Happy New Year MMM readers! 2014 has been a great year so far!
Here’s what we expect in the year ahead.
Senator Cory Booker will narrowly defeat Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick in the U.S. Senate election. Bramnick will be the instant front runner for the GOP gubernatorial nomination in the 2016 special election.
Marlboro Mayor Jonathan Hornik will be a speaker at numerous Democratic Clubs throughout New Jersey and will establish himself as a major fundraiser for Democratic candidates on the municipal and county levels. Hornik will proclaim that the only thing he is running for is reelection as Marlboro’s mayor in 2015.
The 11 incumbent New Jersey Congressmen running for reelection will win. The Republican nominee in the third congressional district seat currently held by Congressman Jon Runyon, who is not seeking a third term, will be elected. Tommy DeSeno will write a column complaining about gerrymandered districts.
Senate President Steve Sweeney will keep picking on Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean, Jr.
Governor Chris Christie will have more public appearances in Iowa, South Carolina, Texas and Florida, combined, than he will have Town Hall Meetings in New Jersey.
Anna Little will seek the Republican nomination for Congress in the 6th district, hoping for a third shot at Congressman Frank Pallone. Little will lose at the Monmouth and Middlesex nominating conventions and wage a primary. The Bayshore Tea Party Group will sit out the 6th district primary, citing their commitment to Dr. Alieta Eck’s campaign in the 12th district. Eck will be unopposed for the 12th district nomination to take on Congressman Rush Holt.
Keyport Councilman Clemente Toglia passed away yesterday. He was 53 years old.
Former Keyport Mayor Bob McLeod said Toglia had a heart attack while driving home from his office at Dominion Financial Group in Tinton Falls.
“He was a vibrant young man, ” McLeod said,”friendly, started of couple a businesses, played in a band, self-employed.”
Tinton Falls Police confirmed that Togila was involved in a two car accident on Shrewsbury Ave at about 3:30 yesterday afternoon.
He was pronounced dead at Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank at 4:34 PM.
Toglia was reelected to his second term on the Keyport Council last November. He would have been sworn in today.
“Clem was an excellent man and an excellent public servant,” Mayor Harry Aumack said, “He was, a very good listener. When he did speak up, everyone listened. He will be missed.”
Here’s the latest news for Tuesday, December 31, 2013: People around the world celebrate the New Year, Colorado prepares for the legalization of marijuana, Obama’s health benefits take effect tomorrow, and the Australasian researchers wait to be rescued…
Vin Gopal. When you’re twenty-eight years old and the most popular governor in the nation singles you out as a practitioner of the “politics of yesterday,” twice in four months, you’re having a bad year.
Worse for the Monmouth County Democratic Chairman, he doesn’t have the juice to enforce the retribution he promised to Sea Bright Mayor Dina Long and Long Branch Mayor Adam Schneider, two Monmouth County Democrats who endorsed Governor Chris Christie’s reelection.
When you’re a twenty-eight year old County Chairman and the elite statewide power players of your party convene for dinner in your county, twice, and you’re not invited, you’re having a bad year.
When, after a devastating county-wide electoral loss, a member of your party leaks your declaration of victory taking credit for wins in races you lost and for a victory in a non-partisan election you weren’t involved in, you’re having a bad year.
But none of those things are what landed Vin Gopal on MMM’s biggest loser list.
Gopal in on this list because of his reckless, mean-spirited and falseattempted character assassination of a Republican candidate for Red Bank Borough Council.
Gopal launched his inaccurate attack against Sean DiSomma in a press release late on a Friday afternoon in October. He encouraged reporters to print his allegations on over the weekend and do their fact checking on Monday, after the story had legs. Some did, to their own detriment.
In his desperate zeal to win in a Democratic town where he was losing, Gopal ruined his credibility with members of the media who had come to rely upon him as a reliable source.
The Bayshore Tea Party Group. Once respected as a powerful and principled political force, Barbara Gonzalez , Bob Gordon and their shrunken band of zealots traded their welcome at Republican power tables where they could have made a difference for the road less taken of self-righteous irrelevancy.
Freeholders Tom Arnone and Serena DiMaso with Sheriff Shaun Golden
The Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders will hold their annual reorganization meeting on Thursday, January 2, 2014, 4 PM, at the Biotechnology High School, 5000 Kozloski Road, in Freehold Township.
Freeholders Tom Arnone and Serena DiMaso will be sworn into their new terms of office, as will Sheriff Shaun Golden.
Freeholder Lillian Burry is expected to be elected Freeholder Director for 2014. Freeholder Gary Rich is expected to be elected Deputy Director.
The 2013 Freeholder Board will hold a Sine Die meeting to conclude the years business at 2PM on the 2nd, at the Monmouth County Hall of Records.
The Latin term Sine Die means the final adjournment of a legislative session, without adjourning to a specific time or date; literally it means “adjournment without a day.”
TRENTON — In two days, more than 250,000 workers making minimum wage in New Jersey will get a raise — but what that means for the state’s future depends on whom you ask. On Wednesday, nearly two months after voters approved it, the state’s minimum…
Congressman Frank J. Pallone, Jr. Since losing the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate to Cory Booker in a special primary, New Jersey’s longest serving Democratic Member of Congress has gone off the rails with bizarre rants is defense of ObamaCare. As the healthcare plan proves to be increasingly unworkable and unpopular, Pallone’s credibility will tank.
Pallone’s once formidable campaign war chest of roughly $4 million is down to $1.2 million after the special primary, as of the September 30th FEC reports. That $1.2 million is not as high as it might seem, as the congressman historically burns through about $1 million per year in “campaign” expenses during years when he doesn’t have to face the voters. Given that his seat is considered “safe,” he’ll have a tough time competing for campaign dollars with candidates who are in districts considered “competitive.”
There is a talk of an Asian-American from Middlesex County who is willing to spend $1 million of his own money to unseat Pallone. It will take a guy like that to exploit Pallone’s obvious vulnerability.
Tom Kean Jr. Kean overplayed the best hand dealt to New Jersey Republicans since Jim Florio’s toilet paper tax, Chris Christie’s overwhelming popularity, and lost. He picked a fight with Senate President Steve Sweeney and thought he knew better than Christie’s strategists how the Republican legislative campaign should be waged. His only winning option was to defeat Sweeney’s reelection bid and pick up at least another two state Senate seats. He failed on all counts, not winning even one Senate seat.
The remains were found near Gateway National Recreation Area on Saturday. The remains discovered in Sandy Hook bay on Saturday were not of human origin, New Jersey State Police Sgt. Brian Polite said Sunday. The remains were found near the Gateway National…
Noblemen in Russia murder Gregory Rasputin; Wounded Knee massacre takes place; Texas joins the United States as the 28th state; Dissident playwright Vaclav Havel is elected president of Czechoslovakia; First YMCA opens in Boston. (Dec. 29)
