Does Chris Christie plan to celebrate Black History Month along with the rest of NJ, and the 15% or so of us who are African-American? I don't find a single event with either Gov. Christie or LG Kim Guadagno. No statements. No news. Am I missing something?
Input search terms "Black History Month" + "State of New Jersey" and sure, stuff pops up. You get LG/Secretary of State Kim Guadagno's page for ... oh no ... wait .... no, that's from Nina Wells, Corzine's woman at State, last year. Also, this website from the Corzine years, entirely devoted to Black History Month, with a history lesson and profiles.
But he's not so snowed under fixing our economy that he lacks time for the fun stuff. Why, just yesterday, he had a photo op right in his office where he was presented "letters of welcome" by students in each of the state's 5 dioceses - part of Catholic Schools' Week, overlapping 6 days of Black History Month. He's got some time.
Well, he's already missed Morris County Prosecutor's Office event last Monday (featuring Paula Dow), practically in his back yard. And this talk at Newark Library on how "our story" is written. But he can still get to:
So, am I being harsh? Or is this just me wanting to be front row, center, to see what the law and order governor might speak about, say, this magnificent troublemaker, who was right years early, heard around the world, and one of the finest men the State of New Jersey ever loosed upon the world. You tell me.
The Assembly Budget committee convened yesterday and heard testimony from David Rosen, the Legislative Budget and Finance Officer with OLS who tried to clarify where the state stands as we move forward:
Through the end of the year, the state is looking at a $2 billion deficit from revenue and spending - though April's income tax collections could swing the results wildly in either direction, said David Rosen, the budget and finance officer for the Office of Legislative Services, which works for the governor and Legislature.
David Rosen, center, Legislative Budget & Finance Officer for the Office of Legislative Services, addresses the Budget Committee about the current financial situation in New Jersey today.
Still, Rosen said that while he has not seen exact figures, Christie's estimate of a $1.3 billion revenue shortfall on the $29 billion budget is possible, as is a potential need for more than $668 million in extra spending.
"It's not an unreasonable number to have on the table for an estimate," Rosen said at an Assembly Budget Committee hearing when asked about Christie's figures
This has been a constant back and forth for the last week between Corzine and Christie an apparently they're still not willing to agree because Corzine took Rosen's testimony as validating what he had said:
"Today, OLS confirmed what we already knew: no one will really be able to predict revenue for the remainder of the year until April's income tax returns come in. That is why OLS has not issued its own projections," he said. "To suggest that Dr. Rosen independently confirmed Gov. Christie's revenue projections is a clear misreading of his testimony. Dr. Rosen drew a clear distinction between the operating budget, which is in surplus, and long-term projections, which remain a matter of pure conjecture. We all want to give the administration time to get on its feet. But it's important that they stop misrepresenting the current balance sheet, which is very much in the black because of Jon Corzine's record of fiscal responsibility.
So it looks more like the Corzine camp is more concerned with what they actually say about the former Governor. Here is some video with comments from Legislators on the committee:No matter what they all say, it's not a pretty picture and there are going to be plenty of difficult decisions that lie ahead.
Right now, Governor Christie and former Governor Corzine's administrations are arguing over the finances and just how bad things are. Here is a recent exchange over the budget:
Just 48 hours into his new role, Gov. Chris Christie said New Jersey faces a $1.3 billion shortfall in the current budget and blamed former Gov. Jon Corzine for setting him up to fail by hiding the depth of the problems.
"He was trying to make it as hard as he possibly could," Christie said. "Avoidance of the facts and avoidance of the truth was a staple of the Corzine administration."
Corzine and his advisers accused Christie of pulling numbers out of thin air and insisted they left the incoming governor with a $496 million surplus.
"Gov. Christie's remarks demonstrate a poor temperament, and a casual relationship with the facts," said Corzine spokesman Josh Zeitz. "Being governor entitles you to do a lot of things, but fabricating budget numbers from whole cloth isn't one of them."
Wait, Christie has been railing about how bad the state is and now that he gets there he is saying Cozrine is setting him up to fail? If Corzine had set him up with the state in a good position, he'd probably still be the Governor himself. Star Ledger Cartoonist Drew Sheneman likens it to a fight in the sandbox in his latest cartoon:
Sheneman says he can't wait for the hair pulling. The question at this point isn't whether things are bad, it's how bad things are. The Assembly budget committee will hold a hearing on the budget tomorrow, so we may learn more.
