New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie finds himself in an awkward situation as he mulls whether to offer any support to his party's tea-party Republican Senate nominee, Steve Lonegan, against his Democratic friend and off-and-on political ally, Cory Booker. Lonegan, who cruised to victory in Tuesday's Republican primary, has a frosty relationship with Christie, dating back to his primary challenge to the governor in the 2009 campaign. Just this week, Lonegan earned a public scolding from Christie for his campaign's racially tinged tweet attacking Booker. "This is a governor who calls it like he sees it," said a source close to Christie. "When Steve Lonegan says something and reporters want the governor's reaction, he'll tell people what he thinks." But if Christie fails to support his fellow Republican in the Senate race, he could take blowback from conservatives, already annoyed by his relationship with President Obama on hurricane recovery and his lack of interest in helping the party contest the vacant Senate seat. Christie allies expect the governor to offer Lonegan a formal endorsement, but don't expect the governor to lift a finger to campaign or raise money for his party's nominee or lend him support in his long-shot campaign against Booker in the October special election. "It doesn't seem like that's something he would invest in," said one member of Christie's inner circle. "Resources are limited." For their part, Lonegan's team doesn't seem to expect much from the state's most popular Republican in decades. "They're running their race and they have their issues. We're running our race and we have our issues, and they're just totally different," Lonegan aide Rick Shaftan said. "Steve has to make the case for his own campaign." Christie could have other reasons for keeping his distance. There's no love lost between the two Republicans: During their 2009 primary fight, Lonegan accused Christie of "vapid double-talk" and vowed to "blow Chris Christie off the stage" in debates. While Lonegan supported Christie's general-election campaign against Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine later that year, he has never embraced Christie in the way that most Garden State Republicans have.
Christie's camp doesn't want to allow Lonegan—or anything else—to complicate his goal of notching an historic reelection win in November. Christie leads state Sen. Barbara Buono, his struggling Democratic opponent, by more than 25 points in the latest public polls. While both sides expect the race to tighten as Election Day draws closer, a resounding victory could bolster what promises to be his main selling point to Republicans in 2016: the ability to expand the presidential map into traditionally Democratic states. "At the end of the day, Chris Christie is most concerned with his own margin of error," Monmouth University Polling Institute Director Patrick Murray said. "His primary strategy is to keep pushing this image of the only guy who can win a blue state and therefore can win the White House." But that desire for a landslide reelection isn't the only way the Senate race factors into the 2016 calculus for Christie. He already angered some in the party with his decision to schedule the special election in October, and his recent dustup with Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., underscored that Christie faces challenges winning over the party's activist base. If Christie jumps into the presidential race, conservative primary opponents may contrast his limited role in Lonegan's Senate bid to his relationship with Booker, one of the most high-profile Democrats in the country. Christie's allies argue that an endorsement of Lonegan will fortify him from such criticism, and they point to his ability to get along with Booker as rare evidence of civility in today's partisan political world.
Camden No. 1 again... POSTED: Tuesday, January 29, 2013, 7:01 PM Though 2011 is long gone, it continues to haunt Camden Mayor Dana L. Redd.
In addition to being the poorest city in the nation that year, Camden had the highest crime rate in the country.
CQ Press recently released its official ranking of 432 cities based on 2011 rates of reported crimes in a half-dozen categories: murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, and vehicle theft.
Camden’s overall crime rate was more than five times the national average. Its murder rate of 60.6 per 100,000 population was nearly 12 times higher.
And remember, last year Camden had an all-time city record of 67 reported homicides — up 20 from 2011.
Cities with high murder rates tend to place at the top of the overall ranking (which used to identify the country’s “most dangerous” locales) because the murder rate is so low nationally, said CQ Press spokeswoman Camille Gamboa.
The cities behind Camden in the rankings:
2. Detroit 3. Flint, Mich. 4. St. Louis, Mo. 5. Oakland, Calif.
Newark was No. 9 and Trenton came in at No. 17. Philadelphia was No. 23. (Click HERE for the full list from lowest crime rate to highest)
CQ Press stopped calling the cities the “most dangerous” because the term was too “subjective,” Gamboa said. “We want to make sure the title reflects what they really are.”
In September, the Census released data that identified Camden as the poorest city in the nation in 2011, with the lowest median income ($21,191) of the 555 places surveyed. That was a huge drop from the city’s $28,720 median income in 2010.
“Unfortunately, Camden has suffered from public-safety issues for decades,” city spokesman Robert Corrales said Tuesday in an email.. “The Mayor is working on a comprehensive and holistic approach to improve public safety and the overall quality of life in Camden.”
Redd is committed to replacing the current city police department with a county force that is expected to put more boots on the ground, Corrales said.
(There are no details so far on any agreement between the city, county, and state on how Camden will sustain such a large force, given that 70 percent of its budget comes from Trenton.)
