Tag: Election Day

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NJ Senate Candidate Bell praises Christie for halting budget busting tunnel project to Macy’s Basement

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NJ Senate Candidate Bell praises Christie for halting budget busting tunnel project to Macy’s Basement

October 9, 2014    Last updated: Thursday, October 9, 2014, 1:21 AM
By JOHN REITMEYER
STATE HO– USE BUREAU
The Record

Governor Christie’s decision to halt construction on new Hudson River commuter tunnels “looks pretty good in retrospect,” even as damage from Superstorm Sandy is now expected to cause more delays during upcoming repair work, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate said Wednesday.

Jeffrey Bell, speaking to The Record’s editorial board, also said he considers Christie’s success with Latinos last year during his bid for reelection a model, adding he favors comprehensive immigration reform even if other Republicans nationally have taken a firmer position on the issue.

“It makes us seem — I mean the Republican Party — completely unwelcoming,” Bell said of the stances some other GOP candidates have taken.

Bell, a 70-year-old former aide to Ronald Reagan, is trying to upset incumbent U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, a Democrat who is ahead in the race, according to the most recent public opinion polls. Christie headlined a fundraiser for Bell on Tuesday and Bell, who lost bids for the Senate in 1978 and 1982, said the Republican governor “has been very helpful.”

Bell didn’t try to distance himself from Christie’s 2010 decision to stop work on the new tunnels, which the governor said would have exposed New Jersey to billions of dollars in potential cost overruns.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/candidate-praises-christie-for-halting-tunnel-project-1.1105695#sthash.iwTQ2T0H.dpuf

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Democratic Freeholders Put on Notice and fire back Alan C. Marcus over letter

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Democratic Freeholders Put on Notice and fire back Alan C. Marcus over letter

OCTOBER 9, 2014    LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2014, 1:21 AM
BY JOHN C. ENSSLIN
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD

The attorney for the Bergen County Freeholders has notified a lawyer for public relations consultant Alan C. Marcus that the freeholders won’t be “intimidated or restrained” by a letter warning them not to make any defamatory statements about Marcus during the current political campaign season or thereafter.

Freeholder Counsel Edward Florio wrote that the letter delivered last week from Marcus’ lawyer “appears to be a baseless preemptive strike designed to chill the free and open exchange of political expression which is germane to the exercise of the Board’s legitimate legislative function.”

Marcus is a former volunteer adviser to Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan who served as campaign strategist to her successful 2010 campaign. He also served as chairman of her transition committee.

He came under fire in April 2013 from several Democratic freeholders after the trustees of Bergen Community College awarded his firm a $7,500-a-month public relations contract. Two days later, Marcus turned down the contract and offered to have his firm do the work for free, saying he did not want the college to become “a political piñata.”

Florio was responding to a Sept. 26 letter sent by Joseph B. Fiorenzo, a lawyer representing Marcus, which was delivered to all the freeholders as well as the candidates for county office and the chairmen of the county Democratic and Republican parties.

Fiorenzo’s partner Leon Sokol said Wednesday that the letter was not intended to muzzle or inhibit anyone’s freedom of expression.

“The purpose of the letter that was sent to them was to put everyone on notice as to what the facts are so that if they’re going to be making any political statements that they are factual,” Sokol said.

“That was the only reason. Alan has no interest in any campaign. He’s not involved in any campaign,” Sokol added.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/freeholders-fire-back-over-letter-1.1105691#sthash.aE1NuZe9.dpuf

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Freeholder chief checks Ridgewood parking shortage

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Freeholder chief checks Ridgewood parking shortage

OCTOBER 8, 2014    LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2014, 1:21 AM
THE RECORD

RIDGEWOOD — Residents, officials and business leaders all seem to agree on one thing when it comes to the village: parking is scarce.

On Tuesday afternoon, Freeholder Chairman David Ganz took a quick tour of the downtown area, to survey the village’s parking situation.

Village officials have spent the last year talking with representatives from the Bergen County Improvement Authority about the possibility of the county financing, building and operating a parking deck in Ridgewood.

First, the freeholders would need to authorize the expenditure of $100,000 on a comprehensive study of the village’s current parking situation.

“We recently included Chairman Ganz in that conversation,” said Mayor Paul Aronsohn, “because the freeholders would have to approve BCIA’s use of transit funding for such a study.”

The funding issue could be discussed at the freeholders’ next meeting on Oct. 22.

– See more at:  https://www.northjersey.com/news/freeholder-chief-checks-ridgewood-parking-shortage-1.1104416#sthash.K0CobFFL.dpuf

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Rep Scott Garrett crusade against “for-profit policing” gains traction

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Rep Garrett with two vets at the Glen Rock street fair . These two gentlemen were at the fair representing the VFW. Join me in thanking them for their service to our country!

Rep Scott Garrett crusade against “for-profit policing” gains traction 
October 6th 2014 
the staff of the Ridgewood blog 

Ridgewood NJ, In September Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ),  and Rep. Tony Cárdenas (D-CA), introduced H.R. 5502, the Fifth Amendment Integrity Restoration (FAIR) Act, to protect Americans from having their property seized without the due process of law.  The FAIR Act makes a number of changes to civil asset forfeiture laws to restore the constitutional protections guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment.

Recently unconstitutional civil asset forfeiture or Policing for profit has started to gain traction with the media .

Garrett said “I’m glad to see that more people are starting to draw attention to civil asset forfeiture laws. My bill, the FAIR Act, would protect Americans from unconstitutional civil asset forfeitures.”

Learn more here: https://1.usa.gov/1s6Yg99

John Oliver rips into the scandal of for-profit policing
Updated by Timothy B. Lee on October 6, 2014, 9:40 a.m. ET [email protected]
 
In America, people are supposed to be innocent until proven guilty. Yet a crazy loophole in US law has allowed the police to take billions of dollars worth of property from ordinary Americans without even charging them with a crime.

John Oliver explains how this scheme, known as civil asset forfeiture, works:

https://www.vox.com/2014/10/6/6918047/john-oliver-explains-how-the-police-can-take-your-stuff-without

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Avery, Republican Bergen County freeholder candidate, learned about politics at home

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KATHLEEN DONOVAN FOR BERGEN COUNTY EXECUTIVE
BOB AVERY & BERNADETTE COGHLAN-WALSH FOR BERGEN COUNTY FREEHOLDER 

Avery, Republican Bergen County freeholder candidate, learned about politics at home

OCTOBER 5, 2014, 4:27 PM    LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2014, 4:29 PM
BY JOHN C. ENSSLIN
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD

Politics came naturally to Robert Avery, a Ridgefield lawyer and Republican candidate for Bergen County Freeholder.

Avery’s late father, Henry, was once editor of the Hudson Dispatch, a now-defunct daily newspaper in Union City.

Because of his job, Henry Avery was often in contact with mayors, councilmen and state lawmakers, some of whom would stop by his house. Nor was it unusual for a governor to telephone the home.

“His life was so involved in politics that it often spilled over into household conversations,” Robert Avery said of his father in a Record Talk Radio interview in May.

“It seemed so interesting to me,” he said. “I had a comfort level with it that allowed me to transition into politics pretty easily.”

Avery still lives in the house where he grew up. He still has his father’s Underwood typewriter. He also has a collection of old business machines.

He has been a lawyer for 38 years, including a 16-year stint as a Ridgefield municipal judge. For 36 of those years, Avery has practiced law from an unassuming second-floor walk-up to an office that almost feels like a living room.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/avery-republican-bergen-county-freeholder-candidate-learned-about-politics-at-home-1.1102972#sthash.z7SdSVvZ.dpuf

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A Bell-ringer in New Jersey

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A Bell-ringer in New Jersey
By George F. Will

Every 36 years, it seems, Jeff Bell disturbs New Jersey’s political order. In 1978, as a 34-year-old apostle of supply-side economics and a harbinger of the Reagan Revolution, he stunned the keepers of the conventional wisdom by defeating a four-term senator, Clifford Case, in the Republican primary. Bell, a Columbia University graduate who fought in Vietnam, lost to Bill Bradley in the 1978 general election, but in 1982 he went to Washington to help implement President Reagan’s economic policies that produced five quarters of above 7 percent growth and six years averaging 4.6 percent.

