THE BIDEN LEVELS OF DUMB

Thanx to Knowledge is Power.

FORE!!! NEVERMORE?

We all know about County Commissioner (neé Freeholder) Amy "Hammerhead" Mallet, who wanted Monmouth County to accept juvenile detainees from Gloucester County. Our sources, imbedded deep in the Hall of Records, have uncovered another Mallet scheme, one which has heretofore never seen the light of day.
Not content with just attempting to slash the county Open Space tax, Amy Mallet wanted to sell at least one county golf course. Fortunately, saner minds prevailed before this could become a costly debacle, but it's true.
Where would she get such an idea? Well, in order to explain the actions of this year's Democratic freeholder majority, one must look outside Monmouth County and this is no exception. It seems this year the Democratic freeholder monopoly in Union County actually closed Oak Ridge Golf Course in Clark Township!
The County Watchers has run a series of interesting posts on this topic; they are linked below:

County Budget Hearings to Begin this Saturday, Gee Who Knew? by Tina Renna
Budget Cutting Course, by John Bury
Meeting the Real Bosses to get Action, by John Bury
As Posted on PolitickerNJ, by Patricia Quattrocchi
If it Looks Like a Golf Course, Why Not Play Golf? by County Watchers
Emails to County go Unanswered, by County Watchers
Art Imitates Life In Union County, by Tina Renna
As Published on PolitickerNJ.com, by Patricia Quattrocchi
Don't Try This at Home, Folks. by Tina Renna
Can You Close a Public Golf Course Like That? by John Bury

Imagine how dangerous a Democratic monopoly would be here in Monmouth County, under the directorship of John "Flippy" D'Amico and his Union County handlers!
November can't come soon enough!

HE'S BAAAAAAAAACK!!!

Yesterday (Wednesday), Art Gallagher over at More Monmouth Musings wrote about Codey.org, a weBSite purported to support the drafting of former Gov. Dick Codey to replace the Bozo-coiffed Gov. Jonathan Stevens Corzine on the ballot. Art found that the site is linked to none other than Union County's own diminutive, goose-stepping, oompaloompaesque publisher, James J. Devine.
We decided to put the Honest Abe Research Foundation to work on this.
A look at the weBSite shows that it is "a project of the Central Jersey Democratic Leadership Committee", a PAC led by Devine, and that it is "Paid for by CJDLC". The CJDLC's main weBSite still advertises tickets for the PAC's "Inaugural Ball" to be held back in January at the Grand Marquis in Old Bridge Township.
A look at ELEC shows that the CJDLC has not filed a report since the third quarter of 2005. Before that, their reporting history was spotty at best.
Just as a little background, Devine and his PAC have marched to not only a different drummer, but a different tuba and glockenspiel player too.
Back in '05, Devine ran a blog supporting the woeful Democratic assembly candidates in the 13th District. That same year, he was responsible for a hate weBSite called HandlinThompson.org. As a part of his fundraising, Devine wrote on the site, "Donations will be deposited into the personal bank account of this website's owner/operator and will be used to defray expenses for research and reporting about the corrupt politicians to whom this site is dedicated. If funding reaches the level required for disclosure under New Jersey law, a political committee will be established specifically for that purpose. Until then, anyone who wishes to know the names of any or all contributors needs simply to ask."
His personal bank account? Gadzooks! Hold on campers, there's more.
They once claimed that the CJDLC was not subject to ELEC reporting as it was organized as a 527 fund, and by June of 2006, the PAC's treasurer, Charles Betancourt, was pleading not guilty to embezzling $53,238.00 from the CJDLC. Strangely, no Charles Betancourt appears in the state Judiciary's Promis/Gavel Public Access system. You would think that they would file ELEC reports after that bit of trouble, but noooooooo.
We know that they began 2005 with a balance of $2,500.54 in the bank, and that they raised $122,950.00 up to the end of the third quarter, and spent $102,628.34 during the same period, leaving a balance of $22,822.20 on September 30, 2005. Then, nothing. No reports for the fourth quarter of 2005 through the first quarter of 2009. Soooooo, we don't know what happened to the $22,822.20, where it went, or what they raised and spent during the past 3+ years. Did Betancourt get any of it, or was his embezzlement earlier than that? Is he still the treasurer?
We don't know how much they raised on the Inaugural event this past January, or what the overhead was. The Codey.org site is set up for fundraising, but that would show up on the second quarter '09 report, which is not due until June 15th, if they see fit to even bother to file it. The Codey.org weBSite, however, was actually created back in 2005, and updated this past February; any expenses incurred would presumably be reportable on a hypothetical first quarter report, if there was one.
The contributors reported back in 2005 are the typical Democratic cast of characters; a lot of developers, some lawyers, and the ever-present CME Associates principals. Recipients of the CJDLC's largese include several Democratic campaigns on the state and local level. We will list them in a subsequent post.
The Central Jersey Democratic Leadership Committee is notable for its weirdness. Devine is never far from controversy. Potential contributors would be wise to stay away from the whole gooey mess.

