NJGOP Chairman Doug Steinhardt: 20 reasons to Vote Republican on Tuesday

Over on the New Jersey Globe website, editor David Wildstein assures us that New Jersey is still a two-party state, with the caveat that the GOP might not be one of those two parties. Wildstein’s words must be taken seriously, for whatever his faults, he has a laudable record as a campaign manager and operative. He even managed to get elected himself.

Under Governor Chris Christie, the New Jersey Republican Party functioned as a kind of cult of personality. If you were around for earlier GOP administrations, you would have recognized the difference. So far as legislative seats are concerned, this didn’t work all that well even while Christie was Governor.

Post-Christie, New Jersey Republicans have suffered from a crisis of identity. This has been exacerbated by two things. The first, of course, is Donald Trump – the face of the national Republican Party. Many New Jersey Republicans don’t know how to explain him or fit even the positive aspects of his hegemony into a local narrative. They got out of the habit of having big vision ideas or policies – so that they can’t even effectively change the subject.

This brings us to the second… the rise of South Jersey Democrats as a kind of opposition party to the Democrats of Governor Phil Murphy. As they did with the so-called “Clean Elections” gambit, they pose as “reformers” who are “pro-business” and “pro-taxpayer” – with watchwords like “efficiency”. In reality, they are an old-world political machine, fueled by crony capitalism and soft corruption (at the very least). Their model is the one-party state, with a relationship between political power and business that resembles something out of Red China… or National Socialist Germany.

But at least they have ideas and policies, many of which are attractive to business, so they occupy an alternative ground to the Murphy Democrats’ collectivist and confiscatory impulses. On social issues they are equally disreputable. Their refusal to post the Human Trafficking & Child Exploitation Prevention Act for a vote shows that they monetize anything to please a supplicant corporate interest. Just keep the money flowing… and suffer the children.

Which brings us to a post over the weekend on Matt Rooney’s Save Jersey website. In it, NJGOP Chairman Doug Steinhardt provides an outline of why voters should choose Republican candidates over Democrats this coming Tuesday.

It really is a good list, and Matt did a great service publishing it. With due acknowledgement to Matt and to Chairman Steinhardt, we are re-publishing it below:

State Republican Chairman Doug Steinhardt

#20: New Jersey Has The Worst Foreclosure Rate In The U.S.
Phil Murphy and Democrats have had full control of the state house for 2 years now. Their liberal agenda has produced the highest foreclosure rate in the country. New Jersey is too expensive, and Phil Murphy, who said “If … tax rate is your issue … we’re probably not your state,” is too aloof, for hard working families to afford their homes. This is the danger of one-party rule in Trenton.

#19: Governor Murphy Tried To Steal Money From Firefighter Burial Fund
The NJGOP is proud to fight alongside New Jersey’s first responders, especially after their Governor tried to pay for his laundry list of liberal handouts by stealing $33 million from the Firemen’s Association burial fund. And even though his screwball scheme failed, Phil Murphy’s last second retreat can’t erase his blatant disregard for the hard working men and women who risk their lives to protect our lives. New Jersey voters should be shocked and appalled, but then, hey, this is the same Governor who, last week, said, “If … tax rate is your issue … we’re probably not your state.” You shouldn’t be our Governor either, and your Party’s policies are killing our State.

#18: New Jersey Has The Lowest Mainland US GDP Growth
Governor Murphy’s job-killing regulations and ever-expanding tax burden is leaving New Jersey’s economy hobbled and lagging behind the rest of mainland America. While the US economy is booming, New Jersey is failing. Trenton needs business-minded conservatives to bring a common sense check to Governor Murphy’s unbalanced budget.

#17: Phil Murphy Blew The Amazon Bid
Just weeks after New Jersey Democrats passed Phil Murphy’s billion plus dollar tax hikes, Amazon passed on New Jersey and put its HQ2 in New York and Virginia. Governor Murphy’s liberal lunacy cost thousands of well-paying jobs and a chance to revitalize our state’s biggest city. But this is the same Governor who maintains, “If … tax rate is your issue … we’re probably not your state.”

#16: Phil Murphy’s Online Sales Tax
Phil Murphy calls New Jersey a high tax for high value state, but Democrats are squeezing out what little value is left. If it walks, talks, ships, shoots, rides, drives, eats or roots, New Jersey’s daft Democrats devise a devilish way to tax it. Under the Murphy Administration, New Jersey residents now pay an internet sales tax. But, this is the same Governor who says, “If … tax rate is your issue … we’re probably not your state.”

#15: NJ Transit Fail
If a good executive keeps the trains running on time, Phil Murphy isn’t – good. New Jersey Transit is rated among the least reliable nationally. And even though Governor Murphy has the power to change it, he can’t. That’s because he’s more interested in liberal headlines than commuter wait times. People spend more time commuting than they do with their families. The system is so bad that even Democrats are investigating Murphy’s abject failure.

#14: Hiring Corrupt Officials
We should be throwing corruption out of government, not welcoming it back in. When Governor Murphy hired into his administration a former public official convicted of taking bribes, he called it the new normal. Never! The bar should never be so low. At a time when we should be building the public’s trust in government, Phil Murphy is tearing it down.

#13: Sky Blue Soccer Scandal
Governor Murphy preaches public equality, but fails miserably to practice it privately. As the owner of a women’s soccer team, Phil Murphy oversaw a team that was so badly treated that the Star Ledger equated the player’s conditions to a sweatshop. These professional women were housed in impoverished conditions, played without simple resources, like locker-room showers, and refused payment on their medical bills. That’s not stronger and fairer, that’s weaker and poorer.

#12: Legal Aid For Illegal Immigrants
The NJGOP will not ignore Governor Murphy while he scoffs at federal immigration laws for the sake of his personal political agenda. He has funneled millions of taxpayer dollars into state sponsored legal aid for illegal immigrants while hardworking, middle-class New Jersey residents miss another opportunity for tax relief. But this is the same Governor who says, “If … tax rate is your issue … we’re probably not your state.

#11: So-Called Free College
Phil Murphy’s promise of free college tuition is the classic political bait and switch. He dangles the feels-good carrot of “free education”, then beats New Jersey’s already battered taxpayers with his tax hike stick. Two years of free tuition for a lifetime of tax increases isn’t a bargain. It’s another bad deal that New Jersey can’t afford. Then again, all this is from a Governor who said, “If tax rate is your issue … we’re probably not your State.” That’s not leadership Governor. It’s what millionaires say to the middle class.

#10: Sanctuary State
Phil Murphy can’t pay for his progressive platitudes with the health, safety and welfare of New Jersey families. The Governor and the Attorney General should encourage cooperation between law enforcement agencies at all levels. Instead, they weaponize the Attorney General’s office and are taking aim at our County Sheriffs. Millions of innocent New Jerseyans depend on law enforcement to keep them safe from predators, drug dealers and violent criminals, but Phil Murphy will ignore them for a progressive headline.

#9: Worst Employment Rate In The Region
America’s economy is booming and our neighboring states are thriving, but New Jersey lags behind. Evidence continues to mount that New Jersey is teetering on the edge of an economic meltdown, but Governor Phil Murphy is stuck in a tax and spend trance. He is oblivious to, or simply ignores, the State’s affordability crisis and the crippling effect it’s having on New Jersey families. That was on full display at Rowan College in October, when the Governor let slip, “If tax rate is your issue … we’re probably not your State.” If you want more blind, political indifference, elect more Democrats this November, but if you want honest answers to the State’s real problems, vote Republican.

#8: Largest out migration of retirees, businesses and residents
Governor Murphy’s radical, liberal policies aren’t just emptying wallets, they’re emptying nests. More jobs and people are leaving New Jersey than any other State in America. Millionaire Phil Murphy is so disconnected from New Jersey’s working and middle classes that he let slip that, “If tax rate is your issue … we’re probably not your State.” Trenton’s Democrats share Phil Murphy’s callous indifference, so if you want honest answers to the State’s real problems, elect Republicans.

#7: Highest property and income tax rates in the US
Phil Murphy inherited a state with high taxes, but he campaigned on a promise for a stronger and fairer New Jersey. In reality, his radical tax hikes and progressive platitudes make us weaker and poorer. His solution is to tell working and middle class families, who can’t afford his high tax agenda, to move. But why move when we can vote? We need leaders in Trenton who will have the courage to reduce the size of state government and create real tax relief. On November 5, vote Republican.

#6: Ride Share Tax
Ride sharing has revolutionized urban and suburban transportation. Innovative new companies like Uber and Lyft provide safe rides home, affordable transportation for people who don’t own a car, and help stop drunk driving. So, how does Governor Murphy reward successful new businesses providing valuable services? He taxes them! That’s Phil Murphy’s New Jersey. If you don’t like it or can’t afford it, he says you’re welcome to leave. Don’t like the choices? Vote Republican instead. We can do better.

#5: Second Amendment Attacks
Governor Murphy’s political obsession with appeasing the radical, anti-gun lobby can’t come at the expense, or from the pockets, of New Jersey’s law abiding citizens for simply exercising their Second Amendment right to own a firearm. In his haste to punish legal gun owners, he’s proven unwilling and unable to deal with the scourge of gun crime, opting instead to criminalize lawful gun ownership. Taxes, fees and laws must have a rational nexus to a legitimate government purpose, and not just be a back channel to pay for feel-good, liberal giveaways. No Governor is empowered to choose which constitutional rights matter and which don’t and where Phil Murphy will trample long standing rights in his quest to replace them, the NJGOP will fight alongside grassroots Republicans to defend those rights.

#4: Shore Rental Tax
This year, among Governor Phil Murphy’s multitude of new taxes, he signed a tax on Jersey Shore vacation rentals. The NJGOP called on the Governor to refund to the moms and pops who were forced to pay it, the money he was so quick to take. In response, he ignored us, and them. It seems this was just another Democrat money grab that hit hardest in communities still recovering from Superstorm Sandy.

#3: Second Most Miserable State
The most miserable state in the Union is California. Governor Murphy has said he wants New Jersey to be the California of the east. So, it’s no surprise we’re number two. Under Phil Murphy, New Jersey is the second most miserable state in America. People in New Jersey are struggling with affordability. We have the highest foreclosure rate, and one in four families goes hungry. So, when our Governor says that, “If tax rate is your issue … we’re probably not your state,” it hurts. New Jerseyans need hope for a better tomorrow, but they won’t find it in our state’s Democrat Party. This year, vote for the party that still has New Jersey pride and honest answers to our state’s real problems. Vote Republican.

#2: Corporate Business Tax
New Jersey has the worst business climate in America. We lead the nation, not just in the outmigration of residents, but in the outmigration of jobs. We’ve suffered the exodus of leading corporations, like Honeywell and Gerber, who uproot and run for low cost states like North Carolina and Virginia. We even lost the bid for Amazon’s HQ2. When Governor Murphy hikes the corporate business tax by over $1 billion it signals to business owners that they can’t count on New Jersey for stability, predictability or affordability. But then this is the Governor who said, “If tax rate is your issue … whether you’re a business or an individual … we’re probably not your state.

#1: Rain Tax
A rainy day fund used to be what responsible government collected for emergencies. Not anymore. Not in New Jersey. And not under Governor Murphy. Today, it’s just another Democratic property tax and Trenton money grab. Instead of feeding your families, Phil Murphy’s rain tax scheme drains money from your pockets and pours it into Trenton’s coffers, to feed Murphy’s liberal agenda. None of that should come as a surprise, since the Governor let slip that, “If tax rate is your issue … we’re probably not your state.”

Please visit the Save Jersey website here: https://savejersey.com/2019/11/vote-republican-new-jersey-assembly-election-results-november-5th-doug-steinhardt/

What happens after Tuesday will determine whether this is a first step on the road to an actual party platform… or if it was a one-off, albeit a very strong and persuasive one. Stay tuned…

Bramnick vs. Sweeney: The politics of competing plans

Good for Jim Florio… at least he remembers who he is.

When asked whether or not he would endorse law partner Doug Steinhardt for Governor, the former Governor put it very simply:  “He’s not the right party as far as I’m concerned.  I would not vote for him.  I’m a Democratic voter.”

Doug is the Chairman of the Republican State Committee.  The two are partners at Florio Perrucci Steinhardt & Cappelli.  This insight came courtesy of that doyen of bloggers… David Wildstein. 

But hey, Florio gets it.  Party means something.

It is the job of the leader of every legislative party caucus – the Speaker, the Senate President, and the minority leaders – to defend and expand their caucus at the expense of the other side.  Those are the rules.  It is first and foremost.  We all understand this.

Last week, Assembly Republican Leader Jon Bramnick rolled out his plan for addressing New Jersey’s fiscal crisis.  It was a direct appeal to elect more Republicans to the Assembly and centered on what they would do if elected.

Bramnick did exactly what he needed to do.  After pointing out the fiscal evils perpetrated by legislative Democrats, Bramnick lays out three solid policy positions that points New Jersey Republicans in the direction of what we should be for…

(1) Cap State Spending at 2% (just like local government spending is capped).

(2) Cut the State Income Tax by 10% (make NJ more competitive w. other states).

(3) Full Deduction of Property Taxes on the State Income Tax (a move that takes the property tax issue away from Democrats like Andy Kim, Mikie Sherrill, and Josh Gottheimer).

In a political sense, the Assembly Republican Leader’s plan does not demonize any organized, well-funded interest groups – it simply starves government for the benefit of taxpayers.  Bramnick makes war on spending, not people.  And that is good politics.    

