Tag: New Jersey

Categories
ballot access insider corruption partisanship

Words for Jersey Insiders

New Jersey, ballots, design, voters, partisans

Effrontery. Chutzpah. Impudence.

I’m of course talking about partisan politics.

The case at hand is covered by Matthew Petti at Reason, “Are New Jersey Voters Too Dumb for Normal Ballots?” In this April 3rd report, Petti explains that a “federal judge has ordered Democrats in New Jersey to draw up ballots fairly instead of putting their favorite candidates at the front. But state Democratic bosses think that voters can’t be trusted to figure out how to think for themselves.”

This is a dispute about ballot design. Remember the notorious “butterfly” ballots that so confused Palm Beach County, Florida voters in 2000? You know, even Pat Buchanan acknowledged that thousands in the liberal county voted for him by mistake. 

Well, this is similar, though here the case is not so much a confusing ballot but a simple ballot with favored candidates getting the easiest-​to-​spot slots. “All but two of the state’s counties endorse candidates for the primary and then place their endorsed candidates all in one line,” explains NPR’s Nancy Solomon. “It’s called the ‘county line’ or ‘the party line’ and it includes candidates for various positions.… The other candidates for the same seat are placed in what’s known as ballot Siberia – way off to the right on the ballot and all alone.”

But when the party machine tried to replace the serially indicted Senator Bob Menendez with the governor’s wife, a challenger complained. And sued. And won.

County clerks are appealing the decision — but the court still requires them to design a new ballot.

“New” … meaning like ballots nearly everywhere.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Categories
political challengers

Message or Money?

Edward Durr, New Jersey

“I don’t know if I truly am fearless,” Edward Durr remarked to an NJ​.com reporter, “or stupid.”

“Because who in their right mind would take on a person with that kind of power and clout?” he asked rhetorically, before he answered, “But his power, his clout, did not scare me.”

Durr, a Republican, is the 58-​year-​old truck driver who last Tuesday defeated one of the most powerful politicians in New Jersey, State Senate President Steve Sweeney, a Democrat. Durr has never before held public office and spent just a smidgen over $2,000 in the entire race. His campaign video was filmed on his smartphone.

On the other hand, Sweeney was the longest serving legislative leader in the Garden State’s history. The powerful teachers’ union attempted to take Sweeney out four years ago, spending a whopping $5 million, but he still won handily by 18 percentage points.

Was it a conservative-​leaning district? This southern Jersey district “has reliably elected a Democrat since its creation in 1973, save for one year when the Democratic incumbent switched parties,” reported The New York Times.

At Reason, Rob Soave called it “one of the biggest political upsets in American history,” offering this important takeaway: “Durr’s victory is another reminder that for all the pearl clutching about money in politics, contemporary American campaigns are less determined by big piles of cash — to pay for massive ad blitzes, expensive consultants, and the like — than ever.”

Clearly, message meant more than money.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Categories
Second Amendment rights

Common Sense Reprieve

She must still suffer bogus punishment for her non-crime.

But at least Shaneen Allen won’t have to rot in prison for up to ten years.

What is the charge? Crossing a state border.

I’m glad that she no longer lives in the purgatory of that possibility.

And I think I know how she feels, having been arbitrarily threatened with prison myself, along with two colleagues, for a “crime” that was, in fact, a non-crime.

Twice a victim of real crime last year, Ms. Allen has a concealed carry permit from her home state of Pennsylvania. Her duly licensed gun was in her purse on the day she drove into New Jersey. A routine traffic stop led to its discovery and to Atlantic County Prosecutor James McClain’s injudicious determination to throw the book at her for possessing that gun in New Jersey without New Jersey’s permission.

Laws at all levels of governance being what they are — prolific, contradictory, and potentially ruinous — let’s agree that Allen should have double-​checked her assumption that her constitutional right to bear arms would not dissolve en route to the Garden State. Let’s also agree that crossing a border between two states of our union hardly stacks up to bank robbery or murder.

This kind of lapse of due diligence should not be used to destroy a life.

In late September, bowing to public pressure, McClain reversed himself. Shaneen Allen must enter a so-​called pre-​trial intervention (PTI) program, but no longer faces prison. The Daily Caller called the prosecutor’s welcome caving to public pressure a “stunning outbreak of sanity.”

I call it Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
ideological culture insider corruption

Disguised Corruption

Some things about government are eternal.

The latest New Jersey scandal a‑brewing has it that Hoboken’s mayor was informed her city was to be denied federal aid following Hurricane Sandy unless she went along with a real estate project favored by Governor Chris Christie.

Shocking, but hardly … unheard of. Back in the 1930s, Franklin Delano Roosevelt distributed disproportionate “stimulus” funds to swing states for one reason: re-election.

Corruption is ancient.

Christie’s staff seems, well, merely a bit more honest than usual. For modern America. Take the “Bridgegate” scandal: Trying to “hurt” a mayor by shutting down bridge lanes to his city, thus severely inconveniencing the mayor’s constituents? This sort of pettiness in policitics is common, with one difference: Most players disguise the pettiness.

So how does the continuing scandal of misgovernment usually get hidden? Dishonesty? Evasion?

Or, just ideology?

In several cities throughout the United States — Portland, Oregon, in particular — top metropolitan bureaucrats have deliberately developed policies that make automobile traffic more congested. Why? To encourage ridership in public transportation, which is considered (for ideological reasons) somehow better. Thus billions are spent on infrastructure supporting light rail, which take lanes away from car drivers, and move fewer people at greater inconvenience.

So why is that policy not itself a scandal?

The intent of Chris Christie’s aides was, obviously, base and petty and wrong. And actionable.

The ideology driving today’s anti-​automobile agenda, on the other hand, is said to be noble and altruistic. Even though the harms to the public in terms of hours lost in frustrating commutes far exceeds the recent New Jersey scandal.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
government transparency media and media people

Christie Crushes Crazy Media Crotchet

Whether or not Governor Christie fully succeeds in slashing spending and taxes as they need to be slashed to revive the New Jersey economy, he’s pursuing his mission the right way: head-​on, without a lot of obfuscatory politician-speak.

The latest evidence of forthrightness comes in response to a reporter’s question, the video of which has gone viral. The reporter is puzzled and perturbed by the governor’s terrible tone in dealing with the legislature. He wants to know whether Christie thinks that “this sort of confrontational tone can increase your odds in getting [a trimmer budget] through the legislature?”

Christie says he was sent to the governor’s mansion to combat bigger government, higher taxes, more spending, not to soft-​peddle his views. He’s going to push for lower taxes, lower spending. “Now, I could say it really nicely. I could say it in the way that you all might be more comfortable with. Maybe we could go back to the last administration where I could say it in a way you wouldn’t even understand it.… When you ask me questions, I’m going to answer them directly, straightly, bluntly, and nobody in New Jersey is going to have to wonder where I am on an issue.…”

Meanwhile, aides standing in the background look like they’re about to pump their fists in the air, as perhaps taxpayers are doing right now all around New Jersey. 

All I can say is: Keep up the good work, Governor.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
national politics & policies too much government

Quick! Stop the Rescue!

If there’s anything worse than running a state into the ground, it’s turning that state around.

Such seems to be the attitude behind yet another “bailout” program being mulled over by our congressional overlords in Washington, DC.

Over at National Review Online, Daniel Foster calls the Democrats’ proposed $23 billion fund for preventing teacher layoffs a “putting off hard decisions” fund. Pitched in the direction of Foster’s own state, New Jersey, the giveaways would sabotage efforts by the new governor, Chris Christie, to close a looming budget deficit for fiscal year 2011 of more than $10 billion.

The Garden State’s budget for fiscal year 2010 was about $30 billion. Christie is trying to cut funding to school districts. He has pledged to restore the funds in districts where teachers agree to a one-​year pay freeze and to contribute a small bit of their salary (1.5 percent) to help pay for their own health insurance. Currently, most pay nothing.

But if the federal government flings borrowed largesse that makes the state’s budget cuts irrelevant, teachers will have much less incentive to cooperate with even marginally more responsible policies.

Perhaps that’s the goal for Washington’s big spenders. After all, if folks could get their fiscal houses in order without handouts from the spendaholics in DC, there’d be no need for such handouts. 

And then just how “important” would those politicians be?

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
too much government

Hope and Change in NJ

Spending sprees are fun. The responsible cut-​backs after such sprees? Not so much fun. 

Seems the recent gubernatorial election made a difference in New Jersey. There’s change there. Also hope.

Last November, running on a platform of fiscal sanity, Republican challenger Chris Christie defeated the Democratic Governor Jon Corzine. And it seems that, unlike a certain U.S. president, Christie has every intention of following through. 

