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The Week in Review


The NJDSC Week In Review for December 9, 2011

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Welcome to the latest installment of the NJDSC's week in review.  

Here's a look back at some of the news from this past week and toward the end, some of the upcoming events around the state next week:

NJDSC To Hold Delegate Selection Workshops

  • The New Jersey Democratic State Committee will hold two Delegate Selection Workshops for the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Bergen County on Tuesday, December 13, 2011 and in Middlesex County on Wednesday, December 14, 2011. The purpose of the workshops is to explain the delegate selection process, review important deadlines and educate those interested about the requirements for becoming a delegate.
  • Chairman Wisniewski: “I want to encourage all Democrats across New Jersey to get involved, educate themselves on the delegate selection process and take the first step towards becoming a member of New Jersey’s delegation,” said Wisniewski. “I am committed to ensuring that our delegation truly reflects the face of New Jersey, and to that end we have set the most inclusive representation goals in our history so that everyone who wants to can get involved and strengthen our party for victory in 2012.”
  • You can learn more about the Delegate Selection Process at the NJDSC website. Additional workshops will be scheduled in the coming weeks around the state.
  • Blue Jersey: Want to go to the 2012 Democratic National Convention?

Democrats Continue Efforts To Put New Jersey Back To Work

  • Renewed legislation to create the Back to Work NJ job creation and economic growth program was approved by the Assembly. The bill was approved 47-32, with Democrats supporting and Republicans opposed.
  • Speaker Oliver: "Gov. Christie still has the chance to finally do the right thing and join Democrats in helping put New Jerseyans back-to-work. This is an innovative program that will allow out-of-work New Jerseyans to develop the skills to stay in the workforce in the face of unemployment.  It will help workers and businesses alike to jumpstart our economy and move our state forward.”
  • Chairman Wisniewski: “We know this program works, is cost-effective and can provide a real boost to out-of-work residents who have been looking for another chance to rejoin the workforce for far too long. At this point, the only reason to oppose it is partisan politics, and that's just wrong. We all need to come together and do what's best for our residents to create jobs and grow our economy."
  • Legislation to create jobs and economic development to combat New Jersey’s continued high unemployment rate was approved by the Assembly. The bills build upon previous Democratic job creation efforts and would create a loan program within the New Jersey Economic Development Authority to help small businesses expand and establish the New Jersey Business Action Center to help New Jersey-based companies stay competitive.
  • Legislation to provide low interest loans to small businesses that commit to increase their workforce was passed by the Assembly and sent to the governor’s desk.
  • NJ 101.5: A Garden state lawmaker wants to make sure workers are able to keep their jobs – and medical benefits – even if their employer needs to reduce staffing levels because of difficult economic conditions.
  • New Jersey Newsroom: N.J. Assembly Democrats approve their 'Back to Work NJ' legislation 47 to 32.
  • Blue Jersey: Jobs and Taxes #3: Assembly Rs Say State Can't Afford to Create Jobs.

After Pants On Fire Rating, Christie Needs A Reality Check

  • Star Ledger Editorial: When Gov. Chris Christie says that Obama did “nothing” to create jobs, he deserves the spanking that he received in Sunday’s Star-Ledger from PolitiFact.That is the Republican line now, so we can expect Christie to repeat it: Obama drove the economy into ditch. That’s the story, and they are sticking to it. They don’t mention that it was already in the ditch when he took office, and that’s he’s got it halfway out. They don’t mention that history shows financial crisis of the sort that exploded on George W. Bush’s watch typically take at least five years to work out of. They don’t mention that Republicans forced him to shrink the size of the stimulus. And they certainly don’t mention the fact that Republicans today are blocking a jobs initiative that private economists say could create up to 1 million jobs by aiming tax cuts at the middle-class. God forbid the unemployment rate continues to shrink. What then will Republicans campaign on, character issues?
  • Politifact Pants On Fire Rating: It is ridiculous for Christie to claim Obama did "nothing." Pants on Fire!
  • The Hill: Obama adviser rips NJ Gov. Christie for ‘bystander’ remark.
  • Asbury Park Press: The governor is certainly entitled to his opinion... But it seems particularly classless to go gallivanting around, talking about the country’s seemingly unsolved problems while Christie remains stalemated in furthering his own agenda at home. Christie’s idea of leadership seems to consist primarily of employing blunt rhetoric and using the “bully pulpit” to overpower his opponents. Christie needs to get back to the business of running New Jersey and leave cheap shots and punditry to the pundits.

Christie's Case For Protecting The Wealthy Looks Weak

  • Star Ledger Editorial: Christie, by contrast, raised the income-tax burden on the working poor by scaling back the earned income tax credit, even as he vetoed a surtax on income over $1 million. The fact is that it is getting harder and harder to justify spending cuts that hurt the middle class, such as school funding and property tax rebates, without insisting that the wealthy do more to share the sacrifice.