Bramnick avoids the mistake made in 2015 by then Governor Chris Christie and his Republican Party.  Christie’s pension/health benefits commission called for many changes but he went further and directly confronted the unions and their members, demonizing them in the process.  Christie inadvertently created well-organized, well-financed cells of opposition in every Republican district in the state. 

Like this year, 2015 was a low-turnout election with the Assembly at the top of the ticket.  Public employee unions targeted Republicans and Democrat super PACs – including those controlled by George Norcross – poured money into the campaigns of Democrat challengers.  Republicans lost four seats – four friends by the names of Donna, Caroline, Mary Pat, and Sam.

Yesterday, Senate President Steve Sweeney announced his “bi-partisan” plan that targets many of the same people that Governor Christie pissed off in 2015.  It should be noted that Sweeney’s plan was formally rolled out after the filing deadline for the Democrat primary.  Unfortunately for Republicans… it is some months until the November election.

This is not about the merits of the “bi-partisan plan” but rather, it is about the politics and timing of the plan.   

Are Republicans in danger of repeating 2015 again? 

Will the super PACS’s controlled by Sweeney allies like George Norcross back up every Republican legislator on the ballot this year?  Or will they stay true to form and support their Democrat challengers?  Will the Republicans on the ballot this year end up getting it from both ends?

This situation might be different if New Jersey Republicans had taken the time to build a base of small dollar donors and activists.  But as fundraiser Ali Steinstra noted at the March NJGOP Leadership Summit, broad-based Republican fundraising can only be accomplished by appeals to the party’s conservative base.   

The GOP establishment in New Jersey is barely on speaking terms with its base, so the ground has not been prepared.  We have no equivalent to what the NJEA and the Norcross super PACs will throw against us, so pissing on a hornet’s nest probably isn’t a good idea.  At this moment in time, it is more likely to motivate the kind of turnout that will cost us another four or more seats in November.

Assembly Leader Bramnick has a sensible, Republican plan that addresses the problem of spending and taxation.  It avoids drawing fire from well-organized, well-funded interest groups.  Those on the ballot this year have a choice to make.

Like in 1991, the NJGOP needs to hold a convention.

Take yourself back to September 1991.  The legislative midterm elections were less than two months away.  New Jersey was in the second year of a Democrat Governor, following eight Republican years.  The State Senate had not been in GOP hands for 18 years.  The Assembly was last Republican in 1989. 

1,032 delegates from across New Jersey attended the State Republican Convention that year.  They were exhorted by former Governor Tom Kean, who reminded them “that they must do more than criticize Florio and Democratic lawmakers” to wrest control of the Statehouse in the November elections: “People want to know what you're for, not just what you're against,” he said. “Attacking the present administration is not enough.”

The delegates discussed and debated issues… adopted a state party platform… and defined who they were.  In November, Republicans won a landslide victory and took control of both chambers of the Legislature.  Two years later, they took the Governor’s office too.

In contrast to last month’s gathering of the GOP in Atlantic City, the 1991 convention at Rutgers University was about policy, message, and people – it had a grassroots feel to it.  While the current state party operation is dominated by Trenton-centered professional operatives and consultants, in 1991 the party was still one of stakeholders – people with networks in their communities and districts.

New Jersey Republicans are suffering a crisis of identity.  And it’s not just the old controversies over social issues.  The current “favorite” for Governor in 2021 – former Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli – called Donald Trump a “charlatan” who is “out of step with the Party of Lincoln” and an “embarrassment to the nation.”

The NJGOP can’t seem to make up its mind on something as basic as the tax restructuring package – championed by former Governor Chris Christie – that ended the Estate Tax, cut a bevy of other taxes, prevented a huge property tax hike, and provided enough property tax relief to enable places like Warren County to actually cut property taxes.  Some Republicans seem determined to run against one of Governor Christie’s hallmark accomplishments.  Let’s hash this thing out once and for all.  

Legalizing the sale and use of recreational marijuana is another issue.  Although both Senate Republican Leader Tom Kean Jr. and Assembly Republican Leader Jon Bramnick have done admirable jobs of holding their delegations together on this – there are all these lobbyists occupying party office who are nibbling away at the resolve of individual legislators and there is no formal party position on this or any other issue of substance.

A convention could be just the thing to resolve these conflicts, to pull everyone together around what we agree on, our principles and objectives, to create a message, and build that message out with a platform of policies – which could then be fleshed out by people like Regina Egea and her Garden State Initiative.  Thus far, the only prescriptions offered by the NJGOP have been which consultant a candidate should hire or new “game changing” technology to employ.  These do not take the place of having an actual message to run on – as the past few election cycles have shown. 

Once upon a time, New Jersey Republicans knew how to tell their story.  Now it seems they’ve lost the art – or at least the plot.  Nothing like a gathering to bring everyone together to remember who they are, put it down on paper… and then go out and sell it.

NJ Republicans need to rethink the way they campaign

By “The Happy Warrior”

Not on a single issue, or in one direction or twain,
But conclusively, comprehensively, and several times and again,
Were all our most holy illusions knocked higher than Gilderoy’s kite.
We have had a jolly good lesson, and it serves us jolly well right!

(The Lesson, Rudyard Kipling)

Fellow Republicans:  Before jumping into the 2019 legislative cycle… doing the exact same things we’ve been doing and losing for the past decade – STOP!

We have just been crushed the worst we’ve been crushed in a century.  But it wasn’t unique. We’ve been getting our asses kicked now for a decade.  Not even a popular Governor prevented the usual and customary ass-whooping. We keep losing and the life blood of the party is draining away.

It doesn’t have to be.  It’s not this way in other states.  So STOP and THINK.

Question our old standbys, our comfort zones, that instinctive knee-jerk prescription that hasn’t won in a decade or more.

Because politics isn’t actual warfare, the participants of these slaughters get to live and repeat the performance.  It’s as if General Custer somehow survived the Battle of the Little Bighorn to lead a gallant new troop of cavalry. One would hope that he would think about avoiding the actions that lead to everyone being killed the first time… that he just wouldn’t take command because “he’s done it before” and – having received command – he wouldn’t simply proceed “the way it has always been done before.”

There is certainly no shame in losing.  The founding military and political leader of our nation, George Washington, suffered a string of defeats before and after the Battles of Trenton  and Princeton, before winning the conclusive Battle of Yorktown. The shame comes from not putting a defeat to good use by learning from it. To not ponder a loss and instead stubbornly go back to the exact same way as before.

Then let us develop this marvellous asset which we alone command,
And which, it may subsequently transpire, will be worth as much as the Rand.
Let us approach this pivotal fact in a humble yet hopeful mood—
We have had no end of a lesson, it will do us no end of good!

THE DEMOCRATS’ NEW WAY

The Democrats have developed a new way of conducting and winning political campaigns.  It is a loose, fluid, decentralized style of campaigning – and it never ends. The Democrats’ campaign is an endless campaign.

The Democrats have mastered the marshalling of superior resources through the procurement of contracts, the selection of vendors, and the creation of entities – for-profits, non-profits, political action committees, leadership PACS, party organizations, superPACS, and campaign committees – by which fundraised money flows around donor limits and every other rule.  Added to this is their ability to field an army of activists using established issues groups as well as the more generalized “anti” groups born after the election of Donald Trump.

The Democrat command and control structure is instructive – in that it requires only a broad agreement on targets and goals to effectively get the job done.  The Democrats do not micro-manage.  They point everyone in the right direction and then allow the folks on the ground to get the job done.

The Democrats’ method of campaigning is activist-based.  Republicans, on the other hand, insist on campaigns that are highly centralized, tethered, and top-down – echo-chamber campaigns that reinforce the established certainties.  

POLITICAL PARTIES:  3 IN 1

Both major parties are really each three separate parties all occupying the same space and seeking to speak for the same “brand”.  

(1) There is the broad “party” defined by formal “membership” (voter registration, etc.), self-identification, or electoral support.  These people have some idea of what the party brand means and they like candidates to adhere to it. They like to get what they think they are voting for.

(2) Next is the activist base.  These people are motivated by a particular issue or set of issues (or by a candidate who serves as the vessel for such).  Some organize themselves to great effectiveness. Many are organized permanently and have established themselves as genuine powers.  Others can be motivated in the right season, on a case by case basis. The most successful are able to create enough activity to earn a living from their activism (essentially, they are paid for their leadership).

(3) Finally we have the “professional” party – the regulars.  Broadly speaking, they are paid or make money from politics, whether as attorneys, vendors, lobbyists, elected officials, appointed officials, patronage employees, political consultants, legislative staff, and such.  They are transactional and make money through or directly from politics – that is the big difference between them and the broader party.

Of necessity, the concerns of each of these three groups can be very different.  On the whole, the first two want candidates who will represent their points of view (although, depending on the issue, some in the second might find themselves outside the mainstream of the first).  The concerns of the last can be quite complex depending on relationships (personal, professional, and financial), the political considerations of maintaining power, and monetary contracts or understandings.  Suffice to say that the maintenance of power for its own sake is a primary concern, so they see the world very differently than the almost black or white delineations of the greater party.

All three entities are very important.  Whether Democrat or Republican, a party needs its broad membership, its activist base, and its professional party regulars.  But it needs them working together… not hating each other.

In the election just completed, the Democrats successfully engaged and involved the second group and we saw literally thousands of people from the first group – average voters – flood into the second to become activists.  In contrast, the Republicans maintained rigid, centralized control… and they were nearly wiped out.

OODA LOOPS & NCO’s

In political campaigns, as in warfare, command and control is all about the time it takes to observe a threat or opportunity, orientate your forces to bear on it, decide what to do, and then do it.  In the aftermath of America’s failure in Vietnam, when the President of the United States was personally selecting which bridges to bomb, military theorists grappled with various ways to improve command and control.  After 241 military personnel, mainly United States Marines, were killed by a truck bomb driven into their barracks in Beirut, the need for a “quick action” method of command and control became an imperative. In Beirut, the forces on the ground had to get permission from the brass in Washington in order to react decisively.  Unfortunately, the terrorists didn’t wait.

An Air Force Colonel by the name of John Boyd studied warfare through the critical lens of time.  For Colonel Boyd, it was all about time… reaction time… the ability to get inside your opponent’s decision-making loop.  

Colonel Boyd came up with the concept of OODA loops or time cycles while studying air combat and then applied it more generally to warfare and to other forms of human conflict.  Boyd wrote that the key strategic advantage in any conflict was the ability to Observe a threat or opportunity, Orientate oneself to it, Decide what to do, and then Act… an OODA loop.  If you could complete your OODA loop quicker than your opponent could, you would probably win.

In New Jersey, the Democrats operate on a pretty brisk OODA time cycle.  The Republicans move like glue and are utterly disconnected from the ground.  The Democrats understand who their NCO’s are and largely trust them. This gives the Democrats the ability to communicate what needs to be done, with the view that if they point the field NCO’s in the right direction, they can be trusted to get the job done.

The Democrats would understand Marine Colonel Chesty Puller’s comments to his NCO’s at the start of WWII… it would make no sense to a regular Republican in New Jersey.  We have no NCO’s. (We need them… desperately!)

The reasons for this are historical.  Beginning with the nascent post-war (WWII) ascendancy of the conservative movement and the candidacy of Barry Goldwater, the New Jersey GOP establishment recoiled against the modern conservativism of Bill Buckley and Ronald Reagan.  These sentiments were rooted in the class-based prejudices and religious bigotry of a Republican Party that had been crushed by FDR and the New Deal. Of a party that still expected the gratitude of African-Americans and was shocked when it was withheld.  

With the election of Ronald Reagan as President and the mainstreaming of his platform in 1980, New Jersey’s regular Republicans – the party’s “professionals” pursued a course at an odd variance with that of the national party.  The wider Republican party in New Jersey – and its activist base – kept step with the national Republican Party. The professionals became more and more a strange “hothouse” variety – a hybrid.

The GOP regulars tried to win “our way” but the losing only grew worse and worse, the excuses bolder and brazen.  Governor Chris Christie had the good sense to enlist the activist base, running as an economic and social conservative – a supporter of traditional values, Pro-Life, and Pro-Second Amendment – unfortunately, GOP legislative candidates too often have not.  In the end, with the loss of county and local governments, then the state government, many of the professionals found accommodation with the Democrats – some even becoming Democrats.  

Without jobs for the boys, NCO’s recruited from the professional regulars dried up.  Without an appeal to activist issues or at least the RNC platform… there was no compelling way to replace them.  People fight for money or they fight for cause. Both have been taken away.

Now, with the 2016 election of Donald Trump, the membership of the Republican Party, as well as its activist base, are now totally disjoint from the professional regulars of the NJGOP.  If most average Republicans knew who their “leaders” represented economically, they would find it revolting. Many would never vote again.

But there is hope.  The Democrats under Governor Phil Murphy are demonstrably whacky enough to recruit the support of the activist base as well as the wider party… to enlist and to activate many, many who have not been active before.

Party professionals can earn lucrative livings by wielding the collective power of the votes of many people.  These people willingly turn the power of their vote over to them because they believe the word “Republican” stands for certain things.  All they ask in return for turning their power over to a GOP “leader” is that they not be lied to in such an extreme way that they are made to feel like fools.  And the regular professionals make the wider party feel like fools… at their own peril.

In summary:  Stand for something.  Open the doors to the activist base and the wider party.  Tighten that OODA loop by loosening your grip. Recruit NCO’s, train them, point them in the right direction, and allow them to do their work.