In early February, Christie told lawmakers that the state’s finances remain a mess and that the budget passed eight months ago is full of “all of the same worn out tricks of the trade” that have driven New Jersey to the edge of bankruptcy.

He said that the legacy of “irresponsible budgeting of the past, coupled with failed tax policies which lie like a heavy, wet blanket suffocating tax revenues and job growth” require extraordinary steps to bring the budget back into balance.

So on his own initiative, Christie is freezing spending across an array of programs. For example, he is cutting the subsidy to New Jersey Transit and urging managers of public transportation to “improve efficiency … revisit its rich union contracts,” be more fiscally responsible and efficient. He’s also targeting bloated government pensions and education funding.

Can Governor Christie complete the pivot to fiscal common sense despite the hurricane of opposition he faces? Time will tell. But it would be hard to imagine a better start.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
initiative, referendum, and recall

Making the Grade

Americans want, need, and demand a greater voice in government.

But how?

The best way is through initiative and referendum, where citizens can vote directly on important issues, propose serious reforms, and check the power of politicians and special interests.

Wonder about the state of your state’s initiative rights? Well, Citizens in Charge Foundation — the sponsor of this program — has just released a comprehensive 50-​state report card.

Most states get failing grades. Why? Most provide no way for citizens to put issues on the ballot — or their legislators have regulated the process they do have into near oblivion.

New Jersey got a D for its lack of statewide initiative. But last year’s upset winner for governor, Chris Christie, campaigned on bringing the initiative process to the Garden State. He can’t do much without a cooperative legislature, but he’s promised to use his bully pulpit to focus the public on putting pressure on their representatives.

On a recent “Ask the Governor” radio program there were 50 emails from citizens urging Christie on. Last week, I met with a large group of concerned citizens organizing the grassroots effort.

It won’t be easy to overcome the powerful political forces in New Jersey — or in any other state. But if you believe in self-​government, in restoring common sense to governance, stand up: Fight for your initiative rights.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
political challengers

Wake Me When It’s Over

There are gubernatorial elections, today, in Virginia and New Jersey. My Republican buddies in Virginia are excited. After losing to the Democrats in the last two elections for governor — and for president, and the last two U.S. Senate contests — Republicans are now poised to win back the governor’s mansion.

Me? I’m not as excited.

Oh, Bob McDonnell, a former legislator and then attorney general, doesn’t seem any worse, and may be better than your average politician. But his campaign has the usual messaging: more jobs, better education, more and better transportation. All new and improved. For less.

Strikingly similar to the Democrats, I dare say.

Except that McDonnell hasn’t flat-​out said he’d raise anybody’s taxes. His opponent, Democrat Creigh Deeds, admits he would — only after a gallant attempt to dodge all those pesky questions and tip-​toe around taxes.

No independent or third party candidate is on the ballot.

In New Jersey, the sitting governor, Democrat Jon Corzine, may win with less than 50 percent of the vote. What a shame that’d be — the majority votes against a guy and yet they’re still stuck with him.

The polls show it very close, with independent candidate Chris Daggett getting 7 to 13 percent.

I prefer Republican Chris Christie. He promotes voter initiative and referendum. He promises he’ll actively push to establish a statewide initiative process. 

That would give people a real vote for change.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
insider corruption

Arresting New Jersey

For the millions of people living in New Jersey, who’ve never been arrested on corruption charges, this one’s for you.

Recently, the FBI arrested 44 folks there, including two state legislators and three mayors. Big news, I guess, but hardly unusual by Jersey standards. The U.S. Attorney says the state’s politicians work in an “ethics-​free zone.”

Chris Christie, now the Republican candidate for governor in 2009, used to be the U.S. Attorney. In seven years, he prosecuted 130 state and local politicians and convicted every single one of them.

Unfortunately, reducing corruption will take more than building additional prisons to hold politicians. The trick is empowering voters to hold government accountable — thereby putting less unchecked power in any individual’s hands.

Christie believes voters need the power of ballot initiatives. But earlier this year he said, “I hesitated about proposing initiative and referendum because my party had been such a failure on initiative and referendum ten years ago …”

Republicans gained a majority in both legislative chambers in part on a promise to enact a statewide initiative. Once in power, Republicans took a dive.

Christie pledges to be different, and to campaign with shoe leather: “I will travel around the state to publicly campaign for [initiative and referendum] and try to get the citizens to put pressure on their legislators to vote for this.”

In a usually safe state for Democrats, the latest polls show Christie with a sizable lead over Democrat Governor Jon Corzine.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.