DINNER MEETINGS TO RETURN?

Tina Renna of The County Watchers had an interesting post back in March where she reported that Union County Prosecutor Theodore J. Romankow defended the all-Democratic Union County Board of Chosen Freeholders' Sunshine-Law violating dinner meetings.
Since Monmouth County's Democratic freeholders take direction from the Union County Democrats, and since it was a previous Democratic board which initiated the practice back in the 70's, and since County Commissioner (neé Freeholder) John "Flippy" D'Amico participated with much gusto in the dinners, will they return here in Monmouth?

Will New Jersey Elect a Pro-Life Catholic Governor?

by Deal W. Hudson, InsideCatholic.com
4/27/09

As of a few days ago, a pro-life Catholic held the lead in the New Jersey governor's race. Chris Christie has been steadily polling ahead of the current Democratic governor, Jon Corzine, and the other Republican candidate for the nomination.
Christie's eleven point lead over Corzine, and 25 point lead over his closest GOP challenger, is remarkable in the post-Obama political climate when pro-life candidates, like Christie, are supposed to be passé.
The 47-year old Christie, viewed as a moderate candidate, has been married for 23 years to his wife, Mary Pat; they have four children, two boys and two girls, ages 5 to 15. In New Jersey 42 percent of voters are Catholic, but the Republicans haven't nominated a Catholic for governor since 1973.
Whether New Jersey Catholics will rally around a candidate like Christie remains to be seen. The last Catholic governor of New Jersey was James E. McGreevey who received a majority of the Catholic vote in spite of policy positions that were mostly antithetical to the Church. McGreevey beat a candidate, Bret Schundler, who was pro-life and socially conservative, but Protestant in a largely Catholic state. When a New Jersey columnist asked McGreevey to comment on the fact that his politics were out of line with most Irish Catholic voters, "McGreevey laughed the question off."
You might assume from the reputation and recent history of New Jersey politics that there must be something questionable about Christie's pro-life position that explains his present popularity. His GOP opponent, Steve Lonegan, in fact, has tried to label him "pro-choice," but Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) has given Christie his "seal of approval," which for movement pro-lifers will be the end of the argument.
Christie was nominated in 2001 by George W. Bush as the U.S. attorney general for the District of New Jersey and took office in January 2002. During his six years in office he gained the reputation as something of a corruption-buster, having won convictions or guilty pleas from 130 public officials, both Republican and Democrat. Christie did not lose a single case.
One example of his successful prosecution was that of Sharpe James, the former mayor of Newark. James was found guilty of conspiring to sell nine city properties to his mistress, Tamika Riley, who resold them for hundreds of thousands in profit.
After the verdict, Gov. Corzine, a political ally of James, commented, "It's unfortunate for the citizens of Newark;" adding, "I find it sad that any of the good work produced by Mayor James will get lost or overshadowed by his conviction."
Corzine is vulnerable, in part, because he is viewed as someone who has been associated with various scandals -- others and his own -- during the entirety of his tenure as governor. Another vulnerability stems from his position on life issues. Corzine made headlines a few months ago when New Jersey filed a lawsuit to force Catholic hospitals to perform abortions. New Jersey Catholics voted, it should be noted, for McCain over Obama, 55 percent to 45 percent.
As one of his leading supporters told me, "Christie is not a fire-breather, but a center-right guy who has the vision and guts to beat Corzine and the Democrats this November." The election of Chris Christie would put a sudden end to all the talk about the need for Republicans to distance themselves from their pro-life constituencies.

Deal W. Hudson is the director of InsideCatholic.com and the author of Onward, Christian Soldiers: The Growing Political Power of Catholics and Evangelicals in the United States (Simon and Schuster).

This was sent to us by the Christie Campaign.