Attention Bergen Record and GOP 2016 hopefuls: Chris Christie is poised to reclaim frontrunner status
Influential Republicans in early presidential primary states believe New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is poised to once again become a frontrunner for the party’s 2016 nomination, following a news report that federal scrutiny of a bridge-closing scandal has not implicated him.
“If he had been found in the wrong, he would have been irreparably damaged,” said Matt Moore, chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party. “This is hugely helpful.”
Not having the episode “hanging over his head puts him back where he started from,” said Chuck Laudner, an Iowa-based strategist for former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum’s 2012 presidential campaign. “He’s still a rock star and a compelling guy, even if he is too moderate for some conservatives. We’re glad he’s on our team.”
Rand Paul blisters Obama and Clinton, calls for GOP diversity By CATHLEEN DECKERcontact the reporter
Fewer than 50 days before an election that may give Republicans control of the Senate as well as the House, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Saturday skipped past those contests entirely to focus on one in which he may play a more central role — the 2016 presidential race.
Paul, the featured speaker at the California Republican convention, made no mention of the party’s national advantages this year. He blasted President Obama and potential Democratic nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton as insufficient present or future commanders-in-chief. He insisted that the GOP must dramatically expand its reach in order to win presidential contests — a strategy that coincides with his pre-presidential efforts.
He accused Obama of confounding the Constitution when he expanded Obamacare, moved against overseas targets without specific congressional authorization, and announced plans — since delayed — to use executive action to change the nation’s immigration laws.
“It is a terrible tragedy, it is a danger to us as a country, and we need to do everything we can to stop him from abusing our laws,” Paul said. He said later, “We have a president who basically has created a lawless atmosphere in Washington.”
Speaking about Clinton, he used her famous 2008 primary ad, which argued that she more than Obama would be the president capable of answering a phone call about a middle-of-the-night crisis:
“I think she had a 3 a.m. moment. She didn’t answer the phone, and I think it absolutely should preclude her from being [president],” he said after detailing what he termed her failings leading up to the 2012 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya. (His final word was obscured by applause from the strongly anti-Clinton crowd.)
Those were the easy targets, however. Paul’s more passionate appeal was one that he has forwarded across the country in such unlikely venues as UC Berkeley. Paul’s argument — that the party needs to expand from its older and white base, groups amply represented among the delegates — was framed as one that could reverse the party’s long record of thumpings in California and its national presidential losses.
Where the Bergen County candidates stand: open space
SEPTEMBER 16, 2014, 12:34 PM LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2014, 12:44 PM BY JOHN ENSSLIN STAFF WRITER THE RECORD
There are 49 days left until Election Day. We continue our series on how the candidates for Bergen County Executive and Freeholder stand on the issues with the question of Open Space.
From The Bergen Beat Blog on NorthJersey.com
In May 2013, the Freeholders rejected the advice of an advisory panel that wanted the county to double its open space tax.
Panel members argued that the amount of funds generated by the tax is insufficient and noted that Bergen ranked last among the 21 New Jersey counties that have an open space tax.
They contend the competition for those funds will be increased now that Open Space funds can be used for so-called “Blue Acres” projects that acquire and demolish flood-prone properties.
This year, Bergen County was able to add $16.8 million to the fund by diverting Open Space funds for about 100 project where there was money left over or unspent.
Here’s the question posed to this year’s candidates:
Open Space advocates contend the county’s current fund is small compared to the number of competing projects, especially now that so-called “Blue Acres” projects are an approved use. What is your view on raising the county’s open space tax?
And here is what they had to say:
Freeholder and County Executive candidate James Tedesco (Democrat):
“While having the Open Space Tax set to at least one half cent would allow us to qualify for matching grants, it does place a greater burden on our residents.
“I feel that the voters deserve a say just as they had in the past and trust that they will vote to fund worthwhile projects.
“The open space program provides grants to every town in Bergen County that applies and gives municipalities the ability to pursue preservation and recreation projects they might not otherwise be able to fund.”
County Executive Kathleen Donovan (Republican)
“The focus on my administration has been doing more with less.
“While I feel that open space is important I felt raising the open space tax was not the prudent thing to do. Another factor that went into my decision was the fact that we will be collecting unspent and leftover funds from previous open space projects.
