Labor gets behind Congressman Pascrell

by: Domenick Stampone

Thu Jan 05, 2012 at 01:43:59 PM EST

Today 21 union locals announced support for Congressman Bill Pascrell in his primary fight.  Bill Mullen, President of the New Jersey State Building and Constructions Trade Council put it best: "Moving your home to challenge one of your own doesn't make sense.  That's why we're standing by Congressman Bill Pascrell."  And he is 100% right.  Bill Pascrell isn't moving anywhere.  I can say with certainty that if he was drawn into a district with Scott Garrett he wouldn't be running from the fight.  He would take it head on like he has every race in his career.  

That is the most disappointing part of Rothman's decision to move into Pascrell's district.  There is a golden opportunity to take out one of the most extreme, ideologically driven members of Congress.  A man who wants to drill for oil on New Jersey's shores, voted against reauthorizing the Voting Rights Act and refused to support funding for Hurricane Katrina victims.  Garrett refuses to compromise on anything and epitomizes everything that is wrong with Washington D.C. right now. Instead of taking this fight to Garrett - someone Rothman disagrees with on almost every issue - he is fighting his own, another progressive Democrat who he almost always agrees with.  

It makes no sense.  

It is no secret that I'm a strong Pascrell supporter.  Since my first race for the Haledon Board of Education right up until my election as the Mayor of Haledon he has been behind me.  Bill Pascrell didn't start this fight.  But you can rest assured he is going to end it.  

"Eyes Up Here": Look up north to see if NJ D's are serious

by: Adam L

Mon Jan 02, 2012 at 07:58:22 PM EST

When Rep. Steve Rothman decided to run against Rep. Bill Pascrell in the Ninth as opposed to running against Garrett, my thought on the bigger picture is that there will be a lot of money spent on a Democratic Primary (assuming there is one) that could have been much better spent knocking down one of the worst Representatives in the truest sense of the word "representative" in that Garrett does not represent the best interest of most of his constituents.

Amazing Race for a Soon to Be Non-Existent 7th District

by: huntsu

Mon Jul 18, 2011 at 02:12:00 PM EDT

There's only one race in New Jersey as of right now, and it's a two-fer.  But before we get to that, let's look at the rest of the state.

Every incumbent is raising money, though some slower than others. Chris Smith (R-4) and Albio Sires (D-13) each raised less than $100K this quarter, but neither is really in trouble.  There's little talk that either of them could be districted out next year.  

Scott Garrett (R-5) is the winner, pulling in a whopping $703,681for the quarter first half of the year, outpacing the number two William Pascrell at $489,056 and Frank Lobiondo at $486,271.  Updated: I give you the first half numbers because the FEC pages are not being helpful in parsing things out by quarter yet.end update

Those are the highs and lows, but the real interesting one right now is the 7th.  Most folks out there suspect that the 7th will be the one to disappear.  It's the weirdest looking district, an easy win for the Republicans most of the time but recently got more Democrats registered than Republicans.  It borders on Democratic districts (6, 10, 12 and 13) and Republican districts (5 and 11) into which it could be subsumed.

The 7th has also never made any sense at all, with the urban and hyper-Democratic east combined with the more rural and hyper-Republican west. more...

Rating How Competitive New Jersey Congressional Districts Are: Nate Silver's PPI Index

by: Hopeful

Fri Jul 30, 2010 at 12:53:57 PM EDT

Here's Silver's idea:

Are there any systematic differences in the ways that votes tend to fall for the Congress, as opposed to the Presidency? Are certain districts better or worse for Democrats, or Republicans, than PVI alone would suggest?

It turns out that there's one other factor which is fairly useful to look at, which is socioeconomic status. Relative to how they do for the Presidency, Democrats are somewhat more likely to win races for Congress in poorer districts, and somewhat more likely to lose them in wealthier ones. Another way to put this is that a split ticket of Republican for President, Democrat for Congress is more likely to occur in a poor district, whereas a split ticket of Democrat for President, Republican for Congress is more likely to occur in a wealthy one.