It was our fault, and our very great fault—and now we must turn it to use.
We have forty million reasons for failure, but not a single excuse.
So the more we work and the less we talk the better results we shall get—
We have had an Imperial lesson; it may make us an Empire yet!

How Steve Oroho finished what Jay Webber started

In the Legislature, you can be a conservative in one of two ways... broadly speaking.  One way is to be a conscience, sit above it all, and vote accordingly.  You could not find a more perfect example of this than Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll, who negotiates the prickly halls of Trenton with a Zen assuredness.  He always knows the right thing to do... and he always does it.  Instead of the wilting figure of John McCann, the YR's and CR's could do no better than to adopt Assemblyman Carroll as their Sensei.

The other way is to wade into the muck in an attempt to climb aboard the ship of state and steer it in a more desirable direction.  Sometimes the engine isn't even working and you might need to get down into the boiler room -- knee deep in waste -- and grapple with the machinery of government, just to get it sputtering in some direction.

Assemblyman Jay Webber takes this course... to a point.  He seems well enough suited to steer, but when it comes to the engine room, he doesn't want to get his hands dirty.  That's where he differs from Senator Steve Oroho.  Oroho accepts that he will have to endure the heat and muck in order to get the machine running -- and he doesn't mind busting a knuckle or two while grabbling with a boiler wrench.

A prime example are their differing approaches to preventing the Transportation Trust Fund (TTF) from going bankrupt and ending the Estate Tax.  Two very conservative causes.  The TTF, funded by a gas tax, was right out of the Reagan mantra of using user taxes to fund public infrastructure.  Those who use the roads should pay for them, said Reagan, no free rides!  While the death tax -- which is what an Estate Tax is -- has been identified by conservatives for years as the destroyer of small businesses and the ruination of family farms.

Jay Webber waded into the issue assuredly enough.  On October 14, 2014, the Star-Ledger published a column by the Assemblyman.  It's title was "Fixing transportation and taxes together."  Webber was writing about how to raise the gas tax to re-fund the nearly bankrupt TTF, while offsetting that tax increase with cuts to other taxes.  He zeroed in on the Estate Tax:

"NEW JERSEY leaders are grappling with three major problems: First, New Jersey has the worst tax burden in the nation. Two, New Jersey's economy suffers from sluggish growth. And third, our state's Transportation Trust Fund is out of money. There is a potential principled compromise that can help solve all of them.

Of the three problems, the Transportation Trust Fund has been getting the most attention lately, and for good reason: It's broke. There is just no money in it to maintain and improve our vital infrastructure. Without finding a solution, we risk watching our roads and bridges grow unsafe and unusable and hinder movement of people and goods throughout the state. That, of course, will exacerbate our state's slow economic growth.

...we should insist that if any tax is raised to restore the TTF, it be coupled with the elimination of a tax that is one of our state's biggest obstacles to economic growth: the death tax. By any measure, New Jersey is the most extreme outlier on the death tax, with worst-in-the-nation status...

New Jersey's death tax is not a concern for the wealthy alone, as many misperceive. We are one of only two states with both an estate and inheritance tax. New Jersey's estate-tax threshold of $675,000, combined with a tax rate as high as 16 percent, means that middle-class families with average-sized homes and small retirement savings are hit hard by the tax.

It also means the tax affects small businesses or family farms of virtually any size, discouraging investment and growth among our private-sector job creators. Compounding the inequity is that government already has taxed the assets subject to the death tax when the money was earned. Because of our onerous estate and inheritance taxes, Forbes magazine lists New Jersey as a place "Not to Die" in 2014.

That's a problem, and it's one our sister states are trying hard not to duplicate. A recent study by Connecticut determined that states with no estate tax created twice as many jobs and saw their economies grow 50 percent more than states with estate taxes. That research prompted Connecticut and many states to reform their death taxes. New York just lowered its death tax, and several other states have eliminated theirs.

The good news is that New Jersey's leaders finally are realizing that our confiscatory death tax is a big deal. A bipartisan coalition of legislators has shown its support for reforming New Jersey's death tax..."

Taking Webber's lead, Senator Steve Oroho got to work and began the painstakingly long process of negotiation with the majority Democrats.  Oroho was animated by the basic unfairness that New Jersey taxpayers were under-writing out-of-state drivers to the tune of a half-billion dollars a year.  He understood that if the TTF went bankrupt, the cost would flip to county and local governments... resulting in an average $500 property tax increase.  Oroho went to battle to prevent this disaster and even had to stand up to Governor Chris Christie, who wanted to end negotiations too soon and accept a weaker deal from the Democrats.

Unfortunately, Assemblyman Webber didn't stick with it.  When the time came for Jay Webber to be counted as part of that bipartisan coalition, he couldn't be counted on.  Jay got scared off by the lobbyist arm of the petroleum industry and what's worse is that he started attacking those who did what he advocated doing only a short time before. 

Remember that it was Webber who wrote these words in that column more than three years ago:  "Any gas-tax increase should be accompanied by measures that will help alleviate, or at least not increase, the overall tax burden on New Jerseyans." Jay Webber wrote those words, setting the direction.  Steve Oroho was left on his own to get the job done -- to do the negotiating.  The helmsman had abandoned the engineer. 

Webber said at the time that he believed the bipartisan tax restructuring package worked out by the legislative leaders (minus Senator Tom Kean Jr.) and the Governor would result in a net tax increase.  Oroho and others disagreed with him.  Webber is by all accounts a good lawyer, but Oroho is the numbers man.  He's a certified financial planner and CPA.  Before beginning his career of public service, Steve Oroho was a senior financial officer for S&P 500 companies like W. R. Grace and  Young & Rubicam.  It was this knowledge that enabled him to fashion the compromise that he did -- one that turned out to be the largest tax cut in New Jersey's history.

In the end, the Democrats' 40-cent increase on the gas tax was paired down to 23-cents.  The gas tax, the proceeds from which funds the TTF, had not been adjusted for inflation in 28 years, had not provided enough funding to cover annual operations in 25 years, and wasn't even bringing in enough money to pay the interest on the borrowing that was done to keep operations going (in 2015, the state collected just $750 million from the gas tax while incurring an annual debt cost of $1.1 billion).  Even so, Senator Oroho knew exactly where to draw the line... at the minimalist 23 cents and not the 40 cents the Democrats plausibly argued for.

In the end, the engineer got the job done.  Senator Steve Oroho emerged from the boiler room triumphant.  He ended the Estate Tax and secured tax cuts for retirees, veterans, small businesses, farmers, consumers, and low-income workers.  He secured property tax relief by doubling the TTF's local financial aid to towns and counties -- and prevented a $500 per household property tax hike.  He made out-of-state drivers pay for using New Jersey's roads -- and ensured that New Jerseyans will continue to have safe roads and bridges to drive on.

Oroho's tax cuts were praised by conservative groups like Americans for Tax Reform and conservative publications like Forbes, which called his tax cuts "one of the 5 best state and local tax policy changes in 2016 nationwide." 

That's getting something done.   

Phil Garber and the NJ Democrats' Fake News machine

Phil Garber is a small-time editor of a weekly newspaper operating out of Mount Olive, in Morris County.  Garber has never heard of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), the oldest association of writers and editors in the United States, and if he had heard of them, his actions over the years confirm that he's never read the Code of Ethics of the SPJ. 

In a recent headline, Garber reported that Mount Olive is getting $292,500 from the state for a repaving project.  Garber noted that the funds were possible because of the recent gas tax increase that has more than doubled the amount of funds for local road and bridge safety improvement projects.

Of course, Garber had pissed all over the Republican who led the fight to prevent the bankruptcy of the Transportation Trust Fund (TTF), from which those funds were drawn.  That was in 2016.  The Tax Restructuring Package that cut five taxes and re-funded the TTF through a 23-cents a gallon increase on gasoline was passed in 2016 and signed into law by Republican Governor Chris Christie on October 14, 2016.

But that did not stop Editor Garber from making this the first sentence of his story:  "The first fruits of the new administration of Gov. Phil Murphy have been harvested in terms of a grant of $292,500 for the first phase of repaving International Drive North."

No shit.  Phil "the swallower" Garber wants us to swallow this.  The "first fruits" of an administration that didn't take office until January 16, 2018.  How did that work?

Garber works for a newspaper that is owned by the wife of Mark Magyar, one of Senate President Steve Sweeney's top aides.  In December of 2014, Magyar was hired as the Democrat's new Director of Policy and Communications.  Magyar had been a statehouse reporter for the Asbury Park Press and the Bergen Record, as well as the editor of the New Jersey Spotlight.

The corporate and political empire of Democrat Party boss George Norcross -- the political machine of which the Senate President is a part -- has a history of co-opting or attempting to co-opt local and regional newspapers in that part of New Jersey where his authoritarian rule is almost uncontested.  The machine is in the process of solidifying its rule in its southern New Jersey base, while expanding its power across the state -- and beyond.  The machine is allied with powerful lawyer-lobbyists like former Governor Jim Florio and Camden County Freeholder Director Lou Cappelli, who are expanding into neighboring states.  And while the machine's first such foray ended in prosecution and tumult, it might well be successful, and could usher in a period of sustained, anti-democratic ruthlessness, unique in the experience of post-Prohibition America.

Mark Magyar is the spouse of Elizabeth K. Parker, Co-publisher and Executive Editor the New Jersey Hills Media Group.  The group is controlled by the Recorder Publishing Company, a privately held entity in Bernardsville, that owns and publishes 17 local newspapers in Republican Morris County, Somerset County, and Hunterdon County -- and in Republican towns in Essex County.  Their readership comes from towns that usually get the short end of the sick from the Democrats in Trenton.

Elizabeth Parker owns Recorder Publishing with her brother, Co-publisher and Business Manager Stephen W. Parker.  He oversees the print and on-line advertising operations.  The company also sells other services, including website development, search engine optimization, "Reputation Management", and "Social Media Management".

Some of the newspapers they control have been around for more than a century -- like the Hunterdon Review, established in 1868; the Bernardsville News, 1897; Madison Eagle, 1880; and The Progress, 1911.  Recorder Publishing was started by the late Cortlandt Parker, who founded the Morris Observer in 1955.  His company expanded to its current size with the acquisition of the Eagle-Courier Group in 1991. 

Cortlandt Parker, who died in 2002, had residences in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, and Boston, Massachusetts.  His New York Times obituary describes him as having progressive positions on "social issues" and cites as an example his refusal to accept cigarette advertising in his newspapers "before it was common to do so."

While taking a position against the generally working class pleasure of tobacco, Mr. Parker was an advocate of that upper class pleasure -- wine.  He founded the Greenvale Vineyards in Rhode Island and published several magazines about the wine industry in the Finger Lakes region of New York, New England, Long Island, and Virginia.  The New England Wine Gazette is published by Recorder Publishing, at its Bernardsville operation.

Newspapers were never as pure or disinterested as their cheerleaders would have us believe, but at least -- once upon a time/ just yesterday -- they did constitute a locus of power independent of political machines.  Not necessarily of their corporate advertisers (per Herman and Chomsky), but certainly of base political machines.  Those days are drawing to a close. 

New Jersey is unique in its forms and ways of political corruption -- especially of systemic corruption -- in that it rides the wave just ahead of the rest of America.  Sadly, it appears that what we once called journalism is on a rapid descent into the realms of propaganda and in future will be little more than coarse party broadsheets -- advertisements using histrionics worthy of Pravda or the Völkischer Beobachter.

Why is BridgeGate's Wildstein pushing John McCann?

By Rubashov

David Wildstein, the mastermind behind the BridgeGate scandal that ended the presidential dreams of Governor Chris Christie, is back to blogging again.  Before joining the Christie administration as a political appointee, Wildstein was part of the "Christie Project" headed by Bill Palatucci.  Writing under the name "Wally Edge" it was Wildstein who helped eliminate potential Republican threats to what became eight years of Christie hegemony.

Palatucci is the most interesting and powerful behind-the-scenes GOP operator in New Jersey, and while not quite in the league of behind-the-scenes Democrat operator George Norcross, in this post-Christie environment he is increasingly making his presence known.  Close observers have never been entirely convinced that Palatucci served as a mere satellite of the former Governor.  Recall that it was Palatucci who picked up Christie after his first fall from grace, when he was ousted as a Morris County freeholder.

Yes, it was Palatucci who dusted off Christie and guided him on a new path.  It was Palatucci's contacts with the Bush dynasty that gave Christie a place on George W.'s campaign -- from which he gained a place in George W.'s administration, as the United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey.

Is Bob Hugin the next Palatucci invention?  Is this year's United States Senate race a first step on the road back to the Governor's office?  Do not underestimate a gifted operator like Bill Palatucci.  Like the best in his profession, he sees into the mist.  Someone should write a book about this fascinating man.

So are they putting the band back together?

Wally on blogs... Bob the front man... Bill setting the tune?

And if so, who will need eliminating?  Now sit back and observe who is being blocked and who is being promoted and all will become clear.

This is Rubashov.  Peace, brothers and sisters...

Michael Hill the liar. NJTV's attempted hit in LD24.

We all remember when Governor Chris Christie shut down NJN in 2011.  The old time journalists there were stunned.  One of the few Republicans who dared to stand up to Governor Christie was Assemblywoman Alison Littell McHose (R-24).

On the vote to kill NJN, McHose cast a vote against Christie.  Chancing upon her family's old friend, NJN reporter Michael Aron, the Assemblywoman shocked him with the news that she had told Christie no.  She added, "I did it for you, Michael."

