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.
 

All this so Phoebus can sign-off on a liberal judge?

As a young married man, just starting a family, Steve Oroho got involved in public policy by going to March for Life walks and as a numbers-cruncher for W. R. Grace and Company -- who fed those numbers into something called the Grace Commission, set up President Ronald Reagan to find ways to make government run efficiently.  Steve's son was Senator Bob Littell's paper boy, and it was through him that he met Bob and became the Senator's campaign treasurer.

Alison Littell McHose urged Steve to get involved in local government in Franklin Borough.  He started with the economic development committee and then was elected to borough council.  He helped the town manage its debt and brought in new procedures to monitor spending.  Steve was elected to the freeholder board in 2004, where he worked with Hal Wirths and Gary Chiusano to overhaul Sussex County's budget process and establish fiscal restraint.

In 2007, he stood for State Senate after Senator Bob Littell became too ill to run for re-election.   Steve was the underdog.  Nobody in Trenton thought he could win and none of the usual sources of fundraising were open to him.  But Steve had been asked by leaders in the Sussex County community to run anyway, to try to keep the Senate seat in Sussex County.  His opponent was a Morris County resident and Morris County was crowded with Senate seats. Sussex County only had one. 

So Steve put his own money up.  It was a hardship for him and his growing family, but he did it anyway, because he listened and understood that Sussex County needed its own Senator.  That counties without proper representation become orphans in Trenton and got short shrift.  Running with an all-Sussex team of Alison Littell McHose, Gary Chiusano, Hal Wirths, and Jeff Parrott -- Steve and the whole team won. 

Since then, Steve has served Sussex County, Northwest New Jersey, and the 24th Legislative District.  Whenever a Republican candidate has needed resources, Steve has been there, putting his hand in his pocket or raising it.  Whenever the county GOP was broke and needed money, Steve has seen them through.  When the state party and Republican legislative candidates needed money, Steve has given it or raised it for them.  Conservative organizations have turned to Steve and he has never let them down.  Christian charities, places where young women can have their babies instead of being financially pressed into abortion, have turned to Steve -- and he has never turned them away. 

When Americans for Prosperity (AFP) put up a candidate for Governor, Steve Oroho incurred the wrath of Chris Christie but Steve would not go against AFP's candidate.  And when that man said that he would be a candidate for the United States Senate against Cory Booker, Steve was among the first to rally to his side.

As Senator, Steve has worked with conservative think tanks to fashion model conservative legislation.  Steve serves as chairman of the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and he's carried legislation for the NRA and other Second Amendment groups.  He is the prime sponsor of the Pro-Life community's most important piece of legislation.  He has championed the cause of religious liberty and traditional values. 

The business community -- small and large -- has relied on Steve Oroho to protect them from big government and over-regulation.  And he has protected both the job creators and the taxpayers.  Against great odds and with both chambers controlled by the Democrats, Steve has the best record of passing tax cuts in Trenton.  In fact, the Star-Ledger tracked the legislative success of legislators and found that of the top ten, only one was a Republican -- Steve Oroho.

It's true that Steve Oroho doesn't sound like Donald Trump.  He doesn't talk trash about those he disagrees with.  Instead, Steve engages in a policy discussion with them.  He comes armed with facts not curse words.  He is patient, courteous, and kind to those with whom he disagrees.  And that's why he gets other legislators, even Democrats, to see his way.

In 2011, the Tea Party got mad at Assemblywoman Alison Littell McHose because she wouldn't support a liberal for the Republican nomination for United States Senate.  That liberal was Dick LaRossa, a former State Senator who the NRA had walked away from in 1996.  The Tea Party had been sweet-talked by Dick.  They liked Dick and thought he was the next big thing.  That all came to nothing.  So, seeking revenge, the Tea Party ran two candidates in District 24 against McHose and Gary Chiusano.  One Tea Party candidate got 5 percent of the vote.  The other got 2 percent.

Now they want to do it again.  And it's all over the appointment of a liberal judge to the Superior Court.  Senator Steve Oroho won't do it.  But a Senator Gail Phoebus would. 

The Tea Party has chosen as its issue the gas tax portion of the tax restructuring package.  The one tax in a five-tax-cuts package.  They have been attacking Steve Oroho for weeks using the most graphic violent and pornographic language.  The vicious rumors have been spread by people who once turned to him in their need.  Why do some people feel the need to damage someone they called "friend" and spread filth just because they disagree over a single policy?  These are people who claim to believe in God -- but what Creator would license this type of behavior towards that which is His?

We don't believe that the Tea Party will be any more successful this time than it was in 2011.  But one day, Steve Oroho will leave the scene.  And who will fill his shoes?  Then the Tea Party will be singing a different tune: