republican 
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Mon Mar 15, 2010 at 06:48:30 PM EDT
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We've written about the Burlington County Bridge commission before here at Blue Jersey. When we last left them, lobbyist Bob Stears was pleading guilty saying he got sucked into a "corrupt group of people."
The Philadelphia Inquirer had an in depth piece yesterday on the agency talking about how despite the notion they want people to believe that they are a model that has learned from past mistakes under the new leadership of John Comegno, they are still a prime source of business for many of the GOP donors and the game continues: The commission and its staff have a number of Republican ties. Comegno's law firm, the Comegno Law Group, is a GOP donor. The executive director is the son of a Republican political action committee treasurer. And the new chief financial officer is a former GOP councilwoman from Riverton. Comegno is the current chairman of the bridge commission and despite all of these ties to the county party, he described "the commission as a model of transparency and accountability, saying political relationships and donations are not related to agency operations in any way." This "model of transparency" still has deep ties to the county party:The law firm Capehart Scatchard, an influential backer of the Burlington County Republican Party, has received $2.2 million in legal fees since 2007. That's the equivalent of billing 13 hours a workday over the last three years. Capehart Scatchard is GOP party boss Glenn Paulsen's law firm where he is a partner. His neighbor is Bill Layton, the current chairman of the Republican party Burlington County. Follow me below the fold for more.
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Sun Mar 14, 2010 at 02:10:28 PM EDT
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We wrote about the heat the new Burlington County Freeholder administrator Paul Drayton has been taking since his selection by the Republican Freeholder board the other day. Now the board is coming under greater scrutiny because of the choice, a close friend of Party boss Glenn Paulsen. Their unwillingness to be forthcoming and inability to admit they made a mistake has led the Courier to offer this take on what they are doing:The Republican majority on the freeholder board appears to be ignoring what's in the public interest in favor of what's in their partisan interest. The Courier wants the Freeholder board to cut their losses and let Drayton go, but the Republican Freeholders haven't been willing to take that step yet. The editorial called the selection of Drayton a "highly partisan pick, and a bad one given some of what we know." Not only is the selection questionable, but the process by which he came about deserves further scrutiny. The Republican Freeholders have been unwilling to make public the names of the people who interviewed for the position and the finalists only met with the Freeholder Director and Deputy Director. That's far from the transparency they promised the voters.
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Sat Mar 06, 2010 at 02:01:04 PM EST
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 So my Mayor has switched teams again. Evesham Mayor Randy Brown initially managed the campaign of the former Republican Mayor, Gus Tamburro in 2003, but then ran against Tamburro as a Democrat in 2007 and won. It was a big pickup for the Democrats at the time to win all 3 seats and take a 4-1 majority on council for the largest municipality in the county.
Since that time, Republicans have retaken control of the council. Both the Burlington County Democratic Chair and Treasurer were forced to resign in scandal, which seriously undermined the charges of corruption the Democrats hurled at the Republicans, and the Party's still struggling to get back on track. The party has seen a fight over the Chair position, which after many stops and starts, will be chosen in June. In the mean time, Brown has used the divisions in the party and the shifting political winds as a chance to switch teams again.
The funny things is, the GOP ran ads against the last Democratic council candidates accusing them of being just a continuation of Brown's policies. They even attacked Brown in a mailer, calling him a liar (click to enlarge the mailer to the right). Chris Russell, spokesman for the County Republicans and defender of Brown's switch, still touts the mailers that he produced on his business website, though I doubt the'll be posted there for long. The GOP spent the last 3 years trashing Brown. But now that he's one of them, they're all good to keep him around.
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Wed Oct 07, 2009 at 12:15:00 PM EDT
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The State Division of Elections issued their Statewide Voter Registration Summary. Here's a visual look at the breakdown by county: 
Click to enlarge image We have over 5.2 million registered voters in the state and here's a breakdown. While Democrats have the advantage over Republicans, the largest amount of voters are not affiliated:Democrats have a fourteen point voter registration edge over Republicans in New Jersey, 34%-20%, according to a summary released by the state Division of Elections last Thursday. But nearly half of New Jersey voters (46%) are not affiliated with a political party.
Since October 2008, Democratic voter registration has actually declined, by 15,430 voters, while the number of registered Republicans has increased by 6,794. The total number of registered voters in New Jersey has decreased by 142,328 over the last year. I'll put all the numbers that created that image below the fold. If you know anyone who has yet to register, the deadline is fast approaching at October 13.
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Fri Nov 07, 2008 at 06:27:15 PM EST
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Many people projected that Somerset County and the NJ7 would go blue as part of the Obama wave. It didn't happen...not even close. Why? How did the Freeholder and NJ7 campaigns go so wrong? Or is this "As Good As It Gets?"
