Who knows better about the problems of Bergen County Voters, of course a teenager from Middlesex County.

Busy Rutgers College freshman Matt D. Mowers has accepted the position of Executive Director of the Bergen County Republican Committee. Nevermind the pure logistics involved of someone who lives in East Brunswick, and goes to school in New Brunswick being able to commute to Hackensack, but look at it this way the Bergen GOP is in such disaray they can not find anyone who lives in Bergen County. Hmmmm... I wonder must mean the majority residents of Bergen County like their government the way it is. I have to say one thing he has the Bob Dole hand gesture down.

New Jersey's move to early presidential primary questioned

What did the NJ primary move do? Did the national campaigns really pay more attention to us? I believe they only apeared to pay more attention to us in order to sqeeze the lemon sooner, and get our primary dollars now rather than later. The only clear winners are the candidates who took in advance the NJ fundraising money. Perhaps a system like Cody mentions in the end a regional system would help as for now it's left up to the individual states which means legislators and in turn means ego's. So can you tell me the last time you saw a legislator take a humble position.


Newsday.com
New Jersey's move to early presidential primary questioned
By TOM HESTER Jr.
Associated Press Writer
10:18 AM EST, December 30, 2007
TRENTON, N.J.
When New Jersey moved its presidential primary to Feb. 5, it had visions of candidates shaking hands, kissing babies and stumping hard for votes as they do in Iowa and New Hampshire. But the Garden State instead finds itself among 22 states holding Feb. 5 presidential primaries, and polls show two candidates from neighboring New York _ Republican Rudy Giuliani and Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton _ with leads so huge New Jersey's race might be over. "So far the goal (of moving up the primary date) does not seem to be met," said Ingrid Reed of Rutgers University's Eagleton Institute of Politics. Rather than trailing the pack with its June primary, New Jersey now risks getting lost in a Feb. 5 primary scramble. "Once again, New Jersey voters will be left behind the door as America chooses its next president," said Assemblyman Richard Merkt, R-Morris. "It's sad to see such a good idea botched this badly, but, hey, it's New Jersey." But Democrats who control state government and moved New Jersey's primary from June to February are confident the move was the correct step. Democratic Gov. Jon S. Corzine signed the change into law in April, a day before he endorsed New York U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. Corzine spokeswoman Lilo Stainton said the governor's aim was to make New Jersey a prime-time player in presidential politics. "The impact of this move can only be measured over time," Stainton said. "But it is already clear that issues of concern to state residents _ expanding access to health care, protecting the environment, improving education and ending the war in Iraq _ have taken a front-seat role as these campaigns evolve." Candidates haven't flocked repeatedly to New Jersey, but they have visited, and Senate President Richard J. Codey, a leading backer of an early primary, said that never would have happened otherwise. "New Jersey is in a funny kind of position, because everybody assumes it's a lock for Hillary because she's next door and for Giuliani because he's next door," said Codey, D-Essex. "Yet despite that the other candidates have come in. It was the right thing to do." For at least 60 years, New Jersey held its presidential primary on the first Tuesday in June, months after most other states had voted and major party candidates typically had been decided. But while voters never got to see candidates campaigning, candidates collected money from New Jerseyans. In 2004, presidential candidates raised $15.5 million from New Jersey, the eighth highest total in the nation, prompting Codey to declare candidates saw New Jersey simply as "an ATM machine." So New Jersey moved its presidential primary from June to February's last Tuesday. But when other states began moving their presidential primaries to early February in what Codey described as "leapfrog presidential politics," the state moved it to the first Tuesday in February. It left the primary election for all other offices in June. Though Michigan has scheduled a Jan. 15 primary and Florida has set its own for Jan. 29, the national parties wanted all states except Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada to wait until Feb. 5 and after to hold primaries, and 22 states chose the earliest possible date. Though candidates haven't visited New Jersey frequently, they're still raising money in the state. New Jersey ranks as the sixth most generous state for the presidential candidates, having given a total of $11.8 million, behind California, New York, Texas, Florida and Illinois. "The candidates have fundraised, but they have not campaigned here, I think because they think Rudy and Hillary have it sown up," Reed said. Tom Wilson, the New Jersey Republican Party chairman, said New Jersey may have done better to move its presidential primary to Feb. 12, for instance, when it would be competing only with Maryland and Virginia. "It hasn't made a stitch of difference yet," Wilson said of the new date. "In fact, you might argue that the second move to Feb. 5 actually made us less relevant. If it turns out that on Feb. 5 we don't have anybody with a clear and definitive victory, the next handful of states are going to be potentially more important. We could have been a big prize." But New Jersey _ which has the ninth most electoral votes, with 15 _ wasn't the only state hoping to make itself more important. New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger were among those proclaiming Feb. 5 presidential primaries would give their states more influence. But Rhode Island Gov. Don Carcieri vetoed a bill to move his state's primary up a month to Feb. 5, and Kansas was happy to pick Feb. 9, along with Louisiana. Christian Morgan, Kansas' Republican executive director, has said that date could bring Kansas much attention. Larry J. Sabato, director of University of Virginia's Center for Politics, said it's possible both parties will still have tight contests going into Feb. 5, giving the larger states more say than usual. "There's a small chance that one party will still be fighting it out in early June when New Jersey's primary used to be held, but the chances are much greater that New Jersey will have a role more benefiting its sizable population because of its move to Feb. 5," he said. Stainton said Corzine expects more candidates to visit New Jersey leading up to Feb. 5. Codey said this year's presidential primary scramble will hopefully lead to regional primaries in future presidential elections to try to stop states from competing among themselves for attention, as happened this year. "I think what we're doing is forcing the national parties to come up with a regional system, I hope, for next time," Codey said.
Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed

'Hippie museum' enters N.J. politics

A GOP candidate used the proposed Woodstock shrine to criticize Sen. Frank Lautenberg.
By Cynthia Burton
Inquirer Staff Writer
When Republican U.S. Senate candidate Anne Evans Estabrook wanted to make a point about wasteful government spending, she reached for an example that has popped up in several other races: a museum in Woodstock, N.Y.
Estabrook is running a primary campaign aimed at convincing Republican voters she is the best person to beat the incumbent, Frank Lautenberg (D., N.J.).
This month, she asked: "Who would spend $70 million dollars for peanut storage, $20 million for cricket eradication, and voted to use our tax dollars on a hippie museum in Woodstock? This Congress and Frank Lautenberg just did."
Lautenberg did vote to give $1 million to the Museum at Bethel Woods, N.Y., the location of the August 1969 Woodstock Music Festival and Art Fair, as well as cricket eradication. A Lautenberg staffer noted the cricket bill also included aid to New Jersey farmers and the Women, Infants and Children food program. He did not vote on peanut storage; it died before it got to the Senate.
Neither Lautenberg's Senate staff nor his campaign office would discuss the issue. His campaign spokesman, Brendan Gill, said, "We don't have an opponent right now. Once the Republicans choose a nominee, we'll be commenting on a regular basis on what they say."
The Woodstock museum, set to open next spring, never got its federal money; a coalition of Republicans and Democrats killed the proposed $1 million in mid-October. Still, that didn't stop the museum from getting mileage in the presidential campaign, a New York congressional race, and New Jersey's U.S. Senate primary.
When they were fighting earmarks in the federal budget, Republicans used the "hippie museum" to criticize U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D., N.Y.), who sponsored the spending with U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, (D., N.Y.).
U.S. Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) liked the hippie museum slap so much he made two ads about it. One depicts him saying: "A few days ago, Sen. Clinton tried to spend $1 million on the Woodstock concert museum. Now, my friends, I wasn't there. I'm sure it was a cultural and pharmaceutical event. I was tied up at the time."
His remark, made in a Republican debate, referred to his years as a prisoner during the Vietnam War.
A GOP congressional candidate campaigning in Peekskill, N.Y., a month later told the White Plains Journal News that he wanted to send his incumbent opponent, a former member of the rock band Orleans, "back to Woodstock," adding that U.S. Rep. John Hall (D., N.Y.) "wants to spend your glorious tax dollars on hippies."
But Hall didn't vote on the Bethel Woods museum. It wasn't in the House version of the bill.
As for Estabrook, she is the only one of the three most likely New Jersey Senate candidates who was about the right age to go to Woodstock. But she didn't go.
In the summer of 1969, Estabrook was 25, married, and working in her family's commercial development business. Lautenberg was 45 and making his fortune as a cofounder of Automatic Data Processing Inc., the payroll company. Republican Assemblyman Joseph Pennacchio was 14 and "working my butt off" in a Brooklyn pizza parlor for $1 an hour, he said.
"Going to Woodstock or being a flower child wasn't on my radar," Estabrook said.
Contact staff writer Cynthia Burton at 856-779-3858 or cburton@phillynews.com

This is What the GOP do to each other what will November bring?

