the Governor they want rather than the Governor they have.
Deb Howlett jumped at the opening to take a shot back at the scheduling of the GOP fundraiser when DeCroce complained:
"I think it's too bad that they think a fund-raiser with their wealthy donors takes precedence over doing the people's business," she said. "Maybe these are the same wealthy donors that they are passing off as the middle class."
Well, you can imagine how well that went over with the Republicans:
"That's the kind of snide response we have come to expect from Democrats who are quick to launch personal attacks but can't come up with a rational explanation why raising property taxes by $1,700 to $2,000 for middle-class families is actually good for them," said Rick Wright, chief of staff at the Assembly Republican office.
Give them credit. The New Jersey Republicans are trying to hop on the tech bandwagon:
Chris Christie can be found @christiefornj and last nighthe was at PNC for the Rudy event.
Tom Wilson is following me on twitter @goptom and he was so happy that Ch. Steele picked CAGOP Chair Ron Nehring to lead Sate Chairman's group. Ron's a conservative and an idea's guy. Great pick. (I'd be concerned about Chairman Steele myself.)
Some of the tweets from Steve Lonegan @Lonegan are pretty good. He uses the medium to help his campaign organize and spread their message.
GOP Strategist Rick Shaftan @Shaftan isn't happy with the party and thinks the GOP "Tax Cut" proposal is pathetic and a sign that the GOP has adopted the "permanent minority" mindset of the Bob Michel years.
Michael Illions of Conservatives with Attitude can be found @illions and he was spreading word of the Call for Michael Steele's resignation from NC Natl Committewwoman, Dr. Ada Fisher. Man did I call this one on this guy!
Assemblyman Kevin O'toole may want to attend the "bi-partisan" committee meetings this week, because @senatenj the NJ Senate Republicans have his release saying Corzine Needs Oversight When Spending Stimulus Money.
The NJGOP @njgop is obsessed with Jon Corzine. Every tweet talks about him, but then again they haven't had anything since Jan 21.
It's great, because you get a real time reaction from the opposition. You can follow Blue Jersey on twitter @bluejersey. I'll have more on the NJ Democrats using twitter next time.
The New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission will not seek to deny public financing to Republican gubernatorial candidate Steven Lonegan, but will not make a public statement today regarding a private meeting today to discuss an unspecified issue that was believed to be related to the Lonegan campaign.
"If we were issuing a compaint in this matter we would be going public," ELEC Executive Director Frederick Herrmann told PolitickerNJ.com.
This is definitely a win for Lonegan as he will now get the matching funds he was seeking.
The New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) will hold a special meeting - not open to the public -- tomorrow which could change the course of the Republican gubernatorial primary. While ELEC has declined to disclose their agenda item, it is widely believed that they will discuss issues pertaining to the public financing of Steve Lonegan's campaign. Lonegan acknowledged last week that he has provided ELEC with answers to some questions concerning his affiliation with Americas for Prosperity, an anti-tax issue advocacy group.
The ELEC investigation is the result of an Associated Press story that suggests the former Bogota Mayor was obligated to disclose the details of his relationship with Americans for Prosperity, an anti-tax lobbying group for whom he served as New Jersey Director. State law requires candidates to disclose their connection to issue advocacy groups to avoid a conflict, such as avoiding spending limits that come with the public financing of gubernatorial elections.
Election Law Enforcement Commission Executive Director Fred Herrmann on Tuesday confirmed there will be a closed-door meeting Thursday to discuss "an investigative matter" regarding the 2009 gubernatorial campaign. He would not confirm that Lonegan is the target or provide other details.
The decision amounts to almost $140,000 in matching funds for the Lonegan campaign. While he's already facing an uphill climb against Chris Christie, denying the funds would be a pretty severe blow. The track record of the campaign says that if ELEC finds against Lonegan, we can expect to see a scathing attack as that has been their typical response to news that isn't in their favor.
The Eleventh Commandment was a phrase used by former President of the United States Ronald Reagan during his 1966 campaign for Governor of California. The Commandment reads:
"Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican."
"With all due respect to Tom Kean, I did not seek his endorsement," said Lonegan, former mayor of Bogota. "I'm not a Tom Kean Republican. As governor, Tom Kean raised the sales from five to six percent, increased the gas tax, the income tax from two and a half to three and a half percent, and a number of corporate taxes. The state budget increased 118 percent under Gov. Kean."
So he's not going after the Kean or Reagan vote? Not like I really care either way, but it's certainly an entertaining strategy.
Well this didn't take long. The day after Chris Christie "formally" announces his candidacy, Steve Lonegan unloads with a web ad on PolitickerNJ of "Questions for Chris":
Here's a few questions that caught my attention:
#1 Do you still believe illegal aliens are not criminals?
