Insider NJ’s Must-Read Articles From The Past Week
From the ballrooms of Harrah’s in Atlantic City (where the NJ Dems held their conference) to the streets of Irvington and Guttenberg, from Morris County to LD8 and LD1, take a look at a few key pieces from Insider NJ over the course of the past week:
After Norcross Speaks, Ciattarelli and Wisniewski Beat up Murphy
The forum was about health care, but it wasn’t the best of mornings for Phil Murphy. One part of a Thursday program sponsored by the New Jersey Association of Health Underwriters included a discussion labeled “Straight Talk with John & Jack,” or in other words, a chat between Democrat John Wisniewski and Republican Jack Ciattarelli. Both are former assemblymen…
LD1 Collision Course: Men and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
The two men running for a two-year senate term in the 1st legislative district (LD1) come from different backgrounds and parties…
Zitt Flexes his Political Muscles in Hudson County
Yet as one of the smallest municipalities in the state, Guttenberg appears to have political clout in Northern Hudson County out of proportion to its size…
Who’s Up and Who’s Down: Week of that Dreadful Mailer
A dreadful General Majority PAC mailer in LD1 brought both Governor Phil Murphy and Lieutenant Governor Sheila Oliver out of their chairs to issue a statement of condemnation (see below). But there was more, too, this week, with 40 days until Judgement Day…
Fastened to Bucco, Bergen says ‘I Can Only Do What I Can Control’
The campaign brochure leaves no doubt who is running for the Assembly in District 25 on the Republican ticket. “Bucco & Bergen,” it reads with the smiling candidates, Brian Bergen and incumbent Anthony M. Bucco, pictured above the headline…
Pelosi Tells NJ Dems: ‘We do Place Ourselves in a Time of Urgency’
The presence of Speaker Nancy Pelosi on the premises at the end of the week when she announced an impeachment inquiry into President Donald J. Trump delivered a national news nugget on the doorstep of Harrah’s in time for the convention of Democratic State Party Chairman John Currie’s annual conference…
Super Majority-Saddled Coughlin Wants a Bigger Caucus
The battleground commander of his lower house legions looking to build on a super majority, Speaker Craig Coughlin (D-19) made his sedate case for himself and Democrats in Trenton against President Donald J. Trump and Republicans in Washington…
Party-Like Atmosphere in a Small Group Ahead of Main Event Pelosi
Well, at least they were going to have House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), one of the most powerful women on the planet, even if the New Jersey Democratic Party felt the ongoing lack of a genuine cross-section of the state’s aging fat white male population otherwise known as the party bosses of the establishment…
One Big Happy Family in Atlantic City
Dinner with Governor Phil Murphy Thursday night featured county and state chairs. Both Chairman Jones and Currie were present. No one stormed out of the room…
Baraka Blisters Democrats who Sat out Democratic Party Convention
Against the backdrop of an ongoing fight between Murphy and the statewide political nerve center otherwise known as South Jersey, Baraka said, “We have become very proficient at destroying each other”…
The Streets of Irvington: Beasley and Shabazz and Vauss and the Deeper Ties
What political fathers give to sons and daughters runs deeper than the grimmest streets. The word that South Ward Councilwoman Jamillah Beasley least likes at the moment is “entitled,” a completely inaccurate assessment of her place within the Team Irvington Strong party organization, she says, while Al-tariq Ibn Shabazz, her counterpart running for the seat she occupies, finds himself growing weary at the mention of the word “legacy”…
Flashpoint Irvington: Rice Backs Beasley and the Vauss Team
You’d think the presence in the contest of a fellow Marine running against the daughter of a political nemesis might propel the inner rebel in state senator Ronald L. Rice (D-28) to go rogue this year. But it’s not happening…
In Teaneck, Town Hall-Trotting Murphy Must Contend with Enviros
Governor Phil Murphy arrived Wednesday evening to speak at a town hall at the local high school. In the audience and gathered outside, however, were members of Empower NJ, led by Matthew Smith, Senior Organizer for Food and Water Watch, distributing pamphlets and holding signs, to send a signal to the governor that they felt his action—or, more specifically, lack of action—on climate change, where global warming threatens the ecology of the Earth, was also so much hot air…
Hanging with Gannon Against the Political Backdrop of Bucco
Morris County sheriffs tend to stay around awhile. There have been only four in the last 72 years. Republican James Gannon seems determined to live up to that standard. He remarked at a fundraiser Tuesday night that he’s the county’s 77th sheriff…
Front lining the GOP’s Defensive Position with Somerset Freeholder Walsh
The 2019 torchbearer of a proudly sedate GOP history here – including a successful 1993 springboard to governor from the Somerset Freeholder Board to Drumthwacket by Christie Todd Whitman – incumbent Republican Freeholder Pat Walsh now holds the forward defensive position for a party badly mauled by President Donald J. Trump…
On the Trail in Battleground LD8: Dems Show up at NAACP Event; GOP Ticket Doesn’t
In one of New Jersey’s most-watched legislative battleground districts, Democratic candidates Gina LaPlaca and Mark Natale showed at the NAACP forum…
Danielsen’s War Room: LD17 Assemblyman Campaigns with Marano
Formerly the chairman of the Franklin Twp. Democratic Committee, Assemblyman Joe Danielsen (D-17) knows his sprawling, Democratic Party-dominant town will be critical this year if Democrats are going to take control of the Somerset County Freeholder Board…
Tony Bucco: ‘Only in New Jersey’
Faced with the choice of sticking with his Assembly reelection campaign or moving to the Senate to replace his late father, Anthony M. Bucco apparently is opting to do both. Morris Republicans Tuesday confirmed a plan that sounds like one of those “only in New Jersey” moments…
Monday Night Planning Board Football in Bridgewater (the Town)
The complexity of the town and the centrality of schools within the confusing concentric circles of Bridgewater require School Board Member Jeffrey Brookner to have a nimble mind, and he does, by all accounts, but he was on Councilman Vice President Matt Moench’s home field last night in their Nov. 5th general election tussle for mayor. Or was he?…
Lose the Argument. Win The Election: Sherrill for President
Heading toward an historic 2020 presidential election, someone asked me if I watched the Democratic debates. “Sure, I watched them,” I said, “Until I just couldn’t watch them any more.”…
Sherrill Buries the Lead – but Gives an Answer on Impeachment
For the last few weeks, Rep. Mikie Sherrill’s position on impeachment was simple – impeachment could not be merely a partisan response to an unpopular president. It would have to be based on a grave offense by the president…
Assemblyman Jamel Holley (D-20) was unimpressed by the press conference led by Gov. Phil Murphy and other elected officials as they reported on the preliminary findings of lead contamination testing in the City of Newark….
NJ Senate Select Committee’s Corporate Welfare Dog and Pony Show
When NJ Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-3) chose the lineup to examine NJ’s bazillion dollar corporate welfare fetish, he picked many of the same legislators whose vote enabled the madness in the first place. Invited speakers included 1) CEOs whose companies got massive multi-million dollar tax breaks and 2) their enablers…
The Book on (and by) the Once (and Future-thinking) Congressman Washburne
To an interview in a coffee shop about his long-shot chance to beat Mikie Sherrill in next year’s Democratic primary, Mark Washburne brought a book…
Booker’s Fundraising Spartacus Moment
Cory Booker was begging for money all weekend. It may not have seemed all that presidential, but it was inevitable…
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