“This money will then go back into the general open space fund for use on new projects. While we will not be raising the open space tax the fund will have an injection of money.
“On a side note with regarding the Blue Acres money, the county DPW has partnered with municipalities such as Westwood in order to make their Blue Acres money go further.
“The county has come in as a shared service using our heavy equipment to tear down the homes purchased by the town. This allows the municipality to then use the money saved on the demolition to purchase more property.”
“The Blue Acres funding is only relevant in select areas of the county that are negatively impacted by flooding. However, all of the 70 municipalities use the County Parks and Open Space areas.
“Working with the Municipalities to explore Federal granting opportunities to bring their individual open space plans to fruition is something I’d like to champion.”
Freeholder candidate Robert Avery (Republican):
“I am not in favor of raising the tax. As we know, our current rate is .25% of a penny and the state permits up to a one full penny rate. Something worth exploring here is that it may be time for the State to consider new legislation on the rate process, especially since Hurricane Sandy and Blue Acres.
or perhaps President Obama’s Teleprompter because Booker always says the same failed policies
U.S. Senate race: Bell wants Gill at a podium to sub for Booker in three debates
Irritated at U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) for resisting two debate forums, Republican challenger Jeff Bell said he wants a substitute showdown with Booker Campaign Manager Brendan Gill, an Essex County Freeholder and the former state director for the late U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ). (Pizarro/PolitickerNJ)
Republican upstart hopes to ride economic plan and anti-incumbent sentiment into the Senate
BY: Mary Lou Byrd September 15, 2014 5:00 am
Voter discontent and anti-incumbency sentiment will be factors in the race between Republican Jeff Bell and Cory Booker (D., N.J.) in November, which is surprisingly tight despite the incumbent Democrat’s national popularity.
Bell has stepped up his campaigning and continued to push his economic agenda, which he believes will restore prosperity to the middle class, revive the economy, help small businesses, and create jobs. He has also addressed the threat of Islamic terrorism on the campaign trail.
Speaking at a GOP meeting in Lakewood days before President Barack Obama’s Oval Office speech on the threat posed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, or ISIS), Bell spoke of President Ronald Reagan and cited the stark difference between Reagan and Obama.
Reagan “believed in our values,” Bell said. “He was loyal to our allies and other countries knew that.”
“The only thing we should be thinking about is how do we kill the killers before they come here,” Bell said. “Christians, Jews and minorities are being eradicated,” he said, and Obama’s administration is “anti-Israel” and has showed “passivity in the Middle East.”
Bell then turned to his economic plan, which calls for a return to a gold-backed dollar. It would be the first time in 43 years the greenback was backed by gold.
Bergen County Exec’s race: Dem Chair Stellato rallies troops for Tedesco
LYNDHURST – Bergen County Democratic Chairman Lou Stellato was house-proud in his hometown before he got down to political business on Wednesday morning. (Bonamo/PolitickerNJ)
The PolitickerNJ Interview: Senator Gerald Cardinale
FORT LEE – State Sen. Gerald Cardinale (R-39) remembers then-Bergen County Democratic Organization Chairman Joe Ferriero jabbing a finger at him and telling him, “The reason network television costs so much, Gerry, is because it works!” (Pizarro/PolitickerNJ)
ELEC Analysis: top 25 NJ special interest groups spent $311 million on campaign contributions, lobbying and independent spending over 15 years
The top 25 special interest groups during the past 15 years spent a combined $311 million on campaign contributions, lobbying and independent spending, according to an analysis by the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC). (Politicker Staff)
Bergen County Exec’s race: Donovan does diner politicking as race enters red zone
PARK RIDGE – The Park Ridge Diner sits on the corner of Kinderkamack Road and Park Avenue. The avenue there was renamed James Gandolfini Way after the late actor who played the iconic cable television role of Tony Soprano, and who grew up in this Bergen County borough. (Bonamo/PolitickerNJ)
Politics is practiced year-round in Bergen County, and street-level campaigning has been going on quietly all summer. But both Republicans and Democrats say the Rutherford Street Fair on Labor Day signals a more intense phase of electioneering. (Ensslin/The Bergen Record)
CD 5 race: Bergen GOP Chairman Yudin challenges Cho, national Dems on Israel
By Mark Bonamo | August 14th, 2014 – 2:31pm
HACKENSACK – Some observers may claim that Congressional candidate Roy Cho’s recent trip to Israel was a step beyond what most first-time candidates do. But Bergen Republican Chairman Bob Yudin’s response to the Democrats’ Fifth Congressional District candidate’s visit to Israel was that Cho is out of step with the national Democratic Party.