But in the end, a bi-partisan majority came together to screw the New Jersey Network and the measure of transparency it had provided the public.  Christie got what he wanted -- but so did certain Democrats, when Christie ceded to them effective control over the new entity that was to come out of the closure of NJN.

The new station was called NJTV.  It is owned by the New Jersey Public Broadcasting Authority and operated by Public Media NJ, a subsidiary of WNET.org.  Programming and content is farmed out, under contract, to a non-profit organization called the Caucus Educational Corporation (CEC). 

The boss of CEC is Steve Adubato Jr. -- a former Democrat Assemblyman and son of the Essex County Democrat Party machine boss.  Yep, that's who is doing the programming and content behind what you see on NJTV.

Yes, the Democrat machine boss' baby boy not only had an Assembly seat handed to him when he was but a mere lad, when he got tired of playing with that, the boss got a Republican Governor to hand him one of the most lucrative patronage deals in the state.  What you ask?  Well, do you care to guess how much little Stevie makes off of this so-called non-profit?  How does $537,218.00 a year grab you?

Now, do you feel better... or worse?

Long Sussex County's first family, old Senator Bob Littell had often come to the aid of public broadcasting and NJN in particular -- and Mrs. Virginia Littell was an active fundraiser and friend of the station.  Both the late Senator and Mrs. Littell were long-time friends of the Space family, which went back in Sussex County history as long as theirs.  Mrs. Littell was Parker Space's campaign chairwoman when he ran for Freeholder in 2010, and Assemblywoman Alison Littell McHose endorsed Parker Space for Assembly in 2013.  Both Mrs. Littell and the former Assemblywoman were active in Space's 2017 campaign -- Mrs. Littell as the spokeswoman, while the former Assemblywoman cut a radio spot for him.

So imagine the surprise in Sussex County, in the Assemblywoman's old district, when the successors to NJN showed up the day before Tuesday's election to ambush Assemblyman Space and his running mate in District 24.  Now ambush journalism is never pretty, and is always based on a misrepresentation or lie by the reporter.  In this case, the reporter -- a guy named Michael Hill -- claimed to be doing an election wrap-up with a focus on women candidates.

Of course, he wasn't.  Actually, Michael Hill was doing a coordinated hit on Assemblyman Space and running mate Hal Wirths, the former state Commissioner of Labor.  He wasn't there to "wrap-up" anything, but rather to open up or re-open a can of worms.  As if enough hadn't been written already about Assemblyman Space attending a Hank Williams Jr. concert and being photographed with a Hank Williams Jr. band banner -- NJTV's Michael Hill wanted to get one more hit in before Election Day.  Hill also wanted to bring up again -- the day before the election -- the illicit tape recording made of Assemblyman Space, during a private conversation, by a Democrat campaign worker.  In private, Space is heard referring to one of his opponents as a "bitch".  

The Democrats complained bitterly about Space's use of the word, despite it being a word heard frequently in Democrat circles.  That, and being sexually molested by major party fundraisers, appears to have been commonplace with the Democrats.  Their motto -- at least until the last few weeks -- seems to have been, "Don't ask, don't tell."   

Perhaps the most shocking aspect of this attempted political hit piece is the involvement of Rutgers' Center for Women & Politics.  Another so-called non-partisan organization with a tax exemption from the IRS.  Apparently, the Center's Executive Director, Debbie Walsh was the impetus behind the scam, as the hand-written note below indicates.
 

Curiously, Ms. Walsh believes that when a Republican legislator is accused of using the term "bitch" that makes him unfit for office, but when a Democrat legislator is taken to court for stalking women -- she's okay with that because, well hell, that guy's a Democrat!  This is the part of the modern day, partisan-first fake feminism that we don't buy.  

We get the feminist movement for the same reasons we support the trade unions movement -- people have the right to organize and collectively stand up to the powerful who are screwing them over.  But what we don't get is when so-called feminists get bent out of shape over a very commonplace word that 99 percent of them use -- but then make decades of excuses for the likes of Harvey Weinstein and Bill Clinton.  

If Republican Assemblyman Parker Space is a bad guy, then what does that make Democrat Assemblyman Raj Mukerji?  What does that make Joe Waks, accused of sexually harassing a woman employee and the man who runs Democrat Speaker Vinnie Prieto's SuperPAC for him?

Walsh, whose interview was actually part of the hit piece couldn't contain her smug self-satisfaction at pulling it off.  She reminded us of a constipation sufferer who had just taken a hard dump.  Boy, could you read the satisfaction on that face.  In the interview, she warned that women legislators would hold what Space said against him -- but apparently they forgive stalking and sexual harassment.  No big deal, right?  So long as it comes from a Democrat.

What should be remembered and not ever forgotten is that these people are partisan dirtbags.  Don't cooperate with them.  Don't feed them stories and when they come looking for sustenance cut them off.  If they want to be one-sided then leave them only one-side that will cooperate with them on their bullshit.  Turn them inside out and make them the dull propagandists that they are.  Without available foils, they will soon bore and dry up.
 

Libertarian Seth Grossman endorses Jack Ciattarelli

Our friend Seth Grossman, President of the citizens' group Liberty & Prosperity and one of the founders of AFP in New Jersey, has made his choice for Governor.  He sent this letter out earlier today:

This year, I am supporting Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli.   In my opinion, Ciattarelli is the only Republican running a serious statewide campaign against Christie’s hand-picked Lieutenant Governor (and accomplice) Kim Guadagno.

I  believe  Ciattarelli is the only candidate willing and able to fix the damage done to Atlantic City and the rest of Atlantic County by Christie during the past eight years.

Christie began his mismanagement of Atlantic City in 2010 during his first month in office.   Christie made a deal with Sweeney Democrats to bail out the failed Revel Casino project with big state tax breaks and $400 million in state government loans.

Christie then worked with Democrats to strip Atlantic City voters of their right to petition for a public vote to block local government loans and tax breaks for the project.

In October 2010, Christie’s state officials took over the finances of Atlantic City government.   They sued Atlantic City for spending more than it collected in violation of the state’s Local Budget Law.  But when the state took over, Christie’s state officials let Atlantic City spend roughly $80 million more than it took in for each of the next seven years.  The state gave this city of 38,000 roughly $600 million of debt.

Things got so bad that by 2016, even casinos could no longer afford the taxes needed for this.    Last year, Christie made another deal with Democrats to give the casinos ten years of tax breaks.   That was on top of the 110 outlet shops and restaurants and 3,500 “affordable” housing units that already paid PILOT (Locals call this "Peanuts In Lieu of Taxes").  Now, everyone else in Atlantic County is facing big tax hikes to make up the difference.

While Kim Guadagno quietly stood by Christie, Jack Ciattarelli stood up and did everything he could to stop Christie.   As an Assemblyman, he spoke up and helped persuade nearly a dozen other Assembly members to vote against this dirty deal supported by bosses of both parties.

Ciattarelli is the only candidate for Governor who spoke in favor of a municipal bankruptcy for Atlantic City.   As an MBA/CPA and incredibly successful business owner, Ciattarelli knows bankruptcy is the only legal way to cut unsustainable debt and taxes.  It is the only way to get an impartial judge to force everyone, including Wall Street investors and casinos to equally share the sacrifice.

We locals know that what happens to New Jersey happens to Atlantic City first.   The same pay-to-play political culture that ruined Atlantic City for all but a handful of insiders,  is causing the same problems all over the New Jersey.

During the next few weeks, I will do everything I can to explain with facts and details why Jack Ciattarelli is the only candidate for Governor with the ability and willingness to address the issues that affect us the most.

The Primary Election is Tuesday, June 6.   Any voter who is either registered as a Republican or who has not yet voted in a June Primary election is qualified to vote for Jack Ciattarelli.  Please email me at sethgrossman49@gmail.com or call me (609) 927-7333 if you live near Atlantic City and want to work with me.

Otherwise, please contact Jack Ciattarelli's campaign directly at www.Jack4Gov.com, through the Jack Ciatterlli for Governor Facebook page, or at (908) 842-2100.

If you were one of the 18,033 (8%) who voted for me against Christie in the June Primary four years ago, I thank you again.  I also invite you to compare how close Jack Ciattarelli and I are on the issues that affect us the most.   Please visit my old campaign website from four years ago at www.grossman4NJ.com and compare it to what you see on Jack's website www.Jack4Gov.com today.  I also invite you to visit and "like" my Seth Grossman Facebook page.   Thanks!

Paid for by Seth Grossman, Attorney

as a private citizen not on behalf of any organization.

453 Shore Road

Somers Point, NJ  08244

(609) 927-7333

Who is NJ's conservative conscience?

Looking at a popular GOP blog today we came across a paid advertisement on said blog by Assemblyman Jay Webber.  The paid advertisement featured a quote from the blog's owner, calling Webber "The Conservative Conscience of the State Legislature." 

Well, OK, fair enough -- but we remember when that blog was the chorus for the campaign of an establishment GOP gubernatorial candidate named Chris Christie, and we remember when Assemblyman Jay Webber was so besotted with candidate Christie that he wouldn't appear in public with then-AFP State Director Steve Lonegan, because he thought the movement conservative was going to challenge Christie in the primary.

On the whole, Jay Webber has been a fine Republican legislator, but he has often straddled the line between being an establishment politician and a movement conservative.  An admirer of President Ronald Reagan, in October of 2014 Webber wrote a strong argument for increasing the user tax on gasoline in return for the elimination of the estate tax.  It was a classic conservative argument that showed how much he understood conservative policy and the effects of different types of taxation. 

Unfortunately, Webber would later reverse himself in order to bask in the kind of alt-right populism served up by "Red-Shirt" broadcaster Bill Spadea -- a Reagan critic who rejected Reagan Republicanism for third-party populism way back in the 1990's.  As evidenced by Spadea, the alt-right isn't so much an ideology or a set of policies, as it is an attitude and an anger. 

We have heard from members of the alt-right who think all government sucks and who say they are taxed too much and then reveal themselves to be public employees and go on to complain that their taxpayer-funded benefits are not enough and their pensions are not secure.  Where do they think the money comes from?  We have heard from alt-righters who live off government disability complain about the government that taxes others to pay them.  Anyone who can engage us all day in social media debates is certainly employable as something in today's economy.  Instead of bitching, go find a career, a job, and get to work.

Many of the same people who want tax cuts see nothing strange in concurrently asking for more "free" stuff from the government.  They aren't thinking balance sheet.  They aren't thinking at all.  It is emotion.   They are the same who believe that they should get paid more for what they do while everyone who provides the services they take for granted should be paid less.  The military who guards them should be paid less, ditto for the police and firefighters, bridges and roads should appear miraculously and for a minimal cost, ditto for clean water, electricity, and on and on.  And if they don't get their way, all that they want, for as cheap as they want it, then they can always tune in to the man on the radio and throw something.

Those who proselytize or celebrate this juvenile anger, this rejection of adult reasoning, are calling for the end of rational government.  We will end with two sides -- each appealing to deranged emotion, each perpetually lying to their followers, each refusing to belief in anything the other side says --  governance as a kind of thug life.

Rob Eichmann could see all this.  Elected to the Republican State Committee from Gloucester County -- on movement conservative Steve Lonegan's ticket -- Eichmann rejected the emotional pap put out by some and always carefully weighed the various attributes of any given policy.  He looked to the Republican Party Platform for guidance -- and to the conservative policies of Republican leaders like Ronald Reagan, Jack Kemp, and Newt Gingrich.  Eichmann was the NJGOP's conservative conscience.

Shortly after Chris Christie won the Republican nomination, Christie and the NJGOP were asked by Rob Eichmann and other members of the State Committee to embrace the platform of the national Republican Party that was debated and passed at the Republican National Convention in 2008.  Christie declined to endorse that platform and his appointed State Party Chairman -- Assemblyman Jay Webber --  got quite nasty towards Rob Eichmann and those pushing the NJGOP to embrace basic Republican principles. 

Under pressure, NJGOP Chairman Webber promised to put a committee together to draft a "statement of principles" for the NJGOP.  That was in 2009.  That committee has yet to meet.

Another Republican National Convention came in 2012 and an updated party platform was debated and passed by the assembled delegates.  Governor Christie was the keynote speaker at that convention.  Nevertheless, he did not endorse or to allow his state party to adopt the platform that was democratically chosen at that convention.

In 2013, the NJGOP went a step further and launched a campaign to defeat sitting members of the State Committee who supported the national Republican Party platform and candidates who said they would do so.  They used state party funds, supposedly under the control of the State Committee, to defeat sitting members of the State Committee, without any formal vote allowing them to do so. 

One of their chief targets was Gloucester County State Committeeman Rob Eichmann.  At the time the  conservative was hospitalized, suffering from cancer, and was in no position to fight back.  The NJGOP ignored pleas to take this into consideration and launched an aggressive and negative campaign to defeat Committeeman Eichmann using the State Committee's own money.  Eichmann was defeated along with the other conservatives who supported the Republican Party platform.  Rob Eichmann, the conservative conscience of the NJGOP, died a few months later, aged 48.

Last year was 2016 and yet another Republican National Convention has come and gone.  The NJGOP has still not formally adopted the platform of the national Republican Party as its own.  The NJGOP and its candidates have no guidance as to the principles and policies that inform their party.  And so we get the case of Kim Guadagno, candidate for Governor, see-sawing between the gross pragmatism she openly practiced for over seven years and the dishonest "cover" she has accepted from the alt-right in an attempt to quickly "re-make" herself. 

