William Chegwidden is running for Senate. And it wasn't long before supporters of the man Chegwidden is challenging in the GOP primary, incumbent Sen. Anthony Bucco, accused him of triple-dipping. Chegwidden is already mayor of Wharton and Morris County Freeholder Director, and the fact he's also a teacher at Morris Knolls High School leaves him open to charges from his opponent that he's overusing the state's pension system. For his part, Chegwidden says teaching is his job, not an elected position, and he promises to give up mayor and freeholder if elected to the Senate.
But ... where else have you seen this face before? Why, in a campaign ad, huckstering for Chris Christie, aiming at teachers.
Chris Christie will make sure education funding is sound.
Looks to me like Chris Christie owes William Chegwidden a lot. A lot - at the very least for helping him create the apathy that led any public school teacher in New Jersey vote for him in November of 2009. Here's Senate candidate Chegwidden, when he was Christie huckster Chegwidden back in 2009:
A few days ago, we ran a purely satirical post claiming that Chris Christie was going to hold a counter-rally tomorrow at the state house, with other GOP electeds who want to turn the clock back on labor's right of collective bargaining.
Some of you took it seriously, and we had to run in and post "snark" warnings on it, just to set the record straight. Now today, we get word that there will be a counter-rally. Joey wasn't seeing into the future; it's not Christie, but the man who sits at Christie's right shoulder, telling him always that he's not right enough. Steve Lonegan, Christie's GOP primary opponent, and now NJ Director of Americans for Prosperity, a "conservative" "activist" group that is stronger in this state than almost anywhere else. I put those two terms in quote marks because AFP is not conservative, it's right-wing, and it's not activist in the way you're used to thinking; AFP is of course a front group, with massive financial backing from the Koch brothers. Same guys who put considerable power behind the election of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. Same guys slapped an anti-union tv ad up in that state designed to turn support back to the Governor.
Actually, as these state house and capitol building rallies spread all over the country, counter-rallies, where they've been held, have been anemic by comparison. Wonder what tomorrow will bring.
The Cook Report has shifted NJ-6 from Solid Democrat to Likely Democrat, as Frank Pallone's lead on Tea Party approved Republican Anna Little dropped from 12 points to 7 with a week to go.
Now comes Chris Christie hard-charging for Pallone, calling him "the sponsor of Obamacare". Obamacare being pure dogwhistle pitched to get people who may be without health care coverage themselves to agitate against what may be their own best interests. Yet another signal that Chris Christie's take on New Jersey is temporary.
With this ad, Christie allies himself with the shriekers, screamers and name-callers of last summer's Town Halls on health care reform. With this ad, he chooses a Tea Party candidate to pump, defusing some of the lingering resentment from the uber-right that Christie isn't 'conservative' enough, that Steve Lonegan was better.
Most importantly, Christie becomes a huckster for the national stink bomb that is the far-right's gross distortion of health care reform; not that it's problematic because it doesn't go far enough or fast enough, but for them that it dares to tie any responsibility or requirement at all to insurance companies making vast sums. Worse, with New Jersey having the 9th-largest number of uninsured people in America, quite a few of those 1.2 million living in Middlesex, Monmouth, Somerset & Union counties that comprise NJ's 6th congressional district, we now have a Governor huckstering for the right-wing on their national issues - not his state issues - flying around the country doing favors for Republicans he can collect on later, and screwing up just about everything at home. Good plan!
Congressman Sires' folks sent along this ad, in his all-but-certain re-election campaign against the GOP's Henrietta Dwyer. In the ad, Sires mentions not only his campaign but also puts in a word for down-ballot candidates running as Democrats with him. It begins with the popular theme of jobs. I cannot find a campaign website for the congressman, is that possible?