“Mr. Cho is completely out of step with the rank and file of the Democratic Party. The majority of the rank-and-file Democrats are not supporting the way Israel is defending itself from Hamas terrorists,” Yudin told PolitickerNJ in reference to the ongoing conflict along the frontier of the Hamas-controlled Palestinian territory of the Gaza Strip that began with a wave of rocket attacks. “The polling data clearly shows that.”
Yudin referred in part to a Gallup poll released last month that indicated that 65 percent of Republicans asked thought Israel’s actions in the current Middle East conflict are justified, with 21 percent believing they are unjustified and the rest expressing no opinion. Of the Democrats polled, 31 percent thought that Israel’s actions were justified, with 47 percent believing they are unjustified and the rest expressing no opinion.
Yudin, whose son and grandson have served in the Israeli Defense Forces, also referred to a report in the Wall Street Journal that indicated that the United States government had put the sending of a batch of Hellfire missiles to Israel meant to aid in the country’s defense on hold.
“President [Barack] Obama is now insisting on holding back armaments that Israel is using to defend itself to pressure Israel into negotiating with the terrorist Hamas organization. It is clear that the Democratic Party does not support Israel’s right to defend itself,” Yudin said. “[Incumbent U.S. Rep.] Scott Garrett (R-5) and the rest of the Republican Party support Israel 100 percent.”
Yudin also noted that Garrett, a six-term incumbent, has a “positive and responsive” relationship with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the prominent pro-Israel lobbying group.
“We’ve got a Republican congressman that not only says that he supports Israel, he practices it,” Yudin, an AIPAC member, said. “We’re talking about the survival of Israel. That’s an important issue. Mr. Cho says he’s for Israel, but his party is not for Israel, and his president is not for Israel.”
Cho, in an interview with PolitickerNJ on Wednesday immediately after his return from his 60-hour-long trip to Israel, refuted Yudin’s views.
“The way in which [Yudin] describes Scott Garrett’s relationship with Israel is problematic, and almost dangerous in a way,” Cho said. “Just because one member of Congress, who happens to be an incumbent, has shown strong support for Israel, regardless of his intentions or motivations, that doesn’t mean that me as a challenger cannot show as strong as support for Israel.
“Hamas has to make a decision as to who they are – are they a terrorist organization, or are they a government that we can negotiate with? Intentionally embedding itself within their own civilian population while they are fighting this war shows that they are not ready,” Cho continued. “My cultural values are those of somebody who grew up in New Jersey and who identifies with the Jewish culture broadly, as well somebody who understands the foreign policy importance of our relationship with Israel. This is an important issue to me regardless of what Scott Garrett or Bob Yudin happens to think about this particular situation. We need leadership in D.C. that is able to connect the dots.”
A new poll shows a little-known Republican is closer than expected early in his run for U.S. Senate in New Jersey against incumbent Democrat Cory Booker. (The Jersey Journal)
AUGUST 10, 2014, 6:00 PM LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, AUGUST 10, 2014, 11:39 PM BY HERB JACKSON RECORD COLUMNIST THE RECORD
Sen. Cory Booker last year saw what ignoring a little-known opponent can do. He was slammed for not winning a special election by the landslide his celebrity and overwhelming financial advantage suggested was possible.
Now he’s running again, and a new poll shows him under the 50 percent mark that signifies a safe incumbent. And that’s with virtually unknown and underfunded Republican opponent Jeff Bell trailing by just 10 points.
So once again, Booker faces questions about expectations.
The Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday showed Booker would receive 47 percent of the vote and Bell 37 percent if the election were held now. The poll has a margin of error of 2.9 percentage points, meaning Booker’s true support could be as low as 44.1 or as high as 49.9.