Democrats Restore Transitional Aid To Cities

  • Philadelphia Inquirer: Assembly restores aid to Camden, other fiscally troubled cities.
  • Star Ledger: N.J. Assembly pushes through bill to restore $139 million in aid to cash-strapped cities.
  • Assemblyman Prieto: “The governor’s unfortunate decision put public safety, vital services and financial stability at risk in many of New Jersey’s cities, but we’ve taken a major step toward providing this direly needed help. I look forward to this becoming law."
  • Business Week: Senate President Sweeney said he expects his chamber to give final approval to the bill by Dec. 15. “I think this is a very reasonable compromise.”

NJ Must Shore Up Transportation Fund

  • AAA President: NJ must shore up Transportation Trust Fund.
  • Asbury Park Press Editorial: Clearly an investigation is needed into the Port Authority’s sudden about-face. Gov. Chris Christie, who failed to initiate any effort to repeal the ill-timed toll hikes in the first place, saying they were “user fees,” not “tax hikes.”
  • The Record: "Christie, stumping for election, was asked about bonding school construction costs. He replied, “We should not be borrowing any more money without voter approval.” That’s pretty firm and clear, you would think. Now, however, he is singing a different tune. He doesn’t want to submit his transportation bond plan to the voters. The reason is that he recognizes that, regardless of its merits, it would surely be rejected."

Christie Campaigns For Himself... And Mitt Romney In Iowa

  • Real Clear Politics: Chris Christie Talks Up Romney, Himself in Iowa.
  • Chairman Wisniewski: "As Chris Christie tries again to make Republican primary voters comfortable with Mitt Romney's flip flops, maybe he can explain which Mitt he is campaigning for today. Is it the Mitt who supported a woman's right to choose or the one who now says he opposes it? Is it the Mitt whose blueprint was used for federal healthcare or the one who now attacks the President's healthcare achievements? You have to wonder which of the Romney policies Christie subscribes to. All of the above or none of the above?"
  • Star Ledger: Romney was nowhere to be seen at the rally — something Democrats gleefully pointed out. "The only thing missing from Romney’s bolstered Iowa campaign is: Mitt Romney," Sue Dvorsky, the chairwoman of the Iowa Democratic Party, wrote in a memo. "While he’s been willing to invest money in Iowa, he has failed to invest his time meeting with Iowans and answering their tough questions about his rhetoric and his record."
  • CBS News: N.J. Gov. Christie gets "Occupied" in Iowa.
  • MSNBC: Christie gets taste of 'Occupy' in Iowa.
  • Blue Jersey: Christie gets mic-checked in Iowa.
  • Think Progress: Occupy Des Moines Mic Checks Chris Christie -‘Mitt Romney And Chris Christie Are The 1 Percent!’