Doug Herbert, the Army vet and attorney who is challenging 8-term incumbent Rodney Frelinghuysen in NJ-11,
Among Herbert's endorsements are NJ State Building & Construction Trades Council, NJEA, and Sparta Unites for Our Schools, which points out that Herbert would have supported the Education Jobs and Medicaid Assistance Act, which Frelinghuysen voted against, that is now returning 3,900 teachers to New Jersey's classrooms - including 4 teachers whose jobs returned to Sparta, a school librarian, and teachers in art, music and gym. This is Herbert's first ad, now running on local cable. It deals with jobs, too, but from a different angle.
Rush Holt's new web ad puts a harsh spotlight on his opponent, hedge fund manager and venture capitalist Scott Sipprelle. It features my favorite factoid about the GOP candidate, that after he got a seat on his local property tax board, his property taxes went down by 20% even as his Princeton Borough house soared from $1.853 million in value to $3.168 million. See, among his responsibilities was a map of Princeton Borough that assigned homes into zones of comparable values. Sipprelle's home wasn't drawn into the same zone as most of the other houses on his street; it was tucked into the zone of lower-valued houses, owing less in property taxes - his went down, from More than $79,000 to just over $64,000. Most people in Princeton saw their property taxes rise. Here's the ad:
Frank Pallone has a new 30 second ad out: Sides, highlighting his image of using government to protect against corporate abuses. What do you think, Blue Jersey?
Rush Holt has a new ad out, asking people in NJ-12 what they know about how GOP candidate Scott Sipprelle's hedge fund manager job works. Sharpening the point, is the fact that the big-money player Sipprelle hasn't released his income taxes, and Holt says Sipprelle has skirted questions about his own Wall Street hedge fund. So, Holt decided to go ask voters what they know about hedge fund managers.
A hedge fund manager sometimes bets against the economy ...
Linda Greenstein has a TV ad ready to go - her first, I think, in her race against the GOP's Tom Goodwin for the NJ-14 Senate seat. The only state race in this cycle, and a race both parties are watching as an indicator of the public mood ahead of next year's all-in legislative races.
Blue Jersey, here's your first look. What do you think?
The Corzine campaign is out with a new web ad this evening hitting Chris Christie over comments he made to the New York Times saying that he's breaking his campaign promises before he even gets elected to office. First, from the NY Times article:
Regarding property tax rebates, Mr. Christie now says he cannot fully restore them - though his commercials omit this qualifier - and that he will send back the money only "on a sliding scale depending on what the economic conditions were." He explained the turnabout by saying he was "prioritizing out of a set of bad choices."
Referring to looming deficits, he added, "It's not like I can click my heels and say, 'Make the bad stuff go away.' "
The change is one of several recent reversals. Mr. Christie now also disavows a promise, made in a primary-season debate, to roll back a sales tax increase. He has backed away from a pledge to avoid using "one-shot" revenues to close the budget deficit. And he is now deferring until later in his term plans to eliminate a business tax surcharge, cut income taxes across the board, identify a permanent financing source for open-space preservation and restore higher-education financing to 2002 levels.
His biggest surviving pledge is to roll back Mr. Corzine's tax increase on people making more than $400,000 a year.
One of the main reasons environmental groups went with Christie was because he supported a permanent financing source for Open Space. So now he not only opposes the bond question, but won't come up with a permanent solution as promised. And what happens if a Christie economy doesn't get better? Do those choices get deffered to the next Governor? Here's the ad:The Democrats have been all over Christie's comments to the NY Times today. Assemblyman Greenwald had this to say:
"It's amazing that Chris Christie has waited until only four days before the polls open to admit that his entire economic plan was built on a foundation of sand," said Greenwald (D-Camden). "The more Christie tosses his grandiose promises of the spring under the wheels of his campaign bus, the more it becomes obvious that his proposals were meant only to make good sound bites, not sound fiscal policy. New Jersey couldn't afford Christienomics in the 1990's, and we can't afford it now."
And Assemblywoman Quigley didn't miss the chance to hit Christie for his latest broken promises:
"It only took 268 days since he threw his hat into the ring, but with four to go until the election Chris Christie has finally come to terms with the devastating fact that his fiscal platform is a non-starter," said Quigley, a member of the Assembly Budget Committee. "But now he faces an even more painful reality: telling prospective voters that his entire plan was a mirage."
