Patrick Murray is the founding director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute. According to their website, “The Monmouth University Polling Institute has become a premier independent survey research center known for its in-depth tracking of public policy and quality of life issues.” Murray is a [...]
So, there you have it:
Over the past year, due to the illness of a family member, I had not been as involved in the local politics of my hometown of Flemington, as I would have liked. So this year, with the gubernatorial race in full throttle as well as local [...] 
"This is our kind of candidate we need running for Congress", says RNC Chairman Michael Steele.
Congressman Joe Wilson may be number one in South Carolina’s 2nd district, but Wednesday he clearly stepped in Number Two. If you heckle the president during a speech and you’re not a Congressman, you’ll usually be removed by Capitol Building police. However, if you are a [...] 
Recent crime reports have indicated two important trends in New Jersey: Violent crime is down; however, non-violent crime is up. Perhaps this second trend is directly attributable to the recently discovered driving record of gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie.
Mr. Christie has worked [...]
Part One: Gorillas in the Missed
In the 1970s, Dian Fossey spent a great deal of time living in a habitat with mountain gorillas in Rwanda, in an effort to learn all about their way of life. She wanted to separate the truth about the [...]
Here is the news round-up from Monday. Why waste your Monday looking at the news of the day, when you can relax and read it tomorrow:
Many of the New Jersey blogs and political websites try to “out news” each other in the mega early of the morning with features like “News Roundup & Open Thread” (BlueJersey) Or Wake-Up Call –(PolitickerNJ).
Went to see the Steve Lonegan anti-Cap and Trade Road Show last night. This one in Clinton, in the heart of conservative-right wing-libertarian Lonegan country.
You may have noticed that PolitickerNJ recently posted their own Power List for 2009. Their list identifies New Jersey’s 100 most politically influential personalities. People whose phone calls get returned. People whose advice everyone seeks. People who get interviewed by CNN, Fox News, and the Star-Ledger. [...] 
Like a school crossing guard who crosses in between, and not at the green, the Government Records Council (GRC) ---the folks who were created to enforce the Open Public Records Act---found themselves on the wrong side of the law. No irony in that. 
With candidates winning in some districts with 60%, 70% or even 80% of the vote---just how much true democracy do we really have? If the majority party in a district ---whether Rs or Ds---has voter registration levels that produce winners each and every time, can we [...] 
Special to AP Newswire
Strangely enough, a politician who wants to get a little nookie on the side while he is in office can’t win no matter what they do. The latest to test this theory was Governor Mark Sanford from South Carolina.
“Hello, Jersey? It’s your cousin, Hampshire. How are you, darling? How is your Garden? How’s your Shore?
Second to none in the Republican world are the folks from Americans for Prosperity (AFP). These conservatoids march to the beat of a different drummer on their side of the political aisle.
It's more than official: Christie vs Governor Corzine.
Joe Biden takes the stage, and is acknowledging all the members of Congress in the room. Welcomes Essex County Executive Joseph N. DiVincenzo---"I was in County government, and I left it for the Senate ---it was too hard."
7:30pm-ish
You may have not noticed it, but Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie has been slimming down over the years. This is in preparation for his long-awaited run for governor.
Though Chris Christie has called the practice "pension abuse," the AP is reporting that one of his top political advisers and fundraisers, John Inglesino, has a state job for $3,000 -- the minimum needed to remain in New Jersey's pension system.
If only more like people Trout endorsed Christie….
With many economists saying that the financial crisis America faces now is the worst since the Great Depression, a lot of comparisons are being made between Barack Obama and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Especially now that each of their first 100 days in office have taken place, [...] 
Both Democrats and Republican say stupid things. And both make the news. This one was from a Republican state representative in Texas.A national organization that opposes same-sex marriage is targeting New Jersey in a $1.5 million advertising campaign, launched today on broadcast and cable television.
The effort by the National Organization [...]
I get asked for directions a lot. I don't know why I give off a GPS vibe. Whenever I am working in front of our house or cleaning up the front yard---I always get asked for driving directions. And I do not have the greatest sense' [...] 
I am a long-time Yankee fan, but I cannot afford to get tickets for the new Yankee Stadium.
Recently, the Mercatus Center of George Mason University completed a study on which states were the “free-est”. Their criteria —perhaps a bit too Reagenesque and libertarian ---for measuring such “free-ness” included fiscal policy, regulatory policy, personal freedom, and economic freedom.
I love living in New Jersey, and I have put down my roots here. However, we do have the world's greatest city just a few train stops away.
In a never ending effort for TV networks to become relevant again, they are planning shows to reflect the realities of a recession, job loss, and home foreclosure. For joy! Maybe they will run the shows right below Jay Leno at 10pm, to help him draw [...] 
I am taking a long form improv workshop at the Magnet Theater in NYC. A group of theaters has sprung up on the Westside of Manhattan featuring long-form improv [as opposed to ‘short-form’ improv, the kind you’d see on “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” [...] 
Americans are really good at faking it. We are even good at faking that we are faking it.
It's playing hand shadows:
... of millions of people across America and the world.
Is the 23rd the ONLY district left in NJ where the Right wants to alight?
Just when you thought the 23rd Assembly district was safe, up comes another right wing zealot.
The Donald is dumped.