If Assemblyman Jay Webber wants to earn the title "The Conservative Conscience of the State Legislature," he needs to stand up and start demanding that the NJGOP adopt the RNC platform as its own.  Without a written explanation of what the Republican Party stands for and what it means to be a Republican, our ability to recruit and train others to recruit new members is limited.

It is time for the NJGOP to declare what it is and what it stands for.  If it is informed by the principles of the national Republican Party and the platform of every Republican President from Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump, then say so.  If it is not, then please explain what it is that you stand for and the policies that you intend to pursue if elected.  Simply having the word "Republican" in your name is not enough.

AFP admits its score card was a screw job

Instead of transparency, the New Jersey affiliate of Americans for Prosperity (AFP) has tried to cover-up their "process" by shoveling more shit over it. 

Instead of telling us who came up with the scheme to do away with the rating process AFP used when Steve Lonegan was in charge and which Trenton staffers AFP conspired with, they have tried to defend what is simply indefensible and inexcusable corruption.  This will be made abundantly clear to them when they have to explain themselves to the Internal Revenue Service.  After all, AFP is a tax exempt organization and their scorecard is meant to be educational -- not a thumb on the scale created for the purposes of party political communications in the form of direct mail, broadcast and cable advertisements, and Internet ads. 

Something is clearly wrong with an organization that puts out a press release taking credit for a vote that -- in AFP's own words -- "saved state taxpayers $1.4 billion in tax cuts-once completely phased in-in the final omnibus bill, including a repeal of the estate tax which saved taxpayers $320 million alone and will protect families from the government raiding inheritances when a loved one dies" -- and then uses that same vote to give every Republican Senator who voted for it an "F" grade.

AFP is either psychotic or sadomasochistic.

AFP actually bragged that the passage of A-12 last October was one of its biggest "accomplishments of 2016" -- before turning around and screwing everyone who voted for AFP's biggest accomplishment of 2016!

Here is the actual email AFP sent around in advance of its 2016 "screwcard":

Americans for Prosperity-New Jersey had some big accomplishments in 2016, and it's all thanks to you and activists like you who dedicated your time to fight for freedom in the Garden State.

As we ramp up our efforts for this year's battles, I wanted to highlight last year's victories to remind you how much we can accomplish.'

What AFP-New Jersey Accomplished in 2016

• Winter : Saved state taxpayers $60 million by fighting against corporate welfare and film production incentives.

• Spring : Saved Morris County taxpayers $1.5 million by fighting against a union mandate initiative for big public works projects.

• Summer : Saved state taxpayers $4-5 billion by fighting against a constitutional amendment that would have frozen current pension benefits as-is and prevented meaningful reforms to the system.

• Fall : Saved state taxpayers $1.4 billion in tax cuts-once completely phased in-in the final omnibus bill, including a repeal of the estate tax which save taxpayers $320 million alone and will protect families from the government raiding inheritances when a loved one dies.

• Playing defense: Blocked numerous legislative efforts to increase red tape in New Jersey, and defeated every attempt at increasing occupational licensing requirements that AFP-NJ engaged on.

You can see that AFP-NJ had a great 2016. It took a lot of hard work and dedication from all of our volunteers, and I sincerely thank you for your efforts to hold our government accountable and protect taxpayers.

There's no time to rest on our laurels-we must continue the fight to bring true affordability and good government back to New Jersey. Be sure to  Like us on Facebook and  follow on Twitter . AFP-NJ posts daily updates about developments in Trenton, Washington, D.C., and your local government.

I look forward to working with you this year to add even more to our list of accomplishments.

In Liberty,

Erica L. Jedynak
New Jersey State Director
Americans for Prosperity

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Here are just ten of the nearly 100 detailed questions regarding their screwcard that we have for the psychos/ sadomasochists at AFP:

(1) If the "Gas Tax" was the point of the exercise -- as has been suggested by bloggers, media types, Senate staffers, and AFP insiders -- then how did Republican Senator Sam Thompson get a "B" for proposing that the "gas tax" be increased without any tax cuts or tax reform at all?

(2) While handing Thompson a "B" for his gas tax increase only legislation, AFP cranked it up the buttholes of five Republican Senators who voted for that big "AFP accomplishment" of $1.4 billion in tax cuts (including the elimination of the Estate Tax) because the legislation also contained a gas tax increase.  Why did Thompson get a "B" and those five GOP Senators get an "F"? 

(Of course, we know why.  AFP was asked to help out with Thompson's primary by members of the GOP Senate staff and AFP complied.  Politics as usual.)

(3) AFP actively campaigned for the passage of Public Question 2 at the November 8th General Election last year.  The debate over Question 2 was directly related to the gas tax/tax reform discussion.  Somehow AFP forgot this or didn't think it important enough to include.  Most probably because it would have helped the scores of those it was meant to screw.  

(4) Assemblyman Declan O'Scanlon (R-13), a candidate for the Senate received an "A+" for his vote on the so-called "gas tax" (actually, the Tax Reform package that included 5 tax cuts as well as the gas tax increase), while Senator Joe Kyrillos (R-13) got an "F" for taking the exact same vote on the "gas tax."

(5) Legislation to get rid of the Estate Tax in five years that went nowhere, is marked as a positive.  The legislation that actually did get rid of the Estate Tax in less than two years, is marked as a negative. 

(6) Assemblyman Jay Webber (R-26) gets credit for sponsoring legislation (A-1059), while running-mate Assemblywoman BettyLou DeCroce gets no credit for co-sponsoring the same legislation.

(7) A bill (ACR-213) proposed by far-left Democrat John Wisniewski (D-19) which would allow voters to over-turn all of Governor Chris Christie's vetoes of anti-Second Amendment legislation passed by the Legislature was rated as a POSITIVE by AFP.  Does that make AFP anti-gun?  It certainly seems so.  On top of this, they assigned credit or blame incorrectly.  For instance, AFP credited Senator Michael Doherty even though he hadn't sponsored a Senate version (none exists).

(8) Legislation to spend millions to fund Planned Parenthood, legislation to oppose ObamaCare, legislation regarding Paid Sick Leave, and legislation to provide Welfare to Drug Dealers -- none of this was important enough to include in AFP's screwcard.  On the other hand, legislation regarding interior designers, hair-braiding, music therapy, and drama therapy all were more important, according to AFP.  Really?  Did someone take a dump in their brain and forget to flush it?

(9) AFP is apparently hostile to legislation proposed by Senator Steve Oroho, called the Human Trafficking & Child Exploitation Prevention Act.  It appears to fly in the face of what AFP national chair David Koch calls "free trade." However, the scores of some legislators, such as Senator Tom Kean Jr., improved dramatically.  Kean, who just a session ago was in the high 50 percentile range, suddenly got an "A"!

(10) Of all the hundreds of votes taken in the Legislature, AFP "counted" just nine Assembly votes and six in the Senate -- and one of those they got wrong because they cherry-picked it from a previous session.  In other words, either the ass-monkey can't read a date correctly or somebody really wanted to screw someone.

Now we come to Jersey Conservative's weekly corrective to the AFP screwcard.  Yes, AFP sucks large and somebody has to step in and make it right.  We didn't look for this duty, but as Ronald Reagan once said:  "If not us, who?  If not now, when?"

One of the good things that came out of the Tax Reform package was the increase in TTF money going to fund local road and bridge maintenance.  That's real property tax relief at a time when many local governments are setting their budgets and property tax rates.

A bill (S-3076) to send $400 million to county and municipal governments was passed in the Senate on March 13th.  Only one Senator voted against it -- Democrat Ray "Lord of Ass" Lesniak (lifetime ACU rating ZERO).  Thirty-six other Senators, from Mike Doherty to Jennifer Beck, from Steve Sweeney to Dick Codey, all voted "Yes". 

Yesterday, it was voted on in the Assembly.  Three voted against it.  Democrat John Wisniewski (lifetime ACU rating ZERO), Erik Peterson (R-23), and Jay Webber (R-26) voted "No", while 67 voted "Yes". 

We found it strange... and worth mentioning.

Stay tuned...

The Screw card: Who engineered those AFP ratings?

A whistleblower copied us on a letter sent to the Internal Revenue Service, among other organizations.  The letter outlines the on-going collusion between the New Jersey affiliate of Americans for Prosperity (AFP), a tax-exempt organization, and legislative staff and political campaign operatives in the creation of the group's so-called "scorecard." 

AFP's scorecard is a rating system that internal memos show has been engineered to benefit individual legislators for various purposes.  For instance, one legislator, Gail Phoebus, recently hired an AFP donor's child to her legislative staff.  For doing so, she received an "A+".  That's taxpayers' money that paid for that grade.

There was corruption evident in each of AFP's scorecards in the past, but this most recent edition -- the release of which was timed to coincide with a major AFP fundraiser hosted by Senate Republican Leader Tom Kean Jr. -- is so corrupt, so convoluted, that it begs description.  Instead of counting actual votes, the "engineers" behind the screw card fashioned a subjective mix of assigned "points" for the effort of proposing legislation -- even if that legislation was never posted for a vote.  That said, in order to injure some legislators and enhance others, co-sponsorship of legislation wasn't given credit  or, on bad bills, deductions.  And even though the rules on the number of sponsors vary in each Chamber, this wasn't taken into account.

Some of the more glaring incidents of corruption:

- Legislation to get rid of the Estate Tax in five years that went nowhere, is marked as a positive.  The legislation that actually did get rid of the Estate Tax in less than two years, is a negative.  Curiously, AFP actually touted the success of the legislation they marked as "negative" in a press release detailing their "legislative successes" for 2016.  In fact, most of the "successes" they used to raise money from their donors came from legislation they marked as "negative."   

- Assemblyman Jay Webber (R-26) gets credit for sponsoring legislation (A-1059), while running-mate Assemblywoman BettyLou DeCroce gets no credit for co-sponsoring the same legislation.

- A bill (ACR-213) proposed by far-left Democrat John Wisniewski (D-19) which would allow voters to over-turn all of Governor Chris Christie's vetoes of anti-Second Amendment legislation passed by the Legislature was rated as a POSITIVE by AFP.  Does that make AFP anti-gun?  It certainly seems so.  On top of this, they assigned credit or blame incorrectly.  For instance, AFP credited Senator Michael Doherty even though he hadn't sponsored a Senate version (none exists).

- Assemblyman Declan O'Scanlon (R-13), a candidate for the Senate received an "A+" for his vote on the so-called "gas tax" (actually, the Tax Reform package that included 5 tax cuts as well as the gas tax increase), while Senator Joe Kyrillos (R-13) got an "F" for taking the exact same vote on the "gas tax."

- There was no mention of legislation to spend millions on Planned Parenthood.  Whether this was because of AFP State Chair Frayda Levy's personal position on abortion or the time AFP Executive Director Erica Jedynak (nee Klemens) spent with W.A.N.D. (Women's Action for New Directions) we cannot tell.  Apparently, legislators get no credit for being Pro-Life from AFP.  Neither do they get it for preventing taxpayers' millions from being spent on abortion facilities.

- AFP is apparently hostile to legislation proposed by Senator Steve Oroho, called the Human Trafficking & Child Exploitation Prevention Act.  It appears to fly in the face of what AFP national chair David Koch calls "free trade."

- A great deal of important legislation, like Senate legislation on paid sick leave, was treated as if it didn't exist.  The scores of some legislators, such as Senator Tom Kean Jr., improved dramatically.  Kean, who just a session ago was in the high 50 percentile range, suddenly got an "A"!

-  Of all the hundreds of votes taken in the Legislature, AFP "counted" just nine Assembly votes and six in the Senate -- and one of those they got wrong because they cherry-picked it from a previous session.  In other words, either the ass-monkey can't read a date correctly or somebody really wanted to screw someone.

(Jersey Conservative has some of best legislative watchers in the state and we will be putting together a comprehensive scorecard of the top 100 votes in the Legislature for 2016 in plenty of time for the June primary.  Instead of the subjective contortions used by the Kock organization's screw card, Jersey Conservative will use as our guide, the RNC platform that Chairman Webber so studiously avoided adopting.)

Who was behind the convoluted calculations that appear to damage some for a primary, while creating an advantage for others?  Whose thumb was on the scale?

We have asked this question before, of a different group that issues ratings -- the American Conservative Union (ACU).  When we spoke with their national office last year, they were most cooperative and forthcoming.  They readily informed us that the office of the Senate Republican Leader had assisted them in picking and choosing which votes to highlight. 

Perhaps that was the reason the ACU left out important votes like providing drug-dealers with taxpayer-funded welfare benefits.  Whatever, because it was child's play compared to what just happened over at AFP.

We can't imagine why a Republican Leader or his staff would have anything to do with an organization that went out of its way to crank it up the ass of five of his own incumbent Republican caucus members.  Are they trying to weed out anyone with a spine or just those who have never thought about visiting the Bohemian Grove?  Is this laying the groundwork for a Republican-NJEA alliance for November with the hope that conservatives will keep focused on "the gas tax" long enough to have their guns confiscated and the institution of co-ed high school showers.  Time will tell.

As for AFP, anyone who dips their snout in the toilet bowl with it can be labeled as working with the petroleum lobby, the illegal immigration lobby, the open borders for terrorists lobby, and also with that peculiar brand of Koch libertarianism that sincerely believes children have the rights to recreational narcotics and to sell their bodies for sex.  We suspect that candidates will be hearing a lot more on this as their campaigns progress through the primary and general election processes. The digging will get deep and the shit will be random. 