Click through for the statistical analysis he uses. Silver expresses his PPI index as the chance for Democrats to win an open seat in an average election cycle, based solely on two factors: the recent Presidential Vote and the percentage of the population with incomes under $25,000/yr.  Here are the results for New Jersey:

District	Name	PVI	PPI
NJ11	Frelinhguysen	R+7	2.5%
NJ5	Garrett	R+7	3.2%
NJ4	Smith	R+6	10.9%
NJ7	Lance	R+3	13.9%
NJ3	Adler	R+1	27.9%
NJ12	Holt	D+5	62.9%
NJ2	LoBiondo	D+1	66.0%
NJ6	Pallone	D+8	85.2%
NJ9	Rothman	D+9	88.8%
NJ8	Pascrell	D+10	96.6%
NJ1	Andrews	D+12	97.0%
NJ13	Sires	D+21	99.95%
NJ10	Payne	D+33	99.998%

The main lesson, if you take this ratings seriously, is that New Jersey's wealth makes the battleground Congressional districts lean Republican compared to how they vote at the Presidential level. In many states, the R+3 and even the R+7 districts have a great chance of going Democratic at the Congressional level, but here NJ5 and NJ7 are actually quite unfavorable, and should vote for the House like R+14 districts in the rest of the country. When we evaluate how our candidates did, it's worth keeping this effect in mind.

Frank LoBiondo's district is the poorest in New Jersey, and by this measure is slightly better for Democrats than Holt's district, but we are stuck with the echo of 1994. In case it's not obvious, being an incumbent matters, scandals matter, and cycles can be more or less Republican than the average cycle, and you should always remember that the most likely outcome doesn't always happen. All of our 2010 races have incumbents so the percentages definitely do not apply. Also, this is the last election in the current districts.

Health Care Action Alert - UPDATE

by: Adam L

Fri Oct 23, 2009 at 10:42:45 AM EDT

We also found out that Reps. Steve Rothman (NJ-9) and Albio Sires (NJ-13) may also be on the fence, so we are asking that if at all possible, can you call all three of their offices and urge them to support the Speaker and 70% of Americans for REAL healthcare reform.

Here are their numbers, both in DC and here in NJ:

Albio Sires:
DC-202-225-7919
NJ-201-222-2828
NJ-201-558-0800

John Adler:
DC-202-225-4765
NJ-856-985-2777
NJ-732-608-7235

Steve Rothman:
DC-202-225-5061
NJ-201-646-0808

*************
I'm told we may have until around 2PM today, so anything you can do this morning is extremely helpful.  And as Rosi said last night:

If you live in their congressional district be sure to tell the staffer.

If you don't live there, but work there, or spend vacation time or money there, tell them that. And of course, be brief and polite to the staffer who takes your call.

If you know somebody in the district, please shoot them an email with the phone number - you can make a difference this morning.  

Also, if you could tweet this and post to your Facebook status, that would be great too.  After all, elections have consequences, right?

Thanks!!!

Women in politics reality check, it's not 1950, right?

by: kwilkinson

Thu Aug 13, 2009 at 10:32:08 AM EDT

I thank you for your vote of confidence because this is a very important position. Yes, I'm a woman, which does bring a different . . . "That's right!" Gove continued. ". . . A different perspective

The APP reported a member in the audience interrupted with applause and a drawn-out "Yeah,"...

When it was Sen. Connors turn to speak, APP reports

And one more thing, he began. He knows there are some Republicans out there who are perhaps uncomfortable with her statement that as a woman she would bring "a different perspective" to the table.

"Brian [Rumpf] and I are used to a different perspective at least once every evening when we go home," Connors quipped to laughs and applause.

