I wouldn't agree with the writer's suggestion that not attending college makes anyone ignorant. That said, Sweeney's was a poor, thoughtless and inaccurate description of students acting the best way they know how to defend their school against a plan they don't support. Thanks for the diary. - promoted by Rosi
In a stunning example of racial insensitivity, Steve Sweeney called Rutgers Camden students and faculty protesting the end of their school's affiliation with the state's university a "lynch mob."
Characterizing Thursday's rally at Rutgers-Camden as an irresponsible "lynch mob" reaction, the Senate leader said he hopes to see the confusion remedied with a clear picture of the proposal.
This in a school whose full time students are less than 50% white. Where 1 in 10 are African-American. More than at Rowan. Where students were merely exercising their right to protest this Norcross-Christie backroom deal.
Sweeney should be made to apologize for his insensitive remark.
Of course, since he never went to college, it may be ignorance and not racial insensitivity, that led to Sweeney's comment. Either way, like Christie, Sweeney should apologize for his improper comparison to Jim Crow.
State Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-Gloucester) announced today that the Democratic-controlled Legislature will not consider moving legislation that would allow voters to decide through a ballot referendum is same-sex marriage should be legalized in New Jersey.
As the climax to a lengthy public hearing, the Democratic-controlled Assembly Judiciary Committee late Thursday afternoon voted 5 to 2 along party lines in favor of a bill to legalize same-sex marriage.
The senator said the full Senate will vote on Feb. 13.
Senate President Steve Sweeney, who infamously abstained in January 2010 when marriage equality came up for a vote in the New Jersey Senate he had just taken leadership of, tells Blue Jersey today that when the Senate Judiciary Committee takes testimony on S-1 Tuesday morning, he will testify first.
After the upheaval and sadness in the NJ Legislature following the death of Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce - at the Statehouse and in the very last hour of Lame Duck - most of the traditional agenda-setting, the reorganization, and speeches of the Legislature were put off until Tuesday, Jan. 17.
Today, we're posting remarks as prepared for delivery of the top majority leadership in both Houses - on the Senate side of President Steve Sweeney & Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, and on the Assembly side of Speaker Sheila Oliver and Majority Leader Lou Greenwald.
It's important to see what they promise, how they see the challenges ahead, and what their best intentions for the new session are. We'll be watching for both the successes and the failures. We're damn sure you will be. But right now, as they set off to begin New Jersey's 215th Legislature, I've got nothing but my best wishes for their fortitude, internal integrity and stamina as they face down a Republican governor working to make a national brand of himself, at the expense of the people of New Jersey.
Please note that any formatting errors are likely my own, and not the legislators'.
Remarks as prepared for delivery by Senate President Steve Sweeney Jan. 17, as the NJ Senate reorganized for the 215th NJ Legislature:
Thank you. Thank you to all of my friends, my colleagues, and my family. It's because of your support - support through the difficult times New Jersey's faced in recent years-- that I'm here today.
I would be remiss if I did not thank Senators John Girgenti, Sean Kean and Andy Ciesla for their hard work, commitment and years of service to the Senate. I would also like to welcome our newest members: Senators Pou, Thompson and Holzapfel. It is an honor to have you here.
Of course, it is with a heavy heart that I address you today. Much has been said about our departed colleague Alex DeCroce, so there is little I could possibly add. I'll just say that we can't possibly fill the void his passing has left us, but we can do honor and justice to his memory by working together in a civil and courteous manner on the issues of the day. Rest in peace Alex and thank you for everything you have done for the people of New Jersey.
Being sworn in as Senate President is as humbling today as it was two years ago. Admittedly, there were some bumps in the road after that January day. You've read about the more colorful side of my vocabulary. You have seen the latest in designer ironworker sweatpants that I have sported from time to time.
So it seems as though Chris Christie is channeling his inner Christie Whitman with his proposal to cut New Jersey income taxes by 10% across the board. We know how well Whitman's 30% tax cut worked out. New Jersey borrowed massive amounts of money to pay for pensions and government projects, which led even lesser governors to stop paying into the public employee's pension system, which resulted in the underfunded system becoming the state's unofficial bird, the Albatross, when the economy bottomed out in 2009. I wish the rest was history, but unfortunately it's become the present and future for hard-working middle class public employees across the state.
Garden State Equality is rapidly ramping up it efforts to help pass the recently re-introduced Marriage Equality bill (S1 and A1), which may be voted upon as early as March. The Senate appears to be taking the legislative lead on this bill. With primary sponsorship from Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg (D-37), President Steve Sweeney (D-3) and Raymond Lesniak (D-20), it was immediately referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee. PolitickerNJ reports that its sources indicate the Senate could already be only one vote short of passage, and its article lists senators now believed to be supporters. Less is known about the Assembly where it primary sponsors are Reed Gusciora (D-15) and Speaker Sheila Oliver (D34), and where it has not yet been referred to a committee. In spite of what PolitickerNJ says, we can not take passage for granted in the Senate, much less the Assembly.