Redd also is working on initiatives to deal with crime prevention, reentry into the community following incarceration and job creation, Corrales said.
Newark murder rate up since Booker took office 5:40 PM, Aug. 19, 2013 | 6 Comments
A A FILED UNDER Opinion Letters To The Editor Once again, your newspaper is on the side of a liberal Democratic candidate, Cory Booker.
Since he became mayor of Newark, crime has gone out of control. The murder rate in that city since Booker has taken office has risen. According to State Police, 67 people were slain in the city in 2008, but that number jumped to 96 last year.
When was the last time you went into Newark and felt safe?
Please make sure your paper gives Republican candidate Steve Lonegan equal time in its coverage of the U.S. Senate race. Stop playing it safe and showing your support for one man.
The Asbury Park Press is here to give the news and not to promote one candidate. As I see it, you already have Booker as the next U.S. senator. Hogwash!
Christie Signs Bill Outlawing a Gay ‘Cure’ By KATE ZERNIKE Published: August 19, 2013 FACEBOOK TWITTER GOOGLE+ SAVE E-MAIL SHARE PRINT REPRINTS
BELLEVILLE, N.J. — Gov. Chris Christie signed a bill Monday outlawing therapy that aims to convert gay children to heterosexuals, making New Jersey the second state to ban the controversial practice. Connect With NYTMetro
Follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook for news and conversation. Mr. Christie, a Republican, waited until the last possible minute to make his decision on the bill. If he had not signed or vetoed it by Monday, it would have gone into law automatically.
Before the Legislature approved the bill by a wide margin this summer, Mr. Christie had said he was “of two minds” on it: he believes that parents should be left alone to decide how to raise their children, but, as a spokesman later clarified, he does not believe in so-called conversion therapy, which claims to “cure” gays and lesbians, in some cases by forcing them to masturbate to images of the opposite sex.
The governor has all but declared his intention to run for president in 2016, and had to be mindful of conservative primary-state voters who would see the bill as government intrusion into child-rearing.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie finds himself in an awkward situation as he mulls whether to offer any support to his party's tea-party Republican Senate nominee, Steve Lonegan, against his Democratic friend and off-and-on political ally, Cory Booker.
ReplyDeleteLonegan, who cruised to victory in Tuesday's Republican primary, has a frosty relationship with Christie, dating back to his primary challenge to the governor in the 2009 campaign. Just this week, Lonegan earned a public scolding from Christie for his campaign's racially tinged tweet attacking Booker. "This is a governor who calls it like he sees it," said a source close to Christie. "When Steve Lonegan says something and reporters want the governor's reaction, he'll tell people what he thinks."
But if Christie fails to support his fellow Republican in the Senate race, he could take blowback from conservatives, already annoyed by his relationship with President Obama on hurricane recovery and his lack of interest in helping the party contest the vacant Senate seat.
Christie allies expect the governor to offer Lonegan a formal endorsement, but don't expect the governor to lift a finger to campaign or raise money for his party's nominee or lend him support in his long-shot campaign against Booker in the October special election. "It doesn't seem like that's something he would invest in," said one member of Christie's inner circle. "Resources are limited."
For their part, Lonegan's team doesn't seem to expect much from the state's most popular Republican in decades. "They're running their race and they have their issues. We're running our race and we have our issues, and they're just totally different," Lonegan aide Rick Shaftan said. "Steve has to make the case for his own campaign."
Christie could have other reasons for keeping his distance. There's no love lost between the two Republicans: During their 2009 primary fight, Lonegan accused Christie of "vapid double-talk" and vowed to "blow Chris Christie off the stage" in debates. While Lonegan supported Christie's general-election campaign against Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine later that year, he has never embraced Christie in the way that most Garden State Republicans have.
Christie's camp doesn't want to allow Lonegan—or anything else—to complicate his goal of notching an historic reelection win in November. Christie leads state Sen. Barbara Buono, his struggling Democratic opponent, by more than 25 points in the latest public polls. While both sides expect the race to tighten as Election Day draws closer, a resounding victory could bolster what promises to be his main selling point to Republicans in 2016: the ability to expand the presidential map into traditionally Democratic states.
ReplyDelete"At the end of the day, Chris Christie is most concerned with his own margin of error," Monmouth University Polling Institute Director Patrick Murray said. "His primary strategy is to keep pushing this image of the only guy who can win a blue state and therefore can win the White House."
But that desire for a landslide reelection isn't the only way the Senate race factors into the 2016 calculus for Christie. He already angered some in the party with his decision to schedule the special election in October, and his recent dustup with Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., underscored that Christie faces challenges winning over the party's activist base. If Christie jumps into the presidential race, conservative primary opponents may contrast his limited role in Lonegan's Senate bid to his relationship with Booker, one of the most high-profile Democrats in the country. Christie's allies argue that an endorsement of Lonegan will fortify him from such criticism, and they point to his ability to get along with Booker as rare evidence of civility in today's partisan political world.
http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/christie-won-t-help-cory-booker-s-gop-opponent-in-senate-campaign-20130813
Booker is awesome. The literally runs into burning buildings to save people. Talk about walking the talk ...