Bell, now 70, is back. He won the Republican nomination to run against Sen. Cory Booker, 45, the Democratic former mayor of Newark who last October won a special election to serve the last year of the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg’s term.

New Jersey last voted Republican for president in 1988; in 2012, Barack Obama carried it by 18 points; it has not elected a Republican senator since 1972. Booker, who has raised more than $16 million, is a prodigy at siphoning money from Wall Street. Bell is running this year’s most penurious Senate campaign, having raised and pretty much spent about $300,000. And this is an expensive state: To reach New Jersey voters, candidates for statewide offices must buy New York and Philadelphia radio and television time, which Bell cannot do.

Yet Booker’s lead is only in the low double digits — 13 points in theRealClearPolitics average of polls. In eight Senate races (Delaware, Hawaii,New Mexico, Oregon, Illinois, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Virginia), Republicans are less competitive than Bell is. If Republican groups had given Bell the money they spent dragging Sen. Thad Cochran to re-nomination in Mississippi, Bell might be hot on Booker’s heels. He could still get there with a modest infusion of campaign contributions: Several polls have shown Booker’s support below 50 percent.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/george-will-jeff-bell-would-offer-new-jersey-far-more-than-cory-booker-can/2014/10/03/c6591c12-4a5e-11e4-b72e-d60a9229cc10_story.html

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GOP edge grows in final stretch

Obama-Golf

GOP edge grows in final stretch
By Cameron Joseph

With one month until Election Day, Republicans’ chances for retaking the Senate and picking up seats in the House are improving.

The GOP has been buoyed by positive public polling, while red-state Democrats are still struggling to find distance from President Obama. There are bright spots and even some unexpected new targets on the map for both parties, but the overall national environment seems to have ticked a bit toward Republicans.

The GOP needs to win a net of six seats to retake control of the Senate, and Republicans seem better-positioned to do so now than they did through much of the summer.

Democrats must hold their own for a decent election night, and they’re putting their faith in their vaunted ground game for the final stretch.

Both sides say control of the upper chamber is still very much at play, and Republicans certainly aren’t taking a victory lap just yet.

“The Senate is up for grabs and the outcome is far from certain,” said Paul Lindsay, spokesman for the pro-GOP American Crossroads. “There’s a lot of encouraging signs in many states and a good progression for us in many states. But at the same time many of these races are still up for grabs.”

https://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/219778-gop-edge-in-midterm-grows

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Booker-Bell Really a 5-Point Race

Jeff Bell

Booker-Bell Really a 5-Point Race
8:28 AM, OCT 2, 2014 • BY WILLIAM KRISTOL

The new Quinnipiac poll of the New Jersey Senate contest shows Jeff Bell only 11 points down to Cory Booker, 51 to 40 percent, among likely voters. It goes without saying that a race can move a dozen points in the final five weeks of a campaign—especially when a little known challenger (but one who’s well-regarded by those who do know of him) is taking on a pro-Obama incumbent who’s barely above 50 percent in an anti-Obama, anti-incumbent year. (Obama’s approval in New Jersey is hovering around 41 percent.)

But take a further look at the poll results. Booker leads Bell, 51-40. Seventy-six percent of Booker supporters and 84 percent of Bell supporters say their mind is made up. Do the math. Among those whose mind is made up, Booker leads Bell 39 to 34 percent.

https://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/booker-bell-really-5-point-race_808457.html

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Jeff Bell : Takes on the Myth that the GOP is the Party of the Rich

Jeff Bell

Jeff Bell : Takes on the Myth that the GOP is the Party of the Rich 
NJ Senate Candidate Jeff Bell 
Leonia, NJ

The Democrats are out-fundraising the Republicans dramatically, yet the GOP is seen as the party of the rich. It’s the worst of both worlds.