Some folks in Trenton are traveling down the long lonesome road again to try to get towns to merge. This time, they want to merge “doughnuts” with “nuclei”.
If you are gay in New Jersey, you cannot get married to your same gender significant other.
OK, I am now back each and every day. Had some major computer problems for the past ten days or so, and I was unable to post.
I know that this has been a long, uncomfortable and bumpy car ride.
Happy New Year! This year will certainly be a challenging one for the Garden State as we march towards a year in which there will be a legislative and gubernatorial election. Buzz being what buzz is, as this is written, there are just a few folks [...] 
Hard to believe we have reached the last year of the first decade of the 21st century. Boy, seems like it was just yesterday that Bush was handed the presidency by the Supreme Court.
I wanted to let you know about an upcoming blogging campaign we are coordinating on behalf of the Community FoodBank of New Jersey which, as you are probably well aware, is in desperate need of donations.
Conspiracy theorists come and go.
So what if the election in Bayonne is over? Maybe some residents still want to let the world know who they support for mayor---even well in to 2009.
When I was eleven, way back in 1965, my family was invited for Thanksgiving to my cousins’ cousins, a Jewish-Italian family who lived in the southern part of Staten Island. This was the other side of the world to us if you lived in Brooklyn -- [...] 
On the east-iest of the East Coast, we have Connecticut, ranked 48th in the US in size at just 5,543 square miles. And you can drive from the border of New York to Rhode Island, in just over an hour---depending upon Hartford traffic.
Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has hit back at critics who said she thought Africa was a country not a continent, calling them "jerks". 
Stand-up comedy in New Jersey started in Bernardsville. Really, they were the first.
The other morning I ventured where few Democrats have gone before: To a post-Election Day Republican breakfast in Hunterdon County.
AP Newswire: 
I hear from these people about once a year, always at the end of October. And they never listen to what I have to say, but just talk and talk. Yup, the dreaded Robo-calls.
If you think that the US Senate race in New Jersey is being overshadowed in the press, there is another biggie Senate race being overlooked just south of New Jersey: Senator Joe Biden’s re-election campaign in Delaware.In the 1930s, a story is told of a Jewish man, Rosenberg, who was riding on the subway in NYC, reading an Nazi propaganda newspaper. Goldstein, a friend of his, who happened to be riding in the same subway car, [...]
AP Newswire
Kennedy-Nixon debates. Before those, and before TV, there was little demand for any type of debates between the presidential candidates.
Dick Zimmer by 16 points, 50-34. 14 percent say they’re undecided.
Today we are exactly four weeks from Election Day, an election day that will be written about for years and years to come. It is a real choice between the future and the past. Between a man who has voted with George W. Bush more than [...] 
I feel badly for Lobbyist Dick Zimmer*, Republican candidate for Senate. He cannot seem to get any campaign traction.
“This American president has got to be one of the most efficient leaders we have ever had. He has us at war and on the verge of a Depression all at the same time. It took President Roosevelt more that 16 years to accomplish that.”
socialist nation in the free world. There is a presidential election going on.
There has been a big movement over the passed few years for the “privatization” of governmental services. On the Federal level, many members of Congress have talked for years about the ‘privatization’ of Social Security and Medicare.
same time when so many people are losing their homes, too. Oh, well.
Some bits of news require either no comment or minimal comment. From today's New York Times:
President Bush discussed the government’s financial bailout proposal during a news conference at the White House on Saturday.
[...]
years, one of them will write a Shakespearean play. Or throw feces at each other. Or vote Republican.
candidate Sarah Palin, there is still one thing we are waiting for her to do:
Senator John McCain made one of the most boring nomination acceptance speeches I have heard in years. He spoke for nearly one hour, and the most exciting thing of the evening was the balloon drop.
*[sung to the tune of the TV theme song from "The Beverly Hillbillies".] 
So, the debate goes on between VP candidates Senator Joe Biden and Governor Sarah Palin. There are some differences, and some similarities. One’s pro-choice; the other pro-life. One is male the other female. One supports the war; the other opposes it. Yada, yada, yada.
My mother, Pearl, always gave great advice in life. “Always wait a half hour after eating at the beach before you go swimming.” 
More about her later.
Democratic Convention in Denver.
month heavily occupied with vacation obligations, ill family-member visits, and general chores piling up hither and yon. But now, I am back, baby.
One chamber down, and the other one to go.
"In the 21st century nations don't invade other nations."
to half-time at what is an exciting game here in New Jersey between Team Obama and Team McCain…I am Kent Gostak, here with my fellow politico-sports color commentator, Tim Distims.”
Here is some of the best political humor the late night shows have to offer for this week:
...John McCain, on a commercial that compares Barack Obama's popularity with that of Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. Popular---you need to be pop-u-lar.
offering to let me have a shot at eating with himself and Hillary, if I give [...] 
Special to NJ: Politics Unusual:
Money is called ‘cash’. They also call it “dough”. Or moolah, coin, bucks, loot, scratch, bread, ducats, wampum and dead presidents.
once the liberal champion for all liberal causes in NJ, has resigned. The guy who every year wanted to set the beaches free from the requirement of a beach pass resigned this morning, effective immediately. When there are allegations of child porn [...] 
home was just $144,200. And in 1996, the cost of running for Senate in New Jersey was much less than it is today.
[...] 
The 
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