I know there are Dem men who would acknowledge that some in the party are uncomfortable with women bringing a different perspective or with women just being women and allowed to hold higher office.  And some would try to diffuse it with old boys' club type humor.  

Hardly seems worth the newsprint, except to remind some of us that we haven't left the 1950's that far behind.  

Rumpf, at least, acknowledged it had been a tough couple of weeks, referring to Van Pelt's indictment and resignation.

Loretta Weinberg and the Campaign for Change

by: kcreibeck

Wed Oct 01, 2008 at 08:03:35 PM EDT

It is my understanding that she has held the Obama Campaign for Change in NJ hostage with idle threats if they were to coordinate with the Bergen County Democratic Organization.

I just don't understand why she feels that her personal vendetta is more important than electing Barack Obama the next president of the United States.

Today I walked into the suposid headquarters at 36 Bergen St. and they did not have ANY PHONE LINES I guess she wants us to call with our hopes and dreams.

Luckally, I knew the BCDO was only around the corner so I went there instead.

There I was greeted by a smiling organizer that put me to work right away to help Elect Barack Obama.

Please Senator Weinberg put your personal vendetta aside until after the election just like you agreed to.

The Insanity of Vince Micco

by: Thurman Hart

Wed Apr 09, 2008 at 01:15:32 PM EDT

"The reason I'm running is I believe victory and success in Iraq are not only attainable, but they are just imperative. We must win, we can win, we are winning," said Micco, 39, a mortgage banker who recently signed up for another six-year stint in the reserves.

First of all, I've never heard Mr. Micco answer the primary questions on Iraq: What does victory in Iraq look like?  How will we know when we have won?  It is irresponsible to say that we are "winning" without giving a clear and concise answer to these questions - and not even General Petraeus can do that.  If the General in charge of Iraq doesn't know what we're trying to accomplish, how can a low-level grunt like Micco claim that we are winning?

Answer: He's repeating what he has been told and he chooses to believe.  It just so happens that his political position mirrors that of the Republican Presidential nominee.  So we'll be hearing a lot of this crap in the next six months or so.

Make the flip.

Third Quarter Cash on Hand for Democrats

by: Hopeful

Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 05:59:18 PM EDT

Rob Andrews (NJ1)	$2,429,899
Rush Holt (NJ12)	$623,200
Frank Pallone (NJ6)	$3,105,223
Bill Pascrell (NJ8)	$1,031,440
Don Payne (NJ10)	$751,399
Steve Rothman (NJ9)	$1,838,631
Albio Sires (NJ13)	$132,605

Your politics 101 quiz:  Which of these Congressmen is thinking of running for the U.S. Senate?

Rep. Rothman and Returning from Iraq

by: Aldon Hynes

Fri Mar 09, 2007 at 09:08:20 AM EST

The State of the Union: What Didn't Happen

by: Steve Rothman

Tue Jan 23, 2007 at 10:59:44 PM EST

President Bush said we would be welcomed as liberating heroes, and that didn't happen.  President Bush said that we would find remnants of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs, and that didn't happen.  President Bush said that Iraqis would set aside sectarian differences to create a civil society, and that didn't happen.  President Bush said that if we just "toughed it out" that the insurgency would be defeated and peace would reign, and that didn't happen, either.  Now the same person who has been wrong about every other thing that has happened in Iraq is telling us that everything will be fine if we just send a few more thousand American soldiers to serve as targets for sectarian militias.

The President's "new strategy" is limited to a few new lines of rhetoric to describe his failed "stay the course" policy.  Oh, and sending 21,500 more American soldiers into harm's way without any clear idea of what they are supposed to achieve or how they would achieve it.  One definition of insanity is to try the same thing over and over and hope for different results. 

Democrats will not sit by idly and allow this to happen.  I specifically requested a seat on the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee so I could be sure that someone would hold the Bush Administration responsible for conducting our military affairs in a way that brings honor to our servicemembers and greater security to the American people.  My fellow Democrats and I will use all of the parliamentary procedures at our displosal to ensure that President Bush does not waste our resources - including our most precious resource: the lives of our fighting men and women.