#4 Do you still think that those who give campaign contributions should be barred from receiving government work?
#7 You pled guilty to libeling 3 other Republicans in the 1994 Freeholder race. Having admitted you lied in campaign ads in the past, why would anyone believe anything you say?
#11 Do you still personally contribute money to planned parenthood?
So much for playing nice and aiming at Corzine. I won't hold my breath on Lonegan contacting us to advertise.
"I certainly hope to see more substance from Chris in this debate. He owes it to his fellow Republicans to stop acting like one of his lawyered-up criminal suspects when someone asks him a question about anything other than sports or Bruce Springsteen. He needs to man up and take a stand on something more controversial than indicting Sharpe James."
The New Jersey Republican State Committee has virtually no money and is at risk of not making payroll, according to a GOP County Chairman who will be attending a meeting of party leaders tonight where the party's financial woes will be discussed.
They are fantastic naysayers, but do not act when afforded the opportunity... When they controlled Trenton, did they cut spending? No. Did they push shared services? No. Did they take on public employee pension and benefit reform (besides raiding the pension funds of cops, teachers and firefighters to pay for bigger Trenton government)? No. Did they reform pay-to-play? No. Did they strip corrupt politicians of their pensions? No. What did they do? They just went along and got along. Think what you want about Gov. Corzine, but he cut more spending last year with one swipe of his pen than Queen Christie Whitman did in her 8 years in office... Was it enough? No... but it's more than the GOP did when they had the chance to cut, but buckled in the end... and think what you want about the Democrats who control the Legislature, but they acted on the issues I mentioned above. Talk is cheap, Republican friends... Where's the beef? Where's your message? Where's your bi-partisan action? What's that? I'm sorry... I can't hear you (deafening silence)...
From time to time, i'll try to take a peak over to the other side of the aisle to see what fun is going on:
Rick Merkt is keeping busy jogging across the state. He's already made stops in 300 towns and now has decided he wants to debate in all of them... Well actually just 12 debates. Good luck with that, as we saw how well it worked in the U.S. Senate race.
Apparently the Democrats pointed out the difference in the racial makeup of those in attendance between the Democratic and Republican conventions prompting this beauty from Tom Wilson:
"When you have a quota system, it guarantees the result you saw in Denver," Wilson shot back. "Look, you have one million Republicans in New Jersey, and 52 New Jerseyans sitting on the floor, representing them. These 52 people are there day in and day out doing the hardcore party activism.
"Our hardcore party activists are predominantly middle class, white New Jersey," Wilson added.
That's right, because there's no one from NJ in the middle class who isn't white. Welcome to your NJ GOP, where the hardcore party activism comes solely from those white middle class people. In Denver, the Democrats had 50% women, 24.5% black, 11.8% Hispanic and so on. Unfortunately, statistics aren't available from Minnesota, but don't worry because Wilson has developed an intensive strategy to expand the party into more urban areas however: (Emphasis Mine)
"You need ambassadors - people from those communities who reach out to people and tell them 'We're Republicans, we're not bad people', we just don't think government's the answer."
So the official NJ GOP plan for minority outreach is the "we're not bad people" strategy? And they wonder.
In the last few days, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) has made 2 ad buys, the latest and then the original buy, totaling $17 million dollars for 26 districts across the country. Before NJ GOP candidates get themselves excited, they should realize that not one of the districts is in Jersey.
As of now, if challengers like Lance and Myers want to join their friends in Congress, they will have to do all the heavy lifting on their own. I guess it's a good thing Chris Myers agrees with George Bush and John McCain thinking the economy is basically strong because he's gonna need to get alot more of people's money.
So the word is out that John McCain has chosen Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate to serve as Vice President. I'm reading the reaction from local Republicans gushing and wondering what the effect of her on the ticket really means for NJ races. First the gushing:
I keep hearing people talk about whether NJ is in play or not, but I don't see how Palin makes that possibility much more likely. I wonder how she will play in districts 3, 5 and 7 where races are expected to be close. Do Republicans really think she will be able to give their candidates an edge they need, or does she fill a void in the campaign ticket as a whole?
Her pick would seem to negate the experience argument as she has only been Governor since 2006 and served as Mayor of a small town before that. She is pro-life, which will go over well in some parts of the state, but like a rock in others. She supports drilling in ANWR and has encouraged John McCain to take another look at his prior opposition, which makes you wonder how NJ Republicans will respond if she comes out in support of more drilling off the Jersey shore. She brings youth and some gender balance to the ticket which I'm sure will be exploited while trying to court those still disgruntled Clinton voters, but when women get past her gender and look at her stands, will they still support her?