Let us leave you with this quote from the Liberty & Prosperity blog run by Seth Grossman.  Grossman was a founding member of New Jersey's AFP affiliate, so he knows of whom he speaks:

"Frayda Levy of Bergen County also supports amnesty for all illegals without taking any measures to stop, arrest, or deport future illegals.   Frayda is one of the super-rich donors who donated more than a million dollars to Americans for Prosperity created by Charles and David Koch."

People like the ones running AFP like illegal labor because it drives down wages and makes average Americans take-it-or-leave-it wage slaves.  Next time some surrogate for these modern day slavers complains about a working man in Morris County supporting a candidate who helps him keep his family fed, clothed, and a roof over their head, we will detail how much dough the folks on the other side are swimming in and the causes they use it on.  Special interests?  What in the hell are the Koch Brothers! 

A Challenge to Assembly candidate Hank Lyon

Yesterday an opinion piece appeared in another blog by yet another Morris County Young Republican.  This young man told the story about how his finances are being put out of kilter by the additional 23 cents in taxation applied to each gallon of gasoline he purchases in New Jersey. 

We question this, because unless he started doing his finances only very, very recently, the price-per-gallon of gasoline is lower today than it was 18 months ago, and well over a dollar less than it was in 2014.  He suggests that he cannot balance his budget now, so how did he balance it then?

The writer, we understand, makes his living as an educator, a teacher.  It is a noble profession and we are sure that he is deeply committed to his work.  But it is a profession which relies on the public purse -- on the taxation of others, regardless of whether or not they use his services as an educator.  And if they don't pay, they face punishment, sanctions, foreclosure, and so on.  This is one kind of taxation.

The gas tax is another kind of taxation.  The gas tax is a classic "user tax."  This is a tax imposed on someone who chooses to access a service or facility.  With a user tax, someone pays for something he or she wants and receives what he or she has paid for.  So if you want to use New Jersey's roads and bridges, you pay for them through a tax on gasoline.  Conservatives believe that user taxes represent a "fair exchange."

The writer attempts to cast doubt on the proposition that if the Transportation Trust Fund wasn't funded, "our roads would be dangerous, bridges would be falling, and people would be out of work."  Well, he would have to take that up with the American Society of Civil Engineers -- professionals, like himself, and the experts in their field.  They issued a report in 2016 and we've taken snapshots directly from it:

Now that is what the professionals -- the best in their field -- had to say.  Some on the Alt-Right and the Far-Left say that we should doubt all professionals, the way they did during the French Revolution.  But we note that the writer himself is a professional, and we doubt that he would want to see his degree rendered meaningless.  If you erode respect for a hard science like engineering, how far behind can a more subjective matter, like education, be?   

The writer continues:  "Now we know that the gas tax and amendment was a ploy by Trenton politicians for their pet projects, such as the Bergen-Hudson Light Rail Extension and we also know half of New Jersey’s gas tax is going back to pay back old debt and not towards infrastructure."

Well, what we actually know is that this writer has been listening too much to the broadcasts coming from the Alt-Right.  What the Alt-Right calls "the gas tax" is actually a Tax Reform bill numbered S-2411/A-12 that included five tax cuts totaling $1.4 billion in cuts and an increase in the tax on gasoline. 

S-2411/A-12 was the result of more than two years of negotiations between Republicans and the majority Democrats who control both Chambers of the Legislature.  Those negotiations were conducted under pressure, with the knowledge that in modern times no political party has controlled the Governor's office for more than eight years.  The Republican negotiators understood that all that stood in the way of the Democrat majority imposing a 40-cent increase on the gas tax -- with NO tax cuts -- was Republican Governor Chris Christie.  They understood that the clock was ticking.

Yes, a great many people use mass transit.  Make it so shoddy and unstable that people stop using it and then imagine what all those hundreds of thousands of commuters returning to the roads in automobiles will do to your rush hour commute -- not to mention the wear and tear on those roads and bridges you don't want to pay for.

And yes, after 28 years of failing to adjust the gas tax for inflation and borrowing to make up the difference there is a whole lot of "old debt."  The last time the gas tax produced enough revenue to pay for New Jersey's transportation needs was in 1990.  Because of the debt that was allowed to accumulate, by 2015 the annual cost of that debt to taxpayers was $1.1 billion -- outstripping the $750 million revenue from the gas tax.  That's what happens when you suspend the iron rules of economics and tell people that they can have something for nothing.

Perhaps this young professional is suggesting that New Jersey goes the way of Argentina?  Ever try building a bridge without financing?  Imagine those property tax increases -- up front -- every time you faced a capital project.    

The writer has some very uncharitable things to say about Assemblywoman Betty Lou DeCroce.  He is very critical of her plan -- the Tax Reform bill numbered S-2411/A-12  that she voted for.  Well, here is what her plan did:

   - A tax cut on retirement income that means most New Jersey retirees will no longer pay state income tax.  This tax cut is worth about $2,000 annually to the average retiree.

- Elimination of the Estate Tax.  This protects family farms and small businesses from being forced to choose between paying taxes or closing and laying-off workers.

- Tax cut for veterans.  Honorably discharged active duty, guard, and reserve veterans now get an additional $3,000 personal income tax deduction.

- Tax credit for low-income workers.  Worth $100 annually to the average worker.

- Sales tax cut.  Worth another $100 annually to the average consumer.

- Property tax relief.  The legislation doubled the amount going to county and municipal governments to repair roads and bridges and so offset property tax increases.

The plan Assemblywoman DeCroce voted for, S-2411/A-12, the Tax Reform legislation -- the bill some people simply call "the gas tax" -- actually cut taxes by $1.4 billion. 

Yes, it did raise the tax on gasoline by 23-cents a gallon.  The Transportation Trust Fund was broke.  Road and bridge projects funded by the TTF were frozen.  That included all those county and municipal projects dependent on TTF funding.  Work had stopped.  Without funding from the TTF, local governments would have had to raise property taxes by an average of more than $500 a household just to make up for the lost aid to keep county and local roads safely maintained.  And if county and local governments failed to repair roads and bridges and allowed people to use them anyway, the eventual cost in litigation to cover the injuries sustained as the result could vastly outstrip the costs to maintain them in the first place.

Yes... hard choices.

Finally, the writer -- this Young Republican -- praises the work of the fellow he would like to see replace Assemblywoman DeCroce.  He's another incumbent Republican named Hank Lyon.  He's a Morris County Freeholder.

Now Hank is a nice young man, but being elected to an all-Republican Freeholder Board doesn't actually provide you with the skills you need to get anything done in a Legislature controlled by Democrats.  You have to be a good negotiator, not an arguer but a builder of trust and of relationships.  You have to leave your comfort zone and learn to sell your colleagues from their point of view.  You have to have humility. 

That... or you can raise the resources to win control of both chambers of the Legislature and capture the Governor's office again, after eight years.  Then you can be as cocksure and prideful as you want.

We know Assemblywoman DeCroce's plan.  She voted for it.  It passed.  A Republican Governor signed it into law.  So here is the challenge to Assembly candidate Hank Lyon:  What is your plan?

We are looking for details here.  Spreadsheet level details.  Work it out and convince us.  And spare us the Alt-Right sloganeering and the NJ 101.5 hashtags.  This is a serious assignment.  Show us what you have. 

We will print it here, without edit.  We await, at your convenience.

How the "gas tax" became a tool of the Alt-Right

There is a political battle shaping up in Morris County between two incumbent Republican elected office holders.  One, a county freeholder, is a young idealist, who decided on the political life before he was scarcely out of childhood.  The other, a state legislator, came to elected politics later in life, after the death of her husband, having long played a secondary role serving constituents, in addition to those of wife and mother.   The county freeholder wants to advance.  The state legislator is in his way.

The lever the freeholder is looking to use to displace the legislator is her vote on something that has become known as "the gas tax."

The phrase "no gas tax" is thrown around by some the way "no guns" is by others.  Both are cynical appeals to raw emotion, designed to replace the reasoning process with the red haze of anger.  Those who use it conjure anger so that they can direct it as hate towards their targets.

George Orwell warned against such simplistic "renunciations," which he found were a commonplace of "perfectionist" ideologies.  Orwell sought to unmask them as "simple bids for power" served up for consumption by those who cannot accept the inherent imperfections of the world-- or in Orwell's words, "solid earth."  He warned against the "totalitarian tendency" of movements like anarchism and pacifism which aim to establish purity of motive as the sole basis for political action.  Orwell wrote:

"For if you have embraced a creed which appears to be free from the ordinary dirtiness of politics -- a creed from which you yourself cannot expect to draw any material advantage -- surely that proves you are in the right?  And the more you are in the right, the more natural that everyone else should be bullied into thinking likewise."

Of course, the operative word here is "appears."  Readers of Animal Farm will recall the pigs' diktat that "all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."  The "purity of motive" evaporates with the accumulation of political power.

By its very nature, representative democracy is not a pure undertaking.  The founders of our Republic saw it as a struggle between competing interest groups, which shifted based on the issue at hand and changed over time.  The process was meant to be slow, deliberative, so that emotional appeals to mob psychology (and its attendant vice, mob violence) would not carry the day, under cover of law.  Those who claim to hate "compromise" are really telling us that they hate representative democracy.  That they hate the Republic.

Today our Republic is under assault from the unbridled emotions of the Far-Left and Alt-Right.  In place of compromise, they preach "totalism" -- an unAmerican sin warned against by that great civil rights activist and author, Lillian Smith, who wrote:

“We must avoid the trap of totalism which lures a man into thinking there is only one way, one answer, one option, and that others must be forced into this One Way, and forced into it Now.”

And so we come to that curious phrase, "the gas tax."

In the first place, there was no vote on something called "the gas tax."  It never happened.  The vote was actually on a Tax Reform bill numbered S-2411/A-12 that included five tax cuts and an increase in the tax on gasoline. 

S-2411/A-12 was the result of more than two years of negotiations between Republicans and the majority Democrats who control both Chambers of the Legislature.  Those negotiations were conducted under pressure, with the knowledge that in modern times no political party has controlled the Governor's office for more than eight years.  Republicans are now into their eighth year.

The Republican negotiators, led by Senator Steve Oroho and Assembly Leader Jon Bramnick, understood that all that stood in the way of the Democrat majority imposing a 40-cent increase on the gas tax -- with NO tax cuts -- was Republican Governor Chris Christie.  They understood that the clock was ticking.

This was real world stuff.  Not the theoretical perfection preached on Facebook by people who have never been to Trenton, have never participated in the legislative process (by testifying or anything else), and whose biggest negotiation had to do with who was going to sit next to Old Uncle George at Thanksgiving.

Though always-outnumbered, Oroho and Bramnick negotiated a package of tax cuts worth $1.4 billion that included the following:

- A tax cut on retirement income that means most New Jersey retirees will no longer pay state income tax.  This tax cut is worth about $2,000 annually to the average retiree.

- Elimination of the Estate Tax.  This protects family farms and small businesses from being forced to choose between paying taxes or closing and laying-off workers.

- Tax cut for veterans.  Honorably discharged active duty, guard, and reserve veterans now get an additional $3,000 personal income tax deduction.

- Tax credit for low-income workers.  Worth $100 annually to the average worker.

- Sales tax cut.  Worth another $100 annually to the average consumer.

- Property tax relief.  The legislation doubled the amount going to county and municipal governments to repair roads and bridges and so offset property tax increases.

So S-2411/A-12, the Tax Reform legislation -- the bill some people simply call "the gas tax" -- actually cuts taxes by $1.4 billion. 

And that is why leading conservative organizations have praised the passage of the tax cuts in S-2411/A-12.  The Tax Foundation -- since 1937, America’s leading independent, conservative, pro-business tax policy think tank -- gave Senator Steve Oroho an award for negotiating the tax cuts in S-2411/A-12. 

Americans for Prosperity (AFP) noted that the tax cuts will save taxpayers $1.4 billion -- with the repeal of the estate tax saving taxpayers $320 million alone.  AFP called the tax cuts a "big win," a "big accomplishment,"  and a "victory."  Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) issued a statement noting how S-2411/A-12 "abolished the state death tax, cut the state sales tax and reduces income taxes on retired New Jersey voters."  ATR called it "a victory for taxpayers."  Forbes magazine weighed in, calling the tax cuts one of the "5 best state and local tax policy changes of 2016" nationwide. 

So there's $1.4 billion in sugar.  How about the medicine?

The "medicine" in the Tax Reform legislation was a 23-cents a gallon increase in the tax on gasoline -- negotiated down from the originally discussed 40-cents a gallon increase.   

By any objective standard, this "medicine" was long overdue. 

The gas tax is a classic "user tax."  This is a tax imposed on someone who chooses to access a service or facility.  With a user tax, someone pays for something he or she wants and receives what he or she has paid for.  So if you want to use New Jersey's roads and bridges, you pay for them through a tax on gasoline.

Conservatives believe that user taxes represent a "fair exchange" and that they differ from other taxes, which are paid by force or coercion and do not necessarily go towards a specific service or facility that someone actually uses or benefits from.  Property taxes are largely used to fund public education, regardless of whether or not the taxpayer has children using the public education system.  Property tax is not a user tax.  Conservatives view "progressive" taxation -- such as a graduated income tax -- as the most pernicious form of taxation, because it is a disincentive to hard work and a penalty for self-advancement.

In New Jersey, the user tax to fund the state's transportation infrastructure -- a fancy word for roads and bridges -- is the tax on gasoline (and other motor vehicle fuel).  This user tax had not been adjusted for inflation since 1988.  That's five Presidents ago -- back when Ronald Reagan was in office.