Why? The answer to the first part is simple. The Democratic Party has become the party of Big Money. It dominates in fundraising on Wall Street, from the legal profession, in Hollywood, and just about every other major sector of wealth in this country. This year it’s raised more money at every level, including for Democratic candidates for the House of Representatives even though the party acknowledges it has no chance of taking back Congress in 2014.

So why have Republicans gotten the reputation as the party of the rich? I believe it’s because the GOP’s policies coming out of Washington haven’t done enough to address the economic concerns of middle and lower income voters. I admire Mitt Romney for many reasons, but I can point to his 2012 convention speech that emphasized helping business owners rather than workers as a widely-watched Republican message that turned people off. Too frequently, the proposals offered by Republican candidates target help toward businesses (and they do need help under President Obama) and neglect to directly address the concerns of working Americans such as rising prices and falling pay.

So what would I do differently? I propose that we level the playing field of money. We can do this by making our dollar as good as gold. Under this monetary system, no one will have to worry about the value of their wages declining over time the way they have under the pure paper dollar; 85 percent since we went off the gold standard in 1971! A gold-backed dollar will let the American people rather than central bankers control the supply of money in the economy, so there will be no financial crashes caused by the Federal Reserve like we had in 2008.


In 1992 I published a book called Populist vs. Elitism. You can guess which path I recommended the Republican Party follow. I’ve been pushing since then for ideas besides the gold standard that put people first: immigration reform, a culture of life rather than abortion, and a tax system with one low flat rate. These are all part of my Senate campaign in 2014.

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Bergen freeholder hopefuls debate centers on Sheriff Departments use of MRAP’s

MRAP-Boston

living in a Police State ….

Bergen freeholder hopefuls debate centers on Sheriff Departments use of MRAP’s

“I don’t want them on our streets,” Candidate Bernie Walsh 

SEPTEMBER 30, 2014, 7:55 PM    LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2014, 10:06 PM
BY JOHN C. ENSSLIN
STAFF WRITER
NORTHJERSEY.COM

The four candidates for Bergen County freeholder sparred in their first debate Tuesday over the budget, armored vehicles, and consolidation of law enforcement.

In the 90-minute forum at the Teaneck Library, Republican candidates Bernadette Walsh and Robert Avery took issue with how the Democratic-controlled freeholder board avoided a tax increase this year by dipping into county trust funds.

Avery contended the move would leave the county in the red at the beginning of 2015.

But Democratic Freeholder Chairman David Ganz said only about $1.5 million of the nearly $100 million in the trust funds was tapped as revenue this year.

Fellow Democratic Freeholder Joan Voss said those funds will be replenished next year.

The mostly civil debate came amid a campaign in which control of the freeholder board is at stake. Democrats hold a 5-2 majority.

The forum — which drew about 50 people — was held by Bergen Grassroots, a citizen activist group best know for successfully pushing the county to adopt pay-to-play reforms that limited campaign contributions by professionals with no-bid county contracts.

That issue came up only at the very end of the forum. Instead, the debate over Sheriff Michael Saudino’s plan to accept a mine-resistant military surplus armored vehicle from the federal government was a much hotter topic.

“I don’t want them on our streets,” Walsh said, to some applause.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/bergen-freeholder-hopefuls-square-off-in-debate-1.1099511#sthash.FCPUgugw.dpuf

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Jeff Bell Says Booker looks to the same people who got us into the financial catastrophe of 2008 for economic advise

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Jeff Bell Says Booker looks to the same people who got us into the financial catastrophe of 2008 for economic advise 

But Do you really trust these “experts” to run the economy?

Ridgewood NJ, Cory Booker does. He thinks we should listen to them – the people that got us into the financial catastrophe of 2008 – about how to get people back to work. He invokes expert opinion against my monetary policy planas his reason for opposing it. He’s a U.S. Senator and he can’t even come up with his own reasons.  
This time Cory Booker picked the wrong guy to use this tactic against. Bell has plenty of experience taking on the experts in their own backyard. 

Here’s what economist John Mueller told the Associated Press the other day:

“It wouldn’t be the first time that the majority of Ph.D. economists were on one side and Jeff was on the other and he turned out to be right.”