Promoted by Jason Springer: Thanks to the Governor's daughter Jenny for stopping by Blue Jersey to reflect on her father's term leading New Jersey.
At the end of my dad's term, I would like to pay tribute to his work as Governor of New Jersey.
Last week, watching my father walk through the beautiful statehouse in Trenton to deliver his final State of the State address to the NJ Legislature, I was moved by the historic nature of the occasion and by my father's words. My dad called it "his highest honor" to serve the people of New Jersey as Governor.
When I think about Jon Corzine as a father, and as a Governor, compassion is the first word that comes to mind. Listening to his speech, I saw the father I've always known. He even made the same kind of jokes, remarking that it was difficult to write his last State of the State while movers were taking his desk out of the office. He spoke honestly of things he wished he could have finished and admitted to not executing the job "flawlessly". He spoke of the things he cares most deeply about: education, healthcare, child welfare. And he talked of the progress, as he saw it, that had been made during his term as Governor of New Jersey . He spoke just as I've always known him - with a soft-spoken voice, humbly and with a thoughtful passion for making the world better for the future of our children.
I admit I am not in the political field, but I do believe that his nine years in public life speak to the ways in which government can make a real difference in people's lives. My father cut state spending every year and reduced the size of state government for the first time in over six decades. Yet, he maintained funding and greatly improved many government services: reforming the child welfare and foster care systems (which with the help of the legislature has gone from being one of the worst to one of the best in the country), expanding early childhood education, providing for new school construction, reforming school funding, expanding children's health care, building infrastructure and improving highway safety ( the best highway safety record since 1940) as well as increasing funding for homeless shelters and soup kitchens which have been hit by the recession.
As websites go, it's dull-looking on its surface, a typical state government site. There's no bells and whistles to make it particularly user-friendly, or to engage people on the gut-level. There's no rising Outrage-o-Meter for state debt. No color-coded Threat Level Indicator for how many cutbacks we all might be facing.
But New Jersey's new website, headlined Transparency in Government: NJ Online Checkbook and credited back to the state's "Transparency Resources" Department, is a very good idea. You do have to laugh that it comes at the tail end of the Corzine years, and just in time to monitor his successor's spending, but the website does reach back deep into the Corzine years to account for spending over the last 7 years. The site went public yesterday. Corzine:
This is a common-sense measure that enables the citizens of New Jersey to be fully appraised of how taxpayer funds are spent
A web ad produced out of the Corzine campaign new media shop is a finalist in Campaigns & Elections Politics Magazine 2010 Reed Awards. The category? TV-Best Ad that Never Saw the Light of Day. The ad was shot by Corzine New Media Deputy Director Thomas Kelley, who also edited. Congratulations to Tom.
It's called Obama & Corzine - "One Voice". Considering all that went down, it's a little bit of a heartbreaker, isn't it?
Winners will be announced in an event in Washington January 29th. Judges for this year's competition include a stable of establishment political operatives and politicians along with some rising talent, including Mark McKinnon, Christine Pelosi, Mark Penn, Bill Schneider, Steve Scully, Bob Shrum, George Stephanopoulos, Chuck Todd, and New Jersey's Christine Todd Whitman. Maybe it will make her feel a little wistful, too.
There is plenty of blame to go around, and that is the subject of a post for another day. And now the initial sting of Chris Christie's win over Jon Corzine is settling into a steady feeling that New Jerseyans are in for a rude awakening as a result of their collective votes. A perfect example of this contrast between the soon to be former and soon to be current Governor is education and the imminent appointment of Bret Schundler as education commissioner.
Sure, it may not have always been approached or framed in the best way, but one of the biggest signature issues that Corzine was proud of was that of education. Early childhood education, higher standards, improving and updating schools are just a few of the numerous accomplishments and tangible results achieved - and test scores that are near tops in the country.
"Whatever the Supreme Court did on funding formulas for him today does not excuse the failed education policies of this governor,"
Both Christie and Schundler have very different views on education than Corzine does. We already know that Christie thinks that early childhood education is no more than "babysitting". And for those who forgot, Christie has already committed to stop funding early childhood education for all but the Abbott school districts. Both Christie and Schundler are proponents of vouchers - a long-controversial program. Schundler has been one of the biggest proponents of this system (even writing about it in 2000), and is in a position to push NJ down this path.