For the record, these are the adjustments for inflation that should have triggered increases in the gasoline tax, year-by-year, since 1988:  4.0% in 1988, 4.7% in 1989, 5.4% in 1990, 3.7% in 1991, 3% in 1992, 2.6% in 1993, 2.8% in 1994, 2.6% in 1995, 2.9% in 1996, 2.1% in 1997, 1.3% in 1998, 2.5% in 1999, 3.5% in 2000, 2.6% in 2001, 1.4% in 2002, 2.1% in 2003, 2.7% in 2004, 4.1% in 2005, 3.3% in 2006, 2.3% in 2007, 5.8% in 2008, zero in 2009, zero in 2010, 3.6% in 2011, 1.7% in 2012, 1.5% in 2013, 1.7% in 2014, zero in 2015, and .3% in 2016. 

But instead, New Jersey's gas tax remained at 14 1/2 cents since 1988.

Why?  Well, it's a matter of governance.  The gas tax was set about the time that New Jersey was suffering a bout of escalating property taxes that would end by leaving it the state with the highest property taxes in America.  The political class in New Jersey could have addressed the state's high property taxes by taking on the state's legal lobby -- in particular New Jersey's unelected Supreme Court.  It is the State Supreme Court, after all, who seized the revenue from the imposition of the state income tax and -- in a classic bait and switch -- used the revenue that was promised to go towards property tax relief to instead subsidize urban gentrification.

This expropriation by the Court of revenue that is properly under the purview of the elected Legislature has resulted in what we have today -- the most unequal state education funding formula in America.  One that sees half the state's impoverished children ignored, while the income tax money from poorer working families in rural and suburban New Jersey goes to subsidize the property taxes of wealthy professionals and rich corporations in places like Hoboken and Jersey City.  Meanwhile these poor working families pay the highest property taxes in America.

It is a corruption of natural law, undemocratic, and cries out to be addressed but the political class in New Jersey is so fearful of the legal lobby and its unelected Court, that there are not enough members of the elected Legislature willing to take on the battle.  Some have tried and notable among them have been Senators Mike Doherty and Steve Oroho, Assembly members Alison Littell McHose and Parker Space, and Freeholder Ed Smith of Warren County.  Smith scared the wits out of the legal community when he argued that because attorneys are officers of the Court, it was a conflict of interest for them to hold office in the elected Legislature. 

Instead of addressing its "highest in America" property taxes, New Jersey's political class played Santa Claus with the gas tax.  While every other state in America raised its gas tax to keep up with inflation, while President Ronald Reagan doubled the federal gas tax to keep up with inflation, New Jersey kept the gas tax cheap by burying its children and grandchildren under layer upon layer of debt.

From a conservative point of view, this was bad for three reasons: 

- First, the gas tax is a user tax and that is a fair way to tax, relying on debt instead of a user tax pushes the cost on to other, less fair, means of taxation such as the sales tax. 

- Second, because the TTF funded so many county and local projects (where the only alternative means of funding them are increased property taxes), the less stable the TTF became the more real the threat of a property tax explosion became.

- Third, because the gas tax wasn't adjusted for inflation for 28 years, the gas tax wasn't set at the proper level to collect revenue from those out-of-state drivers who used it.  In effect, out-of-state drivers were being subsidized by the taxpayers of New Jersey.

How big was the subsidy paid by New Jersey taxpayers so that out-of-state drivers could use their roads and bridges?  In just one year, that subsidy was $500 million.  If the gas tax had not been raised, that subsidy would have extended, over time, to $25 billion!

But it was very popular for the political class to tell voters that "you might have the highest property taxes but you have one of the lowest gas taxes."  If the subliminal message was "live in your car" then it has been a wild success, what with the state's high foreclosure rate. 

Of course, having one of the "lowest gas taxes" was a lie.  The roads and bridges dependant on the revenue from the gas tax weren't being maintained and the Transportation Trust Fund (TTF) was left to tread water on borrowed money.  The gas tax wasn't, in reality, low -- the tax was just being passed on to the backs of their children and grandchildren, in the form of debt, to be paid later.

The last time the gas tax produced enough revenue to pay for New Jersey's transportation needs was in 1990.    Because of the debt that was allowed to accumulate, by 2015 the annual cost of that debt to taxpayers was $1.1 billion -- outstripping the $750 million revenue from the gas tax.  At the beginning of last summer, the TTF couldn't make its debt payments.  By the end of the summer, it was broke.

Everyone knew that something had to be done (1) because in a modern industrial society roads and bridges are pretty much a basic necessity, and (2) because without funding from the TTF, local governments would have to raise property taxes by an average of more than $500 a household just to make up for the lost aid to keep county and local roads safely maintained.  And if county and local governments failed to repair roads and bridges and allowed people to use them anyway, the eventual cost in litigation to cover the injuries sustained as the result could vastly outstrip the costs to maintain them in the first place.

And still many in the political class found themselves in a real dilemma.  Newer legislators asked older ones how did they let it get so bad and wanted to know why it was necessary to raise the gas tax by 23-cents in one whack.  The answer was simple:  The first 11-cents of the increase was needed just to cover the debt service on all that money the state had borrowed since 1990 to keep up the illusion that you could have something for nothing. 

It was most unbearable to hear these questions posed by those who had been around for a while -- people like Senators Ray Lesniak and Kip Bateman.  To see why the gas tax had to go up 23-cents a gallon they need only look into a mirror.  23-cents a gallon, all in one hit, is what you get when politicians suspend the iron rules of economics and tell people that they can have something for nothing.  This is what happens when you don't adjust the cost of something for inflation.  Any business would have gone bankrupt.

Enter the Alt-Right.

The history of radio and the first rise of totalitarian regimes is intertwined.  Radio was the means to reach and to incite truly "mass" audiences.  Broadcasting turned oddball regional movements into national and international powers. 

NJ 101.5 radio host Bill Spadea could be described as one of the founding fathers of the Alt-Right.  It will be recalled that it was Spadea -- way back in the early 1990's -- who urged the formation of a far-right alternative to the Republican Party.  And he did so, not from the bleachers, but as a prominent voice from within the GOP.  Spadea ran the College Republican National Committee.  In 1995, the Republican National Committee cut off all funding to Spadea's group after it paid for advertisements that attacked Republican presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush and suggested that the GOP be replaced by a party resembling what has today become known as the Alt-Right.

Bill Spadea was new to radio, having replaced the popular Jim Gearhart in November 2015.  He wanted to make a big splash, attract listeners, and increase revenue for the for-profit corporation that owns NJ 101.5.  That these goals merged seamlessly into his pre-existing ideology was, for Spadea, a happy case of serendipity. 

Spadea's radio show, the largest drive-time radio show in the central part of the state, was the means to get out his message.  He was ready to play impresario, but he needed a diva to be the face of the message.  First he road-tested the ever unreliable Senator Jennifer Beck.  But she was too independent and refused to take direction.  Meanwhile, Bill Spadea was stoking the fires of a renunciation with one-sentence policy prescriptions, preceded by a hashtag. 

Following the Alt-Right playbook, the message was vaguely populist, anti-government, and Nihilistic.  It offered no prescriptions on how to actually address any of the real problems in any meaningful way.  In place of policy it offered the anarchic slogan of "government-sucks."

To settle some personal scores, Spadea was able to focus anger against those members of the GOP who had failed to support his political ambitions for higher office -- a failed run for Congress in 2004 and for the Assembly in 2012 (the latter was such a bitter disappointment that he rarely mentions it).  Those who know him know that Bill Spadea nurtures grievances and never forgets.

Spadea's message was not anti-establishment.  Indeed, he trotted in a line of members of the GOP establishment who told him what he wanted to hear, and in return, he would lavish praise upon them.  Nobody had ever elected Bill Spadea to anything, but that didn't stop him from bestowing his blessing on actual elected officials, in the name of his "listeners" or "taxpayers" or "the people".

Far-Left legislators like Democrats Senator Ray Lesniak (American Conservative Union lifetime rating: 0%) and John Wisniewski (American Conservative Union lifetime rating: 0%) were welcomed by Spadea and received lavish praise for opposing the "gas tax" -- when what they were actually opposing was the Tax Reform bill S-2411/A-12 with its five tax cuts!   But that didn't matter to Spadea, who promptly anointed these lefties as "good guys."

Bill Spadea even scared some people who should have known better, like conservative Assemblyman Jay Webber.  It was Webber who advocated, in 2014, that New Jersey should increase the gas tax while "fixing transportation and taxes together."  Webber's prescription was to raise the gas tax, while offsetting that tax increase with cuts to other taxes -- and he specifically zeroed in on the estate tax.  But faced with a deluge of Alt-Right pressure, Webber got into line with the simplistic slogans of Spadea.  After all, who wants to get a primary from the Alt-Right?

Spadea was still searching for his diva when, last October, Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno abruptly reversed her formerly pro-Tax Reform position in order to embrace the Alt-Right sloganeering of Bill Spadea.  The manner in which a major establishment figure like the Lt. Governor was flipped into the Alt-Right net is instructive.  It had been very long in the making, with Spadea specifically targeting Guadagno immediately after getting his gig with NJ 101.5.

We will examine just how Bill Spadea flipped the Lt. Governor in our next installment.

Even NJ 101.5 now praising the TTF deal

Even NJ 101.5 have had to acknowledge the good coming from the tax cuts that are part of TTF deal passed by the Legislature and signed into law by Governor Chris Christie.  In a news story today, reporter Michael Symons wrote:

Three-quarters of certified public accountants in New Jersey have advised clients to leave the state because of the estate and inheritance taxes, according to the head of the New Jersey Society of CPAs.

That tax is ending – and so is the advice, even before the law is off the books, said Ralph Albert Thomas, the CPA group’s chief executive officer and executive director.

“Not only our members, but I know estate attorneys have been sending out correspondence about, look, they need to reconvene with their clients to relook at what they proposed,” Thomas said. 

The survey found 83 percent of respondents felt estate and inheritance taxes had prompted clients to leave New Jersey. A follow-up survey is planned for the spring, to see how much the advice has changed.

The estate tax is paid on approximately 3,500 estates annually, around 5 percent of the approximately 70,000 deaths in the state each year.

Currently, New Jersey’s estate tax threshold is $675,000. The full value of any estates worth more than that is taxed. That will be changed to a $2 million exclusion at the start of 2017 – meaning, for instance, that an estate worth $2.5 million would be taxed on the $500,000 over the excluded amount. 

The tax is then eliminated entirely at the start of 2018.

...Sen. Steve Oroho, R-Sussex, said the change will help the state by improving its economy and retaining residents. He said annual state revenues would be around $3 billion higher if the state’s economy was growing at the national average.

“We need to have a major, major tax restructuring in New Jersey,” Oroho said.

Business groups are already focusing on the next potential tax cut. Thomas said help for small business is likely to be his organization’s focus.

“If you think about it, just thinking off the cuff, 300,000 small businesses – if only 10 percent of them hired one other person, that would be 30,000 new jobs,” Thomas said.

Over the last year, New Jersey’s economy has added, 53,4000 jobs, but only 11,100 of those have been added over the last nine months.

Guadagno won't "vote for Trump"

President Barack Obama can't bring himself to say the words "Islamic terrorism."  For Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno, the words she can't say are "vote for Donald Trump."

But she's played fast and loose -- just like she did when it came time to tell voters where she stood on abortion.  Back when she was a candidate for the Assembly in 2007, Kim Guadagno assured party leaders that she was Pro-Life.  But when Chris Christie needed a Pro-Choice candidate for Lt. Governor as "balance" to his ticket, Guadagno quickly raised her hand and assured the world that she supported abortion. 

Of course, there are those who just LOVE Guadagno because -- after 2,473 days in office -- she's had an opinion other than the Governor's.  Unfortunately, it was "Red Shirt" leader Bill Spadea's.  That opinion was this:  That after 25 years of not raising revenue sufficient to pay for road and bridge maintenance, the state should continue to borrow just to cover the cost of the existing debt and that property tax increases should be used to fund actual transportation needs.

The cost to taxpayers of Guadagno's plan:  Property tax hikes of $574.00 each year.

We get a big kick out of so-called "conservatives" who say they support Guadagno.  Apparently, using future generations to subsidize cheap gas for today is more important to these "conservatives" than are the deaths of thousands of unborn children.  It is a scientific fact that after 20 weeks, these children feel pain, but that hasn't stopped New Jersey from remaining among an uncivilized remnant of nations (principally Communist China, Vietnam, and North Korea) that refuse to accept science.

Guadagno's latest loosey-goosey is to put out a robo-call saying that she supports the Republican ticket but without mentioning the word "Trump."  In this way she can tell liberal Democrats next year that she stands by her statement of October 9, 2016, about "not voting for Trump" (and thereby helping to elect rabidly pro-abortion Hillary Clinton and assure liberal control of the U.S. Supreme Court), while sliming GOP voters this year into thinking she's with them.  Everybody will be happy except the children.  The unborn will continue to die and those born will be handed the bill for the cheap gas subsidy that she's hoping will be her ticket to following Chris Christie into the Governor's office.

Guadagno's co-conspirator in this latest sham is none other than that flip-flopper in chief, Assemblyman Erik "Twister" Peterson.  The "Twister" (as he is known) can take a vote to support a ballot question in January and then act like he's never read it a few months later.  And he can sound just as convincing when he is talking out of either side of his mouth, swearing that both ways are "conservative."  Was he actually there when the vote was taken or is this a special talent?  Who knows?

