Party leaders are encouraging Sheriff Shaun Golden to challenge entrenched ObamaCare defender
Former Highlands Mayor Anna Little told MMM yesterday that she is not running for Congress in New Jersey’s 6th congressional district this year and that she never had plans to do so.
The GOP nominee against Congressman Frank Pallone in 2010 and 2012 said that her November 1, 2012 email to supporters wherein she announced “I want to work for YOU in Washington” and asked supporters for contributions to help her “finish the job” was not an announcement of her candidacy, but rather a reaction to Pallone’s over the top defense of ObamaCare . In October, Pallone called a congressional hearing into ObamaCare that he was participating in a “Monkey Court.” Appearing on FoxNews with Megyn Kelly, Pallone shouted, insisting that President Obama had kept his, “If you like your healthcare, you can keep it, period, I guarantee it,” promise and said insurance companies were practicing capitalism by cancelling “lousy” “scam” insurance plans that people didn’t want to buy.
Monmouth County Sheriff Shaun Golden
Sheriff Shaun Golden’s strong performance in last November’s election …a 64%-36% reelection victory with over 100,000 votes… was noticed by state and national Republican leaders, many of whom are encouraging Golden to take on Pallone.
The two Republican leaders who matter the most in determining who receives the GOP nomination, Monmouth County Republican Chairman John Bennett and Middlesex County Republican Chairman Sam Thompson, like the idea of Golden running against Pallone.
“I would love to see Shaun Golden run for Congress, ” Bennett said, ‘Not only is popular and a demonstrated vote getter, he has an outstanding record with a documented ability to get things done.”
Thompson said, “Shaun would be a great candidate.”
Little said she would support Golden if he runs.
Golden wouldn’t comment when we asked if he was running.
Governor Chris Christie came to the bayshore with members of his cabinet yesterday with a sobering message for residents battered by Superstorm Sandy who a waiting for government assistance to rebuild their homes and to comply with new government imposed requirements for those homes.
New Jersey sustained $37 billion in damage from Sandy. Federal assistance to New Jersey will tap out at between $15 and $20 billion, Christie said.
It’s been 15 months since Superstorm Sandy ravaged New Jersey. The first $1.83 billion in relief from the Department of Housing and Urban Development has been spent or is committed. Another $1.46 billion is being applied for, but it will be another three months at least before that money starts to flow.
The HUD Community Block Development Grants (CBDG) grants are the last resort funding for homeowners and renters/landlords, designed to fill needs not covered by insurance proceeds, FEMA assistance, Small Business Administration loans and other sources.
Before New Jersey receives the $1.46 billion second round of funding, there is a 30 day public comment period on the CDBG Disaster Recovery Action Plan. The public comment period runs through March 5. In Monmouth County, there will be a public hearing on February 13 at Brookdale Community College, Robert J. Collins Arena, 765 Newman Springs Rd, Lincroft from 4pm-7pm. There will be hearing is Atlantic County at Stockton University on February 11 and in Essex County at the New Jersey Institute of Technology on the 12th. Written comments can be submitted via email to sandy.publiccomment@dca.state.nj.us or can be provided by mail to the attention of Gabrielle Gallagher, NJ Department of Community Affairs, 101 South Broad Street, Post Office Box 800, Trenton, New Jersey 08625-0800. All comments must be submitted by 5 p.m. on March 5, 2014.
Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon (R-Monmouth) said today that he is asking U.S Attorney Paul Fishman to open criminal investigations into the municipal clients of Redflex Traffic Systems, an Arizona based red light camera company, due to legal claims by a former executive that the company routinely bribed municipal officials in 13 states, including New Jersey, in order to obtain the lucrative contracts to operate camera systems that issue summonses for red light infractions.
Additionally, O’Scanlon is writing to Assembly Transportation Committee Chairman John Wisniewski to ask that the committee open an investigation into New Jersey’s red light camera program in light of the recent bribery allegations and scientific proof commissioned by O’Scanlon that red light cameras are a detriment to public safety that are rigged to cheat motorists.
Congressman Robert Andrews will resign as a representative of the southern jersey 1st congressional district, according to a reports in Poltico and The Philadephia Inquirer.