Congressional Corner

  • Senator Lautenberg requested that Portuguese Prime Minister Passos Coelho support the U.S. Department of Justice’s extradition request for George Wright, a convicted murderer who escaped from a New Jersey prison in 1970 and later hijacked an airplane carrying 86 passengers. In November, Portuguese authorities arrested Mr. Wright, who has remained a fugitive while living in that country.
  • Senator Menendez and Lautenberg announced that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has granted New Jersey Clean Cities Coalition (NJCCC) $896,838 to replace the engines of 21 ferry and excursion boats that operate between New Jersey and New York with clean energy technology.
  • Senator Lautenberg slammed the GOP Filibuster of President Obama's Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Nominee.
  • Senator Menendez and Democratic members of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee urged Senate Republicans to confirm Richard Cordray as Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).  The consumer protection agency was established by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and was supported by a bi-partisan majority of the Senate and signed into law on July 21, 2010 but still doesn’t have a Director.
  • As Goya Food celebrated its 75th Anniversary, Senator Menendez presented them with a proclamation in tribute to the company’s commitment, dedication, and success.
  • Senator Lautenberg introduced the Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Enhancement Act, a bill that reauthorizes the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and makes important improvements to federal truck and bus safety standards.
  • Senator Menendez announced that seniors in New Jersey with Medicare saved nearly $70 million this year on their prescriptions – an average savings of about $700 per person – as a result of health care reform.   Additionally, more than 800,00 New Jersey seniors have taken advantage of free preventive health screenings such as mammograms and prostate cancer screenings, diabetes testing, and flu shots. These screenings are vital to ensuring illnesses are prevented or caught in the early stages, improving health and reducing costs throughout the system.
  • Senator Lautenberg urged Republicans to support new legislation to extend and expand the payroll tax cut.  Without this legislation, 160 million Americans will see their taxes increase on January 1st.  The new compromise legislation was offered after Republicans last week blocked measures that would have extended and expanded the payroll tax cut.
  • Senator Menendez and Congressman Sires will help honor Laura Pollan, the late founder of Cuba's Ladies in White (Damas de Blanco) at a Capitol Hill event with a posthumous presentation of National Endowment for Democracy's Democracy Service Medal.   
  • Senator Lautenberg and Congressman Pascrell visited Wayne Township and announced the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has awarded more than $28 million in Hazard Mitigation Program grants for voluntary home buyouts in New Jersey.
  • Congressman Rothman and Congressman Pascrell wrote a letter to Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator William Craig Fugate, asking for recovery assistance to Bergen and Passaic Counties for damages from the October 29, 2011 snow storm.
  • Congressman Pallone introduced legislation that would give Indonesian citizens fleeing religious persecution an opportunity to reopen asylum claims that were denied solely for missing the one-year filing deadline for asylum in the United States.
  • Congressman Sires joined his colleagues in the House of Representatives in sending a letter to United States Postal Service (USPS) Post Master General Patrick Donahue objecting to the proposal to slow first-class service and close processing centers.
  • Congressman Holt held a telephone town hall with Central New Jersey residents to answer questions from constituents about a range of issues pending before Congress, including Medicare, Social Security, and proposals to create new jobs.
  • Congressman Rothman and several other members of Congress met with Ari Sacher, Iron Dome Systems Project Manager for Rafael Advanced Defense Systems in Israel, about the short-range anti-rocket system that he manages. Iron Dome has successfully been deployed in southern Israel to intercept rockets launched by Hamas from the Gaza Strip.
  • Congressman Andrews hosted his 21st Annual Pearl Harbor Day Commemoration at the Battleship New Jersey to remember the sacrifice of the 2,251 Americans killed and 1,119 Americans injured 70 years ago in the attack at Pearl Harbor, and to recall the lessons we learned from this grim day in our country’s history.
  • Asbury Park Press: Spurred by an emotional meeting with the families of two popular Middlesex County high school student- athletes who died while participating in sports from sudden cardiac arrest, Congressman Pallone, introduced federal legislation to combat a silent killer. Pallone’s Cardiomyopathy Health Education, Awareness, Risk Assessment and Training in the Schools (HEARTs) Act mandates raising awareness about sudden cardiac arrest in schools and childcare centers and requires better prevention measures that will save young peoples’ lives.
  • Congressman Andrews has voiced his objections to the possibility of closing the Bellmawr Post Office, noting that increased costs — as measured in trucks, time and fuel — could counteract any potential savings that might come from closing the local site.
  • Congressman Holt has continued to seek answers from the Air Force over its handling of the remains of America's war dead. "It's not just that they're stonewalling people who ask," Congressman Holt said of queries made by him, as well as families and investigators, about Air Force mortuary practices. "I think they don't want to face up to it."

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3466/3301686785_f01743db35_m.jpgUnder the Dome