When Jeff tried to persuade the Republican establishment to embrace lower taxes, the experts said it was a foolish idea. By 1986 we passed a tax reform bill that took the top rate down from 50 to 28 percent – with even Ted Kennedy voting for it.
In the eighties and nineties the economy took off with the end of high taxes and inflation. Expert opinion tends to stagnate over time and every so often voters need to show the experts they’re wrong. I think we’re in one of those times again, especially when it comes to our money.

Microsoft Store

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Freeholder candidate has roots that run deep in Bergen County

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Bernadette Walsh campaigning with Congressmen Scott Garrett

Freeholder candidate has roots that run deep in Bergen County

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014, 3:20 PM    LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2014, 3:34 PM
BY JOHN C. ENSSLIN
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD

To understand Bernadette Walsh, one of two Republican candidates for Bergen County freeholder, it helps to know the story of the “bamboo man.”

That’s the nickname her late father, James Coghlan, picked up in the 1960s when he and his wife, Mary, cultivated bamboo as part of their greenhouse nursery business in Upper Saddle River.

They grew and sold bamboo to people like the philanthropist Doris Duke and to places like the now defunct Jungle Habitat in West Milford and the Polynesian exhibition at the 1964 World’s Fair in Flushing Queens.

James Coghlan wrote a book in 1965 called “The Story of Bamboo.” The couple even made an appearance on “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson.

Walsh was a small child when her parents closed the nursery to instead run a real estate and appraisal business near the train station in Ramsey for 25 years.

But their daughter recalled that time while talking about what she considers her proudest accomplishment in her four years as a Ridgewood councilwoman.

The self-described “tree hugger” helped revive the borough’s Shade Tree Commission, which had been dormant for many years. After Hurricanes Irene and Sandy toppled about 500 trees in town, Walsh said, people felt a need to be planting trees again.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/freeholder-candidate-has-roots-that-run-deep-in-bergen-county-1.1097931#sthash.FM1Dd9Np.dpuf

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Citing Ronald Reagan, N.J. Senate Candidate Jeff Bell calls for immigration reform

Jeff Bell

Citing Ronald Reagan, N.J. Senate Candidate Jeff Bell calls for immigration reform

TRENTON — Jeff Bell, the Republican who is challenging U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), says his party has been “unwelcoming to Hispanic voters” and that he favors a guest worker program that would put immigrants in the country illegally on a path to legal status. (Friedman/NJ Advance Media)

https://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/09/citing_ronald_reagan_nj_sen_cory_booker_opponent_jeff_bell_calls_for_immigration_reform.html#incart_river

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Cho Hasn’t Moved Beyond Photo Ops

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Cho Hasn’t Moved Beyond Photo Ops

Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog

We’re already grappling with a selfie presidency, Save Jerseyans.

Why would we want another selfie congressman?

NJ-05 Challenger Roy Cho apparently hopes you’re willing to give it a try. He’s a committed liberal, no doubt about it, but I’ve also said that he’s a “false choice” because he either (1) stakes out positions to make himself seem more palatable – like backing Israel and demonstrating it with a visit – but his rhetoric won’t amount to anything given his party’s growing anti-Israel orientation, or (2) he goes radio silent altogether.

Even as our men and women head into harm’s way?

https://savejersey.com/2014/09/cho-garrett-isis-isil-russia-air-strikes/

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The PolitickerNJ Interview: Bell on Fox: ‘If you get Jamie Fox out of Democratic Party strategizing, that’s a service for the Republican Party’

Jeff Bell

The PolitickerNJ Interview: Bell on Fox: ‘If you get Jamie Fox out of Democratic Party strategizing, that’s a service for the Republican Party’

Jeff Bell knows Jamie Fox. The Republican nominee for U.S. Senate met the new Department of Transportation (DOT) commissioner over a decade ago. (Pizarro/PolitickerNJ)

https://www.politickernj.com/82431/politickernj-interview-bell-fox-if-you-get-jamie-fox-out-democratic-party-strategizing-s-servi