In Republican Counties (see useful table below the fold to see where your county sits in the rank), I think there has been too much focus on county-wide, Legislative, and Congressional campaigns. These county and regional campaigns just don't seem to be winable...not yet. I feel that the focus should be on municipal success. We need to build strong Democratic Municipal Committees (DMCs). Strong DMCs can do grassroots education to make voters understand the importance of local, county, and congressional government positions. And a strong DMC is vital for building the resumes and experience of candidates at the higher levels. We need to crawl before we can walk.
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Fri Nov 07, 2008 at 11:08:02 AM EST
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Republican State Senator Joe Pennacchio offers this analysis of his party:"If our party publicly expressed satisfaction with New Jersey and National Republican results in Tuesday's election, all they were doing was reinforcing rank and file Republican cynicism for our party's leadership," he said. "Once again Republicans find themselves with no message, no money and no direction going into next year's gubernatorial election. To say our Republicans 'Ship of State' was run aground by our captain, would imply that it had a direction. That simply was not so." He may want to talk to his State Chairman Tom Wilson, who thought election night was like New Year's because once the clock struck midnight they were all ready for the 2009 elections. Wilson must not have many fun New Year's celebrations if he enjoyed Tuesday night.
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Wed Aug 20, 2008 at 10:38:44 AM EDT
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Much of the talk in New Jersey regarding contested Congressional seats this Fall has centered around District 7, where Democratic Assemblywoman Linda Stender is running against Republican State Senator Leonard Lance to fill the House seat vacated by retiring Republican Congressman Michael Ferguson (R-7). The most likely Democratic pick-up, however, is actually in District 3, where Democratic State Senator John Adler is battling Republican Christopher Myers to fill the seat of retiring Congressman James Saxton (R-3). Adler has raised approximately two million dollars for his run and as a popular State Senator from Cherry Hill who is well-respected for his policy-making abilities and breadth of knowledge regarding State and Federal issues, he is a formidable opponent of Mr. Myers, the Mayor of Medford, New Jersey and Lockheed-Martin Vice-President.
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Wed Jul 23, 2008 at 09:36:50 AM EDT
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The conventional wisdom is that the recently announced federal probe into the dealings of former Corzine friend, Carla Katz, with the local CWA which she had led, will score United States Attorney Chris Christie political points with Republicans, Independents, and some anti-Corzine Democrats. Governor Corzine has been battling to keep emails between Katz and himself from becoming public and Katz is already under investigation by the national CWA for alleged improper conduct. Christie's federal investigation promises more negative Katz headlines, more unfavorable publicity for the Governor, and positive publicity for Mr. Christie. However, Mr. Christie's possible gubernatorial ambitions may actually be undermined by this probe.
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Wed Mar 26, 2008 at 10:27:16 AM EDT
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This is a transcript of Andy Unanue, the current savior of the NJ Republican Party's effort to win a statewide race, where he defends himself against the charge of being drunk on the job by saying he was just hung over.
Q: Did you hear some testimony regarding your drinking alcohol [on the job]?
A: Yeah.
Q: Were you ever drunk in the office at GFI's [Goya Foods] headquarters?
A: No
Q: Were you ever drunk in any other offices where you worked?
A: No.
Q: Were you ever hung over in the office?
A: Sure, yes.
"Sure, yes." he says. As if this were a normal occurrence for an officer of a major corporation to show up to the office hung over.
If that's what he did while managing the family business, imagine what he would do in the US Senate.
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Sat Jan 19, 2008 at 10:36:58 AM EST
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Update: The results are in, and Ron Paul trounced:
Novick says there were 207 total votes (I'm only counting 176). Duncan Hunter's votes aren't included below...he got about 7 votes, plus some people may have left early.
Ron Paul: 72.7% (128)
Fred Thompson: 15.3% (27)
Rudy 9ui11iani: 8.0% (14)
Mike Huckabee: 2.3% (4)
John McCain: 1.1% (2)
Barack Obama: 0.6% (1) (Joey Novick, who paid to attend the straw poll, wrote in a vote for Obama, though they did not announce it in the totals.)
Ever wonder what the other side is doing? Joey Novick is going to tell us.
Will Rudy pull his fat out of the fire - or is he fried?
Update (Juan) - some fun tidbits: Question: Should we be in The UN? "Sabrin: "Paul supports withdrawing from the UN, and making them condos on the east river. That will handle the homeless problem in NYC."
[...]
Huckabee on UN withdrawal: "About the UN. It needs to reigned in, We pay too much. We need to make the oil rich nations to pay more. I work in midtown NYC. And I can't get to my office when the NYC police are escorting someone from an oil rich nation to the UN, who is going to criticize us. That has got to stop." Waaahhh! For someone in politics, they sure are a bit thin-skinned. Gosh, imagine someone criticizing us! Oh the horror!!! Clowns, stay out of the kitchen.
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Fri Dec 14, 2007 at 12:16:54 PM EST
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Something interesting is going on at the Courier News' blog section.
Joan Greiner, the wife of defeated Flemington Borough Councilman Phil Greiner, has got herself a blog. And, boy is she using it to paint an interesting picture of Flemington.