He may have only formally declared 268 days ago, but he's been running for much longer than that. It's amazing that of the few specifics he does give, they always seem to get him in trouble. He lost his shared values in the course of a "website re-design", he tried to delete the words mandate-free from his website altogether and since he can't hide the fact that his fiscal don't hold up when exposed to the real world, he's backing away before he can even implement them.
Chris Daggett brought back his Christie and Corzine actors in this latest ad, "Don't spend money you don't have:"He closes taking on the notion that a vote for him is either a vote for Corzine or a wasted vote by once again repeating that it's never wrong to vote for the right person. He closed the radio debate last week with that line and that's really the additional hurdle that goes along with getting people to know who he is, convincing the ones who want to support him that he can win.
One more ad the Corzine put out yesterday is "Reflect":
The ad explains how Governor Corzine is fighting for the issues that matter most to New Jersey families. Governor Corzine has cut the budget and invested in education for the families of New Jersey. Over the last four years, he has secured health care coverage for over 100,000 kids across the state.
Christie would turn down stimulus funds leading to a $2 billion dollar tax increase. Christie opposes a woman's right to choose and would support a constitutional amendment to ban abortion.
The Corzine campaign put out this web ad highlighting some of the President's remarks about the Governor from their rally this past week:I really like this web ad and think the new media team has really done some great work throughout the campaign with these. The President will be back to help close the deal next weekend.
The Corzine campaign put out this bilingual television ad today featuring the President. Here's what the campaign has to say about this ad:
President Obama asks New Jersey Latino voters to support Governor Corzine in his upcoming bout for re-election. The half-Spanish, half-English (with Spanish subtitles) ad features President Obama telling voters that the future of New Jersey is "in your hands," or "en tus manos." This is the first direct to camera political ad that President Obama has recorded since taking office.
Citing the similarities between his fight on a national level and Governor Corzine's fight here in New Jersey, President Obama praises Corzine as "the leader New Jersey needs in these tough times," for his focus on improving health insurance, getting the economy back on track and ensuring everyone gets a quality education.
The Corzine campaign put out this television ad today, "Intensity." It's a straight positive ad with the Governor looking into the camera, talking about his life story and what he's has fought for:They say that the ad will air on cable and broadcast television across the New Jersey/New York and Philadelphia markets. This is their third positive direct to camera TV ad featuring the Governor. Their only 60 second ad was a positive direct to camera. The other positive ads were "children," which ran in May and the 60 second spot called "More to do," which hit the air at the end of September.
The Corzine campaign is busy today putting out new television ads. This one is titled "Sides" and highlights that the Governor fights for what matters most to New Jersey families while contrasting those values with Christie. Here's what the campaign says about this ad:
He's gotten health coverage for almost 100,000 kids and has worked to protect property tax rebates for middle class families and seniors.
Chris Christie, on the other hand, just doesn't share New Jersey's values. Christie sides with big corporations in opposing the paid family leave legislation that lets people care for newborns or sick relatives while still getting paid. He stands with big insurance companies in allowing them free rein to not offer critical procedures like mammograms and autism screenings. Christie's tax breaks for the very wealthiest would lead to higher property taxes for all New Jerseyans. Christie is wrong on property taxes, and wrong when it matters most.
And here's the ad:There are more coming as the campaign is busy putting tv ads out today.
El cuidado médico de calidad debe ser un derecho, no un privilegio ... Así piensa nuestro Gobernador Jon Corzine.
La campaña de Jon Corzine tiene un anuncio de televisión en español que se aproxime al tipo de comunicación de la campaña que me gustaría verlos hacer más. Sólo una mujer, un votante, hablando directamente, acerca de por qué está votando por Corzine - por el programa Family Care que proteja a los niños - cerca de 600.000 niños de Nueva Jersey ahora - y lo que significa para ella. Por favor, envíe esto a sus amigos que hablan Español-, y me interesaría saber qué piensa del anuncio.
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