ReplyDeletePFUNKY! Where have you been hiding?
DeleteHiya Live,
DeleteBeen doing summer fun stuff with the fam.
Hope all is well :-)
NYC Mayor Bloomberg takes heat for public housing fingerprinting proposal
ReplyDeleteYou realize he doesn't come up with these ideas on his own don't you?
Yessir Mr. President. I will get right on it, Sorry Michele's Soda ban did't work out.
Camden No. 1 again...
ReplyDeletePOSTED: Tuesday, January 29, 2013, 7:01 PM
Though 2011 is long gone, it continues to haunt Camden Mayor Dana L. Redd.
In addition to being the poorest city in the nation that year, Camden had the highest crime rate in the country.
CQ Press recently released its official ranking of 432 cities based on 2011 rates of reported crimes in a half-dozen categories: murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, and vehicle theft.
Camden’s overall crime rate was more than five times the national average. Its murder rate of 60.6 per 100,000 population was nearly 12 times higher.
And remember, last year Camden had an all-time city record of 67 reported homicides — up 20 from 2011.
Cities with high murder rates tend to place at the top of the overall ranking (which used to identify the country’s “most dangerous” locales) because the murder rate is so low nationally, said CQ Press spokeswoman Camille Gamboa.
The cities behind Camden in the rankings:
2. Detroit
3. Flint, Mich.
4. St. Louis, Mo.
5. Oakland, Calif.
Newark was No. 9 and Trenton came in at No. 17. Philadelphia was No. 23. (Click HERE for the full list from lowest crime rate to highest)
CQ Press stopped calling the cities the “most dangerous” because the term was too “subjective,” Gamboa said. “We want to make sure the title reflects what they really are.”
In September, the Census released data that identified Camden as the poorest city in the nation in 2011, with the lowest median income ($21,191) of the 555 places surveyed. That was a huge drop from the city’s $28,720 median income in 2010.
“Unfortunately, Camden has suffered from public-safety issues for decades,” city spokesman Robert Corrales said Tuesday in an email.. “The Mayor is working on a comprehensive and holistic approach to improve public safety and the overall quality of life in Camden.”
Redd is committed to replacing the current city police department with a county force that is expected to put more boots on the ground, Corrales said.
(There are no details so far on any agreement between the city, county, and state on how Camden will sustain such a large force, given that 70 percent of its budget comes from Trenton.)
Redd also is working on initiatives to deal with crime prevention, reentry into the community following incarceration and job creation, Corrales said.
Do any of these cities have anything but democrat administrations?
DeleteNewark murder rate up since Booker took office
ReplyDelete5:40 PM, Aug. 19, 2013 | 6 Comments
A
A
FILED UNDER
Opinion
Letters To The Editor
Once again, your newspaper is on the side of a liberal Democratic candidate, Cory Booker.
Since he became mayor of Newark, crime has gone out of control. The murder rate in that city since Booker has taken office has risen. According to State Police, 67 people were slain in the city in 2008, but that number jumped to 96 last year.
When was the last time you went into Newark and felt safe?
Please make sure your paper gives Republican candidate Steve Lonegan equal time in its coverage of the U.S. Senate race. Stop playing it safe and showing your support for one man.
The Asbury Park Press is here to give the news and not to promote one candidate. As I see it, you already have Booker as the next U.S. senator. Hogwash!
Irene Matier
Eatontown
Christie Signs Bill Outlawing a Gay ‘Cure’
ReplyDeleteBy KATE ZERNIKE
Published: August 19, 2013
FACEBOOK
TWITTER
GOOGLE+
SAVE
E-MAIL
SHARE
PRINT
REPRINTS
BELLEVILLE, N.J. — Gov. Chris Christie signed a bill Monday outlawing therapy that aims to convert gay children to heterosexuals, making New Jersey the second state to ban the controversial practice.
Connect With NYTMetro
Follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook for news and conversation.
Mr. Christie, a Republican, waited until the last possible minute to make his decision on the bill. If he had not signed or vetoed it by Monday, it would have gone into law automatically.
Before the Legislature approved the bill by a wide margin this summer, Mr. Christie had said he was “of two minds” on it: he believes that parents should be left alone to decide how to raise their children, but, as a spokesman later clarified, he does not believe in so-called conversion therapy, which claims to “cure” gays and lesbians, in some cases by forcing them to masturbate to images of the opposite sex.
The governor has all but declared his intention to run for president in 2016, and had to be mindful of conservative primary-state voters who would see the bill as government intrusion into child-rearing.