Democratic Staffers In The Right-Wing Machine

by: Scott Shields

Sun Dec 24, 2006 at 04:19:46 PM EST

Shelly Stoneman serves as Rothman's Legislative Director, as well as Military and Foreign Policy LA. Kerry McKenney is Payne's Legislative Director and Press Secretary, a juxtaposition I don't quite get, but that's beside the point.

The point is that no one serving at the pleasure of New Jersey's progressive voters should be attending conferences put together by the right-wing Mercatus Institute. And yet, according to records of travel by Congressional staffers analyzed by Kagro X at Daily Kos, that is exactly what each of them did in February of this year.

The Mercatus Center bills themselves quite vaguely as "a research center focused on improving our understanding of how societies transition to prosperity and remain prosperous over time." However, a more detailed analysis of their work can be found in a Wall Street Journal article reposted at their own website:

When it comes to business regulation in Washington, Mercatus, Latin for market, has become the most important think tank you've never heard of. Staffed by veterans of the White House office that reviews and often scales back proposed rules, Mercatus, with its free-market philosophy, has become a kind of shadow regulatory authority. The White House's top regulator, John Graham, was briefly a member of Mercatus's board of advisers before taking the government post.

And an analysis of their financial support network, done in early 2005 by MyDD's Chris Bowers, explains their interest in so-called "free-market" deregulation. Familiar right-wing names like Koch, Olin, and Scaife have pumped tens of millions of dollars into the organization since its founding in 1985. The Mercatus agenda can be summed up as the wholesale destruction of any and all government oversight of big business, consequences be damned.

The only other member of the New Jersey delegation with staff at the conference was Scott Garrett, whose Chief of Staff Michelle Presson was in attendance. While it makes perfect sense that Garrett's staff would work in association with a group like Mercatus -- he's a far-right Representative, they're a far-right think-tank -- it doesn't speak well of either Payne or Rothman to have their names associated with the Mercatus Center.

I'm not suggesting that Stoneman or McKenney should be run out on a rail for attending one Mercatus conference. But we really ought to make it clear to our lawmakers that corporatist, anti-government think-tanks like Mercatus are not to be considered honest or credible sources of information or training for their staffers.

Vince Micco & Todd Riffle Latest Republicans to Challenge Murtha's Courage

by: PocketAces

Thu Jun 22, 2006 at 04:34:14 PM EDT

From an e-mail sent out today (emphasis mine):

New Jersey 9th Congressional District candidate Vice [sic] Micco will appear on the Hannity and Colmes T.V. program tonight at 9:00 PM to debate Rep. John Murtha's Democrat view of the war and the call to cut and run from Iraq.

Vince will offer a special point of view since he served nine years in the U.S. Army, including a year in Iraq as a sergeant fighting terrorism as part of a counter-intelligence unit.

He experienced the war on the front lines, not from behind a desk in Washington D.C. He saw the good things U.S. Soldiers are doing there and how much the Iraqi families appreciate what Americans are doing for them. Vince is running for the U.S. Congress in the Ninth District (Bergen, Hudson, Passaic counties) now because he believes America cannot back down in the war on terrorism.

Meet the Candidates

by: Juan Melli

Mon Apr 10, 2006 at 07:08:10 PM EDT

US Senate:
    Bob Menendez (D) 8029
    James D. Kelly Jr (D) 1300
    Thomas H. Kean Jr. (R) 4202
    John P. Ginty (R) 1742

House Districts
1:  Rob Andrews (D)

2:  Frank LoBiondo (R) 804
    Viola Thomas-Hughes (D) 298
    Henry David Marcus (D) 207 "Change the Course!"