Bogus S. C. Card Cites Mormon Passages
By JIM DAVENPORT – 18 hours ago
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Many South Carolina Republicans got a bogus holiday greeting card this week, purported to be from White House hopeful Mitt Romney, that cites some controversial passages of the Book of Mormon.
"We wish you and your family a happy holiday season and a joyful New Year. The Romney family," the card says.
The last page features a photograph of a temple above a box that says "Paid For By The Boston Massachusetts Temple."
Romney's campaign said it had nothing to do with the cards, postmarked Thursday from Columbia with a 41-cent stamp, and Boston Temple President Ken Hutchins said Saturday he first heard about the mailing Friday from a woman in Charleston.
Hutchins said the temple had nothing to do with sending mail to South Carolina Republicans, who go to the polls on Jan. 19 in a key early primary.
"It is sad and unfortunate that this kind of deception and trickery has been employed," said Will Holley, Romney's South Carolina spokesman. "There is absolutely no place for it in American politics."
South Carolina Republican Party Chairman Katon Dawson said he intends to "contact the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Elections Fraud Division and other appropriate authorities, provide them the copy of the mail piece delivered to South Carolina Republicans and ask for a thorough investigation into this matter."
There was no indication how many of the cards were mailed, but Dawson said he got calls from several people who reported receiving them.
"I think it would be nice if somebody got to the bottom of this," Hutchins said.
The card contains passages that underscore some differences between the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and those of denominations that are prevalent in South Carolina.
"We have now clearly shown that God the Father had a plurality of wives, one or more being in eternity by whom He begat our spirits as well as the spirit of Jesus His first born, and another being upon the earth by whom he begat the tabernacle of Jesus, as his only begotten in this world," reads one passage from Orson Pratt, cited on the card as an "original member of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles."
The card also cites a passage on Mary's virgin birth that underscores her race. "And it came to pass that I looked and beheld the great city of Jerusalem, and also other cities. And I beheld the city of Nazareth; and in the city of Nazareth I beheld a virgin, and she was exceedingly fair and white." On the card, "fair and white" are in a bolder, larger font and on a separate line.
Hutchins said the mailing hurts his temple, which, like the parent Mormon church, stays out of politics.
"They have no business using that name or referring to the temple," Hutchins said. "It's a very hurtful thing and creates a misleading impression in peoples' minds." Hutchins said he alerted Tagg Romney, one of Romney's sons, and church authorities about the mailings.
Romney's faith has been a recurring issue in South Carolina, where Christian conservatives dominate the GOP primary. Romney overcame some of those doubts this fall when he picked up an endorsement from Bob Jones, the chancellor of Greenville-based, Christian fundamentalist Bob Jones University.
Such a mailing isn't surprising for South Carolina politics, a state known for political mudslinging and backdoor maneuvering.
Those tactics backfire, said Warren Tompkins, a political consultant who ran George Bush's 2000 campaign in South Carolina and now is Romney's top consultant in the state. "Anything this outrageous and childish and nonsensical would have a significant fallout on whoever did it and on whose behalf it was done," Tompkins said.

More Pictures

This happening place takes the top spot for the over 30,single, and NJ Governor scene

Your Governor is moving, about 3 blocks from his current location at the Hudson Tea Building to the new Maxwell Place building on the water front. Watch the CNN Money video here on how hoboken was rated the top spot for over 30 singles I only wish it also mentioned single Governors.

About the Maxwell Place building: http://www.maxwellplace.com/
Corzine's estimated apartment sq ft, 1900-2200 Cost: Over 3 Million

How was this missed? Mr. Christie who did pay for your vacation

The following is an excerpt from the Auditor from star Ledger:

"Meeting across the Pond When he's not out locking up crooked pols or (not so quietly) running for governor, U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie is often found on his way to or from a Bruce Springsteen concert. And even though The Boss was thou sands of miles and an ocean away last week, that didn't deter the federal lawman.
The Auditor caught up with Christie in London a couple days ago, after the U.S. attorney and his family took in not one but two shows on the European leg of Springsteen's tour. Christie, his wife, Mary Pat, and their four children caught The Boss first in Paris and then in London, between taking in sights such as the Louvre.
"Bruce, in Paris, was amazing," said Christie, who's seen Springsteen in concert nearly 100 times. "The audience was pretty wild."
Springsteen said he scored the tickets courtesy of Springsteen drummer Max Weinberg, whose late father was an assistant U.S. attorney before Christie took over the office in 2002. Weinberg and Christie have become friends in recent years and, in light of the tour schedule, Christie said he was able to "plan the vacation in concert with the concerts."
Understanding how much trouble could be caused by junkets and those who pay for them, Christie had a message for The Auditor: "Your readers should not be concerned about who paid for the concerts or my vacation."

So how was this missed, who did pay for your trips Mr. Christie?

R.I.P. Wally Edge 5/9/07

I will start this blog in rememberance of Wally Edge, when Politicsnj.com was the site that everyone in NJ politcs couldn't go 20 minutes without checking.