Guadagno and Peterson should stop pandering to everyone -- especially the neo-fascist wing of the Alt-Right .  Pay attention to the debate, read, make up your mind, and then stick to it.  Yes, we know things change and there's always more information to be had, but a radio talk show isn't new information -- it is entertainment designed to sell vinyl siding, used cars, and suppositories of one sort or another. 

Political leaders and adults of any kind should avoid believing that listening to Bill Spadea takes the place of the serious, sober, consideration of rational policy.  The Spadea show is not only a poor substitute, it is no substitute at all.  Quite the opposite.

Guadagno, before she replaced Governor Christie with talk radio host Spadea.

Lt. Gov. Guadagno votes NO on Trump!

On October 9th, Republican Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno told the Star-Ledger:  

"I won't vote for Donald Trump."

You can read the full article, Lt. Gov. Guadagno breaks with Christie, won't vote for Trump, here:

http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2016/10/lt_gov_guadagno_breaks_with_christie_wont_vote_for.html

Gas-Tax Repeal Rally a No Show

If the gas-tax repeal is Senator Tom Kean Jr.'s plan to save the endangered liberals in his caucus, it totally crapped the bed on Saturday when the kick-off rally to a series of rallies across the state was cancelled and a pro-Senator Steve Oroho rally popped up in its place.  The repeal is being pushed by "Red Shirt" movement leader Bill Spadea, cultural leftist Senator Kip Bateman, and the petroleum lobby. 

Slated for Newton Green on Saturday, October 22nd (11am-2pm), the rally was organized with support from the petroleum lobby by people claiming to represent the Tea Party and other groups.  The run-up to the rally benefitted from paid advertising and media coverage, including a front page story on the New Jersey Herald the day before.  Organizers claimed that the response had been huge and claimed to had lined up a dozen speakers -- including 5th District congressional candidate Michael J. Cino. 

Cino, has attacked conservative Congressman Scott Garrett and the Republican majority in Congress for its "traitorous" votes.  Cino runs a group known as the "Red Dogs" who are described as a sort of vanguard in the "rebellion against the establishment."  We don't know if there is a relationship between the "Red Shirts" and the "Red Dogs."

The morning of the rally was rainy and the forecast called for a light drizzle.  The rally was set expressly "rain or shine" but was canceled a couple hours before it was scheduled to begin "due to weather."

Having explicitly described the rally as "public" in its advertisements, gas-tax-repeal organizers became concerned when they heard that people who didn't agree with them were thinking of attending their public meeting.  The gas-tax repealers asked the police to intervene to "segregate" the rally.  The gas-tax-repeal camp was asked about the criteria they intended to use to "segregate" members of the public at a public rally.  They wouldn't provide a criteria.

A building trades union representing thousands of families in Northwest New Jersey stepped in and obtained  its own permit, which lay outside Newton Green.  But in the end, it wasn't necessary, because with Newton Green vacated by the gas-tax-repeal organizers of the advertised public rally, the people who they had attempted to keep out had the Green to themselves.    

So at 11am on Saturday morning -- instead of the gas-tax-repeal rally that was advertised -- 250 people showed up in support of the Tax Restructuring plan passed by the Legislature and signed into law by Governor Chris Christie.  They came to support conservative Republican Steve Oroho, who has been under attack by the Legislature's two most liberal Republicans -- Kip Bateman and Jennifer Beck -- and they came to combat the lies put out by the petroleum lobby that the 23-cent increase applies to home heating oil and baby ointment and polyester clothing.  All lies designed to frighten people and to inflame hatred and even violence.

The facts, as provided by the Office of Legislative Services, are that nothing new is taxed and that all the exemptions that were in place remain in place. This means the increase does not apply to home heating oil or baby ointment or polyester clothing.  In fact, the law now INCREASES the number of exempt products.  We will discuss these additional exemptions in detail in an upcoming column.

Saturday's crowd -- numbering more than 250 -- was made up largely of trade union members and their families, but many local Republicans turned out, including two Sussex County Freeholders and several local elected officials and GOP municipal leaders.  About a dozen Pro-Life activists were present as well as that many grassroots Second-Amendment campaigners.  About a half dozen people attended who were drawn by the newspaper coverage. 

Three speakers addressed the crowd.  Rev. Greg Quinlan of the Center for Garden State Families reminded those present that Senator Oroho is a leader in the fight to preserve traditional values in New Jersey and America.  He added that those who want to drive Senator Oroho out of office are followers of the two most culturally left-wing members of the GOP in the Legislature and that earlier this week the two had celebrated the deaths of millions of unborn children by honoring the racist memory of eugenicist Margaret Sanger and her Planned Parenthood organization. 

Economics professor Murray Sabrin explained how the gas tax is a user tax and that this is a moral form of taxation.  The gathering was reminded that President Ronald Reagan, the founder of the modern conservative movement, favored user taxes and used the gas tax to fund road and bridge construction in America.  Sabrin went on to remind the audience that those "Red Shirts" who are trying to make the gas tax the big issue of 2017 are doing so to deflect attention away from the real problem tax in New Jersey -- the property tax -- which is a driver of the state's highest in America foreclosure rate.  Those who say the gas tax is the problem do so to support the Abbott-system of spending the state revenue from income taxes.

Finally, a union leader from Sussex County reminded the rally that "this was supposed to be their (the petroleum lobby's) rally" and that they had been there to spread lies about the Tax Restructuring plan and hatred for Senator Oroho.  He went on to thank the working men and women present from Sussex, Warren, and Morris counties and the thousands of union families they represent who live, work, and vote in the 24th Legislative District.  He promised that they would be back again and again and again and again, door-to-door, to carry the message to EVERY household in the 24th District.

The event was topped off with two announcements:  First, that Franklin Mayor Nick Giordano, who had been moved to oppose Senator Oroho after listening to the propaganda of "Red Shirt" lies, had written a letter endorsing the Senator and the Tax Restructuring plan.  And second, that the Senator's youngest daughter had safely delivered a child.  Steve Oroho's new grandson.

Is the Tea Party anti-First Amendment?

Earlier this week the Skylands Tea Party ran a paid advertisement in the New Jersey Herald inviting members of the public to attend a rally on Saturday, October 22nd.  It was accompanied by a press release, which formed the basis of the following NJ Herald story:

Rally planned for Newton Green Saturday in wake of gas tax hike

New Jersey Herald: Oct. 17, 2016 12:01 am

NEWTON -- The Skylands Tea Party and New Jersey Taxpayers' Association will hold a rally on Saturday, Oct. 22, at the Newton Green to demand a forensic audit of NJ Transit, the Transportation Trust Fund and Port Authority in response to the approved 23-cent gas tax hike signed by Gov. Chris Christie on Friday and set to take effect Nov. 1.

"We, the people of New Jersey, have been overtaxed and poorly governed for far too long," states a joint news release submitted by Harvey Roseff, vice president of the NJTA.

"The increased gas tax, one of the largest tax increases to ever hit the family, was a bridge too far and is unconscionable. Tax policy can't fix management problems -- the problem festers and grows."

The public event is scheduled to run 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

"We are inviting friends and families to stand tall and ask for low-cost, efficient government to become the governing priority," states the event announcement.

http://www.njherald.com/20161017/rally-planned-for-newton-green-saturday-in-wake-of-gas-tax-hike

This was followed by an email from the Skylands Tea Party on October 18, 2016:

"We the People of this Garden State are staging a protest on Saturday, October 22nd.  It will be held at the Newton Green on the corner of Route 94 and Spring Street, beginning at 11:00 AM and ending at 1:00 PM."

That's an open invitation to a public meeting on public property.

But when some of the organizers of the rally found out that folks who don't necessarily share their point of view were thinking of taking them up on the offer, they flipped.  Sources claim they went to the Newton mayor's office with their concerns. 

We don't know what action the Mayor, a political ally of Assemblyperson Gail Phoebus, took.  What we do know is that a Newton police officer called people and suggested that they do not belong at the rally.  We don't know why these people were targeted or who gave their names to the police.  What is clear is that these people do not share the Tea Party's point of view.

How is that for silencing the opposition?  How is that for bullying the First Amendment? 

Anyone who uses armed government officers to eliminate the presence of opposing viewpoints, inconvenient as they may be, is nothing more than an old-fashioned Fascist.  Speech should be met with speech, ideas with ideas, not by men with guns.

Of course, we can understand the concerns some in the Tea Party might have for what some of their members might do to anyone at the rally who holds a different opinion.  Tea Party members have been going overboard using violent and pornographic images and language on social media to describe anyone who disagrees with them -- like this charming Tea Party member from Sussex County:

"All 545 sitting in DC right now are guilty of treason. And all those living who have sat over the past 2 decades, since the signing of NAFTA are, too. That is our reality, they should all be indicted, dragged out in chains, the evidence a matter of congressional record and unimpeachable. And all should be subject to all the consequences the law provides up to the firing squad."

If the Tea Party allows its members to behave this way then they should take responsibility for them.  They should not seek to protect them from any alternative opinion that might result in them going off their meds.  And they certainly should not be involving armed government officers in what should be a civilized, human-to-human exchange of ideas.

ICYMI: Mulshine explains the gas tax

Paul Mulshine is New Jersey's top conservative columnist.  He writes for the state's largest circulation newspaper.   

The 23-cent gas-tax hike: Pigs will fly before the opponents find an alternative.

By  Paul Mulshine | The Star Ledger

October 06, 2016

The weather was sunny with a light breeze outside the Statehouse Wednesday after the state Senate took a key vote on a package that would raise the gas tax by 23 cents a gallon.

It was perfect flying weather for pigs.

My reference is of course to that fabled Statehouse rally in 2008 at which a talk-show host from NJ 101.5-FM presided over the release of hundreds of flying-pig balloons to protest a prior attempt to bail out the Transportation Trust Fund.

That was then-Gov. Jon Corzine's  plan to generate billions by having the toll roads run by a state-owned hedge fund that would bond against future toll hikes.

"Pigs will fly over the Statehouse before there's a realistic level of new taxes or spending cuts that can fix this mess," Corzine told the legislators as he introduced his scheme.

But the plan came crashing down to Earth when drivers learned that it called for tolls to eventually rise by800 percent. 

When those balloons rose over the Statehouse, the plan was dead – laughed to death by the voters. So score one for the guys at 101.5-FM.

But if we weren't going to fill the hole in the TTF with toll money, just what source of revenue could we use?

On that score, the talk-radio guys are all talk. The guys at NJ 101.5 have become the loudest opponents of the gas-tax hike.  But a lot of porkers will have to turn into pilots before the critics can come up with a good alternative for funding the TTF.

The three main objections to this plan simply don't make sense.

The first, which is repeated like a mantra among the radio talkers, is "It's too much money" or some variant thereof.

No, it's not. If they had implemented this tax hike when it was first proposed earlier in the year, drivers would have forgotten it by now. There would still be stations charging a bit over $2 a gallon. A few years ago we were paying almost $4 a gallon.

We survived.

Another objection is that the total package is slanted in favor of that group that liberals love to demonize: "the wealthy." The Sierra Club is one of many liberal pressure groups making that point.

"We believe in a plan to fix the TTF with a gas tax, but this would be on the backs of the middle class by tying it to two other tax cuts that benefit the wealthy," Sierra's Jeff Tittel said in a release. "This plan is a complete sellout to working families and will give a huge tax break to the wealthy."

One part  of the plan is the elimination of the estate tax, which now kicks in at the $650,000 level. The plan would eliminate taxation on pension income up to $100,000 a year for a couple.

Given the cost of living here in Jersey, that would include a lot of the middle classas well as thewealthy.

But the more the merrier, I say. So does state Senate President Steve Sweeney. The South Jersey Democrat teamed up with Republican Gov. Chris Christie to push the bill, which passed the Senate yesterday on a procedural vote and is expected to win final passage in both houses Friday.

Sweeney said those cuts will help keep people home after retirement.

"Those are the people who get up and move to other states," he said. "We recently had one person, David Tepper, leave and it cost us $100 million."

Tepper is the billionaire hedge-fund manager who moved himself and his business to Florida. He didn't cites taxes as the reason, but plenty of other retirees become legal residents of Florida to escape our taxes.

Oroho said his fellow financial planners have no choice but to inform retirees Florida's the best option.

"We're losing income. We're losing wealth. We gotta be competitive," he said.

Then there's the third objection. Some critics of the package argue against it on the grounds that the TTF will still have to keep borrowing even after the gas-tax hike.

That's regrettable, said Oroho. In a perfect world, we would be able to put the TTF back on the pay-as-you-go basis that existed after Gov. Tom Kean last hiked the tax in 1988.

But ensuing governors just kept borrowing money rather than raise the tax a few pennies. Now we're so far behind that returning to pay-as-you got would mean some real pain at the pump.

"If you wanted to pay off the current debt plus have no future debt,  then you'd have to raise the tax by almost a dollar a gallon," Oroho said.

Or in other words, if we want to fix this mess we don't need a flying pig.

We need a time machine.

Unless the critics have one stashed somewhere, they need to accept the inevitable.

ADD - THE REAL MISTAKE: The real mistake the Trenton crowd made was to fail to index the gas tax for inflation back in 1988. Pegging it to the price of a gallon of gas did not account for the time value of money. If it had been pegged to inflation, the tax would have slowly rose from 14.5 cents a gallon to 30.5 cents a gallon.

No one would have even noticed such a small hike and the trust fund could have remained solvent. 

Instead we had the usual gutless politicians of both parties who were glad to borrow the money while pretending to be responsible by not raising the tax.

That's what got us into this mess. Judging from the comments, you readers fell for it.