Her husband lost the election to me. Close-I won by about 4 votes. And now the Council has a Democratic majority. Mrs. Greiner feels that, somehow, I have ruined the whole temperament of Council, since 2007 was a productive and fairly cooperative year. She labors under the delusion that the three Republicans who were up for re-election were somehow entitled to their seats, and that I got in the way of that lovely peace by seeking to disturb the beauty of a 3-3 even split.
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Thu Nov 15, 2007 at 11:24:11 PM EST
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Many of our elected officials on the State, County and local level are using their public office to financially reward themselves at taxpayer expense. One example of this profiteering is elected officials, who are also attorneys, obtaining public business for themselves and their law firms by directly or indirectly using their position to do so. This business is often obtained without competitive bidding. As a result, these elected officials and their firms are getting rich and we taxpayers are paying for it.
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Wed Oct 03, 2007 at 10:51:19 PM EDT
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A recent Quinnipiac poll revealed that nine out of ten New Jersey voters believe that corruption is a "very serious" or "somewhat serious" problem. However, a sizeable majority of voters polled said that the issue would not sway their vote to the Republican column despite the announcement of several recent high profile corruption cases against prominent Democrats. What does this mean for New Jersey residents?
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Wed Apr 11, 2007 at 11:15:57 PM EDT
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Cross-Posted from ShapTalk.com:
Officials of both political parties should have learned a lesson from 2004 when key Democratic politicians, including Governor Jim McGreevey, jumped on board with Governor Howard Dean, only to see Dean implode soon thereafter, leaving them with little influence over Senator John Kerry, the eventual Democratic nominee. Apparently, those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it. Approximately one month ago, a long line of Republican officials publicly announced their support for Rudy Guliani for President. Recently, a significant contingent of Democratic officials, including Governor Corzine, publicly backed Senator Hillary Clinton for President. Both groups of elected officials will find themselves on the outside looking in should the political winds afoot blow in an unexpected but likely direction.
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Wed Mar 28, 2007 at 10:55:39 PM EDT
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Cross-Posted from ShapTalk.com:
Fifty years ago, women would typically vote for the candidates their husbands voted for or would not vote at all. Times have thankfully changed and women now have a significant role in campaigns and elections. Whether it be the soccer moms of the 1990's or the security moms post-9/11, the role of women in politics has taken on greater importance, especially in the last decade. As a significant voting block, women have become critical to the election hopes of any politician. However, the number of women serving in elected office continues to be dwarfed by the number of men who serve. In New Jersey, on the Republican side of the aisle, something is being done to address this problem: the Christine Todd Whitman Excellence in Public Service Series. Unfortunately, the Democratic Party currently has no comparable program.
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Sat Feb 24, 2007 at 02:00:00 PM EST
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It's well documented that the former Republican majority in the House demanded absolute loyalty on the part of its members, and Mike Ferguson (NJ7) was no exception. Regularly his constituents -- and Blue 7th members -- would contact his office with pleas for a vote and Ferguson would go the other way, voting with his political bosses instead of his constituents. He had a more than 91 percent rating for voting with the conservative leadership, yet described himself as a moderate.
Now we know why. In yesterday's Princeton Packet, Ferguson actually admitted that he voted against his constituents and conscience because he was ordered to by the Republican majority.
This is the first time Mr. Ferguson has been in the minority since he was initially elected to the House of Representatives in 2000, from a district that includes Montgomery and Rocky Hill.
The "silver lining", he said, is that being in the minority allows a bit more freedom "to vote the way you want to", since the Democratic majority now bears the responsibility to muster the votes necessary to govern. "When you're in the majority, sometimes you vote for things you don't totally support," Mr. Ferguson said.
Well, now we need to find out. What things did Ferguson vote for that he -- and his constituents -- didn't support. Even more, what bills passed by just one vote that a Ferguson vote of conscience rather than a vote for Party Leadership would have changed.
For instance, Ferguson voted against an amendment that would have increased funding for care for wounded veteran while at the same time defunding the base closures that will cost NJ 15,000 jobs. That amendment failed by just one vote. Ferguson's vote.
Do we want a Congressman who thinks for himself no matter who is in power or one who can only vote the right way when his party bosses aren't telling him what to do?
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Wed Nov 15, 2006 at 08:44:14 PM EST
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I think I need to catch up on NJ Politics, the kind in Trenton. Not being very familiar with the folks in Trenton I thought the peeps @ bluejersey might give me a leg up on the worst of the worst.
Specifically, who's the most vulnerable, the most extreme, who is just wrong on the issues & why, who is going to retire, who deserves to lose next year. Or even who's worthy of a rant.
I have taken the liberty of posting a hopefully complete list of Republicans in Trenton @ my NJ BLUE BUX blog.
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Tue Oct 03, 2006 at 01:21:32 PM EDT
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This is according to today's PoliticsNJ.com.
Mike Ferguson, standing up for family values, woo hoo!
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