This won't be the last time that the consequence of a Governor Christie will be apparent. Christie campaigned on an economic and social agenda that, on the most basic level (and I say this because he offered few details but gave an idea on a very high level) was very different from Corzine. He hasn't even been sworn in yet and we will soon see just how different it is - and what it means to the education, health and economic situation of New Jerseyans.
Governor Corzine delivered his State of the State today before a joint session of the Legislature and the Governor's Chief photographer Tim Larsen gives us this fantastic shot of the chamber from up in the gallery during his speech:
If you haven't been to the State House in Trenton, I highly recommend it. This is a great photo by Tim that gives you an idea for what it is like. You can click for the larger view of the photo
This is Jon Corzine's swan song, his last major address to the citizenry and to the legislature. We hear it's a fairly short speech, maybe 30 minutes, and that it will be self-deprecating. He will express personal disappointment at how his service to the state is ending but he will also recognize some of the acheivements of his tenure.
The old ground is shifting. New governor, already warming up his chopping knives. New Senate President Steve Sweeney sworn in minutes ago. Sheila Oliver, first African-American woman to lead the Assembly. Change, change, change.
We're going to give time and space to people who want to write about what happened to this phase of the marriage equality fight. That's only right - people are still upset, and deserve to be, and the fallout is still all over the newspaper pages, the airwaves and the interwebs. - - Promoted by Rosi
Hi, everyone. One of the most interesting articles this weekend about marriage equality is Mary Fuchs' piece today for the Star-Ledger.
Mary provides an inside look at what both sides thought and did. What surprises me about the article: Before the election, our opponents, including legislators and the grassroots opposition leaders, thought our side was running away with victory in a "a slam dunk."
Until this article, I confess I thought the opposition was in la-la land - that they had no idea of how badly they were losing. Before the election, our own vote counting was 100 percent correct. We WERE running away with this and it's in large part because of the Blue Jersey community.
But then one thing happened: Chris Christie won, and as this article reports, that changed EVERYTHING. It was always my fear, my darkest fear, even before the election when we had votes in both houses to spare. It was the one external factor we could not control, though we tried to do what we could, by pouring so much of our organization's time and volunteers into the campaign.
I point this out as consolation - truly important - so you realize, all of you at Blue Jersey who were our equal partners in the legislative phase and will continue to be, no doubt, that you DID wage a winning campaign.
[By the way, as a footnote, this article refers to the protests post-election in front of legislators' houses and all that, which some did on their own. Yes, we advised folks not to do that, both myself for GSE and Rosi in her progressive leadership roles, and we have the advance emails to show for it. But truth be told, we didn't lose a vote there.]
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.
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?
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.
It appears that people paid attention to the strategy of the Corzine campaign when it came to the issue of mammograms. From Politico:
With women's health issues increasingly at the forefront of the health care debate, pols have turned breast cancer into a potent campaign weapon. The volume in the war has ramped up in recent weeks after a government task force released findings - widely criticized by women's groups - recommending that it was unnecessary for women under 50 to screen for breast cancer.
"It resonates with 52 percent of the electorate," said Jennifer Duffy, a senior editor for the Cook Political Report. "You can get yourself in a good bit of trouble being on the wrong side of the issue."
The focus on breast cancer signals a willingness on behalf of both parties to play political hardball on an issue typically outside the bounds of the campaign arena. While parties have clashed over abortion - another issue central to women's health concerns - the heated political rhetoric surrounding mammograms, experts say, is beyond the norm.
They pointed to the use of the issue in our very own race for Governor last cycle:
As early as this fall, with two governor's races up for grabs, Democrats had sought to turn the breast cancer issue against their Republican opponents. During the closing weeks of the New Jersey governor's race, Gov. Jon Corzine launched a full-bore TV assault accusing GOP rival Chris Christie of backing a health care policy that would not guarantee mammography coverage for women - a move that, at least temporarily, put the Republican on the defensive.
"No wonder why the insurance industry backs Christie's plan: Fewer mammograms. Bigger profits," one Corzine TV ad declared.
For Corzine, locked in a tough race, the strategy was straightforward: move the dial among women - a group of traditionally Democratic-leaning voters whose support Corzine was struggling to secure.