Once a Democratic contender for statewide office who competed in primaries for Governor and U.S. Senate, Andrews’s career has apparently been derailed by an ethics investigation into the misuse of campaign funds. He is taking a job with a Philadelphia law firm, according to The Inquirer.
The Inquirer, majority owned by South Jersey Democratic power broker George Norcross, is reporting that State Senator Donald Norcross, the boss’s brother, will be the Democratic nominee for Andrew’s seat in the House.
Murray Sabrin, right, with Jay Lassiter, Jeff Gardner, then BlueJersey bloggers, Michael Aron, then of NJN, and MMM publisher Art Gallagher at a November 2010 shooting of Reporters Roundtable.
Murray Sabrin, PhD, the Ramapo College finance professor who challenged Governor Christine Whitman’s 1997 reelection as a Libertarian candidate and sought the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate in 2000 and 2008, wants another shot at the seat now occupied by Senator Cory Booker.
The professor has started the process of reaching out to party leaders, previous Republican Senate candidates and county chairmen to gauge and seek their support for the nomination that no mainstream Republican seems to want. Thus far, only little known small businessmen have taken steps to secure the nomination.
Governor Chris Christie and former Deputy Chief of Staff Bridget Kelly at a happier time. Photo via facebook
Bridget Ann Kelly, Governor Chris Christie’s former Deputy Chief of Staff who sent the “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee” email to David Wildstein, then New Jersey’s #2 official at the Port Authority of NY/NJ, has invoked her fifth amendment rights and declined to produce the documents subpoenaed by the joint legislative committee investigating “Bridgegate,” the September lane closures at the George Washington Bridge, according to a report at NorthJersey.com.
Governor Chris Christie , Department of Community Affairs Commissioner Richard Constable and Department of Environment Protection Commissioner Robert Martin will be in Keansburg to speak about the $1.4 billion “Second Round” of Superstorm Sandy Relief Funding on Tuesday, February 4 at 3PM.
The event will take place at the New Point Comfort Fire Company, 192 Carr Ave. Doors open at 2:30.
Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich did not endorse Governor Chris Christie’s reelection. Many think that decision led Christie staffers and Port Authority appointees to shut down his town’s access to the George Washington Bridge. The controversy over the GWB lane closures has enthralled the national and local media for the last month and put the governor’s presidential prospects in jeopardy.
Christie said he knew nothing about the lane closures until he heard about them in the media. David Wildstien, the former Port Authority official who order the lane closure says that “evidence exists” that Christie knew about the lane closures “while they were happening.”
The Democratic mayor believes Christie and not Wildstein, according to a report at Bloomberg.com.
“I’m the guy giving the governor the benefit of the doubt, and I take him at his word,” Sokolich said today in an interview. “I’ve said it 100 times, I’m not rooting for the highest elected official in the state of New Jersey to be involved in this. I’m not. But I don’t know, it seems like all sorts of things are happening.”
“I’m not a Wildstein fan, I’ve made no secret of that,” Sokolich said. “Anything that emanates from his camp has to be taken with a grain of salt.”
Governor Chris Christie will make his first appearance since the Bridgegate controversy broke on NJ 101.5’s monthly Ask The Governor show with host Eric Scott this evening.
The show is Christie’s monthly unfiltered interaction with New Jersey residents. You can watch it via livestream here between 7 and 8 PM.
To call into the show and speak to Christie dial 1-800-282-1015. You can also submit questions via 101.5’s website, here. Questions can also be submitted via TEXT, by texting GOV to 8900. A bounceback text will take your question. Finally, you can tweet questions via #AskGov .
The purpose of the investigation in not a probe of Christie. The purpose to the change the culture of the Port Authority.
Assemblyman John Wisniewski, the Democratic Co-Chairman of the joint legislative committee investigating the George Washington Bridge lane closures last September, almost sounded as if he was defending Governor Chris Christie yesterday morning during an appearance on NBC’s Meet The Press.
In the wake of the media frenzy caused by the released of the letterwritten by the attorney representing David Wildstein, the former Port Authority official who order the lane closures, that asserted that “evidence exists” that Christie knew about the lane closures while they were happening, Wisniewski raised questions about Wildstein’s credibility and said emphatically, multiple times, that there is no proof that Christie was involved in the incident.