Success for the re-introduced Marriage Equality bill will be difficult and will necessitate significant grassroots support. This time around Garden State Equality will have less staff and resources to coordinate activities than it had during the lame duck session in 2010. The Catholic Church hierarchy and social conservative opponents remain implacable, and legislators can be fickle. However, with NY's recent victory and stronger support now from legislators (and their leaders) there is reason to hope. There is also reason to be concerned.
What can happen? In the ideal scenario it passes with a veto-proof majority in both houses and become the law in spite of Governor Christie's opposition. In another scenario it passes without a veto proof majority and can then be vetoed or signed into law by the governor. In a really bad scenario it can fail in one or more houses of the legislature. In terms of the overall M. E. objective, inextricably connected are the Garden State Equality / Lamda Legal lawsuit currently in the lower court, a similar federal lawsuit which originated in San Francisco, a possible vote on the part of New Jerseyans, and a possible federal law.
More on the key scenarios and other options for ME in NJ below the fold.
We should never have to apologize for giving credit where it's due. Thank you Steven, and thank you Senator Sweeney! - JG
Can you believe I'm nervous about making a post here, dear Blue Jersey friends? I understand that we progressives have differed with Senator Sweeney on some issues, especially with regard to labor. But I am posting here about Senator Sweeney and marriage equality because fairness compels me to. Please do not demolish me for doing so. For as my grandmother of blessed memory would say, Nu, Steven, how much more therapy do you need?
By now, you've read the stories that Senator Sweeney will be leading the way today in announcing the re-introduction of a marriage equality bill. A special shout out of thanks, by the way, to Assemblyman Reed Gusciora, who has worked tirelessly for years on this issue and will continue to lead the way in the Assembly, and to our Senator Loretta Weinberg, our tireless and beloved legend. And to too many others to name, but most of all to the Blue Jersey community, Garden State Equality's incredible partners in the fight for marriage equality.
Back to Senator Sweeney: This round of marriage equality, he has been spectacular. Other than how our Loretta fights for every issue she believes in, I have rarely seen a legislator work so hard behind the scenes for an issue he believes in.
Yes, Steve had a different view two years ago. But a few months after his last marriage equality vote, Senator Sweeney came to me and said he wanted to make it right. In private, and I think it's okay if I say this, he spoke at quite some length about his change of heart, and this was well before any votes down the line that many disagree with. His change was not a public relations stunt to divert attention from anything else.
I know - I have spent hours with the guy since the start of 2011. Like all people in public life, he's not two-dimensional. More than most people in public life I know, and that's more than a handful, the guy has a capacity for growth and self-reflection. He's not only been amazing on marriage equality, but I also believe we can work with him on other issues, too, and that the team of Steve and Loretta together will fight big fights for us and do big things for us - things we believe in.
I publicly thank Steve Sweeney, and I thank you in advance for not hating me for posting this. Oy, mamele, now the dozens of posts begin!
Over two decades ago, I did some volunteer work for a non-profit organization in Syracuse, New York. One of the executives at that organization was a young man named Dave Valesky. I remember his genuine appreciation toward me and other volunteers for putting in time to help there. His attitude toward his volunteers made working there fun and rewarding.
After I moved to New Jersey, I was pleased to learn that in 2004, Valesky was elected to the New York State Senate to represent the people of Central New York as a Democrat.
I was even more pleased to read this Catholic senator from a conservative district has been a supporter of marriage equality, leading to full marriage rights in the Empire State.
So even though the parameters of the marriage equality battle may be different in New Jersey, I reached out to Valesky to learn about his decision to vote for equality and how it might help the upcoming debate here. He was gracious enough to spend some time with me on a telephone interview.
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.
Here they are in their first public appearance together, the new leadership teams in both the Assembly and Senate. (Note: incoming Senate President Pro Tempore Nia Gill was not present).
"If you don't know where you're going,
you'll wind up somewhere else."
- Yogi Berra of Montclair, New Jersey
I've written and deleted six versions of this diary about the maneuvers that discarded two people who distinguished themselves this year by exhibiting core Democratic values, when it wasn't always simple to do so. Frankly, it's hard to think about this without wanting to pick the broken glass out of my teeth; Even with solid Democratic wins, this has been an awful week. A tense week for some people we admire greatly.
It was easier, and perhaps more profitable this year to bind with the Christie collaborationists. To fall in line. To hear Tea Party activists screaming in one ear about the cost of government, and New Jersey's unelected power brokers whispering soft directions in the other ear. Plenty of our Democrats fell in line. On more than one issue. Barbara Buono and Joe Cryan did not.