"I think it was effective in New Jersey," said Peter Woolley, executive director of the Farleigh Dickinson University Public Mind Poll, noting in the final month of the race Corzine jumped 6 percent among women on the question of whether he understood the needs of the average voter. "It clearly didn't move him enough, but it did help him with white women."
While it didn't move things enough for the Governor, there are additional factors that contributed to that. It remains to be seen whether the issue will have an impact in closer races where those additional problems that faced Corzine aren't in play. Either way, it appears mammograms are the latest political weapon.
Blue Jersey was all over the Judiciary Committee hearing today live blogging all 8 + hours and now that the bill has passed, here is some reaction. First from the Governor:
"I commend the Senate Judiciary Committee for allowing a thorough, open discussion on the proposed marriage equality law and approving the bill for action by the full Senate. This is an action that is long overdue. For far too long, a large segment of our population has been denied the fundamental rights and protections of a civil liberty that is granted to all Americans.
"Throughout the history of our nation, New Jerseyans have been among the first to champion the fundamental rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness - from the fight for independence to the civil rights movement. By moving forward with marriage equality, today we have taken a significant step toward adding yet another chapter.
"I am confident that through this process, the marriage equality issue will be recognized for what it truly is - a civil rights issue that must be approved to assure that every citizen is treated equally under the law."
And Senator Lesniak:
"A recent poll conducted by the Eagleton Institute of Politics determined that only 2% of New Jersey residents believe gay marriage is an important issue. But to those gay couples in a loving and committed civil union, it is an extremely important issue. It means they will be able to visit their loved ones in a hospital or make arrangements for their funerals without painful rejection, without questioning and delays caused by doubting Thomases unfamiliar with the meaning of civil unions.
"It means they will get the health and pension benefits they are entitled to without having to hire a lawyer to convince their employers that civil unions convey the same rights and obligations as marriage. It means they will be treated as human beings should be treated: with love, compassion, understanding and acceptance.
"It is not often we have an opportunity to change society and how we treat each other as human beings. It occurs a few times in our lifetimes, if it occurs at all. We have that opportunity today. We can change fear to love, hate to compassion, cruelty to kindness.
The Divison of Elections certified the official voter turnout numbers the other day and we set a record:
Turnout was 46.9% - the lowest on record for a gubernatorial election, down from 48.5% in 2005 and 49.3% in 2001, the only other times less than half of registered voters turned out at the polls.
Looked at another way, though, the turnout of 2,451,704 voters was the most for a governor's race since 1997 and marked a 105,000 voter increase over the election four years ago.
The percentage turnout is affected by the presidential election registration surge typically seen every four years, which was particularly large in 2008. There were 390,000 more registered voters in 2009 than four years - and it's likely that a goodly number were interested in the race for the White House but less jazzed about the run for Drumthwacket.
The Ledger Live took a look at the differing speaking styles between outgoing Governor Corzine and Governor Elect Chris Christie from their recent speeches before the League of Municipalities:
Ledger Live: Two different styles of Christie and Corzine
We'll see whether it's style or substance that is more important as his term goes forward.
"He should have withdrawn. It wasn't the climate to re-elect anybody," said former Democratic Gov. Brendan Byrne said to laughter at the panel discussion at the second day of the annual conference of municipal officials.
While I think it was an uphill climb from the start given the climate, I think the problems were complicated by another popular sentiment held by the panel, the fact that Jon Corzine just didn't give voters a reason to vote for him. Ultimately, it was a losing combination, regardless of which factor you think played the largest role in that result.
Led by Mr. Barbour, the RGA raised and contributed $7.3 million to the campaign of New Jersey candidate Chris Christie, allowing him to put up enough TV advertising to hold off both a late-surging Gov. Jon Corzine, the Democratic incumbent, and independent Chris Daggett. The result for the crime-busting former U.S. attorney, Mr. Christie, was a big victory in a state won easily by Barack Obama just a year earlier.
And as a result of that win, they made him one of the guests of honor at the annual conference this week:
I have to ask, where did they find that picture of our new Governor? It looks like something the Corzine campaign would have used in one of their ads. For $7.3 million, couldn't they do just a little bit better? It'll be interesting to see how that compares with what labor spent on the election.