3:  Jim Saxton (R) 949
    Richard Sexton (D) 293

4:  Chris Smith (R) 675
    Gary Schiavone (D) 310

5:  Scott Garrett (R) 513
    Michael Cino (R) 300
    Paul Aronsohn (D) 495
    Camille M. Abate (D) 427 "A New Spine For Congress"

6:  Frank Pallone Jr (D) 310
    Leigh-Ann Bellew (R) 278

7:  Mike Ferguson (R) 896
    Linda Stender (D) 532

8:  Bill Pascrell (D) 4301
    Jose Sandivol (R) 407

9:  Steve Rothman (D) 1020
    Vincent Micco (R) 321

10: Donald Payne (D) 1244
    Deshon Porter (D) 211

11: Rodney Frelinghuysen (R) 699
    Tom Wyka (D) 332

12: Rush Holt (D) 1216
    Joseph Sinagra (R) 225

13: Special election for unexpired term
    Albio Sires (D) 530
    James Geron (D) 268

13: For full term
    Albio Sires (D) 3229
    Joseph Vas (D) 594
    John Guarini (R) 255

Ugly Campaign Literature on the Right

by: Juan Melli

Fri Apr 07, 2006 at 04:37:10 PM EDT

Micco hides behind his parents to defend his anti-immigrant views:

As the son of immigrants, Micco said he values the contribution legal immigrants have made to the United States and sees widespread amnesty for illegal immigrants as a slap in the face to my mother and father and to the millions of other people who came to this country through the front door.

Perhaps he should have asked around a little more. I'm a first-generation immigrant, and along with the majority of other immigrants, Micco has lied about our views. The largest national poll of legal immigrants ever undertaken (Feb-March 2006) finds the following:

Although some political leaders argue that legal immigrants harbor animosity toward undocumented immigrants for cutting in front of them in line and for not respecting our laws, the poll results indicate little resentment toward undocumented immigrants.

Steve Rothman Podcast: A Moderate Stands Firm

by: Thurman Hart

Mon Apr 03, 2006 at 03:17:55 PM EDT

New Jersey's Ninth District Congressman Steve Rothman proves this is simply not true.  In this exclusive Blue Jersey podcast, Congressman Rothman dispels the notion that a moderate cannot stand strong on principles and fight hard for his constituents.

Podcasts

by: Media In Trouble

Tue Mar 21, 2006 at 10:19:26 AM EST

We have two gutwrenching, highfalootin', incredibly wonderful podcasts comming up.

Today, Xpatriated Texan is interviewing Rep. Steve Rothman, presumeably at one of his Town Hall Meetings. We will edit the podcast so that it is fully out of context and post it as soon as possible.

Monday, yours truly will be heading over to Linda Stender fundraiser which, ironically, will be held in the same building Dick Cheney was shooting people in the face in. There in the bullet hole laden room, none other than Rep. Rahm Emanuel has agreed to a podcast. This is a great opportunity and we are eternally greatful to the Stender campaign for giving us this chance to interview a high profile national Democratic high roller.

For those who don't know, Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) was Bill Clinton's senior political advisor and is currently in charge of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, a.k.a. the body responsible for taking back the House this year.

Use this as an open thread for collecting questions you would like to ask both Congressman Rothman and Emanuel.

Putting Our Money Where His Mouth Is

by: Thurman Hart

Thu Mar 16, 2006 at 09:57:19 PM EST

Putting Our Money Where His Mouth Is

by: Thurman Hart

Thu Mar 16, 2006 at 09:57:19 PM EST

We've Done Enough. We've Paid the Price. It's Time to Bring Our Troops Home.

by: Thurman Hart

Thu Feb 23, 2006 at 02:33:13 PM EST

As one of Congressman Rothman's constituents, I've heard him speak several times.  He has always impressed me as someone who tries to hold himself above the fray of politics.  His demeanor is thoughtful, almost shy sometimes, and when he speaks he weighs each word carefully.  He is about the farthest thing I could imagine from being a partisan hack or a loose cannon.