In the Senate Democratic caucus, the vote has just been taken. By a unanimous vote, Steve Sweeney is re-elected as Senate President. Senator Weinberg is the new Senate Majority Leader in this session.
Our best wishes to both, and to outgoing Majority Leader Barbara Buono.
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.
It is not news to most people who followed the debate here at Blue Jersey and elsewhere that the pension reform bill did not save the pension system. A few, mostly cosmetic, changes were made that will have little effect on the deep structural problems in the fund. Some have even called the very notion that the bill solved even part of the problem idiotic.
But let's table all that for now and look at another threat to the pension fund: the growth of risk in the fund's investments. A threat that resulted from bi-partisan irresponsibility in managing the fund, particularly in not making payments or underfunding.
The lack of contributions, and in one case raid to pay for tax cuts, forced the fund's investment managers to seek more novel ways to get the returns necessary to maintain the solvency of the fund. The riskiest strategy by far is the increased use of "alternative investments" to get abnormal returns to plug the gap.
Investments in alternative investments are limited to no more than 28% of the portfolio. The individual categories of private equity, real estate, real assets, and hedge funds are limited to 7%.
Let's be clear, "alternative" is a euphemism for extremely risky. Putting aside real estate (how's that doing?) and real assets (commodities) the categories include private equity and hedge funds. These types of funds are so risky that only sophisticated investors are legally allowed in. This is because, though their returns can be large, the risk of major losses and even a fund collapsing is high.
As will be discussed later the pension fund's other, seemingly less risky, investments are having serious problems right now. Who knows what kind of exposure or danger the "alternative investment" section of the portfolio has.
(The NJ Pension Fund has considerably extended its use of "Alternative Investments" - increasing risk)
But let me be entirely clear, this is not the investment managers' fault. This is the unfortunate but reasonable response to both political parties and their leadership failing to fully fund the pension system. Because of underfunding, investment managers had to try and do more with less and the only way to do that in finance is to take on more risk or be creative. Creativity in the arts is wonderful and life affirming, in money management it's generally a prelude to pain.
Bottom line: underfunding has lead to more risk in the pension fund, jeopardizing its stability and in the worst case its solvency.
Collingswood was among the 0.6 percent of public entities rated by Moody's to receive a "large, multi-notch downgrade," or a downgrade of two or more notches. The borough was dropped an astonishing six notches, from A1 to Ba1.
The primary source of the problem seems to be a development scheme wherein the borough underwrote considerable debt to secure the financing of high end housing:
The downgrade was a reflection of doubts over how Collingswood would fully pay off $8.5 million for the LumberYard, a luxury housing and retail complex near the PATCO Hi-Speedline. The borough will make an extended maturity deadline of Dec. 7, but not without borrowing another $4.5 million to purchase unsold condos, which it will try to lease.
This odd situation has lead Reuters columnist and municipal debt expert, Cate Long to award the Borough of Collingswood the "Muniland Absurdity of the Year Award" Long writes:
The small town of Collingswood, New Jersey is facing some rough sledding in the next 90 days as it attempts to raise cash to pay off loan guarantees it made on behalf of a local condo and commercial development.
The private project, The Lumberyards, originated in 2006 with funding from TICIC, a consortium of New Jersey banks that provided $18,000,000 in construction loans to Lumberyard Condominiums. After completing about one third of the project the developers encountered weak demand when the housing market and economy softened following the 2008 financial crisis. The developers are now broke and have turned to the town of Collingswood, their municipal guarantor, to repay the loan to TICIC.
(Soldier comes out to his father on Youtube after DADT repeal)
Today Don't Ask Don't Tell, the Department of Defense's backward policy on homosexuality, is no more. And no, the world didn't end.
One of the gay (and proud to be so) service members heavily profiled in the media today is stationed in New Jersey:
On Tuesday, as the 17-year-old "don't ask, don't tell" policy goes away, so does J.D. Smith, the name a 25-year-old Air Force officer assumed to shield his identity as he engaged in high-wire activism that could have crashed down on his career. Even if no one asks, Air Force First Lt. Joshua David Seefried is telling.
"It's all about leading now," Seefried told The Associated Press as he prepared to come out to his superiors, put a picture of his Air Force pilot boyfriend on his office desk and update his personal Facebook profile to reflect his sexual orientation. "Those are things I feel like I should do because I guess that is what a leader would do. If we all stay in the closet and don't act brave, then the next generation won't have any progress."
At Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey, Seefried works in finance, oversees a staff of 20 and is attached to the 87th Air Base Wing. Twice this year, he was set to deploy to the Middle East, and felt conflicted when his orders were canceled only because going overseas would have put J.D. Smith out of commission. A handful of friends at work know he is gay. Only one knows about OutServe, the underground network for gay military personnel he co-founded last year.