The volatile issue of teaching creation science in public schools popped up in the Alaska governor's race this week when Republican Sarah Palin said she thinks creationism should be taught alongside evolution in the state's public classrooms. Palin was answering a question from the moderator near the conclusion of Wednesday night's televised debate on KAKM Channel 7 when she said, "Teach both. You know, don't be afraid of information.
Larry Kudlow of CNBC's "Kudlow & Co." asked her about the possibility of becoming McCain's ticket mate.
Palin replied: "As for that VP talk all the time, I'll tell you, I still can't answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the VP does every day?"
Let's hope by now at least that someone has let her know what she will be doing every day should they win. Regardless, it's certainly good to see a woman on the ticket with McCain, even if I probably won't agree with much of what she has to say.
If the NJ GOP suddenly sprouts a whole new crop of supporters for the public financing of campaigns, don't be surprised. Apparently, the Republican Party in our state has so little support that they can't even make their payroll commitments. It's bad enough that they are asking John McCain to kick in some money for operating expenses.
They should be happy that they don't run state elections until next year. But this also exposes a real problem for the GOP. It's one thing to ask a Presidential candidate for help in campaigning - that's business as usual pretty much everywhere. It is quite another to ask a candidate to help raise money to keep your professional staff from becoming your volunteer staff.
If there were any doubt that the NJGOP is out of touch with the people of our state, this should lay it to rest. People support political organizations that fight for them. With a truly contested primary for US Senate winding down, the NJ GOP should be flush with cash - instead, it looks like they may be considering Murray Sabrin's fundraising approach (play the ponies, hope for the best). If the state party can't pay its payroll, then they are either blowing through too much money on luxuries or they are just not representing their constituents.
A political party serves much the same function as rails do for a locomotive - they give it a means to get where it wants to go. If you tear up the rails, though, your locomotive is left sitting on the dirt - and those trains tend to run much more slowly.
UPDATE: It's worse than I thought. The Monmouth GOP chair just called for Giuliani -- from NY -- to run. That's three names floated in three hours. The NJ GOP is really bereft of talent.
I know the NJ GOP is pretty desperate, but I had no idea how desperate they truly are. Today we get to see with three articles on PoliticsNJ.com PolitckerNJ about the NJ Senate race against Frank Lautenberg.
"Anne Estabrook ran for all the right reasons and is ending her campaign for the right reason,? he said in a statement.
Estabrook withdrew because she had a mini-stroke, which I don't really think should be called the "right reason." But we've long ago expected Wilson to say the wrong thing even while trying to say the right.
Next we see that the grassroots GOP doesn't really think they have any bench strength, or really any strength, in their current crop of candidates or even the entire state. PolitickerNJ has two articles, one with Al Leiter saying he will not run and the other with Mike Huckabee's NJ chair saying Huckabee will not run.
Why is this desperate? Because Leiter lives in Florida and Huckabee lives in Arkansas. They're not NJ residents.
Now, that worked in New York for Hillary Clinton back in 2000, but she chose that and then won it convincingly. Oh, yeah. And she's a Democrat.
The last time the GOP tried to import a US Senate candidate it was Alan Keyes who got crushed by Barack Obama back in 2004.
But I encourage them to try it again, given their awesome success rate with candidates -- whether from NJ or not.
It must be difficult to be an NJGOP candidate for office. For months, the only issue the state party has given them was to attack a plan to "sell the toll roads" that doesn't even exist in hopes that people will believe they can prevent the non-existent plan from going into effect.
When Republican Gov. Christie Whitman wanted to require supermajority votes to increase taxes, her biggest critics in 1997 were Republicans who controlled the Legislature and questioned whether it was sound public policy.
Now in the minority, Republicans are more than rethinking their objections. They're making the supermajority idea the centerpiece of efforts to try to retake the Legislature, where all 120 seats are up for election in November.
Hmm, at the time they questioned if it was sound public policy. Maybe that was because they were governing, not so desperate for power that they would say or do anything to get it. But State Chair Tom Wilson, who never dissapoints, said that the plan will succeed this time because this ain't your mama's NJGOP anymore.
Tom Wilson, the state Republican Party chairman, said there's a big difference between Republicans now those from 1997.
"Those people aren't here anymore," he said.
Maybe they are not there anymore in part because of the failed leadership of Tom Wilson. Tom Wilson is right, this is a different NJGOP. 10 years ago, they were a party devoid of ideas, but at least they were still in power. Today, they are just a party devoid of ideas. Thanks Tom for once again putting all your eggs in the basket without a bottom once again.
Yes boys and girls. The NJ Assembly GOP posted his letter on their little tax website without his permission and without attribution.
Joe Cryan didn't miss the softball he had been lobbed...
"This is property tax plagiarism by the Republicans," said Assemblyman Joseph Cryan, D-Union, the state Democratic Party chairman. "It's one more chapter in the real horror story of the GOP's failure and dishonesty on property taxes."