  • PolitickerNJ on Democratic efforts to find a compromise on sick leave: Assemblyman Wisniewski, the Assembly's deputy speaker and Democratic state committee chairman, accused Christie of running a “slick campaign” that amounts to “public relations” through “a cynical and deceptive promise to local government officials all across the state.” “He might as well be trying to sell the Brooklyn Bridge,” Wisniewski said. In his statement, the Democratic chairman noted that Christie's a lawyer so he “ought to know that his proposal to eliminate existing local government liabilities for sick and vacation payments amounts to an unconstitutional taking. He also knows that local officials already have the power to negotiate caps on retirement payouts.”
  • Senator Weinberg: “As with most things the governor brings up, reality is often a little more complex than his rhetoric. Benefits already promised must be provided, regardless of whether we think it's right. We need to ensure that in our rush to reform the system, we do not push long-time workers to the exit. If we do, local governments will be faced with having to pay all of those retiring workers now, inadvertently putting themselves in an even more tenuous fiscal position.“I am certain we can find common ground that will lead to real reform,” Weinberg says. “Compromise on sick leave pay can be had, if the governor wants it. We are still willing to sit down with the governor to reach agreement, if only he would step down from his town hall soap box to meet with us.”
  • An Assembly committee released two separate measures that would aid in the search for missing children by making the failure to report a death, or failure to report a missing child within a set time frame, fourth degree crimes in New Jersey.
  • A measure aimed at easing commuter bus congestion and delays, was granted approval by the General Assembly by a vote of 65-9-4.
  • School district elections could be moved from April to November under legislation unveiled by Assembly Majority Leader-Elect Greenwald and Senator Norcross.
  • Upon learning of the second newborn's life saved within months of the implementation of a new law he sponsored mandating a pulse oximetry test on newborns at least 24 hours of age, Assemblyman O'Donnell hailed the effectiveness of his heart screening law.
  • Assemblyman Mainor criticized the decision by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to award permits to energy company Spectra for the building of its controversial natural gas pipeline, which will be built partly in Jersey City.
  • Food deserts in cities will soon be less deserted, as legislation to create a statewide mobile farmers’ market network in New Jersey’s urban areas received final legislative approval.
  • A bill that would bring New Jersey in line with the rest of the nation by permitting pharmacies to sell over-the-counter hypodermic needles to curb harmful blood-borne transmissions was granted approval by the full Assembly by a vote of 54 to 24.
  • Senators Sarlo and Weinberg called on the state's Office of Emergency Management to detail exactly why Bergen county was left off the list in the Emergency Disaster Declaration.
  • Blue Jersey Focus: Assemblywoman Valerie Huttle - Part 1 and Part 2.
  • The New Jersey Assembly has passed legislation allowing towns to use open-space money to buy flood-prone properties.
  • Press of Atlantic City: Assemblywoman Lampitt, who chairs the Assembly Higher Education Committee, is co-sponsoring a bill that would create a somewhat smaller but financially viable STARS scholarship program so that students don’t have to wonder each year if it will be available.
  • Legislation to promote car-sharing initiatives by exempting nonprofit car-sharing organizations from the $5 surcharge on motor vehicle rentals has been approved by the Assembly.
  • Assemblyman Singleton was among several other elected officials who showed up and testified against a proposed water rate hike “Where is the tipping point?” Singleton said. “We don’t have the benefit of competitive pricing because New Jersey American is the only game in town ... I’m hopeful our friends at the BPU will take this testimony to heart because our citizens have reached the breaking point.”
  • Assemblyman Chivukula talked about solar energy in New Jersey.
  • The Assembly followed the lead of the state Senate and approved a bill that would temporarily delay the closing of the Vineland Developmental Center.
  • Star Ledger N.J. politics notebook: Big day in Trenton.
  • A state assembly panel has advanced a bill that would give tax credits to encourage small and medium-sized business exporting. The Export Promotion Tax Credit Ac would establish corporation business tax and gross income tax credits for those small and medium-sized businesses that embark on or expand their export activities.
  • Monday an Assembly committee will consider a bill to establish a Cyber Security Bureau within the Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness. It’s to be heard by the Assembly Homeland Security and State Preparedness Committee.
  • (Video) Assemblyman Burzichelli discussed his legislation to allow licensed casinos in Atlantic City and racetracks in New Jersey to conduct wagering on professional and collegiate sport or athletic events, in the event a federal law is overturned.

Upcoming Events

  • December 11
    Hunterdon County Democratic Committee Annual Holiday Party
    2:00 PM - 4:30 PM
    Restaurant 55 Main, Flemington, NJ 08822
    Please RSVP Lois at 908-782-3940 or by email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

 

  • December 12
    19th District Holiday Celebration
    6:00 PM - 9:00 PM
    Grand Marquis, 1550 US Highway 9, Old Bridge, NJ 08857

 

  • December 13
    NJDSC Bergen County Delegate Selection Workshop
    7:00 pm
    Ethical Culture Society of Bergen County, 687 Larch Avenue, Teaneck

     

  • December 14
    NJDSC Middlesex County Delegate Selection Workshop (following MCDO county committee meeting)
    7:45 pm
    Woodbridge Hilton, 120 Wood Avenue South, Iselin

     

  • December 19
    Sussex County Democratic Committee meeting
    6:30PM
    Hampton Diner, one mile north of Newton on Route 206/946:30 PM-
    Dinner at Diner Fundraiser-$40 contribution for extensive buffet meal.
    7:30 PM-8:30 PM-
    Members and non-members welcome.

    •  

  • December 20
    2011 Dems2000 Toy Drive
    Tumulty's Pub
    361 George Street New Brunswick, NJ 08901
    Admission is Free with an unwrapped toy
    RSVP to Mike Giglio at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)




  • December 21
    Somerset County Holiday Party
    7-9PM
    Bamboo Grille (located downstairs at the Basking Ridge Country Club), 185 Madisonville Rd. Basking Ridge, NJ 07920
    Free, Cash Bar
    Please RSVP to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

     

  • December 22
    Burlington County Democratic Committee Holiday Party
    7:00 PM
    Kove II Caterers, Park Plaza, Route 130 South, Edgewater Park NJ 08010

    South Jersey Young Democrats Holiday Party and Charity Drive
    6PM-8PM
    Camden County Democratic Committee, 2240 Marlton Pike West, Cherry Hill, NJ 08002

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We will continue to have updates about news from our elected officials and the many campaigns across the state. There will certainly be more to come next week.  Have a great weekend.


Sincerely, 

John Wisniewski, Chairman
New Jersey Democratic State Committee

 

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