Frank Lautenberg and Rob Andrews are both superdelegates, the former uncommitted and the latter declared for Hillary Clinton. They could both go a long way toward ending this thing by declaring for Obama, marking a switch of three delegates in one fell swoop.
Republican presidential candidate John McCain will hold a press conference at Liberty Science Center with Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman and former Governor Tom Kean today. McCain will talk about prolonging the Iraq war and appointing strict constructionist judges the environment.
Florida Congressman and Amtrak opponent John Mica is pushing an alternative to Senator Lautenberg's Amtrak funding bill that would privatize the Northeast Corridor.
School vouchers
The Senate Economic Growth Committee passed a school voucher plan which NJEA president Joyce Powell called a "radical step" toward privatization.
New Jersey, used to be considered a bellwether state in presidential elections. From 1884 through 1972, we voted for the popular vote winner in every election except 1916, when we rejected our own Woodrow Wilson in a very close election. Now, we're considered safely Democratic—a state a Democratic candidate could lose, but only in a GOP landslide.
But underneath, I don't think much has changed. The Republican's used to nominate moderates for President. From 1928 through 1976, the second most conservative GOP nominee (behind Goldwater) was Gerald Ford. And in that 1976 convention, Ford was fighting the tide of a movement much more conservative than even he was. As the Republican Party has become more extreme nationally, New Jersey has maintained its orientation by voting more consistently Democratic in national elections.
"After careful consideration, I have reached the conclusion that Barack Obama can best bring about the change that our country so desperately wants and needs," Payne told The Star-Ledger for today's editions. It was "one of the most difficult decisions I have made," Payne said. "I've really been mulling it over for quite a while."
And according to Payne, my theory below is wrong:
He said Hillary Clinton "ran a very aggressive campaign" but he did not blame her -- as some have -- for injecting race into the campaign.
PolitickerNJ reports on speculation that Congressman Donald Payne may switch his superdelegate vote to Barack Obama tomorrow. According to Democratic Convention Watch, Clinton's superdelegate lead is down to just 9.5 (Politico has it at 6.5). A switch from Payne would narrow it to 7.5.
Almost everyone now knows it's over, though I half expected that most superdelegates would hold off in order to give Clinton some time to exit gracefully on her own terms. But if this is true, I wonder if Clinton's racist remarks earlier today had anything to do with Payne's switch.
"I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on," she said in an interview with USA TODAY. As evidence, Clinton cited an Associated Press article "that found how Sen. Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me."
I've never said that Clinton should drop out, but what she's doing now has the potential to damage the Clinton legacy. When it was surrogates doing the race baiting there was at least a shred of plausible deniability that it was not driven from the top. Even when Bill was doing it, it could be blamed on uncontrollable Bill just doing his own thing. But now that she herself is being explicit about it, everything said in the past takes on new meaning. I know this will probably sound like concern trolling, but someone needs to put this train wreck out of its misery. It sounds like a job for Superdelegates.
The House passed legislation today to try to address the housing crisis. It included a provision from Rep Rush Holt which "would allow homeowners who currently do not itemize on their Federal tax returns to take an additional standard deduction for the state and local property taxes that they pay." The deduction is $350 for single filers and $700 for joint filers for state and local property taxes paid or accrued.
"Homeowners in New Jersey on average pay the highest property taxes in the country while facing declining home values," Holt said. "This initiative would help families in New Jersey and all across the country who are excluded from being able to deduct their property and provide them with some relief during this economic downturn."
In 2005, there were 72.3 million owner-occupied households in the United States, but only 40.5 million taxpayers claimed an itemized deduction for real estate property taxes. The more than 30 million homeowners who don't currently benefit from property tax deductions include elderly homeowners who no longer itemize in order to receive a mortgage interest deduction, but are still subject to high property taxes.
I've been saying this in comments, but now I'm actually going to do a post and say it outright: Rob Andrews is to blame for the stupid, childish campaign for the Dem nod for US Senate. They're both engaging in it, but the ultimate cause is Andrews decision to primary.
He has no real reason to run, because Lautenberg has done a fine job and Andrews won't be an upgrade (or a downgrade). That means that this race is about Andrews' ambition, the North/South divide, or Lautenberg's age.
Obviously ambition is not a campaign winner, neither is running ads about Lautenberg's age, and running on North vs. South is a good way to piss off half the state and lose the nomination.
So all we are left with is stupid crap like Lautenberg's "Andrews' is Bush's best friend" idiocy and Andrews sophomoric allusions to Lautenberg's age. Oh, and debates, which as of today has reached new lows of moronitude from the Andrews camp.
For a month Andrews has been screaming that Lautenberg is ducking him, and now that Lautenberg has agreed to two debates Andrews is saying, well, that Lautenberg is ducking him!
[from PNJ] In a conference call today with reporters, U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews (D-1) again accused U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) of hiding, and bewailed the incumbent's decision to accept just two of Andrews's seven requests to debate.
"Pathetic," said the congressman. "This is a job application. We're talking about issues of life and death and he is unwilling to engage the issues. He's hiding from them."
What's pathetic is that this is the only issue Andrews has at this point: Frank Lautenberg won't campaign on Andrews schedule and the way Andrews wants him to.
This campaign was a mistake from the beginning, because on "issues of life and death" these two are not very far apart and a debate isn't gonna demonstrate much separation. If there were real issues to debate then they could be addressed in other ways.
But all we hear are "Andrews is a Bushie" and "Lautenberg is part of the tired way of thinking and won't debate me even though he will debate me."
And that's Andrews' fault for choosing to challenge Lautenberg without a compelling reason for voters to make a switch.
Well, folks, it's possible that Tuesday may have signaled the end of the beginning of the Presidential race. So now it's time to see where our Super Delegates for NJ are -- and maybe to speculate on where some of them might move?
Barack Obama
Donald Norcross (DNC Member) Dana Redd (DNC Member) Steve Rothman (House Member) Christine Samuels (DNC Member)
Hillary Clinton
Rep. Robert Andrews(House Member) Tonio Burgos (DNC Member) Brendan Byrne (Added by State Committee) Jon Corzine (Governor) Joe Cryan (DNC Member) Joseph DeCotiis (DNC Member) June Fisher (DNC member) Jim Florio (Added by State Committee) Robert Menendez (Senator)
Rep. Frank Pallone (House Member) Bill Pascrell (House Member) Donald Payne (House Member) Albio Sires (House Member)
Undecided
Rush Holt (House Member) Frank Lautenberg (Senator) Phil Murphy (DNC Member)