Seriously, is there anything the NJ GOP can't screw up?
Justice officials also gave immigration judgeships to a New Jersey election law specialist who represented GOP candidates, a former treasurer of the Louisiana Republican Party, a White House domestic policy adviser and a conservative crusader against pornography.
2. Practical Politics: Guest Columnist
www.practicalpolitics.net/guest/harbeck3.html - [Cached]
Published on: 1/8/2004 Last Visited: 4/26/2005
By Dorothy A. Harbeck, Esq.
...
Ms. Harbeck is a partner at Bell, Gage & Harbeck. She is a cum laude graduate of Wellesley College and received her J.D. from Seton Hall University School of Law. She has published articles on election law issues in the Election Law Journal and on tort liability in the Journal of the Academy of Business Education at Villanova University. She has also been a lecturer on Election Law Issues for the Christine Todd Whitman Excellence in Public Service Series. She represented the New Jersey Republican State Committee and the Middlesex County Republican Committee in a recent challenge to Assemblywoman Friscia's general election candidate.
She looks to be a smart, talented lawyer, but i don't think her resume shows great qualifications for the position of Immigration Judge. So someone tell me just what qualifies this woman to be an Immigration judge besides the fact that she checked off the box of the elephant on her voter registration form and passed the bar exam? With the help of Scott Shields, we dig deeper to find that maybe its the green in her wallet which helped qualify her rather than her accomplishments because she gave $2300 to GOP organizations from '04-06 including 2 $250 contributions after her appointment to the seat in September of '06.
Scott thinks that maybe she sent the money in a thank you card, but i'm not so sure. Either way, it just looks bad and she doesn't seem to have any experience which qualifies her, but i guess thats really what the qualifications are these days.
Update: Since relevant experience doesn't seem to matter much, I'd like to be considered for Joint Chiefs of Staff. I hear they will be making a change there as well. I've never served, but what does that matter to this administration. I could say I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night, but that might make me overqualified under the current decision making process.
Last night, President Clinton joined New Jersey Democrats from around the state helping raise $2.1 million for the State Party at the Governor's Gala, which was held at the NJ Performing Arts Center in Newark. Above is a picture I got as the former President spoke for about 10 minutes to a packed room of over 600 and here's a couple of the lines he delivered to the cheering crowd...
"I'm so glad your governor is going to be OK."
"It's a great time to be a Democrat," Clinton said. "New Jersey has become a great Democratic state."
"In 2006, the people said we want America to get back to do what it does best. We want to get back in the solution business. That's what Democrats do best."
"When I walked out of the White House for the last time, I was more idealistic than when I walked in for the first time. You know why? Because people were better off when I quit than when I started."
Only a handful of legislators attended the event held at the New Jersey Convention and Exposition Center, where attendees drank from plastic cups and were entertained by the Montgomery High School Jazz Band, an award-winning group from Wilson's hometown of Killman.
I'm sure the band was fantastic and well worth the show, but plastic cups? Why not just go with styrofoam? I know you don't pay for the food at fundraisers, but i might be a little insulted being given the plastic for a $300 event.
So lets recap: many were afraid to acknowledge publicly they were attending, only a handful of legislators actually did attend, those who came had to drink out of plastic cups and the media were forced to move their TV trucks because the owner of the property didn't want to acknowledge he was holding the event. So with all this wondeful information, what did the NY Times have to say?
The most prominent New Jersey Republican officials on hand were the party's top leaders in the Legislature: Leonard Lance, Senate minority leader, and Alex DeCroce, Assembly minority leader.
The event also played out without a hitch, in contrast to what happened last year when Vice President Dick Cheney traveled to Newark for a fund-raiser on behalf of Mr. Kean, the Senate candidate.
Mr. Kean was tardy after taking the usually traffic-clogged Route 1 from Trenton rather than the speedier New Jersey Turnpike. That generated speculation that while Mr. Kean wanted the money that was raised ($400,000), he did not want to be photographed with the vice president.
Wow, has the bar been lowered so much that as long as you don't give a pathetic excuse, the event went off without a hitch? Yeah, sounds like a huge success to me.
Update: While i've had alot of fun railing on this event for the past few weeks and the plastic cups may not be a huge issue, I think the fact that they only raised $700,000 having the President of the United States in town is very telling. Compare that number with the fact that in Dec. 2003, the Star Ledger reported on Dec 2. that Bush took $1 M for his campaign at an event in Morris County. In July 2001, The Bergen Record on July 31 reported that Vice President Cheney raised $3.5 million for Gubernatorial Candidate Bret Schundler. In fact, in 1999, Bush earned $800,000 for the assembly republicans alone, not even the State Party.
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