Bell, the surprise winner of June’s low-turnout primary, who also won an upset in the June 1978 Senate primary, is almost within striking distance — even though 77 percent of voters haven’t heard of him and his latest disclosure report shows his campaign $46,000 in debt, while Booker’s campaign has $3.5 million to spend.
The poll’s findings caught the attention of some national political writers who were focusing on other states in this year’s Senate races, but there is also historical evidence that a truly competitive race from Bell could be just a mirage. Summer polls, taken before candidates start advertising and voters pay attention, have been off the mark before.
Cory Booker may be the most puzzling man in the Senate. We don’t know where he lives. We don’t know whom, if anyone, he lives with. And he’s been caught in lie after lie about his heroics. Yet, this enigma of a man has emerged as the king of odd-couple bromance, using selfies and Instagram posts to burnish his stardom even as he appears surprisingly vulnerable in his upcoming bid for reelection.
But Booker is less popular in New Jersey than he is in Washington. He is polling below 50 percent in his matchup against Bell, a policy wonk and virtual unknown in the state who has received little support from the national party. Though he was expected to breeze to reelection, a Quinnipiac poll released on Wednesday has Booker ahead by just ten points, 47 to 37 percent.
Many of Booker’s fiercest ideological opponents, however, are riding the Booker juggernaut rather than going in for the kill. Cory Booker can be beaten, at least the polls suggest so. So why are they so eager to cozy up to him, so hesitant to take him on?
Take Rand Paul, with whom Booker appeared last week on PBS, CNN, and MSNBC. They were touting their proposal for reforming the country’s criminal-justice system. Paul was one of the few Republican stars who campaigned energetically against Booker last year, but at a cocktail party hosted by Politico’s Mike Allen, they discussed the origins of their “bromance” and joked about co-starring in a reality show. This is the same Rand Paul who has knocked leaders of his own party for being insufficiently conservative, but there he was, arm-in-arm with a man who represents the blue-state liberalism he spends most of his time denouncing.
New Jersey’s junior senator is popular in Washington. His Republican opponent, former Reagan official Jeff Bell, even got a chilly reception from Ted Cruz, according to a source who attended the meeting the two had – the same Ted Cruz who precipitated the confrontation over the government shutdown last year. Cruz, according to the source, grilled the staunchly conservative Bell about why he hasn’t raised more money and asked him, pointedly, “How do you think you can win?” (Cruz’s office describes the conversation as a “fairly standard” one that it has with lots of candidates, and it is true that the latest Federal Election Commission filings show that Booker has nearly $3.5 million cash on hand while Bell has $0.) Cruz was spotted breaking bread with Booker in March, and Booker later gushed about their “great intellectual discussion.”Booker has spent much of his nine months in office charming his colleagues, partly by photographing himself with them. He’s in the midst of a campaign to take selifies with each of his fellow senators. In the pictures he’s posted to his Instagram account, he’s praised Senate majority leader Harry Reid as a “profoundly kind, caring, compassionate, and decent man” and South Dakota Republican John Thune as a “valued colleague and friend who challenges me on issues in constructive ways.” You get the idea.
It’s Booker’s second statewide race in a year, and it’s the second time polls have shown him unexpectedly vulnerable. “It’s been surprising both times,” says John Weingart, associate director of Rutgers University’s Eagleton Institute of Politics. Last year, Booker was expected to trounce long-shot candidate Steve Lonegan in October’s special election, but after national media began for the first time to scrutinize his record, he stumbled on the campaign trail.
The New Jersey Republican party didn’t put up much of a fight. “The refusal to expose Cory Booker is frustrating,” says a Republican operative who has worked on campaigns both nationally and in New Jersey. “In 2013 the state GOP appeared to be on lockdown, refusing to go after both Cory Booker and Bob Menendez.” Even without that sort of institutional opposition, Booker saw a 30-point lead narrow to an 11-point win on Election Day.
Sen. Rand Paul: Hillary Clinton not ‘fit to lead the country’
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said Hillary Clinton is not “fit to lead the country” Friday, mocking the former secretary of state’s comments about her wealth and condemning her response to the September 2012 attack on a U.S. facility in Benghazi. (Miller/CBS News)
