nominations 
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Mon Dec 21, 2009 at 10:15:00 AM EST
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Talk about grandstanding. If you listen to Republicans, many of the nominations from the Governor during lame duck were completely unexpected, came out of nowhere and are cause for uproar. Take for example Ed McBride, the Governor's former chief of staff to a judgeship in Burlington County who the GOP says was a complete surprise and pushed them over the line. The reality is far from that and indicates grandstanding to score political points. Call it the surprise they had advance notice of:So, let's go back. On November 12, Christie and Corzine met face to face for the first time since the election. They were joined by the ArchBishop of Newark, because the meeting took place after the blue mass. There, they discussed transition and according to Corzine some appointments the Governor was hoping to make in the coming weeks before leaving office.
Was there an actual agreement? hard to say. But if there was at least a gentlemen's agreement, at some point it deteriorated. Perhaps it was the sheer number of nominations and appointments Corzine asked for: 180. The Christie people feel that this is an attempt to jam through unpopular appointments at the 11th hour. Or perhaps it was the nomination of Chief of Staff Ed McBride to a judgeship. Here is where this gets tricky. The Corzine camp says it was made clear as early that Newark meeting that McBride was one of the appointments he'd like to make. They think for Christie's people to object now is disingenuous. Separately, Blue Jersey has also been told that the Governor conveyed his intention to nominate McBride in that very first meeting. Not only did Christie and his team know, but sources in the Governor's Office confirm to BlueJersey that Christie's senior staff was directly informed of Corzine Chief of Staff Ed McBride's judicial nomination several days before the nomination was dropped. In addition, we're also told that McBride personally reached out to each member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, both Demcorat and Republican, days before the nomination was filed.
The same situation happened with Senator Phil Haines, who for months was speculated to get a nomination for judgeship. Then he gets the nomination he's been seeking and rumored to have and he turns it down. He didn't turn it down because he doesn't want it, in fact he really does. He just will wait until Christie nominates him again. In fact, Haines pending nomination became an issue in the local Medford Council race last cycle, where his rumored successor Chris Myers was called on to withdraw from the race and answer questions on the matter.
Along with those situations, you have Tom Kean Jr. crying about a nomination to the BPU when he himself stood in the way of the potential nomination of Linda Stender long before it came to this.
Whether or not the Governor should have made appointments before lame duck is a separate issue from whether the Republicans are just trying to score political points and run out the clock before he can make the appointments and nominations. And even though two wrongs don't make a right, the 257 lame duck nominations the GOP approved when Don DiFrancesco left office in 2001 shows that they know how the game has been played and only have born again opposition to it because of how Corzine is now leading the way. To act like they didn't know is beyond disingenuous. This is the surprise they all knew about in advance. Doesn't that mean it's not really a surprise at all?
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Sun Dec 20, 2009 at 03:56:08 PM EST
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The uproar over nominations and appointments continues from the Republicans. The problem is, some of the situations have been caused by their own actions and created the opportunity for these reactions:Kean also criticized Corzine's delay in filling the BPU spot. But The Auditor has learned the Republican himself prompted it. Earlier this year, the senator invoked "senatorial courtesy" to block Corzine's planned nomination of Assemblywoman Linda Stender (D-Union) to the post. All that was publicly known was that Corzine wanted to put Stender on the board, but backed off without explanation. She would have been easily confirmed if the nomination were allowed to go through.
"Talk about hoisting yourself up by your own bootstraps," said Kean's fellow senator from Union County, Democrat Ray Lesniak, who supported Stender's BPU nomination. Lesniak noted that back in the 1980s he was criticized by Kean's father, the popular governor, for blocking nominations. "Governor Kean called me 'the King of Senatorial Courtesy'," Lesniak said. "I guess I've passed the mantle to his son." It looks like things have come full circle.
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Fri Dec 18, 2009 at 10:30:00 AM EST
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There is a legitimate debate that can be had about appointments made during the lame duck session. Perhaps many positions should have been filled before it came to this point, but we're here now and the GOP temper tantrums lately smell more like politics than principle.
And for many, this is born again opposition to lame duck appointments and nominations. When Don DiFrancesco left office before Jim McGreevey came into office, they made 257, not a typo, 257 lame duck appointees: During the final weeks of Donald DiFrancesco's term as Acting Governor, the State Senate voted to confirm 257 appointees during the 2001 lame duck session. One of them was his Chief Counsel, James Harkness, currently the Senate Republican Executive Director and a member of Governor-elect Christopher Christie's transition team. Harkness, who was appointed to the Local Finance Board, isn't the only familiar name on DiFrancesco's list of appointments. At least three -- Raymond Pocino, Edward Gant, and John Sette -- were included on the list of nominees Gov. Jon Corzine submitted to the State Senate this week. DiFrancesco also appointed union leader Carla Katz to the New Jersey Public Employment Relations Commission. In addition to the number, they say they're upset that the Governor made an appointment to the BPU, but Tom Kean Jr. blocked the nomination of Linda Stender earlier this year. Still other nominations, like the Judgeship of Phil Haines in Burlington County, were known well in advance of them being made. So to act like this is all shocking is beyond disingenuous. But we shouldn't really be surprised by the press release outrage. They're good at that.
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Thu Nov 29, 2007 at 02:13:04 PM EST
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Without further adoooooooo:
1)Diary of the Year:
A) Think Equal
B) Hopeful's Open Space posts
C) Draft Gore Launch
D) Voters: Time for Dems to Lead or Lose
E) Asbury Park Press: Editorial Wing of the NJGOP
2) Political Story of the Year
A) Ferguson and Saxton retire
B) Corzine's accident
C) Loretta Weinberg and "Real Democrats" beat Ferriero
3) Best Non-front-page Diarist
A) carolh
B) njdem - disqualified for being a front-pager
C) Linda Stender
4) Best Commenter
A) carolh
B) dottieG
C) rachel's dad
D) Jay Lassiter
See the rest after jump.
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There's More...
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Fri Nov 23, 2007 at 03:31:42 PM EST
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( - promoted by Juan Melli)
Bump -- Juan
What do you like about Blue Jersey? What about politics in NJ in general? Here's your chance to let everyone know.
Use the comment thread below to make nominations in the following categories:
1) Diary of the year
2) Political story of the year
3) Best non-front-page diarist
4) Best commenter
5) Politician of the year
6) Best reporter (TV, newspaper, etc - NOT a BJ diarist)
7) Best political campaign
8) Most hated figure in politics (in NJ - no fair naming Bush/Cheney/etc)
9) People's champion (political figure - not necessarily politician - who did the most to represent the people of NJ)
10) Frank Hague Memorial Award - given to the person who has done the most to hide government from the people and/or consolidate power behind the scenes to insulate their actions from the power of democracy.
We'll keep nominations open for a couple of weeks, then have votes in each category, and (hopefully) announce the winners on New Year's Day, 2008. You can dig as far back as Jan 1, 2007 for nomination material.
Go get 'em.
And if there's a category you want added, throw that in the comments, too.
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